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mansions and constructed a streetcar to transport them to the outskirts of town where they lived. They also drove about town, first in coaches driven by top-hatted drivers, and later in electric cars that stalled on the hills. Their Italianate, Romanesque, baroque, and Gothic-style houses featured cupolas, turrets, and hand-carved trim. The inhabitants of the mansions were served by a small army of maids and butlers. The good times for many of the city's more than 13,000 residents continued until 1893, when the price of silver fell and many of the nouveau riche moved away. The spacious mansions were then taken over by members of the middle class who sometimes had problems paying to heat them. Many of the Mansion District homes can still be viewed today. Like other Montana towns, Helena experienced boom-or-bust cycles. Prosperity returned once again between 1900 and 1910 when gold mining activity geared up at nearby Marysville and with the construction of the Canyon Ferry, Hauser, and Holter dams on the Missouri River, which employed a number of Helena residents. Then came a slump that lasted until the war years of 1914-1918, when once again the mines worked to meet the demand for metals during World War I. But another slump followed.Veteran referee Pierluigi Collina awarded Turkish official Cuneyt Cakir an outstanding score for his performance during Manchester United's match with Real Madrid on Tuesday.
Although many supporters felt Cakir's decision to send off United winger Nani was extremely harsh, Collina, UEFA's head of referees, gave him an overall rating of 8.2
According to El Mundo Deportivo, Collina believed Cakir "was right to send off Nani" and agreed with his decision not to punish Rafael for handball in United's penalty area.
El Mundo added: "Collina criticised only one of Cakir's decisions: not sending off Rio Ferdinand after the match when the defender applauded him, inches from his face."
Cakir has received widespread criticism in the wake of Tuesday night's match, which turned when he sent off Nani for a high challenge on Alvaro Arbeloa.
United were winning 1-0 when the Portuguese winger was sent off, but the decision gave Real a crucial advantage and they scored twice in quick succession shortly after the red card.
Esteemed English referee Dermot Gallagher said after the match that Nani's punishment was excessive, and he would not have made the same decision had he been in charge.
Cakir, an insurance agent, has issued 36 yellow cards and three reds in his last eight Turkish league matches. He also sent off John Terry during Chelsea's 2-2 draw with Barcelona last year, albeit in far less controversial circumstances.
Yesterday rumours surfaced that Cakir was a Real Madrid fan who followed the club on Twitter. However his account has since been proved to be fake.
Collina was widely regarded as one of the world's finest referees during his refereeing career, earning the title of FIFA's 'Best Referee of the Year' in six consecutive years.SAN DIEGO — The San Diego Bicycle Coalition and other agencies including SANDAG have plans to turn several streets, like Meade Avenue in North Park, into bicycle corridors.
The plans for the corridors would include wider bicycle lanes and fewer cars.
“The urban areas absolutely need them, neighborhoods that have most density and intensity have most potential for people to ride,” said Everett Hauser with the San Diego Bicycle Coalition. “The more protective bike ways will encourage more people who aren’t currently riding reducing traffic and making areas much safer.”
As a way to inform the public, an open house was staged at Franklin Elementary in North Park featuring informational displays and drawings. Similar events are planned in the coming months.
There is money already allocated to these corridors — construction is expected to begin in 2015. Down the road, and by 2020, $200 million could be invested into more of these super bike lanes.EA has just issued a press release announcing their E3 line up for next week, and have confirmed some new details regarding what we can expect from Titanfall next week. According to EA, Respawn will unveil details on their upcoming June Title Update at E3. This title update is scheduled to go live sometime this month, but no exact release date has been announced yet.
This new title update will introduce titan customization, titan burn cards, and Marked for Death game mode, amongst other new features.
Titanfall The team from Respawn Entertainment will be showcasing the upcoming June title update for Titanfall that will introduce titan customization, titan burn cards and a new game mode, Marked for Death.
We’ll be at E3 live next week and will provide updates on these new items.
SOURCE: EAHoskote and Naina answered YOUR questions about the Race and talk about being the first team eliminated from the game.
Charleigh R: Even if it was short lived, would you do it again if they did an episode and brought teams back from all episodes that were eliminated in the 1st round?
Hoskote: Absolutely, we would love to do the show again. We were so prepared and we need a chance to redeem ourselves. We have all the skills necessary to go all the way. In different circumstances we could have done it. This is my favorite reality show and I just wish I could prove what we are capable of.
Naina: Absolutely, in a heartbeat we would do this again. We left the competition early and there were a lot of things we didn't get to do. We didn't enter the competition to leave first and would return in a heartbeat.
Holly B: I know that you weren't racing for very long, but I feel like even one leg would be better then none. That being said, what was your favorite/ most memorable part of the experience?
Naina: Probably just the overall experience of doing it together. We are very grateful for this opportunity and we worked hard to get there. We followed the show for so long and we are very blessed to be here. I think just doing it with my dad was the best.
Hoskote: I want to thank the whole team for having the confident and trust to select us. We dreamt of this for years and wish we could have done better. We'd love to come back and have another chance to show what we are capable of.
Elisa J: If you could do this all over again what would you have done differently to avoid getting eliminated first?
Hoskote: Driven at 150 mile per hour. I don't drive at breakneck speed and I wish I had done that. I did not want to put my daughter in jeopardy by driving fast but maybe I should have drove faster.
Naina: I think as individuals and as a team we couldn't have done anything differently. We didn't want to do anything too quickly and we were calm and took our time. When we found out that we had a significantly delayed flight we were very upset that we couldn't control that situation. When we got to Iquique we did everything we were asked but we got an incompetent taxi driver.
Deborah B: Who do you hope the winners of last night's episode should give the second express pass to? Why?
Hoskote: I wish we were in that situation.
Naina: We actually didn't get to know the other teams. I don't know on a personal level who I would give it to, but if I had to make a choice I probably would have given it to Oklahoma or the bearded guys.
Haley M: What is your advice for anyone considering trying out to be on The Amazing Race?
Hoskote: GO FOR IT! This is the best show on Television. It is so much fun. I would tell anyone who likes to travel and likes adventure to go for it.
Naina: I would definitely say go for it and let your personality shine through. Be genuine about who you are. Show your passion for the show and wanting to race around the world. Don't give up on your dreams. Keep auditioning until it happens.
Melis A: I am sorry that you were eliminated first. How long did it take you to complete the fishing leg?
Naina: Not that long. We got into Iquique late afternoon and daylight is really short in the winter. It actually didn't take us very long but it got dark really early.
Tracy M: Although you didn't make it very far in the race, how did you enjoy your experience shared with your dad/daughter?
Naina: It was one of the best experiences I've had in my life. I'm not going to lie I was very disappointed it was only one leg but I was very grateful to do it with my dad. We can look back on it fondly and we hope we get another chance to do it again.http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/Anarchism
The Circle-A. The most common symbol of Anarchism
— Alan Moore "Anarchy is, and always has been, a romance. It is also clearly the only morally sensible way to run the world."
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Of all the political philosophies that have existed throughout history, anarchism is perhaps the most misunderstood. With general impressions ranging from the idea that Anarchy Is Chaos to scary images of Bomb-Throwing Anarchists from popular fiction, what most probably don't realise is there's actually a wealth of complex and multilayered ideas associated with anarchism that have had an impact on radical politics, the arts, and even mainstream culture.
The definition of anarchism to most people means "belief the state is bad and shouldn't exist." However, while all anarchists are anti-statists, it is not the only or, in most cases, even the primary part of their ideology.
Anarchism is the belief that rulership as a whole, not just the state, should not exist as indicated in its Greek roots, an- [no] -arkhos [ruler] and that people should instead organize their social relations and institutions though voluntary cooperation without hierarchies of power. So what characterises anarchism is not anti-statism so much as anti-authoritarianism. note Other terms for "archism" which anarchists use to describe what they oppose include: authority, hierarchy, power (as in power over others), domination, oppression, governmentalism, and heteronomy (the inversion of autonomy). These are not used as synonyms however. Each of the above describe different types of rulership (archy/archism) which apply more or less depending on the context.
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This means that most anarchists would not welcome a reduction in state power if it meant an increase of other kinds of authoritarianism as a result. For example, privatising a public health service may weaken the state, but increase the power of corporations, and thus anarchists would probably oppose doing so. Though generally speaking, they don't support state or private management of things. Instead, anarchists push for voluntary, localised, and cooperative institutions organised from the bottom-up through decentralised networks and run via processes of participatory democracy and workplace self-management.
Another way of thinking about anarchism is that it's "democracy without the state" or "socialism when it occurs on a voluntary basis". This tends to confuse many who
associate the word democracy with representative government; and especially those who associate the word socialism with statism.
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In fact, the word democracy originally meant direct democracy, like in Ancient Greece. And the word socialism originally referred to a number of economic systems in which economic institutions were run by those who actually worked in them. It's the earlier meanings of both words that anarchists use when talking about them. This also applies to their use of the word libertarian. Which, despite its modern Anglo-American use to mean laissez-faire capitalist, was actually first used by anarchist socialists to mean "anti-authoritarian". A frequently used synonym for social anarchism is libertarian socialism.
In addition to the systems of centralised power found in statism and capitalism, anarchists also support dissolving all forms of social hierarchy and domination (i.e., rulership) - such as sexism, racism, queerphobia, ableism, speciesism, and the domination of nature - and restructuring society on a decentralised and horizontalist basis.
There are two main categories of political anarchist thought, divided chiefly by what kind of economic system they want to build.
Market Anarchists want a stateless free market economy made up of producer and consumer cooperatives and self-employed professionals instead of private corporations and wage-labour. While once very popular, especially in America, market anarchism has ended up becoming a minority in the larger anarchist canon.
Social Anarchists, on the other hand, want what could be called a "free commons", note See here for some basic info on what's meant by "commons" in a modern context.
Both of these in turn are sub-divided into four overall proposals for different economic systems, each associated primarily with a different anarchist "founding father", with the first two being forms of market anarchism and the later two social anarchism:
Mutualist anarchism (Pierre-Joseph Proudhon)
Individualist anarchism (Benjamin Tucker)
Collectivist anarchism (Mikhail Bakunin)
Communist anarchism (Peter Kropotkin)
Despite their differences, they all share a social commitment to the ideal of organising things on the basis of "voluntary, non-hierarchical cooperation".
Anarchism was extremely popular in labour movements around the world in the late 19th and early 20th century, so much so that for a time it surpassed Marxism as the principal philosophy of working class struggles. Historian Benidict Anderson makes the case that anarchism was in fact the first "anti-systemic" movement that was fully global in scale, having influence in areas Marxism didn't reach for decades, like Japan, the Philippines, Latin America, Egypt, and Southern Africa.
Its popularity waned somewhat after the Russian Revolution in which Marxists took power for the first time. Then after a last hurrah in the late 1930s, in which there was an anarchist revolution in Spain and Catalonia, it flickered out in terms of appeal in the Global North except for occasional influences within environmental, anti-war, and student movements, though it still maintained an active presence in other parts of the world.
After a long time in a relative political wilderness, anarchism has seen something of a resurgence in worldwide political and social movements since the 1999 World Trade Organisation protests in Seattle over corporate-led globalisation policies, and especially since the 2011 "squares movements" around the world like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street.
The anthropologist David Graeber has opined that most social movements in the present day - structured through horizontal networks of cooperation rather than top-down hierarchies - are basically anarchist in their principles, even if they don't necessary use the word to describe themselves.
For those new to anarchist ideas, there's been a massive project aimed at explaining everything about (social) anarchist theory, practice, and history called An Anarchist FAQ available at this link, and a series of introductory videos on social anarchist/left-libertarian ideas is available here and here. Some good book-length intros can be found in Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism by Peter Marshall, Anarchy in Action by Colin Ward, Red Emma Speaks by Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Its Aspirarions by Cindy Milstein, and A Living Spirit of Revolt by Ziga Vodovnik.
(Note: As social anarchism is by far the majority tendency within anarchism as a whole, most of the following article will address primarily what social anarchists believe, but with occasional explanations of what market anarchists desire when the two differ.note Because of its predominance and significance in contrast to the other schools of thought, some have argued that social anarchism should be considered the only form of anarchism and the sole legitimate users of the A-word, with the other self-described anarchists merely being "anarchistic" or left-libertarian. This article doesn't say this position is the correct one, but it does grant social anarchism, as the mainstream tradition, the privilege of being the only tradition referred to simply as anarchism without prefixes or suffixes. So from here on, social anarchism is referred to as just "anarchism", while market anarchism (the other political anarchist school) and philosophical anarchism always have a qualifying term before them.)
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Basic Values
The values of political anarchism emerged from the same Enlightenment humanist milieu which animated most of the progressive movements of the 19th century, and so the broad anarchist tradition adheres to the same Enlightenment ideals of reason, progress, individuality, and social justice, developing them in an anti-authoritarian direction. At the political level, it can be seen as a kind of fusion of classical liberalism and democratic socialism, thus its alternative name: libertarian socialism. At the intellectual level, it draws its ethos from an opposition to hierarchy and domination, and from support for individual autonomy, mutual aid, and horizontal cooperation. However, while anarchism as a political tradition only emerged in the 1800s, philosophically anarchist (or "anarchistic") ideas and practices can arguably be found in every era and every part of the world - from indigenous tribal confederations to peasant revolts to urban social movements - whenever people resist hierarchical domination and organise on the basis of voluntary cooperation where power is decentralised to each individual. Anarchist theorists have always tried to take account of these struggles and work what people are already doing into a coherent framework for future activity. Anarchism as Method In contrast to Marxists and liberals, who usually start at the abstract level and come up with theories and practices for people to adhere to apart from their own lived experiences, anarchists try to tease out what anarchistic elements already exist in societies, and in what people are doing in their struggles for freedom and equality; then try to work out theories in which those elements could be pushed in a more explicitly anarchist direction. So while for Marxists and liberals, practice should follow theory, for anarchists, theory needs to follow already-existing practice. As Ashanti Alston explained, "One of the most important lessons learned from anarchism is that you need to look for the radical things that we already do and try to encourage them". Anarchistic elements (called "potentialities") always exist within every social situation, like "seeds beneath the snow" which can be grown into wider movements if cultivated in the right way. And most anarchists as a rule don't regard it as crucial for people to call themselves anarchists as long as their activities are anarchistic in their ethos. Foundational Beliefs At the baseline level, anarchists support the same triad of left-wing values that animated the French Revolution of the late 1700s: freedom, equality, and solidarity (the more gender-inclusive term for what's meant by "fraternity"), and believe that each of the three is a necessary condition for the other two. At the same time, they oppose what they call the "unholy trinity" of authoritarianism: religion, capital, and the state, and believe that each thrives of the existence of the the other two. "Religion" here can also be understood to encompass authoritarian ideologies in general, including: nationalism, ethnic supremacy, caste systems (like in the Indian subcontinent), patriarchy, and heteronormativity, though this doesn't preclude the practice of non-authoritarian forms of spirituality (as long as they don't throw science and reason out the window).note Rudolf Rocker, in his "anarchist bible" Nationalism and Culture, claimed every state and ruling elite require some kind of religion in order to maintain their grip on power. While supernatural beliefs are the most common ideology to justify "natural hierarchies" between rulers and ruled, in the twentieth century, he argued, nationalism and its offshoots had become the new religion used to control people. In the early twentieth century, many anarchists would say that neoliberalism - belief in rugged individualism, materialistic consumerism, and self-actualisation through the "free market" - has taken its place. Anarchists tend to reject the traditional dichotomy of individualism vs. collectivism as a false one. Instead, they promote what political theorist Alan Ritter calls "communal individuality": the view that the free flourishing of the individual and self-realization are only truly possible in a liberated society of equals, where the autonomy of one is the precondition for the autonomy of all. For this reason, they see the fights for individual freedom and for social justice as one and the same. They also tend to be extreme civil libertarians with regard to social issues, stressing the sovereignty of the individual and advocating the full freedom to do anything as long as it doesn't interfere with the equal freedom of others; valuing cultural unity-in-diversity and the celebration of alternative and hybrid lifestyles. It should surprise no one that anarchists were some of the first modern proponents of what's now called free love and polyamory; as well as one of the first political movements to support the inclusion of LGBT+ people. Unlike many other libertarians and leftists, anarchists aren't that concerned with achieving same-sex marriage, but only because they tend to support the abolition of marriage as a state-sanctioned institution. Ethics In terms of ethics, anarchists vary somewhat. While a minority adopt ethical egoism and the belief that the only good is the satisfaction of the individual will, most proponents of social anarchism gravitate towards what are called consequentialist ethics, and support anarchism out of the belief that it would ensure the greatest freedom and well-being for the greatest number of people.note Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta put it like this: The end justifies the means. This maxim has been greatly slandered. As a matter of fact, it is the universal guide to conduct. One might better express it thus: each end carries with it its own means. The morality or immorality lies in the end sought; there is no option as to the means. Once one has decided upon the end in view, whether by choice or by necessity, the great problem of life is to find the means which, according to the circumstances, will lead most surely and economically to the desired end. The way in which this problem is solved determines, as far as human will can determine, whether a man or a party reaches the goal or not, is useful to the cause orwithout meaning toserves the opposite side. To have found the right means is the whole secret of the great men and great parties that have left their mark in history. Peter Kropotkin, an anarchist philosopher and scientist, devised an ethical system that started from an evolutionary basis, and blended elements of consequentialism with what would now be called virtue ethics (virtue-consequentialism).note A family of ethical systems in which the greatest good for the greatest number over the longest time is best realised through adherence to various virtues. Unlike deontological ethics (where ethical principles must be adhered to irrespective of consequences), virtue-consequentialism allows one to bypass what virtues may be appropriate in certain contexts in favour of considering the direct consequences an action may have and acting accordingly. What almost all anarchists would agree on, however, is that ethics should be constructed on an entirely secular basis, with religion playing no part in conceptions of what's right and wrong. Indeed, Mikhail Bakunin, arguably the theoretical founder of social anarchism, claimed that all forms of hierarchical domination (rulership) in the material world are ultimately rooted in supernatural beliefs. Some even reject the use of the word "morality", in the sense of an objective standard of good and evil, and think that ethics is a separate concept; supporting the creation of a "non-moral ethics" if you will. They also tend to reject the concept of "rights" as a basis for ethics - as they stem from either moral or legal fictions - in favour of freedoms and equalities. Roughly speaking, the principle of anti-domination serves as a grounding for all other ethical considerations. Anarchists start from the premise that it should be wrong to dominate others or to be dominated oneself, then build the rest of their non-hierarchical modes of action from this basic ethic. Mutual aid - voluntarily cooperating with others in ways that benefit both the self and the one being helped - acts as the social glue which binds anarchists together in their ethical commitments. Also important to them on an ethical level is the concept of prefiguration or "prefigurative politics": the belief that the means used to achieve an end must embody the content of that end in practice, for the reason that means inevitably shape ends. It's for this reason that anarchists (usually) oppose the state-socialist tactic of taking governmental power, as they hold that you can't accomplish libertarian ends via authoritarian means (though there are some anarchists who advocate voting to prevent the state from becoming more authoritarian, such as Noam Chomsky). Human Nature A common misconception is that anarchists believe Rousseau Was Right and that human nature is inherently good. On the contrary, one of the main reasons they oppose large-scale concentrations of authority is that they think the flaws in the human condition lead people to be corrupted by too much power. This isn't to say that they're cynics about humans, but they are cynics about hierarchical power and the effect it has on people, fully agreeing with Lord Acton's Dictum "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely". Power over others that is, not power over your own life. After all, powerlessness also corrupts. Anarchists believe humans have two different tendencies running through them as a result of their natural evolution: one that encourages people to be selfish, egotistical jerks; and another that encourages them to be sociable and cooperative. The Egotistic Tendency: Characterised by mutual struggle within and between groups, dominative behaviour, and narrow self-interest.
The Mutualistic Tendency: Characterised by mutual aid within and between groups, solidarity, and enlightened self-interest. They have a contextual view of human nature, believing that the egotistic tendency or mutualistic tendency manifests itself more depending on the environment people develop in, and that if you structure the social environment in a more socialistic and cooperative way, the mutualistic tendency is more likely to be nurtured than the egotistic tendency. So anarchists are neither biological determinists nor social constructionists but accept that humans are a product of both natural evolution (first nature) and socialisation (second nature), while holding to the normative belief that mutual aid proves more beneficial to the human species than mutual struggle. Long-Term Goals Anarchism, meaning rulerlessness, could be summed up as a fully horizontal plane of power relations, where each individual has maximal freedom in the context of maximal equality and solidarity. The desire is to decentralise (or "flatten") power to such an extent that individuals and groups can't feasibly wield hierarchical authority over others, as everyone's power acts as a check on everybody else's. Most anarchists accept that a 100% egalitarian distribution of power is probably impossible, but is still valuable as an ideal to continually aspire to, dissolving hierarchy wherever it appears and pushing ever closer towards complete liberation in all things. The more specific institutional structures they see making up such a set of social conditions are: A stateless participatory democracy, made up of voluntary confederations of "free communes" (self-governing localities).
A libertarian socialist "economy of the commons", based on worker self-management of enterprises, communal stewardship of resources, and decentralised planning of the economy by both communities and workplaces.
A civil libertarian society in which anybody can do whatever they want, as long as they're not harming anybody else; embodying a spirit of inclusiveness, justice, and unity-in-diversity. Short-term and Mid-term Goals While a stateless participatory democracy, libertarian socialist economy, and civil libertarian society is their long term goal, anarchists also have various short-term and mid-term goals which they see as desirable both as a means of making life under capitalism/statism more tolerable, as well as pushing society in a more liberatory direction. These include things like: an unconditional Basic Income to replace existing welfare programs
building a more unionised workforce
creating more cooperatives
localising/regionalising the production of goods (especially food and manufacturing)
creating alternative currency systems such as LETS
pushing for interest-free banking to replace usury and fund self-managed enterprises
legalising recreational drugs
legalising illegal forms of sex work and organising sex workers into unions and cooperatives
opposing intellectual property laws
supporting animal liberation causes
protecting natural environments from destruction
supporting the replacement of fossil fuels with green energy
reforming prisons and pushing for the release of political prisoners
decentralising and ecologising the urban environment
and reforming cultural attitudes that are sexist, racist, classist, queerphobic, speciesist, or anti-ecological.
Key Principles
As a basic rule of thumb, political anarchism (despite its internal differences) could be summed up in the following six principles: Individual Autonomy
Voluntary Association
Mutual Aid
Self-Organisation
Free Federation
Direct Action To clarify each of these principles in more detail... 1. Individual Autonomy (Concerning persons as individuals) The sovereignty of the individual person and their freedom to do whatever they want as long as they're not harming anyone else. 2. Voluntary Association (Concerning persons in relation to other persons and in relation to groups) The idea that all relations and institutions should be organised voluntarily with the guarantee that any individual or group can disassociate/secede from an association whenever they choose, and either join another or found their own. 3. Mutual Aid (Concerning persons in relation to other persons and groups in relation to other groups) The practice of positive reciprocity; or helping others out just as they help you out, building common bonds and providing the basis of solidarity. Also called "mutuality" or "sociality" when described as a concept instead of a practice. Contained in the principle is the recognition that no act is fully self-interested (egoistic) or self-negating (altruistic), but contains concern for both the self and for others. 4. Self-Organisation (Concerning persons in relation to each other within groups) Organising within associations being done through horizontal cooperation and participatory decision-making by all members involved, also called participatory democracy. While some anarchists have criticised what's commonly called democracy (i.e., representative government), they do support decisions being made in a manner that is direct, participatory, and autonomous. In fact, this is actually closer to what the word democracy originally meant. Though this is only as long as the democracy is on the basis of voluntary association and respects individual autonomy. 5. Free Federation (Concerning groups in relation to other groups) In keeping with their commitment to decentralisation of power, anarchists support organising things on a large scale through federations/confederations of voluntary, directly-democratic associations, with each component unit remaining self-organising while also being part of a larger whole that cooperates to take care of issues that require a bigger geographical scope than local autonomous associations allow. 6. Direct Action (Concerning individuals, groups, and all the ways they relate to each other) This means accomplishing tasks without mediation. Removing representation and bureaucracy from activity, replacing both with immediate (direct) self-activity of people doing stuff for themselves and by themselves. And all six could in turn be condensed into the formula: Anarchism = Autonomy + Cooperation
Politics
The type of political system (polity) anarchists want to create could be characterised as "democracy without the state". Or more specifically, a decentralised system of local-level participatory democracies. A municipal-confederation in place of a nation-state. The core unit of such a confederation is called a free commune, a territorial entity just large enough to be an autonomous political body, but small enough to be self-governing without the need for statist bureaucracy; for example: a small town, a city ward, or a rural parish. And each free commune would itself be composed of a variety of voluntary associations, webbed together by mutually-agreed contracts into a larger political-economic whole. In other words, an anarchist free commune is a kind of "mini-republic" self-governed by its residents, where direct participatory decision-making replaces political hierarchies. The word "commune", by the way, just means a local residential area (roughly synonymous with "municipality") and doesn't have anything to do with "communes" of the hippie or cult variety. Autonomous Self-Organisation While some older anarchist literature uses the word "political" as a synonym for "statist", later anarchists make a distinction between politics (the collective administration of social affairs) and statecraft (the monopolisation of politics by a centralised system of rulership). In the absence of centralised political power, anarchists desire creating political structures which are autonomous - meaning voluntary and self-organising - and where decision-making flows from the bottom-up instead of the top-down. While this can be characterised as democratic in the broad sense, anarchists are not in favour of "democracy" in an uncritical capacity. They support direct (face-to-face) forms of participatory democracy only as long as they're subordinate to the principle of autonomy, autonomous democracy if you will. And some anarchists even dislike calling their principles of decision-making "democratic" at all, owing to the associations the word can have with majorities forcing their will on minorities. Still, since the 1960s, anarchists have used the word democracy in its popular meaning as a shorthand way of describing how they want to make collective decisions and coordinate things, as long as the process is voluntary and respectful of the individual's freedom to dissent and disassociate. This autonomous version of directly-democratic self-organisation takes the form of: communal self-governance in politics
workplace self-management in economics
personal self-sovergnty in society Anarchists also support decentralising decision-making power down to the smallest and most localised scale possible, so as to ensure that the maximum number of people are able to shape the political and social policies that will affect them. Free Communalism and Confederalism The political dimension of anarchism is called free communalism i.e. free communes confederated together via mutually-agreed contracts. This means replacing the nation-state and representative democracy with a municipal-confederation and direct democracy; mainly organised through local networks of participatory, face-to-face, neighborhood assemblies. Each self-governing free commune (municipality) making up such a confederation would be part of it voluntarily and free to secede from it at any time. The desire is for "law" to become more a collection of contractual agreements between residents of a given locality instead of something externally imposed upon them by structural violence. For taking care of issues that go beyond the local level, anarchists propose creating inter-municipal "administrative councils" made up of mandated delegates (spokespersons rather than traditional representatives in a parliament) who would communicate the wishes of the community that sent them and negotiate the coordination of large-scale projects, e.g., building a cross-country rail system. The core "levels" of an anarchist confederation are: (1) Municipal/Communal note The level of the "free commune" (city ward, small town, or rural parish) numbering about 10,000 - 20,000 people
(2) Regional/Cantonal note Made up of of federated municipalities/communes.
(3) National/Confederal. note Made up of federated regions/cantons. With an additional sub-level below the Municipal, the Local, made up of the network of democratic assemblies. People at the Local level would appoint spokespersons to a Municipal administrative council, the Municipal council would then send one of its members to Regional council, and so on; with regular rotations of the position to prevent anyone becoming too comfortable in the job. Policy-making still lies exclusively at the Local level, and is only ever done directly by the people in popular assemblies, with administrative councils only having the power to act as conduits for the decisions already made at the ground. Also, at the municipal scale, public utilities would be administered by "commissions" organised by the particular service, e.g., sanitation, telecommunications, transport, etc. The various "working groups" set up around the General Assembly in Occupy Wall Street could be seen as a small-scale version of this. Historical Precedents There's actually some historical precedents for this kind of free communalist polity, like the leagues of free cities and guilds that existed in Europe during the Middle Ages (such as the Hanseatic League ) which for a time looked like they could've represented a decentralised alternative to the then emergent nation-states. note Well, there was one which did survive, Switzerland; which was formed as a communal confederation of independent cantons. While it later took on most of the characteristics of a traditional nation-state, its more decentralist political structures and history of direct democracy have always made it attractive to social anarchists as a "halfway house" between the nation-state and the stateless communal-confederations they have in mind. Other examples would be the town hall democracy that existed in much of New England prior to American independence. That said, most anarchists today would criticise these models for their religious basis, coercive moral norms, and involuntary nature, and insist that all institutions in an anarchist society should be established on the basis of voluntary association, with the freedom to disassociate guaranteed to any individual or group taking part. More contemporary examples of anarchist(-ish) political systems are the Zapatista Councils of Good Government in southern Mexico - where indigenous rebels seized rural and urban areas and declared them autonomous from the Mexican government - and the network of communal assemblies which have sprung up in the Rojava (western Kurdistan) region of North Syria; inspired in part by the political theories of anarchist Murray Bookchin. Other examples, which cropped up during the twentieth century, occurred in Spain and Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War, and in Ukraine (the Free Territory) roughly concurrent with the Russian Revolution. Anarchist philosopher John P. Clark claims that the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka is also roughly anarchist in its principles, being inspired in large part by philosophical anarchist Gandhi. Affinity Groups For socio-political concerns that are outside the scope of formal politics and public deliberation, they support - in the present as well as in the future - people forming what are called affinity groups ; small groups of no more than about twenty people who cooperate around a specific issue or cause. Each affinity group does its own thing and takes care of its own affairs, while also federating into "clusters" (collections of affinity groups) who organise things through spokescouncils made up of rotating spokespersons (or just "spokes" for short). Affinity groups usually start out as a collection of friends who unite around a specific concern and attempt to build ties with other like-minded groups based on mutual aid. In the present they tend to focus more on struggles within communities than on workplace organising, which tends to be the concern of trade unions. Decision-making Principles As for decision |
these concepts together?
I like to think of Clojure like a infinite Lego box: you can build your system using the pieces, but can you make smart choices to select the best tool for each part of your system? Some parts appear to be similar: lists and vectors, maps and records, multi-methods and protocols, but how do I select one instead of another?
Clojure Applied is the first Clojure Book I read which wasn't targeted for people initiating in the Clojure world, so it considers that you have some experience. I like to think of it like a book of answers to questions that if you deal with Clojure frequently you will probably wonder about. I particularly liked the chapter 6 "Creating Components": on how to structure your application in an organized way.
Another cool thing is that it not only covers features of the language but also some well-known parts of the ecosystem like the core async library, Stuart Sierra's component library, the schema library and transit and EDN as data serializers. It also covers how to deploy your code to a production server using a platform, a IAAS or using your own servers.
I strongly recommend you to not read this book cover to cover, but to try to write a small application after each chapter applying what you have learned: I did it this way and I really think it was worth it.Left-handedness always occurs at a lower frequency than right-handedness. Generally, left-handedness is found within 10.8% of the overall population. However, left-handedness is more common in twins than in single individuals, occurring in 21% of people who are twins.[1]
The frequency of pairs of MZ twins in which only one twin is left-handed is about 21% and in which both twins are left-handed is less than 4%.[2]
Why is left handedness more prevalent in identical twins? [ edit ]
The reasons for this have long been debated. Although there are many theories, such as cerebral symmetry, the reason has not been conclusively proven.[3]
Fraternal twins [ edit ]
The frequency of right-handed and left-handed pairs of DZ twins is about 23%, while twins with both individuals displaying left-handedness is less than 4%. There is no difference in the handedness frequency between MZ and DZ twins.[2]
Chances of handedness [ edit ]
If the parents are both right-handed in DZ and MZ twins, there is a 21% chance of one being left handed. If one parent is left handed in DZ and MZ twins, there is a 57% chance of one being left handed. If both parents are left handed, it is almost certain one will be left handed.
Cross-dominance in twins [ edit ]
19% of twins are cross dominant. This is the same for both DZ and MZ. Cross-dominance is when your dominant eye and dominant hand are different and if one twin is both right-handed and right-eyed, they have most likely been forced to use their non-dominant hand by a school teacher or parent.
Monozygotic dichorionic twins [ edit ]
An early twinning event which happens before 4 days post-fertilization causes monozygotic dichorionic (MZDC) twins. MZDC twins are born in two different chorion sacs. The frequency of left-handedness in MZDC twins is 22%.[1]
Monozygotic monochorionic twins [ edit ]
A later twinning event which occurs after 4 days postfertilization causes monozygotic monochorionic (MZMC) twins. MZMC twins are born in the same chorionic membrane. The data of frequencies of left-handedness in MZMC was 23%. There was no big difference in MZDC and MZMC twins.[1]
Mirror imaging [ edit ]
It is believed that this correlation between handedness in twins mirror imaging is due to MZ twins sharing the same placental blood supply, and being surrounded by the same chorionic membrane. The zygosity and chorion type do not influence twins handedness.[1] It is hard to think that discordant handedness in MZ twins demonstrated mirror imaging.
Other factors of handedness [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]Bullets and gun with wikileaks logo, hand holding euro's over Italian flag. CBS/AP
By Chris Zawistowski, CBS News Investigates Intern
Organized crime still abounds in Italy and may be indirectly supporting terrorist groups in Columbia and Central Asia, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks yesterday.
The cable, sent by the Charge d'affaires in Rome in anticipation of then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's trip to Italy in 2009, stated that organized crime remains a "serious and pervasive" problem throughout the country, particularly in the Southern region, engaging in activities including the production and distribution of counterfeit products, extortion and the trafficking of drugs, arms and people.
"There are large swaths of territory in southern Italy where the state is nearly completely absent and the crime syndicates control most facets of society and the economy," the cable said. "These groups create a huge drag on Italy's economic growth and its ability to apply the rule of law."
Special Report: WikiLeaks
There are some indications, according to the cable, this drug and arms trade has "at least indirectly benefited terrorist groups in Columbia and Central Asia."
According to the cable, Italian President Silvio Berlusconi and the country's law enforcement have made some progress in curbing the activities of the mafia in Sicily. However, this success has not been replicated in the rest of the country.
In the cable it's estimated that organized crime may account for up to nine percent of Italy's gross domestic product.
"The Berlusconi government has taken a hard line on crime, sending soldiers and more police to patrol cities," according to the cable. "Nonetheless, Mafia businesses have not been interrupted."United for Equality and Affirmative Action hasn't added a story.
The movement to defeat Trump and the threat of a fascist movement coming to power in America must act now to defend one of our bravest and most prominent leaders from a political witch-hunt. Yvette Felarca, an internationally recognized activist building the new immigrants rights and civil rights movement, is currently facing Trumped up charges for protesting a group of armed neo-nazi Trump supporters in June of 2016. Defense of the most prominent on-the-ground leader in the Resistance to Trump is essential to stopping the Trump regime.
Yvette's legal costs may be as high as $40,000-50,000; with an initial fundraising goal for her defense set at $10,000. Yvette's political supporters must act now to raise enough funds to assure her victory in court and her ability to continue her critical leadership in our movement. All contributions are tax deductible.
A veteran public school teacher of 20 years, Yvette Felarca is also a national organizer for the By Any Means Necessary Coalition. Having dedicated her life to fighting for civil and immigrant rights, Yvette has played a critical role in organizing several Northern California counter-protests of Trump’s most dangerous neo-nazi and “alt right” supporters.
On June 26, 2016, at the height of the Trump Presidential campaign, Yvette protested neo-Nazi/KKK members who, emboldened by Trump, had scheduled a recruitment rally on the steps of the capitol in Sacramento. As neo-Nazi’s marched up the steps of the capitol, carrying knives and home-made spears, they stabbed Yvette and a dozen other anti-fascist protesters while the police stood by and did nothing to deter the Nazi violence. Wounded, Yvette appeared on several news outlets, declaring that the protest had done the right thing, and that the Nazi’s had to be prevented from rallying whenever they tried.
Yvette has continued her work, defending militant action to shut down alt-right organizer and now defunct former Brietbart editor Milo Yiannopolous at UC Berkeley, and opposing alt-right and fascist attacks and recruitment rallies in Berkeley and other parts of the county. Now the police and other law enforcement are escalating the witch-hunt against her. Yvette was arrested on July 18 on outlandish charges dating back to the 2016 Sacramento protest.
Yvette needs your support for her legal defense. These bogus charges would not have been brought if it weren't for Yvette's critical role in the movement, and we can not let this political attack succeed in scaring our ranks or forcing us into submission. Leadership is essential to victory. Donations can be made anonymously.
Links to media reports and interviews with Yvette Felarca on fighting Trump and the growing threat of fascism:
Guardian U.K. exclusive interview with Yvette after her July 19, 2017 arrest:
Uneditted TV interviews on June 26, 2016 after the anti-fascist protest in Sacramento:The Australian Broadcasting commission is embarking on a massive reworking of its electronic, computing, Internet and archival facilities in what is set to be one of the biggest and most complex upgrade IT sequences seen in this country.
As part of this digital modernisation program the broadcaster will release a series of requests for tender over the next few months, beginning with one for a digital archive repository system for content services operations. Responses to the RFT close on 8 June.
Content services covers radio, television, electronic publishing, the archives for these, sound library and rights management. This initial tender, to handle storage of current media output, is effectively the front end of a wider program of work to modernise the archives already in existence, which date back well into last century.
The primary aim of the current project is to provide a more comprehensive, convenient and flexible system for capturing media content on the fly from all broadcast platforms and archive it in a readily accessible digital format.
This will mesh with the ongoing digitisation of the back archive, but is regarded as a separate focus.
The primary tender document states that the broadcaster is seeking “integration of the future Digital Archive Repository System with ABC production systems to enable the automated and ongoing ingest of file based digital content and related metadata information.”
The ability to ingest material as it is generated into a readily accessible format will make life a lot easier for ABC professionals wanting to reuse material.
For example, the program Behind the News needs to extract material from earlier news broadcasts to illustrate its presentation.
“We do it at the moment, but you have to ask, take the tape off the shelf, put it in a machine, identify the bits you want and then take it to the dubbing facility to copy the parts you need,” explains Mary Jane Stannus, the ABC’s head of content services.
“The new system will make it easier to use the archival material,” she says. “Once you get your archive recognition, once you move into that digital world, you're in a better position to use image recognition, or speech to text.”
Image recognition in a digital archive would mean that if a producer wants past footage of, say, a rock musician an image search could be deployed to find visual instances of the talent performing even if there is no metadata record providing written information on identity, venue, dates and other data.
The recent ABC television series on federal politics, The Killing Season, required a lot of archival material shot by News. Fortunately, because News has been going digital over the last six years there were digital files available for convenient use.
The ABC is expecting a wide variety of benefits from its proposed new system. Once it has widespread file-based content and related metadata, there will be enhanced content sharing throughout the ABC via a self-service mechanism.
Users will be able to conduct their own searches, have desktop access to view and select content, and be able to move content to specified destinations. They can skim through material on a quickly obtained low res file, then specify a high res file for what they actually choose.
New arrangements for data flows should simplify business processes and cut the number of systems and manual workflows required.
There should be reduced content duplication throughout the ABC with the introduction of a generally accessible central repository, and a simplified support environment with lower running costs by replacing multiple legacy systems with a single approach.
This means a reduction in online storage for production systems not designed for archiving content, while also minimising the risk of losing content through reliance on ad hoc storage solutions.
Use of digital files will end the need for purchase, support and maintenance of videotape technology. It will minimise business continuity risk through the replacement of systems facing technology obsolescence.
“It’s an extremely significant job, very big but one we can handle,” says Stannus. “We’ve worked co-operatively with people in radio and TV. We’re thrilled about it and the content developers will be when they get their fingers on it.”
That could be around the end of 2017, when the ABC hopes to have most of the basic work on the digital material capture system completed.
ABC archivists — or digital content services providers as they are also called nowadays — have been quietly beavering away over the last few years, getting a lot of content previously stored on increasingly obsolete technology converted to up-to-date digital formats.
For example, about 30,000 hours of one inch videotape and a similar quantity of quarter inch radio audio tape has already been digitised.
“That was the most vulnerable,” says Stannus. “We got in early with television Betacam and SP Betacam in early cassette format, because that material has been stored for quite a while.
“We've got about 80,000 hours of video content that we will do.”
An even older format, for radio recording, is very large recording disks in vinyl or even older materials, known as transcription disks. These were an early priority for digitisation, reflecting their considerable age, format vulnerability and historical significance.The U.S. Navy says it is investigating a SEAL unit after it was caught on camera flying a Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” flag from the convoy’s lead vehicle.
A driver shot cell phone video of a military convoy traveling on I-264 on the south side of Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday.
Convoy flying Trump flag spotted in Louisville: https://yhoo.i… Convoy flying Trump flag spotted in Louisville: https://yhoo.it/2krLmDY (Credit: Facebook/Carole Puryear) Posted by Yahoo Canada on Thursday, February 2, 2017
The original source of the video has deleted it from Facebook, but it was captured by Yahoo Canada and made public.
“The convoy were service members assigned to an East Coast-based Naval Special Warfare unit driving vehicles while transiting between two training locations,” Naval Special Warfare Group 2 spokeswoman Lt. Jacqui Maxwell tells ABC News.
“Defense Department and Navy regulations prescribe flags and pennants that may be displayed as well as the manner of display,” she says.
“The flag shown in the video was unauthorized.”
The woman taking the video sped up to capture the scene after the convoy passed her.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she could be heard saying, seemingly upset by the display.
Maxwell says after the inquiry is complete, the unit commander will “make a disposition decision as to the appropriate administrative or disciplinary action.”Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, who became the first Indian to score a World Cup goal, was so passionate about football even in his childhood that he did that he did not eat food for more than two days when his parents told him to stop playing the game and concentrate on his studies.
Bilashini Devi, mother of 16-year-old Jeakson, said she and her husband Deben Singh wanted their son to become a bureaucrat but he was adamant on taking up the game.
"Jeakson was a topper and Amarjit Singh (current India captain) was second from class 2 to 4 in local school. We wanted Jeakson to become an IAS officer but he did not agree at all. He started playing from four years old. We have a small playground in front of our house and he will play all day, even forgetting to eat food," Bilashini told PTI.
"I remember once he fasted for more than two days for telling him he should stop playing football and concentrate on his studies. After that we did not tell him again. Since his father was also a footballer, we stopped pressurising Jeakson and gave him permission to play football," she added.It took Francisco "Frank" Miranda, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, about three years to find a job in the civilian world that was a good fit. Since August, Miranda has been working at Home Depot in Totowa, N.J., where he and two fellow vet employees refer to each other by their former military ranks.
"That's the respect that we give each other," said Miranda, a 50-year-old Woodland Park, N.J., resident. "They call me by saying, 'Hey, master sergeant.' "
Home Depot is one of a number of companies that have stepped up their efforts to recruit U.S. military veterans, helping ex-service members such as Miranda who have struggled to find work and to adjust to life back home. The chain of home-improvement stores employs 35,000 veterans, around 10 percent of its workforce, and has committed to hire about 55,000 vets over the next five years.
And Home Depot isn't the only business that's looking to beef up its staff, and find innovative ways beyond job fairs, to connect with veterans.
This year, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. pledged to hire every veteran who wanted a job and who had left the service in the prior year.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and power company PSE&G participated in two separate pilot programs aimed at matching them with veterans to hire, and disabled vets handled customer calls for the utility following Superstorm Sandy.
And last month, the White House unveiled "Warriors 4 Wireless," an initiative seeking to place 5,000 vets in jobs in the wireless telecom industry by 2015.
Alex Leniw, a 33-year-old Garfield, N.J., man who served 10 years in the Coast Guard, knows firsthand how hard it can be for a veteran to get a job. When he got out of the service, he attended Caldwell College for two years and graduated. For a year since then, he has been hunting for work.
"It's just so frustrating," Leniw said. "The economy's not helping. I had my resume on Monster.com for a while, and that went nowhere.... Every job I'm applying for, there's over 100 other applicants."
Veterans returning to civilian life have new battles to fight on the home front. They face a competitive job market; are sometimes emotionally challenged by the transition from the military; and they often lack the ability to explain and translate how their military skills can benefit an employer.
Nationally, unemployment for veterans has been trending down, falling to 7 percent last year from 8.7 percent in 2010.
"Most of the employers are very eager to hire veterans," said New Jersey Labor Commissioner Harold Wirths. "I always tell them not only morally is it the correct thing to do, but economically it's great. You're getting a highly skilled employee. You don't have to worry about telling them how to dress. They come to work on time. They're used to harsh conditions."
Wirths also said younger ex-service members often go to college under the GI Bill and are therefore counted as unemployed. That can skew veteran unemployment figures, he said, including in New Jersey, where the unemployment rate for veterans was 10 percent last year. At job fairs, the commissioner said, he is seeing many Vietnam War-era vets, in the 50- to 60-year-age range, seeking work.
Miranda is in that age bracket. He spent 27 years in the U.S. Army, serving in places such as Afghanistan and Kuwait, before retiring in October 2010. The transition took an emotional toll on him, Miranda said.
"It was a big adjustment," he said. "It was overwhelming not having that responsibility of commanding and being responsible for soldiers."
Miranda worked briefly for a supermarket, and eventually applied online for a job at Home Depot. Now he works about 25 to 30 hours a week, in the appliance department and "doing the racetrack," running from department to department to help customers.
At Home Depot, Miranda said he has a chance to advance and is working for a company that shares the same values of the Army _ such as loyalty, duty, respect and service.
"We really have been proactive trying to recruit military," said Pam Frazier, human relations manager for the Home Depot district where Miranda works.
Home Depot holds its own job fairs for veterans at its stores, and has a "military skills translator" on its website to help veterans explain how their military experience can be applied at the chain, she said.
"We are looking for knowledgeable, hard-working, solution-based experience, and of course customer service is a definite plus," Frazier said. "We really targeted military veterans because they tend to stay with you.'AUS Successfully Averts Financial Crisis
After finally filing their taxes from the last four years, the AUS has now reclaimed $114,000 of their funds that were seized by the Quebec government. Since the AUS had not filed their taxes from 2008 onwards, the Quebec government initially froze $16,000 in 2010 from the AUS’ chequing account, followed by $84,000 in 2011.
Moreover, McGill withheld all student fees from 2010 on because the AUS had failed to submit their mandatory audits. In an attempt to disentangle this crisis, current AUS VP Finance Saad Qazi spent both summer and winter break working with the AUS’ hired accountants from LMKCA to back-file the accumulation of taxes dating back to 2008. It was just last month that the government removed the AUS from the list of delinquents and released $114,000 of seized funds; an amount that was more than what Qazi had expected.
Starting at a mere $800 in the chequing and savings accounts respectively, an ecstatic Qazi reported that now the AUS has over $315,000 in their savings account. The influx of funds is courtesy of the released funds and profits from events like Frosh, which made $17,000 alone in profit in 2012. Since the AUS filed their audits to McGill, the Administration has finally released all student fees to the AUS.
Qazi also revealed that according to the exit report of the VP Finance two years ago, it would have taken at least ten years for the AUS to bring their savings account to the $135,000 that they had before the “financial crisis” occurred. Qazi managed to do it in just one year. So the same question arises once more: How can this situation be averted in the future?
As per the proposed changes to the by-laws of the AUS, the new VP Finance should have some prior knowledge of finance and accounting. Moreover, Qazi also mentioned that the AUS has put forth a referendum in the hopes of hiring a full-time employee to overlook the finances. This would ensure that the operations are carried out to the level that the auditors require.
Is the $1.50 increase in full-time student fees, which will be allocated towards funding the salary of the new employee, be enough to ensure that this financial debacle never happens again? Qazi and AUS President Devon LaBuik definitely agree. If the referendum in question regarding the new employee passes, then the new VP Finance would need some basic knowledge pertaining to financial management.
Right now, Qazi said that they keep only the bare minimum of the finances to cover the day-to-day operational costs. Moreover, severe “austerity measures” have also been imposed on this year’s AUS executives. For example, traditionally, the AUS funds the clothing orders, but this year it is the executives who will be doling out the cash for their individual customized hoodies. Although seemingly slight, such actions can go a long way to instill a newfound sense of responsibility that executives of the largest faculty undergraduate society at McGill must have when continuing onward in the wake of such a financial disaster.
The next VP Finance will have some big shoes to fill next year, as Qazi’s term ends at the end of April. Saad notes, “[I] hope the financial mechanism we have set up now is good enough for the people this year and the one after that.”Belarus withdraws embassy staff from Sweden as row over teddy bear parachute drop escalates
It follows stunt by Swedish PR firm in Belarussian airspace last month
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was left furious
The leader is now taking his fury out on Sweden
A diplomatic row between Belarus and Sweden over teddy bears escalated today when the eastern European country withdrew its embassy staff from Stockholm.
Belarus also told Sweden to take similar action with its diplomats in Minsk.
It all stems from a stunt by a Swedish PR which parachuted 800 teddy bears into Belarus last month.
Scroll down for video
PR stunt: Teddy bears parachuting over a residential area in Minsk, Belarus on July 4 Diplomatic row: The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko (pictured), has sacked senior members of his staff over the teddy bear incident and is now taking his fury out on Sweden The company chartered a light aircraft which invaded Belarussian airspace to drop the bears, all of which highlighted the lack of human rights in the former Soviet state.
A furious Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko, has sacked senior members of his staff over the incident and is now taking his fury out on Sweden.
Belarus expelled Sweden's ambassador on August 3. The Belarussian ambassador to Stockholm was also withdrawn.
The foreign ministry said Minsk was now pulling out its remaining embassy staff because Sweden had aggravated the situation by expelling two more diplomats and had refused to allow a new Belarussian ambassador to take up his post.
'In this connection, the Belarussian side has been forced to take the decision to withdraw its embassy in Sweden and bring back all its (embassy) staff to Belarus,' the statement said.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter:'His fear of human rights reaching new heights.'
Swedish Tomas Mazetti, left, and Hannah Frey, right, show a teddy bear on a parachute before the stunt was unleashed The diplomatic row between Belarus and Sweden was stepped up after 800 teddy bears were dropped over the eastern European country The teddies, with pro democracy signs attached, were dropped by Swedish activists from Studio Total. The incident was initially denied by the authorities
The incident was a humiliation for President Alexander Lukashenko, a hardliner who has been in power in Belarus since 1994 and is on poor terms with the West because of his harsh policies towards the political opposition.
European Union ambassadors will hold an emergency meeting on Friday on the issue, an EU source in Brussels said.
'There will be an emergency meeting of the European Union ambassadors Friday to decide on appropriate measures,' the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that the meeting would be held in Brussels.
Sweden's four remaining diplomats in Belarus have been ordered to leave the authoritarian-ruled country following a 'teddy bear' incident that has soured relations between the two countries Time to leave: An Swedish embassy employee adjusts a Swedish flag on a Swedish embassy in the centre of Minsk, Belarus
Bildt last week said ambassador Stefan Eriksson, who took up the post in Minsk in 2008, was expelled because of his pro-rights stance and meetings he had with the Belarus opposition.
Stockholm retaliated immediately, saying it would not welcome a new ambassador named by Minsk to replace an envoy who left the post several weeks ago, and withdrew residency permits for two Belarus diplomats who were asked to leave the Scandinavian country.
' [Lukashenko's] fear of human rights reaching new heights.' Swedenish Minister Carl Bildt
Belarus foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh denied last week that Eriksson had been expelled, saying instead in more diplomatic language that 'a decision was made not to renew his credentials.'
Eriksson's 'activity was aimed not at strengthening Belarusian-Swedish relations but destroying them,' he said.
On Wednesday, Minsk said in a statement it was 'forced to take a decision to recall its diplomatic staff from Sweden and return its employees to Belarus,' stressing however it was not severing diplomatic ties with Stockholm.
It also gave Stockholm until August 30 to remove all of its diplomats from Minsk.
Sweden has been actively pushing for democracy in Belarus.
An activist from women's rights group Femen fights with a police officer, as the group protests against the plans of Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko to attend the Euro 2012 final in July
Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt wrote on Twitter: 'His fear of human rights reaching new heights.'
Lukashenko's re-election in December 2010, marred by fraud, led Stockholm to focus its Belarus strategy on democracy, human rights and equality.
'The state-run international development policy and the lack of a clear democratisation process make the cooperation particularly challenging,' the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency said on its website.
Bildt reiterated Sweden's commitment to Belarusian human rights on Wednesday, writing on Twitter: 'We remain strongly committed to the freedom of Belarus and all its citizens. They deserve the freedoms and the rights of the rest of Europe.'
By meeting with members of the opposition, ambassador Eriksson 'followed the policies that Sweden defends', Bildt said last week.
Sweden's embassy in Minsk opened in 2008. Prior to that, the country was represented by its mission in Moscow, which had a representative in Minsk.
The embassy counts four diplomats and a SIDA representative, as well as a handful of local staff.
'Two or three diplomats are currently there,' ministry spokesman Joerle said.
Belarus is under a raft of sanctions by the European Union over the plight of political prisoners in the country.
VIDEO: One of the men behind the stunt has received death threats... see why...Every child's birth is full of emotion, but for parents expecting a rainbow baby, there's a unique set of overwhelming feelings that accompany the day of their baby's birth. Austin, TX, birth photographer Leilani Rogers is used to photographing all types of births, but this one in particular featuring the Madden family is giving us serious chills.
Hope and Hunter Madden may have just welcomed a baby girl, but the couple has been through a lot, having experienced loss due to miscarriage as well as infertility. Their rainbow baby's beautiful birth was photographed by Rogers, but more moving than the birth itself was Hunter's emotional reaction to holding his daughter.
"This is a story about a mom and a dad who went through loss and persistence to get their baby," Rogers captioned the stunning photo of Hunter holding his daughter on her Facebook page. "That tattoo on his chest was done after their first miscarriage, and now his daughter lies her sweet head against it. Both of them a reminder of triumph."
Rogers shared with POPSUGAR Moms her feelings during this emotional birth:
I knew [the couple] would be overcome with joy and relief the minute their baby girl was in their arms. I was anticipating it. They were very connected during the birth. Dad was very affectionate towards his wife. I loved every minute I spent with them. To be in the presence of such a supportive partner and strong woman (her labor lasted 40 hours!) was such an honor. I admit that I got choked up a few times as they expressed their feelings about finally having their rainbow baby. This work is so fulfilling.
The sweet dad's expression brought us to tears before we even learned of the couple's experiences leading up to that moment — it's a completely chill-inducing and gorgeous photo that we're sure the Maddens will cherish forever. Scroll through to see Rogers's other beautiful photos of the Maddens and their baby girl.We keep or store data as we use them at any time as per our need. Data is a prime factor for the prepper. System or storing or keeping data becomes change following the developed methods of data processing. In the ancient period sailors or explorer kept data in their inner memory with a memorized process. Days had passed and written data keeping system is developed. And at this contemporary age we keep data with our computer and internet system. But there is the risk factor also. You keep data with computer but for a number of reasons your data might get lost. Unfortunately you have not back up or you have not kept those through other way. As a result you become completely undone. Perhaps you lost those permanently with loosing you’re a long lasting effort also.
keep back up to collect the data if your computer system become destroys.
The survival Tricks So, alwaysto collect the data if your computer system become destroys.This week I’m turning 48. I’m definitely well into midlife — and it’s not a crisis. In fact, I’ve felt more comfortable and at peace with myself over the last few years than ever in my life. Embracing being solo poly definitely has had a lot to do with it.
We all only have a limited time on this planet. None of us know how limited. Personally, I think it’s important to allow my authentic self emerge as much as possible in my time here. Because if I can’t be authentic, then I can’t honestly and deeply experience or share joy.
And without joy, what’s the point of life? Whether your joy derives from pleasure, achievement, service, understanding, learning, or peace — if you can’t see, accept, like and love yourself as you are, you probably won’t be able to offer much meaningful connection to others.
People constantly evolve, so who you are (and who I am) are constant works in progress. We’re all in a position to keep discovering ourselves.
We all influence each other as well, directly and indirectly. The part of polyamory I treasure most is that it allows me to let people into my life, and my heart, on as deep a level that feels right to everyone involved. To experiment with boundaries and engagement. To allow ourselves to be forever changed by contact.
Balancing that out, solohood keeps me grounded. It reminds me not to lean so heavily on partners that I stop seeing them for who they are (and how they are changing). For me, when the fabric of my daily life becomes too enmeshed with a partner, it’s tempting to start seeing them as an extension of myself. And that doesn’t bring out my best qualities, as a person or a partner. (Or as a metamour, for that matter.)
Sitting here today on the deck of my mountain cabin, sipping tea in the early morning sunshine, hearing hummingbirds and breeze-rustled aspen leaves, I like who I have evolved to become. I like the independent life I’ve consciously crafted. I value the interdependencies, intimacies and vulnerabilities I’ve chosen. None of it is perfect, and I wouldn’t want it to be; I learn little from perfection.
I’m humbled to have had the opportunity and privilege to have lots of choices in life, and to mostly live and connect with others as I see fit. I don’t want to take that for granted. For as long as I keep living, I want to keep growing. I don’t ever want to live, or love, on autopilot — even when that’s scary, risky or painful. It’s my greatest hope to be good to people, including myself. To tread consciously, and sometimes to dance with joy and grace.
When the reaper comes for me, I’ll know I have really lived. I woke up several years ago and saw where I was, who I was, and who’s around me — and I let them in, let them flow though me. The flexibility and resilience of solo polyamory has helped me feel my life and embrace others more fully, without tightly clinging to how anyone (including me) is “supposed” to be. Some people brush me lightly, others infuse me profoundly. And I them. I savor the mutual marination of life.
And for this, I am grateful.
As age advances, I know I may not always enjoy such independence. I’m considering that, considering what kinds of interdependencies might work best as my needs and capabilities change. I don’t see aging as a loss or degradation; just a change in what I have to offer, and what I may experience. A mixed bag, as is all of life. I’m trying to arrange my life to keep my options open, and to connect with friends, lovers and family in sustaining and sustainable ways. To focus on options, not specific outcomes. Not being tied to a specific vision how my life and the people in it should be enhances that process.
Should I have the honor of becoming an old, old woman, I think I’ll be pretty damn good at it.
… but I occasionally freshen up my zombie apocalypse survival plans, just in case.In 1803, the guillotine was a common children’s toy. Children also had toy cannons that fired real gunpowder, and puzzles depicting the great battles of England. They went around chanting, “Victory or death!” Do childhood games influence character? We have to assume that they do, but let’s set aside such heartbreaking speculations for a moment. War—it’s not even a proper game—leaves influenza in its wake, and cadavers. Do childhood games typically leave cadavers behind in the nursery? Massacres in those little fairy-dust minds? Hoist the banners of victory across the table from the marzipan mountain to the pudding! It’s perhaps a dreadful thought, but we’ve seen clear evidence that both children and adults have a taste for imitation. Certainly, such questions should be explored, and yet let us allow that there is a purely metaphysical difference between a toy guillotine and war. Children are metaphysical creatures, a gift they lose too early, sometimes at the very moment they learn to talk.
John Keats (1795-1821) was seven years old and in school at Enfield. He was seized by the spirit of the time, by a peculiar compulsion, an impetuous fury—before writing poetry. Any pretext seemed to him a good one for picking a fight with a friend, any pretext to fight.
Fighting was to John Keats like eating or drinking. He sought out aggressive boys, cruel boys, but their company, as he was already inclined to poetry, must have provided some comic and burlesque treats. For mere brutality—without humor, make-believe, or whimsy—didn’t interest him. Which might lead a person to extrapolate that boys aren’t truly brutal. Yes, they are, but they have rules and an aesthetic. Keats was a child of action. He’d punched a yard monitor more than twice his size, and he was considered a strong boy, lively and argumentative. When he was brawling, his friend Clarke reports, Keats resembled Edmund Kean at theatrical heights of exasperation. His friends predicted a brilliant future for him in the military. Yet when his temper defused, he’d grow extremely calm, and his sweetness shone—with the same intensity as his rage had. The scent of angels. His earliest brushes with melancholy were suddenly disrupted by outbursts of nervous laughter. M |
years and the entire energy retrofit project within about 16 years, officials said.
"Quite honestly, if it was a $5 million savings, it would still be a good investment," said Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Valerie Brown. "It's worth it because you're doing the right thing."
The efforts are taking place alongside other energy efficiency and climate protection projects at the county.
Those projects include the recent completion of a large $4.6 million solar power installation at the juvenile justice center and the implementation of a green building policy that will guide future construction and building retrofits.
Upgrades to the county's vehicle fleet are also aimed at increasing the share of hybrid and electric vehicles, which currently account for about 230 of the county's 900 cars and SUVs. This year, the county will use grant funding to purchase 20 Nissan Leaf electric cars and two electric Ford vans.
A system of van pools and ride sharing for employees and promotion of bike use in commuting has also been put in place.
The addition of the county's fuel cell power plant to those other initiatives is cause for celebration, said Jake Mackenzie, board chair of the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority, the body of local governments working on greenhouse gas reductions.
"This is one of those times where the solution is real. You can feel it. You can touch it," said Mackenzie. "From our perspective, this is what we are encouraging."
You can reach Staff Writer Brett Wilkison at 521-5295 or brett.wilkison<QA0>
@pressdemocrat.com.Liverpool's first match in front of the new Main Stand was a 4-1 win against Leicester on 10 September
The cost of redeveloping the Anfield Road end of Liverpool's stadium "is not a smart investment", says chief executive Ian Ayre.
Liverpool opened the redeveloped Main Stand last month, raising capacity to 54,074, and have planning permission to extend Anfield Road by a further 4,800.
But Ayre said: "A stand behind a goal doesn't have the benefit of hospitality that would go a long way to meet the redevelopment costs."
The upgrade would cost about £60-70m.
Club owner John Henry has previously played down the prospect of the work going ahead on the basis ticket prices would have to rise to cover the cost.
Ayre told a meeting of the Liverpool Supporters' Committee (LSC) that the club needed to find "the right economic model" and a "rounded solution" before moving forward with any Anfield Road plans.
Liverpool are worried how fans would react after thousands of protested against plans to charge £77 for some tickets in the club's new Main Stand back in February.
The £100m expansion of the Main Stand is expected to be paid off in six years because of the lucrative income generated by hospitality seating - but that is not the case with the Anfield Road end.
"From a purely general admission perspective, building, say, 6,000 extra seats to take the capacity up to 60,000 would cost somewhere between £60m and £70m," said Ayre.
"At £12,000 to £13,000 per seat, it would take approximately 15 years to pay back, which is not a smart investment for the business."
Ayre told the meeting the club was open to fan investment to help fund further redevelopment of the ground and said conversations should take place.
Subscribe to the BBC Sport newsletter to get our pick of news, features and video sent to your inbox.President Trump’s son Eric Trump on Tuesday said Democrats are “not even people” to him after their obstruction of his father’s agenda.
“I’ve never seen hatred like this,” he said on Fox News’s “Hannity” Tuesday night. “To me, they’re not even people. It’s so, so sad. Morality’s just gone, morals have flown out the window and we deserve so much better than this as a country.
“You see the Democratic Party, they’re imploding. They’re imploding. They became obstructionists because they have no message of their own.”
Trump additionally criticized the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) leadership without directly naming Chairman Tom Perez.
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“You see the head of the DNC, who is a total whack job,” he told host Sean Hannity. “There’s no leadership there.”
“They lost the [2016 presidential] election that they should have won because they spent seven times the amount of money that my father spent.”
"Eric, Democrats are people," Perez tweeted Wednesday morning. "So are Muslims, immigrants, women, people with pre-existing conditions, and everyone else [President] Trump is hurting."
Democrats have tried capitalizing on liberal dissatisfaction with Trump’s administration and its agenda despite Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Rep. Al Green Alexander (Al) N. GreenThe Hill's Morning Report - Presented by the American Academy of HIV Medicine - Next 24 hours critical for stalled funding talks Democrat vows to move forward with impeachment, dividing his party Citing Virginia race scandals, Dem vows vote to impeach Trump MORE (D-Texas) has emerged as a vocal critic of Trump and is reportedly readying the articles of impeachment that mark the first official step of any congressional bid to remove a sitting president.
Green’s criticisms focus on Trump’s controversial firing of former FBI Director James Comey last month amid the bureau’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race.
Trump reportedly urged Comey to halt the investigation of his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, ahead of his ouster.
The president’s decision roiled Washington, as the FBI’s probe includes possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign.
— This report was updated on June 7 at 10 a.m.While theme makers certainly face increasing challenges because of how iOS 7 is designed, we’ve still seen a handful of great themes for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Aura promises to be the next. The upcoming theme provides well-designed custom icons for over 200 apps and counting, despite its creators—a five-person group called the iApex Team—stressing that it remains in beta with a lot of work to be finished. Even in its claimed infancy, Aura looks fantastic.
Update: This theme seems to be a rip off of another theme called iMIUI we covered last year. We were not aware of that at the time of publishing and we’ll not give Aura anymore coverage until its developers come clean.
I have been testing a pre-release version of Aura on my iPhone for a few hours now, and my first impressions of the theme are very favorable. Each icon has rounded square edges, with support for all stock apps and a growing number of third-party ones: Cydia, Winterboard, BlackBerry Messenger, Google Maps, and more. The only criticism I have is the red-colored Calendar app, as the day of the week is listed in red text and the lack of contrast makes it hard to read.
I was also supplied with a matching Zeppelin logo for Aura, which definitely suits the theme. According to its designers, Aura has been submitted to the ModMyi repository and should appear on the Cydia Store soon. A sale will be offered in the first two days following the theme’s release, and then it will be sold for an undisclosed regular price.
Do you know of any other themes coming soon?San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue mural | Photo: Javier Martinez.
It takes mettle to work under the scorching San Fernando Valley sunshine, but not even an epic heat wave that hit the West Coast this 4th of July weekend stopped a cadre of muralists from completing their mission: to finish a mural on the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue in Pacoima. They had been there as early as six in the morning, only to retire as the sun sets, getting as much done as they could.
San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue muralists paint on July 4th | Photo: Javier Martinez.
Two lucky walls gained notoriety because of their efforts -- both part of an insurance company's storefront. One wall shines a happy orange and blue as a beautiful Lady Liberty-esque figure looks benevolently onto Bradley Avenue. Her hair curls along, forming waves of water over which an American bald eagle flies. The mural wraps around the corner and changes into vista of a young girl releasing monarch butterflies into the horizon. The mural abruptly becomes 3-D as the pre-existing canopy over the store's back entrance doubles as the girl's skirt. It is a beautiful picture, but one that also subtly provokes questions underlying human and animal migrations. This is the newest addition to Van Nuys Boulevard's Mural Mile, a growing collection of drive-by artwork that add color and life to the neighborhood, created by an informal crew of artists under 30 years-old.
San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue muralist | Photo: Javier Martinez.
San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue muralist, Kristy Sandoval. | Courtesy of Carren Jao.
Eyeing their collection of paint-splattered clothes, piles of brushes thick with drying paint and bronzed complexions, one can see this is not a one-off experience. These San Fernando Valley muralists are reclaiming Los Angeles' reputation for artistry on walls, one façade at the time.
San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue mural utensils. | Courtesy of Carren Jao.,
Muralist Rah Azul uses an old record as his palette. | Courtesy of Carren Jao.
Levi Ponce, 26, is its instigator. Son of prolific muralist and sign painter Hector Ponce, he is a fast-talking charmer with an obsession for the art in his veins.
"If I knew what I was going into, I might not have been brave enough to do it," he says as we chat by the mural in-progress. Ponce has become the primary organizer for young muralists in the area, not by grand design, but by virtue of seemingly endless stock of creative energy.
Pacoima neighborhood mural, Laurel Canyon and Holy Street. | Photo: Javier Martinez.
After painting more than a dozen murals along Van Nuys Boulevard, Ponce wants to open the floor for new voices. Once he clocks out of his regular work as an animator for New Deal studios in Sylmar, he scouts walls in the neighborhood, then knocks on the doors of local businesses with a unique proposition: let us paint your walls with what we want and you get a beautiful work of art for free. It is an irresistible proposal that also favors the abundance of young, creative talent in the Valley. "I get walls," says Ponce. "Now, I'm trying to enable people to get walls." In this case, Ponce designed the Bradley-facing mural, while another muralist, Kristy Sandoval, completed the perpendicular wall facing the parking.
Sandoval, 29, is an artist who studied interactive media at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Sandoval became enamored of the medium while on a brief stay in Brooklyn, but it was only when she connected with Ponce that things kicked into higher gear. While teaching mural design for Youth Speak Collective and other non-profits, Sandoval can often be found tweaking mural designs of her own.
"I want young women to see that they can do something like this too," says Sandoval, who is an unusual sight in a field often associated with males. This January 2013, Sandoval embarked on a new partnership with other women muralists in the area. They have dubbed themselves H.O.O.D Sisters, a collaborative of six to eight female muralists, plus a volunteer crew of more than 20, that meets every other week to discuss available walls, designs, and other matters.
This all-female crew first came together while working on a mural dedicated to African-American activist Assata Shakur. Painted on the side of Stylesville Barbershop at 13161 Van Nuys Boulevard, the mural is an explosion of flowers, which culminates in a portrait of Shakur with the her words: "A woman's place is in the struggle."
" Assata Shakur, Freedom Fighter " created by H.O.O.D Sisters, photo by Tatatio. | Courtesy of Carren Jao.
Despite its recent notoriety, San Fernando Valley muralism isn't something new. In fact, Manny Velazquez, 54, has been painting murals since he learned the art at 13 years of age. Now, he's content to let a younger generation of artists take the lead.
On-site, Velazquez is a mentor figure. "My goal is to pass this on to others," says Velazquez. By fielding technical questions about the mural, he frees Ponce and Sandoval to actually do some painting of their own rather than constantly be disturbed by easy questions from new volunteers.
"Murals aren't about me. It's more about the content and the people who work on it," says Velazquez. It is a view that's echoed again and again in the words of younger muralists. Unlike most forms of art, murals aren't always the work of a single artist. It is a collaborative effort that showcases a collective spirit.
San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue muralist, Rah Azul | Courtesy of Carren Jao.
Perhaps, this connection with others and the satisfaction of creative expression are the primary reasons that these young artists keep on doing their work, despite no pay and hours spent in the heat. Rah Azul, 28, an artist and muralist cites yet another compelling cause. "We are recreating the Valley," he says. "What if San Fernando Valley can become the next mural capital? We don't know, but it's possible." Whether it's pride, creative expression, or community good, these young artists have added color and spirit to what would otherwise be a dull drive through San Fernando Valley.
San Fernando Valley, Van Nuys Boulevard and Bradley Avenue muralists on July 4th. | Courtesy of Carren Jao.
Danny Trejo, Van Nuys Boulevard and Tamarack Avenue mural, photo by James Forrest | Courtesy of Levi Ponce.
Pacoima Kahlo, Van Nuys Boulevard and Ralston Avenue. | Courtesy of Levi Ponce.
The Day the Music Died, Van Nuys Boulevard and Telfair Avenue by Levi Ponce. | Photo: Javier Martinez.
Dig this story? Sign up for our newsletter to get unique arts & culture stories and videos from across Southern California in your inbox. Also, follow Artbound on Facebook and Twitter.Hillary Clinton’s campaign is trying to tightly control who talks to her about race issues.
Clinton’s campaign tweeted during her town hall meeting with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that “I have to talk about [racism] more” because “we are not a post-racial society.”
"As a white person, I have to talk about [racism] more. We are not a post-racial society." —Hillary to @Maddow #MSNBCTownhall — Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 26, 2016
Literally one minute after Clinton made that declaration, New York Daily News columnist Shaun King tweeted a video purporting to show a man wearing a “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt being prevented from entering a Clinton event in Philadelphia on the same day.
Man refused entry into a Hillary Clinton rally in Philly for wearing a #BlackLivesMatter t-shirt.https://t.co/1pIyeXmI29 — Shaun King (@ShaunKing) April 26, 2016
Event security claimed that the event was “permitted,” and as such, they could pick and choose who was allowed to have an audience with Hillary.
The man asked the security officer if he would get a Secret Service agent for him to discuss the matter with and the officer flatly said, “No. I have other things to do.”
A female officer said he could talk to a Secret Service agent after the entire line was gone.“It was exciting,” said Henry, 69. “It made a big difference whether you picked first or second.”
Compared with property breakups of some other New York real estate families — often long, messy affairs replete with blood feuds, lawsuits and ugly recriminations — the Elghanayan brothers’ split has been relatively swift, smooth and secretive. The Milstein family fought for a decade over control of a $5 billion fortune that included hotels, apartment buildings and a bank. The wrestling match over the billion-dollar estate of the land speculator Sol Goldman lasted seven years. And who can forget the squabbling over Harry B. Helmsley’s $8 billion empire, part of which eventually went to his wife’s poodle?
The Elghanayan brothers didn’t slap one another with lawsuits. And there were no vicious industry rumors, or anonymous mudslinging in the gossip columns, about the fate of this very private family that ran the Rockrose Development Corporation, one of the city’s largest developers of residential buildings.
“A lot of the families have had very unpleasant break-ups,” said Daniel Brodsky, a developer and a close friend of Tom Elghanayan. “They managed to do it in a very civilized way."
Civilized, yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s been free of tension. For one thing, Henry’s decision to initiate it, as well as the assets he selected, surprised his brothers. There would be much horse trading before the breakup was legally completed on Sept. 29, and the brothers acknowledge some bumps along the way.
In an interview, both Fred and Tom expressed resignation and a little bewilderment. They now operate in the family’s longtime offices on Park Avenue South as TF Cornerstone, while Henry runs a separate business under the Rockrose name.
“We’re still scratching our heads about why it all happened,” said Tom, 64.
The tensions were evident last week as the three gathered for a photograph for this article. When Henry, as the eldest brother, insisted on his traditional spot in the middle, Fred and Tom simultaneously responded, “No way.”
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THE Elghanayans’ father, Nourallah, was a prominent manufacturer in Iran under the shah. He moved his family to Queens in the 1950s, when Houchang, who is known as Henry, and Tom were children. Their father and mother continued to shuttle between Iran and Queens, where the family settled on Rockrose Place, a two-block-long street in Forest Hills.
Their father dabbled in real estate, but Tom suggested that their formative moments came during “vicious, daylong Monopoly” games. “Monopoly teaches you many long-term lessons: to buy property and build quickly,” he said. “You can get wiped out by the randomness of the dice, or the vagaries of the market.”
The brothers very nearly crashed and burned with their first project in 1970, when they began renovating small buildings in and around Greenwich Village. Their father had given Henry and Tom $100,000 to start the business. They put everything they had into renovating a walkup at 31 West 16th Street.
Just as they finished, the real estate market crashed. They were able to sell only one of the six apartments. Henry and Tom, as well as Fred, who would join them in the business, each moved into a unit, while the ground-floor apartment became an office. “We were very lucky to sell that one unit,” Henry said. “We needed the money.”
As the market came back, they refinanced and began buying other buildings, on the Upper West Side and in Brooklyn Heights. Each deal brought a larger renovation project, and then construction of new buildings. In 1977, they converted an industrial building on East 46th Street into Turtle Bay Towers, with 337 rental apartments. A decade later, they turned a landmark warehouse into the Archive, with 479 rental apartments at 666 Greenwich Street.
The Elghanayans extended their reputation for doing projects in what real estate brokers call “emerging neighborhoods” when, in the 1990s, they started converting office buildings into rental apartments in the financial district. They were also pioneers on the Queens waterfront in Long Island City.
Now they are also building on the Far West Side in Manhattan, a once-industrial area that was rezoned for high-rise construction in 2005. After the attack on the World Trade Center, the Elghanayans also sought to diversify, buying a half-dozen office buildings in Washington.
The Elghanayans, like many of New York’s old real estate families, took a conservative approach to financing. They often bought land for cash and kept leverage low. “We never had mezzanine loans,” Tom said. “We financed 75 percent of value, not 95 percent.”
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Over time, the brothers developed a clear division of labor: Fred, an engineer, handled construction. Tom, a graduate of Yale and Harvard Business School, did development and acquisitions. Henry, a lawyer, handled financing and, later, commercial buildings. Their youngest brother, Jeffrey, who left the partnership in 1989, is an architect. Every Wednesday, they met over lunch.
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The differing responsibilities were matched by different personalities. Tom, the most outgoing, is a sports fan who plays tennis and golf. (His former wife, Sharon, is now dating Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey.) Fred, the quietest, is an art collector, specializing in German Expressionism and Egyptian antiquities. Henry, whose neatly clipped white beard gives him a professorial air, also collects art.
“That’s part of the secret of our success,” Henry said. “We didn’t step on each other’s toes.”
THE split came, as splits often do, over the issue of succession. Henry wanted a clear path for his son, Justin, 31, the only offspring of the three brothers who is active in the family business.
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“I was more interested in the question of succession because my son was in the business,” Henry said. “At some point, I thought it was better for the whole family that we divide.”
Henry also wanted to be a developer in his own right. Buying existing office buildings does not get the same attention in New York as building towers, suggested one longtime executive at Rockrose. Henry also wanted to take on partners by creating an investment fund, something his brothers opposed.
“I think it’s a question of who wanted to be a big developer versus who wanted to be an operator,” said Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York.
After months of discussion about revising the partnership, Henry sent his brothers a legal notice in August 2008 that he was seeking to dissolve it. The notice was required under a detailed partnership agreement they drew up in 1989 after Jeffrey left the business for California. Back then, they had had to resort to binding arbitration, with their father as an arbiter. Afterward, all three brothers decided they needed a more formal procedure.
In addition to the coin toss, the document provided for a “pile maker” to carve the assets into three groups, and a reverse auction where the lowest bidder would win the right to decides which properties go into each pile. “This procedure was cooked up by all three of us,” Tom said. “It was not a lawyer’s construct. In many ways it was like a chess game.”
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The Elghanayans recently discovered that their method shares traits with game theory, a once-obscure academic area that has been adopted by corporate titans and Pentagon generals in seeking mathematical solutions to real-life issues.
In 2006, Henry heard Ingrid C. Daubechies, a mathematician at Princeton, give a presentation about a game-theory challenge. In the challenge, players had to divide property fairly in a situation where they value assets differently — one may have a stronger sentimental attachment to a family’s vacation cabin than the other siblings, for example, while another covets the yacht. After the presentation, Henry asked Ms. Daubechies about his own family’s solution.
She said the Elghanayans appeared to have come up with what game theorists call an “envy free” solution. “Paradoxically,” she said, “because players have different preferences, a mathematical argument makes it possible to arrive at a situation where every player feels they receive a share larger than what any of the others gets.”
In the Elghanayans’ plan, the auction was the next step after Henry sent the notice. In January, they met at Mr. Korotkin’s office in Midtown, where they drew straws to see who would bid first.
Within a half-hour, it was clear that Fred was the low bidder, and winner of the auction. He had an incentive to be fair; he would get the remaining pile, after his brothers made their choices.
“I made three piles in 60 days,” Fred, who is 61, said. “We had appraisals done internally.”
That led to the coin flip in March to see who would pick first. The next day, their father, Nourallah, died, two days after their mother passed away.
Henry picked pile No. 3, which contained the “Rockrose” name and most of the family’s development sites, as well as eight residential buildings with 2,634 apartments.
Tom and Fred were dumbstruck. “Fred and I were really the development company,” Tom said. They got the rest: 13 apartment buildings with more than 5,000 apartments, the office buildings and properties in Long Island City.
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“I always wanted to be a developer,” Henry explained. “That’s what did it for me.”
BUT there was a twist yet to come.
The breakup was supposed to be completed in June. It was delayed time and again as lawyers for both sides pored over documents and financials on each property. There was also a bit of horse trading going on.
Several executives who have worked with Rockrose suggested that most of the employees in the development division went with Fred and Tom, hobbling Henry’s ability to jump quickly into development work.
Before the deal closed in September, Henry traded back many of the development sites to his brothers, including two large buildings under way on the Far West Side and four sites at Queens West. In exchange, Henry got parcels at Court Square in Long Island City, which unlike Queens West are not on a development timetable.
Henry said that although he was both “sad and nostalgic” on the day he officially left, he looked forward to “starting a new enterprise with different people.”
It may not be the best time to be heavily invested in real estate, but both sides say they can weather the economic storm, much as they have in the past, because they are not burdened by heavy debts. All three brothers say there is a great opportunity to buy distressed assets from other developers and their lenders “at below replacement cost.”
“We’re doing business the old-fashioned way,” Tom says.Two former winners will line up later today at the Pwn2Own hacking contest to take another crack at thousands of dollars in prizes for exploiting fully-patched browsers.
Charlie Miller, who has taken home cash two years running, and a German hacker known only by the first name Nils are scheduled to try their hands today at breaking into notebooks equipped with Safari and Firefox.
In a videotaped drawing last week to determine the order in which the contestants will try their luck, Miller, an analyst at Baltimore-based Independent Security Evaluators, grabbed the No. 2 spot. Miller will attempt to hack into a MacBook Pro notebook running Mac OS X 10.6, a.k.a. Snow Leopard, equipped with the latest version of Safari. Nils, a computer science student from Germany, drew the No. 3 and No. 9 spots, and will also try to break into the Snow Leopard MacBook if Miller falters. Later in the contest, he's slated to attack Mozilla's Firefox 3.6.2 on a PC running Windows 7.
In last year's Pwn2Own competition, which is in its fourth year at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Nils walked off with $15,000 after successfully exploiting Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8, Firefox and Safari. Miller took home $5,000.
The rules for this year's contest are slightly different. In 2009, 3Com's TippingPoint security unit, which sponsors Pwn2Own, paid $5,000 for each unknown browser vulnerability exploited, with no limit on the number each hacker could use or how many times one browser could be breached. This year, TippingPoint will pay $10,000 for each of the four browser challenges, with a limit of four winning vulnerabilities and a maximum of $40,000 in prize money.
Pwn2Own newcomer Peter Vreugdenhil will attempt to exploit IE8 on Windows 7 today. Vreugdenhil, a freelance vulnerability researcher from the Netherlands, apparently has an exploit that's capable of bypassing Windows 7's DEP (Data Execution Prevention) and ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) security mechanisms, according to both the contest organizer and Vreugdenhil himself. "Let's hope ASLR in Vancouver works the same as in [the Netherlands]," Vreugdenhil teased via Twitter last week after the placement drawing. Vreugdenhil will go fourth in the contest.
Earlier, Aaron Portnoy, security research team lead with TippingPoint and Pwn2Own's organizer, said that a longtime contributor to the company's bug bounty program, whom he didn't name at the time, would be armed with an IE8 exploit he called "impressive... from a technical standpoint."
Miller was suitably impressed. On his own Twitter feed last week, he said, "If he pwns ie8 on win 7 w/o jit spray, he'll deserve [single name status]," Miller wrote, referring to a type of heap spraying attack that has been used to bypass DEP and ASLR. JIT spraying, however, requires Flash, which won't be available on the first day of Pwn2Own.
Winners in the browser track also receive the machine they exploited. This year's models include a MacBook Pro 15-in. notebook, a Hewlett-Packard Envy Beats 15-in., a Sony Vaio 13-in. and an Alienware M11x 11-in.
The second track of Pwn2Own is devoted to mobile operating systems. In that phase of the competition, researchers will try to breach an iPhone 3GS, a BlackBerry Bold 9700, a Nokia E72 and an HTC Nexus One. The latter is the Google-branded phone sold online by the search giant and creator of the Android operating system.
In the mobile competition, each winning individual entrant or team will receive the hacked phone and $20,000.
A pair of hackers, Vincenzo Iozzo and Ralf Philipp Weinmann, drew the No. 1 spot and will attack the iPhone. Iozzo, an Italian college student, works for Zynamics GmbH, the company headed by noted researcher Thomas Dullien, better known as Halvar Flake. Weinmann, a post-doctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Algorithms, Cryptology and Security at the University of Luxembourg, is probably best known for being part of a three-man team that demonstrated how to crack the Wi-Fi security protocol WEP much faster than previously thought possible.
Two more spots, one for the iPhone, the other for the Nokia device, have been reserved for anonymous entrants. TippingPoint's Portnoy said last week that he expected the iPhone to be only smartphone to fall during the contest.
Pwn2Own is scheduled to run through Friday.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His e-mail address is gkeizer@ix.netcom.com.Imgurr CLI tool for Imgur in Ruby Project maintained by Chris911 Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham
imgurr
Command line utility for Imgur in Ruby. Imgurr lets you quickly upload images, get info about an image and delete your own images from Imgur.
Install
gem install imgurr
Usage
Examples
$ imgurr capture Uploading screenshot... Copied http://i.imgur.com/rGoGCNb.png to clipboard $ imgurr upload image.jpg Copied http://i.imgur.com/PLWGJlc.gif to clipboard $ imgurr upload image.jpg --markdown Copied to clipboard imgurr info 2KxrTAK Image ID : 2KxrTAK Views : 14717 Bandwidth : 2.296 GiB Title : None Desc : None Animated : false Width : 960 px Height : 540 px Link : http://i.imgur.com/2KxrTAK.jpg $ imgurr delete http://i.imgur.com/2KxrTAK.jpg Successfully deleted image from Imgur./imgurr --help for more.
How it works
Imgurr stores the delete hash generated by Imgur locally when uploading an image using imgurr. Most of the time the delete hash gets lost if you don't have an account and you want to takedown an image you have to contact Imgur support which can take a while. With imgurr all your delete hashes are saved so you can delete your images later if needed.
Contributing
Fork it Create your feature branch ( git checkout -b my-new-feature ) Commit your changes ( git commit -am 'Add some feature' ) Push to the branch ( git push origin my-new-feature ) Create new Pull Request
Don't forget to add a test for any new feature.A modern yet elegant gift from a mother to daughter or daughter to mother, this sterling silver cuff will celebrate your special bond. The face of the cuff contains cheerful detail of open heart shapes. The inside protects the saying, "The Love Between A Mother And Daughter Knows No Distance" keeping it close to the wrist. This classic silver bracelet can be worn for all occasions.
The Amazon Curated Collection Discover the Amazon Curated Collection of fine and fashion jewelry. The expansive selection of high-quality jewelry featured in the Amazon Curated Collection offers everyday values that range from precious gemstone and diamond pieces to the latest fashion designs. This hand-selected assortment features an array of diamond, gemstone, and precious metal designs that receive a quality inspection, including from Amazon’s staff graduate gemologist, to ensure they meet Amazon’s high standards. All diamonds featured in the Amazon Curated Collection are certified by our suppliers to be conflict free, and IGI, GIA, or AGS certifications are provided on white diamonds of.75 carats or larger on all stud earrings, rings, and pendant necklaces. Pieces from the Amazon Curated Collection come packaged in a custom box, making them wonderful gifts. In addition, we offer free one-day shipping within the continental U.S. on items over $500. International shipping options for friends and family overseas are available for an additional fee. The Amazon Curated Collection offers a specialized customer service team that is available seven days a week to answer any product questions before, during or after the purchase. If you’re not satisfied for any reason, you will receive a full refund and free return shipping within the U.S. if you return your purchase within 30 days. Find a special gift for a loved one or a beautiful piece that complements your personal style with jewelry from the Amazon Curated Collection.The woman who flipped off President Trump's motorcade last month said Monday that she was fired on Halloween for violating her employer's code of conduct policy -- but she vowed she would do it all over again if given the chance.
Juli Briskman, 50, now an ex-member of the marketing team at the government contractor Akima LLC, was on her bicycle on Oct. 28 when Trump's motorcade drove by her on a northern Virginia road.
A photo that quickly went viral showed her raising the middle finger of her left hand in defiance as the motorcade returned from the Trump National Golf Club.
"My finger said what I was feeling," Briskman, who had been on the job for just over six months, told CNN. "I'm angry and I'm frustrated."
Briskman's face was not visible in the photo, but she claimed she immediately confessed her involvement to her employer the Monday after the photo went viral.
Briskman said she was then promptly fired on Tuesday from the government contracting firm and escorted out of the building for violating the "code of conduct policy."
“They said, ‘We’re separating from you,‘” Briskman told the Huffington Post. “Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene.’”
Briskman, who claimed she was fired because her employer was worried about losing government contracts, said she has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. She insisted she would flip off the president again if given the chance.
"Health care doesn't pass, but you try to dismantle it from the inside," Briskman told CNN. "Five-hundred people get shot in Las Vegas; you're doing nothing about it. You know, white supremacists have this big march and hurt a bunch of people down in Charlottesville and you call them good people."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.A coalition is going to find out where full-line groceries are and aren't in Kenton County — and work with corner stores to increase nutritious foods so everyone has access to it.
Buy Photo Marty Wood of Scott Farms sells produce to Tatiana and Patrick Nettles of Independence during the Independence Farmer's Market in July of 2014. (Photo: Enquirer file)Buy Photo Story Highlights Kenton County Plan4Health has received a $135,000 grant to determine how accessible healthy foods are in the county.
17 percent of Kenton County and Covington residents meet the daily nutritional requirement of fruits and vegetables.
"Many corner stores in Covington do not offer many healthy food choices." - Rachel Hastings, director of neighborhood and housing initiatives for the Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington. The center will help corner stores improve their stock.
COVINGTON – A lot of Kenton County residents — particularly children — aren't getting enough nutritious food, but a regional coalition promises to help combat the issue.
Kenton County Plan4Health has received a $135,000 grant from the American Planning Association to map the area's full-line grocery stores, locate neighborhoods with limited access to healthy foods and increase the supply of fresh produce for residents in need.
The coalition plans to do it, in part, by offering mini grants to corner stores.
"Many corner stores in Cov |
eye, Wilson said he wanted to keep his private life private.
"I don't want to get into too much detail," Wilson said of his relationship with Ciara in November. "But she's a great girl, so I'm just grateful for her and everything she does."
Visit seattlepi.com for more Seattle Seahawks news. Contact sports editor Stephen Cohen at stephencohen@seattlepi.com or @scohenPI.[JURIST] Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis [official profile] of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official website] decided on Thursday that American Express’ practice of barring merchants from asking customers to use one credit card over another violated the Sherman Antitrust Act [text]. All credit and debit cards companies require merchants to pay them a fraction of the transaction amount as payment for processing the card. However, not all transaction fees were uniform, and American Express found themselves among the most expensive. As a result, the company instituted non-disclosure policies merchants were required to adhere to that prevented them from encouraging customers from using cards that were more economical to process. The decision [opinion] handed down declared that these non-disclosure practices were an unlawful restraint of trade, that harmed competition and prevented merchants from trying to lower their credit card processing costs. The opinion also states that American Express’ actions have increased sale prices by keeping customers unaware of the cost of processing credit cards, forcing merchants to recuperate money lost in fees by raising in-store prices. While merchants and consumers applaud the decision, American Express has expressed disappointment and plans to appeal based on their assertion that without nondisclosure policies, merchants would be free to discriminate against American Express card holders.
In the past few years, there courts have taken on several cases that would define the limits of credit card companies. In June 2013 the Supreme Court decided [JURIST report] that contractual waivers of class arbitration cannot be invalidated under the Federal Arbitration Act [text] because cost of arbitration could exceed potential recovery. In August 2013 Citigroup was ordered [JURIST report] to pay a $590 million dollar settlement for misrepresenting its assets in securities. In April 2014 a federal judge dismissed [JURIST report] a lawsuit that claimed conspiracy between several major credit card companies to require contractual agreements that all disputes be settled in arbitration because there was no evidence of conspirator action. In August 2014 a California district court ruled that the NCAA‘s [JURIST report, official website] bar on student athlete’s receiving a share of revenue generated from the use of their name violated the Sherman Act.“Alice’s adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-glass” (Lewis Carroll)
“The Metamorphosis” (Franz Kafka)
Paris photographer Charles Roux describes his boyhood self as “a lonely kid that filled his life – and his voids- with literary fiction.” In this way, you could say Fictitious Feasts began in the artist’s early years, when he was curled up with a book, turning the pages and imagining the worlds inside them.
Growing up, he always had a vivid and visceral picture in his head of Alice’s tea party in Wonderland, the dinner table at the Ramsay house in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Gregor Samsa’s wretched pile of rotting food, left on the floor each morning by his sister Grete in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. As an adult and still life photographer, he had the means to bring these scenes to life.
Food, Roux suggests, has a hallowed place in the literary realm. Meals become metaphors; the real magic is in the mundane. For Fictitious Feasts, the photographer started with the books. Some, like the madeleines from Remembrance of Things Past and the porridge stolen by Goldilocks from the Three Bears, popped into his head instantly. Others took more time to recall and dig up. He read and reread the classics, jotted down notes, and sketched out table settings.
Reconstructing the perfect meal was a part of a larger goal: Roux longed to capture the essence of each novel, short story, and play, to transport his audience to a time and a place that were long gone, or in most cases, had never existed at all. Woolf, for her part, gave the artist a detailed roadmap, while those like Samuel Beckett, known for his sparse and rather opaque stage directions and prose, gave Roux ample space to fill in the blanks.
The photographer made it a point to never use the same prop for two different sets; he culled the collections of family and friends, thrift and antique stores in search of the perfect item. The food itself was cooked by the artist to match the descriptions in the book.
Everything had to be as accurate as possible; he ventured into the Italian Alps to shoot the irresistible turkish delights from C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, rented a mustache cup for Leopold Bloom’s tea in Ulysses by James Joyce. Naturally, the picture inspired by We Have Always Lived in The Castle by Shirley Jackson was shot in a real castle.
“I wanted to reach a point were fiction and reality meet,” Roux explains. In keeping with that notion, he ate most of the food after it was photographed.
Fictitious Feasts is an ode to the great writers of our time, but perhaps even more than that, it’s a testament to their readers, to those daydreaming children large and small who can’t help but get drawn into a good story, especially when the real world comes up short.
Charles Roux hopes to turn Fictitious Feasts into a book and is currently looking for a publisher. Making a book, he says, will allow the project to come full circle: “from book to book.” You can follow the evolution of the series over on Instagram.
“Goldilocks and the Three Bears” (Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm)
“The Bell Jar” (Sylvia Plath)
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
“Jane Eyre” (Charlotte Brontë)
“To the Lighthouse” (Virginia Woolf)
“Les Misérables” (Victor Hugo)
“Moby Dick, or the Whale” (Herman Melville)
“The Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” (C.S. Lewis)
“The Catcher in the Rye” (J.D. Salinger)
“Oliver Twist” (Charles Dickens)
“Remembrance of Things Past” (Marcel Proust)
“Ulysses” (James Joyce)
“We Have Always Lived in The Castle” (Shirley Jackson)
“Endgame” (Samuel Beckett)
All images © Charles RouxPeople with direct knowledge of the investigation into possible collusion with Russia say help is being sought from Donald Trump’s former campaign manager
US investigators examining money laundering accusations against Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort hope to push him to cooperate with their investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, two sources with direct knowledge of the investigation said.
Trump attacks Post over report Sessions discussed campaign with ambassador Read more
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is examining Manafort’s financial and real estate records in New York as well as his involvement in Ukrainian politics, the officials said.
Between 2006 and 2013, Manafort bought three New York properties, including one in Trump Tower in Manhattan. He paid for them in full and later took out mortgages against them. A former senior US law enforcement official said that tactic is often used as a means to hide the origin of funds gained illegally. Reuters has no independent evidence that Manafort did this.
The sources also did not say whether Mueller has uncovered any evidence to charge Manafort with money laundering, but they said doing so is seen by investigators as critical in getting his full cooperation in their investigation.
“If Mueller’s team can threaten criminal charges against Manafort, they could use that as leverage to convince him to cooperate,” said one source.
Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, said: “Paul Manafort is not a cooperating witness. Once again there is no truth to the disinformation put forth by anonymous sources and leakers.”
Manafort is seen as a key figure in the investigation because of his senior role in the campaign and his participation in a June 2016 meeting that included the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, close adviser Jared Kushner and lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, as well as other Russians. The meeting was called after the lawyer offered damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Mueller’s team asked the White House on Friday to preserve all of its communications about that meeting. Mueller is examining contacts between Russian officials and Trump associates during and after the 8 November presidential election as part of a broader investigation into whether Russia tried to sway the election in favor of Trump.
Exit Spicey, enter the Mooch: another day in Trump's tragicomic America Read more
Manafort became Trump’s campaign manager in June 2016 but was forced to resign two months later, amid reports of his business relationship with the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovich.
Manafort previously worked as a consultant to a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine and helped support Yanukovich. According to a financial audit reported by the New York Times, he once owed $17m to Russian shell companies.
Former southern district of New York US attorney Preet Bharara was investigating Manafort’s real estate dealings before he was fired by Trump in March. Mueller has assumed control of that investigation, one of the sources said.
Bharara was not available for comment.
With Trump Jr, Manafort has been invited to testify before Congress.
Sign up for the Guardian Today: US edition. Get the day’s must-reads sent directly to you every morningClimate scientist Katharine Hayhoe reflects on the recent rare 15 minutes of fame for a new 600+ page government report on the state of climate science and it's impact on you and me right now.
On Monday, Aug. 7, before North Korea, and before Charlottesville, you might recall that The New York Times published an article entitled “Scientists Fear Trump Will Dismiss Blunt Climate Report” that kicked up a storm of press coverage. The draft report on the state of science relating to climate change and its physical impacts is part of the National Climate Assessment (NCA), which is congressionally mandated every four years.
Two days later, Washington Post reporter Eric Wemple wrote that The Times was “guilty of a large screw-up” on the story, because Times reporter Lisa Friedman gave the impression that the report had been leaked. Trouble was, the copy of the report that The Times originally presented alongside the story was a draft that had been publicly available since December. (The Times eventually updated the PDF with a different version of the report, one that had previously not been available to the public.)
We spoke with one of the report authors, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, who is a professor in the department of political science and director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
TR: Can you explain what happened with the Times report and the different drafts?
KH: Yes, it’s so confusing, isn’t it? But yes, I can tell you exactly what’s going on. So, on Monday, [Aug. 7] I was contacted by Lisa Friedman, who wrote The New York Times article, saying that she would like to talk to me. I sent her some brief comments about how it was possibly the most comprehensive and conclusive and definitely the most up-to-date climate science report ever published in the United States — in the entire world, really, because the IPCC report is now 4 years old.
Then the article came out, and it was clear that the quote she used and the PDF they posted to accompany it were from the third-order draft, which was released for public comment in December of this past year. It’s still publicly available via the National Academy website. Although, I would venture to say, probably, that upward of a thousand more people have now read it than ever read it any time in the past six months!
I mean, I have never had a day like I had [last] Tuesday, where every single network on the planet, [laughs] it seemed, from Al Jazeera to CNN to Fox News even, was calling, saying, ‘We want to talk about this, can you be on camera in a few minutes?’ I mean, that never happened before. — Katharine Hayhoe
So, I pointed that out [via Twitter] because it’s very important, No. 1, just from an accuracy perspective, but, No. 2, because this was definitely being framed as, “Oh, all of these scientists were so afraid it was getting to be suppressed that they leaked this document.” I don’t know what scientists those were, and it didn’t necessarily have to be scientists. This document, our draft, has been available to hundreds of people in government agencies as well in all these other offices.
And then The New York Times uploaded a PDF of the fifth-order draft — the final draft that is currently under final review. The differences between the fifth-order draft and the fourth-order draft are primarily — not entirely, but primarily — the author’s responses to the very extensive National Academy of Sciences review, which [by the way] was incredibly constructive. The main messages, the main conclusion didn’t change, but there were definitely substantial changes to the content of some of the sections.
This report is so thoroughly reviewed. It has public review, peer review, agency review — the National Academy convened a special committee only to review this report. Their review was about as long as the report itself! So, that’s the difference between No. 3 and No. 5, and The New York Times has released No. 5.
I do understand that this was confusing, and it was certainly written one way and implied certain things, but at the same time, the final review phase is a point at which, in the past, going back to the Bush era, that is the point at which the political edits have happened.
TR: Interesting, OK. But it does seem then that somebody did leak the fifth version, right?
KH: Yes, that is correct. The original article and the original PDF were for the third version, but then subsequently they did post the fifth version, which means that somebody did send that to them. Like I said, though, there are headlines all across the world saying, “Scientists leak report, fearing it will be suppressed.” This report is accessible to hundreds of people, it only takes one person to push the button. Most of our offices, at least the people that I talked to, were actually feeling pretty good at the way the review was going so far. We did not have any indication that there were going to be any political [changes].
TR: Can you talk about how the two reports are different from the previous one (NCA3, released in 2014) to this one? What are the major points that you would say that you came up with?
KH: No. 1, this climate science report is much more comprehensive. It covers the entire gamut. It doesn’t just talk about temperature and precipitation fields, it [also] talks about new cutting-edge emerging science on how human-induced climate changes interacted with our weather patterns, with ocean circulation. It also talks about what’s going to be required if we’re going to meet the Paris Agreement. What’s the carbon budget remaining if we’re going to stabilize climate change? And then it talks about the potential for surprises in the climate future. What are the things that we know we don’t know, what are some of the things that we possibly don’t even know that we don’t know about this? What’s the chance of things turning out very differently than we expect, and what’s the chance of those surprises being negatives? And we concluded that the chances are pretty high, that surprises would be negative rather positive.
There’s a whole chapter not just on ocean acidification but also on ocean warming, which we don’t think about as much, but it can be even more important in [terms of] impact. And, then, also on the fact that oxygen levels are dropping in large parts of the ocean, which is very concerning as well.
TR: The report states that significant advances have been made in the attribution of human influence for individual climate and weather extreme events since the last report. It sounded like the most interesting advances were made in what is called attribution science. Can you explain a bit about that?
KH: Yes, that’s looking at individual events. [For example,] how did human-induced climate change contribute to the California drought? And the general conclusion is that the onset of the drought was part of natural variability, but the fact that this drought occurred over much warmer conditions, led to an enhancement of what they call the ridiculously resilient ridge. When a weather system that could possibly produce rain came along and hit that ridge, it would often get pushed up or pushed down but it couldn’t pass through and go over California. That ridge was enhanced and held in place for much longer than it would be otherwise by the abnormally warm temperatures. So there was this vicious cycle — the warmer it gets, the drier it gets, the drier it gets, the warmer it gets. That’s just one example of the way that we’re actually starting to, as they say, detect a human finger print in individual events.
TR: The report assessed 10 different US regions. What do you think were the regions that are suffering the most right now from climate change? Because that seemed to be another major finding, that we’re already seeing the affects.
The bottom line is, wherever we live, we experience climate change in the way that it’s exacerbating the weather and climate risks that we already face today. — Katharine Hayhoe
KH: Yes, well, when you say suffering, the climate science report specifically looked at physical changes in climate systems. We have to wait until the regional and sectoral chapters have been have done to actually talk about impact… So, that said, the way that climate change affects us in the places where we live, 99 percent of the time, is exacerbating the risks we already face today. If you look at the risks that we face in the places where we live, more often than not, many of those risks are being exacerbated.
In the US Northeast, they have seen significant increases in heavy precipitation events that are increasing their flood risk. If you look at Florida, our report talks about the sunny day flooding and the increase in the heavy precipitation events. In Texas, we’re at risk of hurricanes, which are getting stronger as we’ve got the warmer ocean water. We also have regular patterns of drought and flood that are being exacerbated by warmer conditions that accelerate the rate of evaporation. We talk about what things we do see trends in and what things we don’t. We don’t see trends in drought frequency, but we do see trends in the frequency of heavy precipitation events. The bottom line is, wherever we live, we experience climate change in the way that it’s exacerbating the weather and climate risks that we already face today.
NOAA has this really awesome map that shows how many weather and climate events that have cost over a billion dollars in damage have occurred in each state since 1980. And when you look at that, it’s really interesting, because the No. 1 state that has had the most number of million-plus dollar weather and climate events is Texas. And, now, let’s be clear, climate change is not causing all of these events, but climate change is interacting with and exacerbating many, not all, but many of these events, making them stronger than they would be otherwise, increasing the damages of these events in many cases.
So, this map, it shows you two things. It shows you which states are already naturally vulnerable and then which states are also in the front lines when it comes to climate change exacerbating the weather extremes.
TR: Texas is bright red. And that’s due to storms mostly?
KH: Oh, it’s due to a whole lot of things. It’s because Texas gets everything. Texas gets ice storms and blizzards, they get derechos and windstorms, tornadoes, hail, hurricanes, droughts, flood, everything — the only thing we don’t get really is snowmelt-related floods. Everything else we get.
TR: Since the report indicates that our lives are already being affected by climate change, do you think that Americans know that climate change is a culprit, and if not, how do we get them to know?
KH: Well, you’re probably familiar with the Yale climate opinion maps, right?
TR: Yes.
That’s why I think the National Climate Assessment is so important is because it takes climate science down to the individual states and cities that people live in and it says, ‘This is what’s happening in your back yard or your front yard.’ — Katharine Hayhoe
KH: They really are fascinating because they ask people all kinds of questions and then you can view the response to the questions across the whole country, by congressional district, by state, by county. People focus very much on the question, “Do you think this is real?” “We believe in climate change.” The whole thing is like it’s some religion. But what absolutely fascinates me is that as you go through the maps, the ones that ask people about [climate change] solutions are dark orange all across the entire country, which means everybody says “yes” to the solutions that they’ve asked people if they agree with. The one that is the darkest blue across the entire country means most people said “no” to this question: “Do you think global warming is affecting your life personally or will affect you in the next 15 years?” Nobody thinks it is or it will.
TR: Yes, that’s incredible.
KH: And that’s why I think the National Climate Assessment is so important, because it takes climate science down to the individual states and cities that people live in and it says, “This is what’s happening in your back yard or your front yard. This is what we expect to happen, this is the way it’s going to impact your agriculture, your economy, your water resources, your energy, your health, national security.” It brings it down to the level we see — it’s not about the polar bears, it’s what you’ll be. Is this is the world that you want to live in?
TR: And when do those regional reports come out?
KH: They’re due up next year.
TR: In order to get the word out to people so they understand the personal impact, who do you think needs to up their game? Is it scientists or the media or political donors?
KH: Yes, that’s a great question. I’ve been part of three National Climate Assessments so far: No. 2, No. 3, and then this one that we’re working on right now. And in the past, the National Climate Assessment has pretty much gone according to schedule; there’s no leaks, there’s nothing that’s getting any coverage ahead of time.
We finished the report, we got the website done, we crossed our t’s, dotted our i’s, got all the nice figures ready, got our talking points ready and then we all sat down in a big room and we were all like, “OK, bring on the media.” And, you know, people who were already were concerned about climate change would be there — Climate Wire and EEM, E&E News… and papers with science writers like The Washington Post and The New York Times would all do their dutiful write-ups and do an article. But that was pretty much it.
I mean, I have never had a day like I had [last] Tuesday, where every single network on the planet, [laughs] it seemed, from Al Jazeera to CNN to Fox News even, was calling saying, “We want to talk about this, can you be on camera in a few minutes?” I mean, that never happened before.
Isn’t that interesting? Because from the beginning from NCA2 that I was involved in — actually even NCA1 — the US Global Change Research Program hired the best science writer in the business. They hired the best communications team they could find. They created the best graphics. They created the best government website I’ve ever seen — it’s an accessible, friendly, up-to-date format. They made videos, they did communication training for the authors. Over the years, they’ve done everything they can. I can’t think of a single thing that the US Global Change Research Program could have done more than what they’ve done over the years in terms of trying to improve their ability to communicate this.
But when we got together to communicate this thing, CNN never showed up. TIME never showed up.
The best science should be policy neutral; it should give you the same answer no matter how you vote. — Katharine Hayhoe
TR: So The New York Times and their “sort of” leak story really lit a fire under notice of this report as compared to the past.
KH: Yes, yes, they struck a chord, with words like “leak” and wanting to know the cracks in [the Trump administration] and things like that. My colleagues and I have been joking that from now on, we realize what went wrong in our communication program. What went wrong is we didn’t put the report in a brown paper envelope marked TOP SECRET and slide it under somebody’s door in the middle of the night [laughs]. So we’ve been joking about how we’re going to have completely different communication plans from now on. All our peer-reviewed journal articles are going to be stamped, SECRET — NOT FOR CITATION OR DISTRIBUTION. And we’re going to accidentally drop them in a coffee shop. [laughter]
TR: [laughs] That’s great.
KH: Yes, if you want to keep something secret, all you have to do is have a public review/comment period because clearly nobody will ever read it.
TR: One thing that is interesting about the report is that it doesn’t make any policy recommendations, right? Pure science?
KH: Actually, that was very deliberate. Our goal for this report was to provide, to the utmost extent of our ability, the science needed to inform sound decision-making. The best science should be policy neutral, it should give you the same answer no matter how you vote.
TR: One of the things that people coming to our site, particularly this year, are feeling, is “What can I do? How can I fix things? How can I make a change?” And feeling a little bit lost about that.
KH: Oh, yes.
TR: I was reading through some of your older interviews, and you were talking about hope and what gives you hope. One of the things you said was, “You have to offer people a vision of the world, of what the world could look like, if we could wean ourselves off of fossil fuels, if we could have a clean energy economy. We would all want to live in that world.” And I wondered if you could talk about that a little bit?
KH: Yes, I love that you brought that up. Fear and panic is great for a knee-jerk reaction but to fix this problem, we need endurance. To endure, we need hope. I really believe though that if we did have that picture, if we did understand what that world would like, who wouldn’t want it? I mean, who doesn’t want to live in a home where you grow your own energy on your own roof with your own solar shingles? And you plug in your car at home at the end of the day and you never have to visit a gas station and then wipe your hands off afterward. [laughs] That’s one of our Global Weirding videos. It’s a YouTube series that’s [part of] PBS’ digital shorts series.
One of the videos is “I’m just one person, what can I do?” and then another video is “It’s too late to fix this thing, isn’t it?” All the videos are around questions that we’ve heard people ask, and that’s why I think it’s so important to address what can we do.
TR: Just to push back a little bit, I know a lot of people say, “Oh, what can people really do? The real problem is that governments have to take action and if I go and get lightbulbs or do solar panels, is it really going to change things?”
KH: Well, that’s why, with the video, I actually conclude with what I think is the most important thing that people can do, which is talking about it. Because studies have shown that people don’t talk about this at all and they don’t think it matters to them. And so, talking about the fact that it matters, why it matters, what’s at stake, talking to people to we know, talking to elected officials — that is one of the most important things that we can do.
TR: Another thing you’ve talked about are the different things that excited you that are going on in terms of green energy — you’ve mentioned Tesla and the battery packs. And I wonder if you can talk a little bit about what new energy solutions are exciting to you right now.
KH: Oh, I’m super excited about the solar shingles. They are apparently halfway in price between a normal asphalt roof and a slate roof, and that’s without counting the energy savings. Of course, the new Tesla was just released for $35,000 or $37,000 and has a pretty amazing range. As do the Chevy and the Nissan plug-ins as well. I just feel like every time I look — and I specifically look for the hopeful news — the hopeful news is not going to be in the headlines. The headlines that you read is despairing news, it’s sad news, it’s depressing news; you have to go looking for the good news. But when you go looking for the good news, like, the Navajo Nation, this is the headline today: “The Navajo Nation is transitioning from coal to solar.” Or Elon Musk put an entire island in the South Pacific on solar and batteries, cooled it with batteries and everything. China built a giant floating solar farm on top of a coal mine that they flooded. Or the fact that people figured out ways to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turn it into blocks that can be used for construction purposes — because the problem always was, if you pull the stuff out of the atmosphere, what do you turn it into that you can actually use? Now, it’s not cost-effective yet, but you know, the first step is figuring out how to do it and then the second step is making it cost-effective. I love the fact that they’re running airplanes off algae fuel, and Oslo airport is, I think one of the only major airports in the world where they make planes refuel with algae bio-jet fuel. That’s neat.
Every month there’s a new US city committing to going 100-percent carbon free and of course, you even have Georgetown making an exit. And then you see news headlines like China’s wind company is retraining oil and coal miners to work in the wind industry. Or the solar company in San Antonio that retrained oil workers who lost their jobs when the price of oil plummeted, to do solar installations. Or, Fort Hood, the biggest military base in the country, going with wind and solar for their next electricity contract because they can save $168 million. Or the fact that pay-as-you-go solar is estimated to revolutionize energy poverty in Africa, bringing electricity to people who have never had it before.
People — we need that hope, we need that encouragement, we need that sense that we’re in this together and people are moving forward on this, that means that I can move forward too. — Katharine Hayhoe
I mean, see once I get going, [laughs] I can just keep going. All of these really cool, incredibly hopeful stories. And we have to be hearing these stories too. On my Facebook page, I monitor what things I post that are most liked and shared, the good news, hopeful stories get by far the greatest likes and shares.
People — we need that hope, we need that encouragement, we need that sense that we’re in this together and people are moving forward on this, that means that I can move forward too. What holds us back is that sense of, “Anything I do won’t make a difference,” but there’s a second part to that sentence that we don’t often verbalize: “Nothing I do will make a difference, and nobody else is doing anything either.” But when we realize, “Oh, my goodness, all these other people are doing this amazing stuff,” all of a sudden we feel hope that “maybe I can make a difference too.”
Hayhoe spoke with us on Aug. 10.But there is plenty of reason not to dismiss them. Evidence abounds that the facility was destroyed in an aerial bombardment. An AFP report from Khartoum states that both an AFP journalist and local residents witnessed either an "aircraft or missile" flying overhead. The journalist "saw two or three fires flaring across a wide area, with heavy smoke and intermittent flashes of white light bursting above the state-owned factory." A video of the incident uploaded to YouTube is consistent with this description -- it's clear that there were explosions above the factory, even if it is unclear what caused them. Yesterday, Girifna, a global network of Sudanese anti-regime activists with numerous sources and members in Khartoum, tweeted, "witnesses suggest [the facility] was attacked."
There's really only one country that has the capabilities or the motive to wage a pinpointed aerial assault on a single wing of a single weapons facility in the southern reaches of city of a 5 million people: Israel. The defense ministers of Sudan and Iran signed a "military cooperation agreement" in 2008. Sudan has hosted Iranian Revolutionary Guard personnel, and allegedly served as a transit point for weapons bound for Hamas, in the Gaza Strip. The Israelis are acutely aware of the situation: an April, 2009 diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks paraphrases Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as telling U.S. officials that "the arms pipeline runs from Iran to Sudan to Egypt." And in a meeting with U.S. special envoy Scott Gration, Sudanese intelligence chief Salah Ghosh acknowledged that anti-Israel weapons smuggling was occurring on Sudanese territory -- but denied that his government was directly involved ("'The Rashaida (tribe in the eastern Sudan engaged in smuggling) in many countries is now beginning to talk about killing Americans and Israelis,'" Ghosh was reported as saying).
Israel might have struck inside the Sudan before: once, in early 2009, when it allegedly destroyed a 23-truck weapons smuggling convoy in the country's east, and again in April of 2011, when Israel might have been responsible for the bombing of a Hamas arms trafficker in Port Sudan. Assuming it was also Israel's doing, the destruction of the weapons facility would represent another level of audacity. "I would say that if the Sudanese government's claims are correct, then this is longest strike -- the farthest strike -- ever executed by the Israeli air force," says Ehud Yaari, the Israel-based Lafer International Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "We are talking about something that is 1,800 or 1,900 kilometers [from Israel], depending on the route. That's farther away than the range from Israel to the main Iranian nuclear installations in Natanz and Qom."
Khartoum isn't just further away and more densely populated than either of Israel's previous alleged targets inside the Sudan. It's probably better-protected as well. According to the 2012 edition of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' The Military Balance, the Sudanese air force still consists of 61 combat capable aircraft, as well as Russian-built Divina 2 anti-aircraft missiles. It's unlikely that the Sudanese air force's rusting collection of Cold War-era MiGs and Sukhois could take out a column of Israeli fighter jets. But an attack on the Sudanese capital is hardly a risk-free proposition, or at least it isn't as easy as attacking remote tracts of desert hundreds of kilometers northeast of Khartoum.Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin was among the first in the Vatican to react to Donald Trump’s election as the 45th president of the United States.
Speaking to reporters in Rome Nov. 9, he congratulated Trump and said the Holy See respected the democratic wish of the people. He noted the high turnout and gave the Holy See’s “best wishes to the new president, that his government can be truly fruitful.” The Church would be praying for him, he said, that the Lord “enlighten and support him in the service of his country, but also that he work for well-being and peace in the world.”
“I believe that, today, we all need to work to change the world situation; that is a situation of grave wounds, of severe conflict,” Cardinal Parolin continued. He said the future president had “already expressed himself in terms of a leader,” but it was “too soon to judge” his presidency.
Pope Francis hasn’t commented himself, although he did respond to the prospect of a potential Trump presidency in an interview conducted the day before the election and subsequently published online by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano.
Asked for his opinion about Trump, Pope Francis replied, “I don’t make judgments on people and on political men. I only want to understand the sufferings that their way of proceeding causes the poor and excluded.” The Pope shared his comments with Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari, the atheist publisher of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, in an interview published Nov. 11.
Pope Francis clearly hasn’t favored Trump’s policies on immigration, a subject close to the Pope’s heart. He made this point most directly on the papal plane returning from Mexico in February, obliquely referring to Trump when commenting that people should build bridges rather than walls and that anyone who wishes to build a wall “is not Christian.”
Mixed Views
Generally, Vatican officials have mixed views about the U.S. election result. One senior Italian official in the more traditional wing of the Church said he was “jumping for joy” at the news. Like a number of other Italian officials, he was most pleased because American voters didn’t choose Hillary Clinton, due to evidence of her campaign leader’s dismissive attitude toward Catholicism, her extreme positions on abortion and same-sex “marriage,” and personal corruption. Other well-informed priests saw the result as a clear rebuke to the mainstream media, who did little to conceal their bias in favor of a Clinton presidency.
However, Corriere della Sera reported Nov. 10 that, according to its research, most in the Vatican were backing Hillary Clinton as the “lesser evil.” Trump, on the other hand, was considered “unelectable” due to his “aggressive chauvinism,” in addition to his threats to deport 11 million illegal Mexican immigrants and ban Muslims from immigrating to the United States.
Now that the “greater evil” has won, the Vatican is viewing the United States as “angry and radicalized,” Corriere della Sera wrote. “For the Holy See, it is a |
] Celebrated worldwide as the hero who finally defeated what was then regarded to have been the most powerful Dark Wizard of all time, put to rest the Global Wizarding War, and ended Grindelwald's For the Greater Good revolution of wizarding dominance over Muggles, Dumbledore was awarded the Order of Merlin (First Class), by Leonard Spencer-Moon's administration.[19]
Aftermath (1946-1969)
Turning down power
Resuming his career following this legendary event, Dumbledore taught several other students over the years, some of which would become staunchly loyal to him and what he stood for, whereas others would become enemies, allying themselves with Lord Voldemort in the latter's rise to power. Among these students were future Order of the Phoenix members Arthur Weasley and Molly Prewett, Death Eaters-to-be Bellatrix Black and Lucius Malfoy, as well as neutral parties, such as the one-day world-famous Curse-Breaker Patricia Rakepick. During this time, he was offered the position of Minister for Magic several times, but he turned down the offer every time, remembering how his quest for power had been his weakness in the past.
Becoming Headmaster of Hogwarts
Around the same time, Dumbledore was appointed Headmaster by the Hogwarts Board of Governors sometime between March 1965 and March 1971[12], succeeding Armando Dippet in this position. True though it might be that being entrusted the stewardship of the school in and by itself was an honour and a privilege, it also meant that he was henceforth expected to shoulder the responsibility of making all the difficult decisions that came with leadership as well. On such occasions, Dumbledore would step out in the Clock Tower Courtyard, where he found the quiet night and crisp air helpful in regard to putting one's troubles in perspective.[20] He also developed a habit of pacing around his new office a lot, especially in dire times of trouble.[21][22]
Lord Voldemort's request
Shortly after Dumbledore became Headmaster, Tom Riddle, now known exclusively as Lord Voldemort, approached Dumbledore with the same request he had proposed to Armando Dippet before him: to be allowed to return to Hogwarts as a teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Dumbledore, who knew of Voldemort's illicit activities since he left Hogwarts, denied his application. This led to Voldemort angrily cursing the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts, preventing anyone from holding the position for more than a single school year.
Defence of Remus Lupin
When Remus Lupin became of age to attend Hogwarts, he was afraid that he would be unable to due to being infected by the werewolf Fenrir Greyback. However, Dumbledore, being fair, believed that as long as special precautions were taken, there was no reason why Remus should be deprived of his education. As such, Dumbledore prepared the Shrieking Shack as a place for Remus' monthly transformation, with the Whomping Willow as the guard. This would forever earn Dumbledore Remus' gratitude, as many other headmasters would simply forbid the boy from even setting foot into the school. When Severus Snape found out Remus' secret, Dumbledore forbade him from repeating it to anyone.
As headmaster, Dumbledore would help students more directly. Albus Dumbledore Homework Help would meet every Friday in Classroom E-13.[23]
First Wizarding War (1970–1981)
Severus Snape: "Hide them all, then. Keep her — them — safe. Please." Dumbledore: "And what will you give me in return, Severus?" Severus Snape: "In — in return? Anything." — Snape pleading with Dumbledore to protect Lily Potter[src]
After Lord Voldemort started his first rise to power in 1970, Dumbledore founded the Order of the Phoenix, a secret organisation of witches and wizards willing to risk their lives to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters. As the only wizard Voldemort was ever truly afraid of, Dumbledore was the perfect leader of the organisation and was a significant contributor to the fight against Voldemort.
Later on in the war, Dumbledore was approached by another person who also wanted a job at Hogwarts: Sybill Trelawney, who applied to become the new professor of Divination, lessons that Dumbledore disliked and barely considered a part of necessary education for young wizards and witches. Dumbledore gave her a chance because she was the great-great-granddaughter of the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney. To his disappointment, when he was interviewing Sybill at the Hog's Head, he came to the conclusion that she was not a real Seer. However, as Dumbledore was about to leave, Trelawney fell into a real trance and made a prophecy about the birth of the one that would have the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, who would be born to those "who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies".[24] This astonished Dumbledore, but as it turned out, the Death Eater Severus Snape had overheard most of the prophecy but had been caught in the act of spying and ejected from the tavern by Aberforth Dumbledore.[18] Dumbledore hired Trelawney in order to protect her from the Death Eaters.
True though it might be that his stewardship of Hogwarts effectively ensured that the Dark Lord and his followers never strayed too close to the school, Dumbledore was ultimately unsuccessful in preventing the security of the castle from being breached when one of the students embarked on a foolhardy quest to find the Cursed Vaults at the school, presumably in order to get his hands on the gold, prophecies and various other powerful magical artefacts myth would have it had been sealed within them. Not alone in this endeavour, a mysterious individual going by the initial of R also attempted to reach the vaults, whose involvement became known to the faculty and even some of the students at the school. As a result, several curses were unleashed upon the school.
Among other things, cursed ice began to appear and spread throughout the castle, turning whole rooms into crystalline prisons, threatening to encase the whole school and severely injuring several students. A hoard of Boggarts was let loose on Hogwarts, terrorising the students with nightmarish transformation of their deepest, darkest fears all over the school. A Sleepwalking curse was also triggered, placing students in a deep sleep: Whereas some began to mindlessly sleepwalk into the Forbidden Forest, where those whom the staff failed to stop were, due to their condition and inability to defend themselves, ravaged and devoured by the dangerous creatures within, others, Madam Pomfrey observed, simply never woke up again. By the time the threat had been contained, the damage had already been done and Dumbledore had no other choice but to expel Jacob for his involvement, and the young man had his removal from the school covered prominently in the Daily Prophet. Quite possibly hoping to dissuade other students from pursuing the vaults, thus potentially endangering themselves as well as the school, Dumbledore and the staff denied any knowledge that the vaults actually existed, doing the same while trying to quiet down the attention around the vaults roused by the claims of former student Patricia Rakepick.
Still, the wizarding war raged beyond the walls of Hogwarts: Shortly before the Potters' deaths, Dumbledore discovered that James's Cloak of Invisibility was, in fact, one of the Deathly Hallows. Although Dumbledore had long given up his desire to unite the Hallows and become Master of Death, he could not resist the thought of studying the Cloak. To that end, he borrowed it from James while James and Lilly were in hiding. Later, Severus Snape approached Dumbledore, having already told Voldemort about the Prophecy. Snape was shocked by the fact that Voldemort had concluded that the prophecy was about Harry Potter, the son of James Potter, and Snape's own loved childhood friend, Lily Evans. Dumbledore agreed, on the basis that Snape worked as a double agent for the Order.
Dumbledore made arrangements to ensure the safety of the three; he advised them to stay hidden in their house in Godric's Hollow, which was protected by a Fidelius Charm. However, their Secret-Keeper (believed by Dumbledore and everyone else to be Sirius Black, but was in truth Peter Pettigrew) betrayed them, resulting in James and Lily's deaths at Voldemort's hands. However, as Voldemort attempted to murder Harry the curse backfired due to Lily Potter's love for her son and destroyed his body. This unfortunate occurrence provided Dumbledore with ownership of two of the Hallows, who had already confirmed James' old cloak was indeed one of legend.
Presumably well aware that Lord Voldemort wasn't truly vanquished, Dumbledore made sure that Harry would be kept safe with his family, the Dursleys, despite them not being selected as his guardians in the event of James and Lily's death, as his spells ensured that Voldemort could not harm Harry there as long as he could have a home with those with whom he was related by blood. He convinced Snape to help him protect Harry, although years later Dumbledore secretly planned to allow Voldemort to kill Harry in the end, which would destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul inside Harry. However, he also hoped to influence Harry into such a person who would willingly sacrifice his life for the greater good, allowing him the chance to choose between life and death in the end, guessing correctly the significance of such an act. Shortly thereafter, Dumbledore gave Snape employment at Hogwarts as the Potions master, and later defended Snape against the Ministry of Magic, who were rounding up and arresting remaining Death Eaters. Dumbledore attended many Death Eater trials, including that of the Lestranges and Barty Crouch, Jr. He was also a witness to Igor Karkaroff's testimony which secured his release from Azkaban in return for the names of fellow Death Eaters. With Harry safe and certain members of the Order of the Phoenix and allies of their cause keeping watch over him and reporting back to Dumbledore, continued his work as the brilliant if eccentric Headmaster of his beloved school.
Between the wars (1981–1995)
At the Start-of-Term Feast during the 1984–1985 school year, Professor Dumbledore were seated in the magnificent golden chair at the centre of the High Table in the Great Hall, looking on with interest as Professor McGonagall presiding over the annual sorting ceremony and the most recent addition to the student body as they were placed in their allotted houses: Among the newcomers, he observed, was the second oldest son of Arthur and Molly Weasley and the daughter of Andromeda Black and her Muggle-borns husband Edward Tonks. The former, to no one's surprise, was placed in Gryffindor House, whereas the latter defied her mother's long history of notoriously pro-pure-blood fanatics by being sorted into Hufflepuff. The new patch also included Tulip Karasu, the young daughter of two members of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at Ministry of Magic, whom Dumbledore presumably would be familiar with given his ties to said institution and affiliation with the Wizengamot. Merula Snyde and Barnaby Lee, both of whom had parents who had earned notoriety as Death Eaters during the wizarding war and been sent to Azkaban for their many atrocities, found their way to Slytherin House. Rowan Khanna, the next in line of a family that owned a rather well-known tree farm that supplied high-quality wood for the manufacture of wands and broomsticks.
When a young student, was found entering the room where the Cursed Ice was located, they were sent to Dumbledore for their punishment. However, rather than punishing Jacob's sibling, Dumbledore instead at first talked with them about their brother and the beauty and uses of stars before giving them 100 house points due to their display of courage, compassion and resourcefulness. He also told them that they will have a chat on the Cursed Vaults.
Dumbledore was later said to have left Hogwarts to search for information on the Cursed Vaults, as Snape and McGonagall said and they could not ask him to help free Ben Cooper as Dumbledore is away from the school. After Jacob's sibling broke the curse on the Vault of Ice, he was sent to meet Dumbledore. Instead of punishing them, Dumbledore once again rewarded their efforts to save the school with 50 house points and also revealed that the Cursed Vaults origins were rumoured to be either created by one of the Founders or a paranoid Headmaster. However, Dumbledore still asked them to leave the search of the Cursed Vaults and Jacob to him and said they would talk on something important next year.
Indeed, next year, Dumbledore included a grim warning on those trying to find the Cursed Vaults and even briefly rose his voice. He left school to search for Patricia Rakepick in hopes that her time researching the Vaults will help the faculty deal with them. This made Hogwarts particularly vulnerable to the Boggarts unleashed by the Vault of Fear, although it was once again thwarted by Jacob's sibling. Going to Hogsmade to confront them, easily recognising that they were the ones responsible for it, Dumbledore scolded Hagrid for revealing the Boggarts decreasement and summoned Jacob's sibling to his office. After a discussion regarding Boggarts and the one he had been looking for while out of school, Dumbledore berated Jacob's sibling for disobeying him and warned them he would not be able to save them from serious punishment if they broke the rule again but still gave them 100 house points.
In the next year, Dumbledore welcomed Patricia Rakepick and confessed the faculty's lack of knowledge regarding the Cursed Vaults. The end of the year saw Dumbledore finally punishing Jacob's sibling by giving them detention under Pitts.
1991–1992
Dumbledore: "Harry, do you know why Professor Quirrell couldn't bear to have you touch him? It was because of your mother. She sacrificed herself for you. And that kind of act leaves a mark... This kind of mark cannot be seen. It lives in your very skin." : " Harry Potter: "What is it?" Dumbledore: "Love, Harry. Love." — Professor Dumbledore regarding the power of love[src]
Ten years later, Harry Potter started attending Hogwarts, not as happy as Dumbledore might have hoped, considering the neglect he had faced at the hands of his intolerant aunt and uncle, but alive and well. That year, Lord Voldemort formulated a plan to regain human form. Dumbledore and his friend Nicolas Flamel (the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone) began to suspect that the disembodied Dark Lord was plotting to steal the invaluable object, which would be capable of restoring him to full power. Dumbledore had the stone moved to a medium security vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank, but later had it moved to Hogwarts itself; coincidentally, on the same day that an attempted break-in was made upon the vault. It was retrieved by Hagrid, who was also taking Harry to buy his school supplies.
Dumbledore and several teachers (McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Snape and, dubiously, Quirrell) at Hogwarts planted magical security methods to protect the stone. Dumbledore was behind the final, and most powerful protection placed upon the stone. He enchanted the Mirror of Erised to contain the Philosopher's Stone, only to be removed by someone who did not intend to use or possess it, but only to keep it from the hands of evil. Dumbledore suspected that the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Quirinus Quirrell was behind the plot to steal the Philosopher's Stone, while working for the weakened Lord Voldemort, and as such he asked Snape to keep an eye on him. He also anonymously returned James's Cloak of Invisibility to Harry as a Christmas present.[25]
Over a series of nights, Harry Potter proceeded to visit the Mirror of Erised as often as he could to see his parents' faces. Dumbledore found Harry visiting the mirror one night, and after explaining to Harry what the mirror was all about, told him that the mirror was to be moved and requested that Harry not go looking for it. Before heading back to bed, Harry asked Dumbledore what he saw when he looked into the mirror. Dumbledore claimed to see himself holding a pair of thick, woollen socks, telling Harry that "one can never have enough socks."[25] However, Dumbledore was joking — the matter being a very personal one. At first, still yearning for Grindelwald’s love, Albus saw himself with his former lover in the Mirror. However, after Grindelwald’s defeat and having come to terms with his past guilt over his sister’s death, Dumbledore would see his family whole and intact, free of any pain or suffering.[15] It is unknown if Grindelwald, as a redeemed man, was included in these later reflections.
In the end it was Harry who protected the Philosopher's Stone from Quirrell and Voldemort. Voldemort failed for the same reasons he had failed to murder Harry previously: due to Lily Potter's love for Harry. When Voldemort, who had possessed the body of Quirrell, ordered his servant to attack the young boy, the sacrificial protection instilled within him at the point of his mother's death killed him and forced the Dark Lord's spirit to flee. When Harry recovered from the ordeal in the hospital wing, he questioned Dumbledore about why Voldemort had tried to murder him as a baby. Dumbledore did not believe that Harry was ready to know the truth about the Prophecy Sybill Trelawney had made, and told him he would know when he was older (although this would actually later turn out to be a mistake).
At the end-of-year feast, Dumbledore awarded an extra 170 house points to Gryffindor students, Harry Potter (60), Ron Weasley (50), Hermione Granger (50) and Neville Longbottom (10), respectively for bravery and logical skills, prompting Gryffindor to win the House Cup, ruining Slytherin’s chance of the cup for the seventh year in a row. This may have shown an unprofessional amount of bias towards Gryffindor to announce their win in such unusual circumstances.
Sometime before the next year began, Dumbledore, having never been fooled by Gilderoy Lockhart's tall tales, figured out the truth soon when Lockhart erased the memories of two wizards that Dumbledore personally knew. He realised that Lockhart had gone too far in his desire for fame and decided to track him down and make him pay for his crimes. Having the position of the Professor of the Defence Against the Dark Arts vacant proved to be useful for Dumbledore, as he offered Lockhart the job and altough Lockhart was reluctant as his career as an author was progressing very well, successfully convinced him by slyly hinting that Harry Potter was a second-year student in Hogwarts, causing Lockhart to accept.
Having intended for Lockhart to show his inappitude and fraudlence to the students and thus expose him to the public secretly, Dumbledore's decision was shocking to take by the other staff members as they never forgot Lockhart as the obnoxious attention seeker back then despite his achievements, with McGonagall saying what the students could possibly learn under a man as vain and celebrity-hungry man as Lockhart. Dumbledore, however, skillfully talked himself out by pointing out that Lockhart was the only one who was willing to take it and also saying that there was a lot to learn from even a bad teacher: what not to do, how not to be.
1992–1993
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." —Dumbledore's advice to Harry Potter[src]
Shortly into the school year of 1992, students again fell under attack from a beast allegedly released from the Chamber of Secrets. Under the influence of Lucius Malfoy, the Hogwarts board of governors voted to remove Dumbledore from his position as Headmaster when he proved unable to uncover the culprit; Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge also had the groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid taken to Azkaban, acting under the theory that it had been he who opened the Chamber in 1943.[26]
It was later revealed that first year student, Ginny Weasley, had come into possession of Tom Riddle's Diary, a bewitched object capable of interacting with whoever wrote in it. The diary slowly drained the life force from Ginny, and when the memory it contained was nearly strong enough to take physical form, it had her journey into the heart of the Chamber. However, Harry Potter was able to find the Chamber himself, and there, defeated the beast that dwelt within; Salazar Slytherin's basilisk. He also destroyed the diary with one of the basilisk's fangs, saving Ginny and defeating the nearly fully formed memory of Riddle. Harry was only able to achieve these feats by displaying an extreme amount of loyalty to Dumbledore; for only someone truly loyal to the Headmaster would be capable of summoning his pet phoenix Fawkes, who provided the tools needed for Potter to defeat Riddle and the basilisk.[26]
Dumbledore mysteriously returned to his position as Headmaster after the memory of Riddle was revealed as being behind the attacks. He commended both Harry and Ron for solving the mystery with the Special Award for Services to the School and two hundred points each for them. This secured Gryffindor for the House Cup for the second year running and again ruining Slytherin's chances, fuelling the hatred and rivalry between the two houses. He also secured Hagrid's release from Azkaban by having Ron deliver his release papers via owl and cancelled exams as a special treat,.[26] much to the delight of the students and the dismay of Hermione Granger. Lucius Malfoy was also sacked from his position as a governor of Hogwarts, much to Draco's dismay and Harry's glee.
However, Dumbledore was privately concerned by the phenomena that Harry described; a mere memory capable of taking physical form was unheard of. Dumbledore then began to suspect that Riddle's diary was in fact a Horcrux, and furthermore, considering the lack of care the Dark Lord had taken in protecting the diary, that he had created more than one.[26]
During his final talk with Harry in his office, Dumbledore came close to telling Harry about his connection with Voldemort but refrained from doing so as he felt that twelve years old was still too young to learn the truth and he wanted Harry to enjoy this night of triumph.[24]
1993–1994
"Now, pay attention. Sirius is locked in Professor Flitwick's office on the seventh floor. Thirteenth window from the right of the West Tower. If all goes well, you will be able to save more than one innocent life tonight. But remember this, both of you: you must not be seen. Miss Granger, you know the law — you know what is at stake... I am going to lock you in. It is — five minutes to midnight. Miss Granger, three turns should do it. Good luck." —Dumbledore giving instructions to save Sirius[src]
The year after, the Ministry of Magic took it upon itself to increase security around Hogwarts. Sirius Black, who had been sentenced to life in Azkaban for murdering Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles with a single curse, had escaped from the wizarding prison. The Ministry, afraid that he was going after Harry Potter, placed a large number of Dementors at Hogwarts to try to recapture him. Dumbledore reluctantly tolerated the Dementors on school grounds, but refused to allow them within the school itself.[27]
However, the Dementors violated Dumbledore's decree when they entered Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, causing Harry to fall unconscious and fall from the sky. Dumbledore was able to prevent Harry from hitting the ground and repelled the Dementors with a Patronus.[27]
As the school year drew to its close, it became clear to Harry and his friends that Sirius Black had been framed for his crimes, commited by Pettigrew, who has been disguised as Scabbers for twelve years. But Sirius was captured, locked in the highest tower, and sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss. Dumbledore instantly believed Harry and his friends about Sirius's innocence, but the Minister did not. Dumbledore was incapable of over-ruling the Ministry's decision, despite him being Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, this only granted him the power to order a trial.
Instead, Dumbledore told Hermione Granger to use her Time-Turner to save Sirius and in the process Buckbeak as well. Harry and Hermione's rescue mission was a success, Sirius escaped on Buckbeak. The Dementors were removed from the grounds for their attack on Harry and the attempted removal of his soul.[27] During the rescue Harry also conjured a powerful corporal Patronus, that Dumbledore later commented on.
Dumbledore saw Remus Lupin (the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher) off after Snape leaked his identity as a werewolf to the school. Harry was also seeing Lupin off too and Dumbledore could tell that Harry was troubled. Harry explained how guilty he felt allowing Pettigrew, the real culprit who had framed Sirius, to escape, which coincides with a prediction Trelawney made. Therefore, he feared that he may have indirectly given Voldemort a servant to return him to power. Dumbledore assured Harry that he did a noble thing in saving Pettigrew's life, forging a deep, magical bond between them, and he promised Harry that one day he'd be glad he spared Pettigrew.
At the end of the year Dumbledore began to feel uneasy about concealing the truth of Sybill Trelawney's prophecy because even though Harry was still young, he had proven himself to be exceptional, and he would have to be told soon.[24]
1994–1995
It is my belief — and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken — that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort... A week ago, a student was taken from our midst. Remember Cedric. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory." —Dumbledore giving Cedric Diggory's eulogy[src]
Before the beginning of the new school year, the first Death Eater activity in years broke out at the Quidditch World Cup, causing Dumbledore to suspect that the second rise of Lord Voldemort was near. Later, Hogwarts played host to the first Triwizard Tournament since 1792. It was decided that only students of age would be allowed to enter their names to the Goblet of Fire, because of the dangers the tournament represented and its high death toll. Dumbledore personally drew an Age Line around the magical artefact to ensure that this rule would be impossible to break. During this year, Dumbledore employed his old friend, Alastor Moody, an ex-Auror, as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. Moody took this position only as a personal favour to Dumbledore.
However, unknown to anybody, a day before Moody was set to arrive at Hogwarts, he was overpowered by Death Eaters Barty Crouch, Jr and Peter Pettigrew. On the orders of Voldemort, Crouch brewed Polyjuice Potion, which he used to impersonate Moody and take his place at Hogwarts. Crouch, in the guise of Moody, successfully fooled the Goblet of Fire and ensured that Harry Potter was chosen as the fourth champion of the Triwizard Tournament. Crouch secretly aided Potter throughout the tournament, so that in the final task it would be him to touch the Triwizard trophy first; which he had bewitched to become a Portkey.
When Harry and fellow champion Cedric Diggory touched the trophy at the same time they were transported to the graveyard of Little Hangleton. There, Diggory was killed on the orders of Lord Voldemort, and Harry's blood was taken as the final ingredient in a potion the Dark Lord used to return to full power. Using the Portkey, Harry was able to escape Voldemort and return to Hogwarts.
It was when Crouch, still in the guise of Moody, took Harry from out of Dumbledore's presence (something the real Moody never would have done in such a traumatic situation) that the headmaster realised that it was not Moody who had been at the school the whole year. Dumbledore, Snape and Minerva McGonagall quickly overpowered the Death Eater. It was in that moment that Harry realised exactly why Dumbledore was the only wizard that Voldemort ever feared. Barty then truthfully revealed the entirety of Voldemort's plot and his participation in it under the influence of Veritaserum.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge refused to believe that Lord Voldemort had returned to power and had Crouch subjected to the Dementor's Kiss before he could be forced to stand trial before the Wizengamot. Despite this, Dumbledore knew that Voldemort's return was real and, in response to Fudge's failure to act, reformed the Order of the Phoenix, an alliance brought together during the First Wizarding War to fight against Voldemort and his followers. Dumbledore chose to reform the Order as he feared that the start of the Second Wizarding War was lingering and inevitable to happen.
Again, Dumbledore was reminded of Harry's exceptional skill and knew that he would surely have to be told of the prophecy soon, but again he chose not to, out of a desire to spare Harry an additional burden.[24]
Second Wizarding War (1995–1997)
1995–1996
Main article: Campaign to discredit Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter
They're trying to discredit him. Didn't you see the Daily Prophet last week? They reported that he'd been voted out of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true; he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemort's return. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot, and they're thinking of removing his Order of Merlin, First Class too." Daily Prophet —Dumbledore's discredit at the hands of the Ministry[src]
The Ministry immediately began to deny Dumbledore and Harry's claims that the Dark Lord had returned, starting a smear campaign designed to slander and vilify them; in particular, Dumbledore was removed from his positions as Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards as punishment for his refusal to stay in line with Ministry propaganda. However, Dumbledore professed not to care, so long as the Ministry did not eliminate him from Chocolate Frog Cards. He confessed that he believed that Fudge's persecution of him was of his own free will and not due to the Imperius Curse, though this was small comfort.
Before the beginning of the school year, Dumbledore was made Secret-Keeper of the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, and ensured that Harry Potter's friends did not divulge any information about the Order to him, as he did not want the Order to be compromised in anyway.
Dumbledore attended Harry's trial at the ministry, arriving three hours early at five a.m by a handy mistake. He presented Arabella Figg for Harry's defence and offered to call Dobby to testify that Harry had not used a Hover Charm in 1992, and reminded Fudge that he himself had pardoned Harry's accidental inflation of Marjorie Dursley. He also commented the unusual behaviour of the court holding a full criminal hearing for a simple case of underage magic. After the Wizengamot had ruled in Harry's favour Dumbledore left without having so much as spoken to Harry or looked at him.
When the time came to choose the Prefects from the fifth year Dumbledore considered Harry, but out of sympathy for the ordeals he had faced and the ones still to come, he chose to spare him the added responsibility and passed it on to Ron Weasley. This decision confused some people who had assumed Harry would naturally receive it, and would have shown solidarity with the young wizard.
Dumbledore had come to fear the connection that existed between the Dark Lord and Harry, and purposely avoided him throughout the school year. When signs of this connection became increasingly obvious, Dumbledore had Severus Snape attempt to teach Harry the art of Occlumency, rather than himself, as he feared that Voldemort may have been able to peer into his mind through his connection to Harry. The Ministry also began to interfere heavily at Hogwarts. They appointed Fudge's Senior Undersecretary (Dolores Umbridge) to the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts professor
Umbridge started her reign at Hogwarts by rudely interrupting Dumbldore's Start-of-Term Feast. Things got progressively worse from there. Umbridge and Fudge slowly passed rules and regulations that syphoned the powers of the Headmaster, while increasing those of Umbridge herself. Until finally Umbridge was granted the new position of High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. In response to Umbridge and the Ministry's refusal to teach practical defensive magic, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley created a group of students that met secretly to learn defence against the Dark Arts. With Harry acting as the leader and teacher, this organisation was known as Dumbledore's Army, in order to frighten the Ministry.
When this illegal society was uncovered, Dumbledore willingly took the blame; pointing out that it was named "Dumbledore's Army, not Potter's Army." While Fudge ordered his arrest, Dumbledore stated that he would not come quietly and easily overpowered his would-be captors with a single spell, and went underground; working to aid the Order full-time. In Dumbledore's stead, Umbridge was named Headmistress of Hogwarts and took full advantage of her position and authority over students and staff alike.
Unfortunately, as Dumbledore had feared, Voldemort finally acted to use the connection between himself and Harry Potter. Using Legilimency, Voldemort created a vision that indicated that his beloved godfather, Sirius Black, had been captured by Voldemort personally and was being tortured by him within the Department of Mysteries. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and Neville Longbottom all rushed to the Ministry in the hopes of saving Sirius. However, the six students were ambushed by a group of Death Eaters, who hoped to force Harry to recover the record of the prophecy made about him and the Dark Lord. Voldemort perceived that it was too dangerous to enter the heart of the Ministry of Magic himself. Fortunately, Severus Snape was able to alert the Order to this and several members arrived in the Ministry where they battled with the Death Eaters.
Near the end of the battle, Dumbledore himself arrived and personally captured all the Death Eaters; except Bellatrix Lestrange, who murdered Sirius and evaded a spell cast at her by the revered wizard. After binding the Death Eaters with an Anti-Disapparition Jinx, Dumbledore went to the atrium of the Ministry where Lestrange had been joined by Voldemort himself, who attempted to kill Harry.
Voldemort's curse, however, was prevented; Dumbledore quickly animated a golden statue to cover Harry and shield him from the curse. He animated the other statues from the Fountain of Magical Brethren to immobilise Bellatrix and alert Ministry officials. Subsequently a fantastic duel erupted between Dumbledore and Voldemort; arguably the two most powerful wizards of their time. Despite Voldemort's overwhelming powers and skill, Dumbledore calmly blocked all of Voldemort's spells while pressuring the Dark Lord with his own assault despite not fighting to kill before he eventually overpowered Voldemort and imprisoned him in a cocoon of water, forcing him to flee.
As Voldemort fled, he briefly possessed Harry, hoping that Dumbledore would sacrifice the teenager in an attempt to kill him. However, as Harry dwelt on his grief for his late godfather, the power of his love inflicted pain on Voldemort, prompting the Dark Lord to remove himself and block his connection. Voldemort fled with Bellatrix, but not before he was seen by Ministry officials, including Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge. With Dumbledore's credibility realised once more, Fudge's was permanently lost. Dumbledore demanded that Fudge remove Umbridge, pardon Hagrid so he could return to Hogwarts and that himself would be reinstated as headmaster. Once he was back at Hogwarts, Dumbledore consulted with a distraught Harry, explaining the meaning of his connection with Voldemort and asserting the meaning of the prophecy. Before the end of the year, he also had the Inquisitorial Squad disbanded and their damage reverted.
1996–1997
"I have been hoping for this piece of evidence for a very long time. It confirms the theory on which I have been working, it tells me that I am right, and also how very far there is still to go." —Dumbledore having witnessed the memory of Horace Slughorn[src]
During the summer of 1996, Dumbledore tracked one of Voldemort's Horcruxes to the house of the Gaunts. Dumbledore journeyed to Little Hangleton, where he found the remains of the shack hidden behind weeds and bush. Voldemort had placed many powerful enchantments around the former home of his ancestors; however, Dumbledore proved skilful enough to pass through them unharmed. When he found the Horcrux, a ring formerly owned by Marvolo Gaunt, he saw that the stone in the ring was one of the Deathly Hallows, the Resurrection Stone.
This stone, according to legend, had the power to revive the dead (but in reality, a spiritual form of the person was brought back instead, much like an echo). His desire to see his family overrode his common sense for just a moment and he placed the ring on his finger, forgetting that the ring had been cursed by Voldemort. The curse quickly spread, and were it not for his own prodigious talents, he would have died within moments. Despite this injury, Dumbledore proceeded to destroy the ring, and with it, a piece of Voldemort's soul, bringing Voldemort that much closer to defeat.
Dumbledore quickly returned to Hogwarts, where the skills of Severus Snape managed to trap the curse in Dumbledore's hand. However, both Snape and Dumbledore knew that it would eventually spread to the rest of his body. Knowing that the curse would kill him, Dumbledore asked Snape, that when the time came, that he be the one to end Dumbledore's life, rather than Draco Malfoy. Malfoy had been given the task of assassinating the headmaster, in order to spare Draco's soul from being torn Snape had to be the one to do it. Snape later objected to the plan, but was reminded by Dumbledore that it was the only way to spare him from great suffering. During this time, Dumbledore also shared his insights on Voldemort with Harry by showing him the various memories he had collected, giving Harry a greater knowledge of Voldemort's psychology that would help him in his future conflicts.
Throughout the 1996–1997 school year, Dumbledore passed on certain pieces of information to Harry Potter that would be important for the boy in his quest to destroy the Dark Lord. Dumbledore held private lessons with Harry, revealing in them much of what he had learnt about Voldemort's past, life and Horcruxes. Dumbledore revealed to Harry that he made it his business to try and find out about Lord Voldemort's past. He did this by questioning people who had known him as a child and a teenager, and obtained Voldemort-related memories from |
do, you'd be lying. He's amazing, a great ballplayer, great person, great teammate."One of the most interesting revelations in the newly released Wikileaks cables is the close connection between the U.S. government and the Canadian Recording Industry Association on in lobbying the Canadian government on copyright reform. Several cables reveal private meetings, access to internal documents, and strategy discussions.
For example, a 2006 cable discusses efforts to convince Canada to join the U.S. WTO complaint against China (I wrote about the case here and here). The cable notes that embassy officials met with CRIA’s Graham Henderson to discuss “the U.S. Government’s role in encouraging the Government of Canada to pass legislation implementing the WIPO Internet Treaties.” Henderson also used the meeting to reveal the results of a private Canadian government consultation meeting on China and provided a private CRIA analysis on the case. The cable concludes that “CRIA is leading the charge to get the GOC to join the US case.”
As Bill C-61 neared introduction in December 2007 (ultimately delayed until June 2008), another cable advises that CRIA President Graham Henderson privately told U.S. officials that the bill was days away. During CRIA’s file sharing litigation, the group also kept the U.S. government well informed, with a May 2005 cable stating that:
“Post has seen CRIA’s initial in-house assessment of the decision, which is enthusiastically positive. Post will continue to press for progress on IPR, following CRIA’s subsequent court actions and encouraging action on legislation.”
CRIA was also likely part of the group of associations that the U.S. Embassy says planned a joint “good cop, bad cop” strategy. One cable notes:
some industry associations plan to use the anticipated USG insistence on notice and takedown as a chance to play good cop to our bad cop, and they will present their acceptance of notice and notice as a signal to the GOC that they are willing to be “more reasonable than the Americans”.Android’s pattern lock is often considered one of the least secure methods of keeping your phone’s data away from prying eyes. Well, it appears that it’s at least secure enough to stymie the FBI. An undercover agent witnessed one Dante Dears using an Android device to run a prostitution and human trafficking gang. Upon seizing the phone, the FBI was locked out, and is now subpoenaing Google to gain access. Could Google itself be the real security hole in your Android phone?
The just-approved FBI subpoena asks Google to provide an astonishing amount of information regarding that locked down cell phone. The government wants Dears’ user name, password, email, contact list, list of websites visited, text messages, photos, search terms, as well as any location data stored for the device. Google may not have access to all that data, but probably more than enough.
The email and contacts from the device might be from a third party service, but odds are Dears was using Gmail and Google Contacts. If this is the case, Google will be able to hand that data over easily once it associates the phone’s unique ID with a Google account. While access is tightly restricted, Google can access a user’s cloud content without a password. In fact, a few years ago Google had to fire an engineer that was accessing the accounts of several children.
Location data is a hot button issue for many, but Dears might be in the clear on this count. Android does collect GPS data to improve location services, but this feature is opt-out and anonymized. The only way for Google to provide the government any reliable location data on Dears would be if he turned on Latitude, which does keep a log of locations.
Some users might be floored that the government is asking Google to turn over a list of all websites visited. Don’t get too excited about that one; Google itself doesn’t have a full list of your web history. Just the Google searches and the links clicked from within those searches. If the investigators could unlock the phone, then there would likely be web history in the browser. Gaining access to the phone itself could be tricky, though.
Because the FBI investigators entered the pattern incorrectly too many times, the phone can only be unlocked with the user’s Google credentials. The issue of the password is the most intriguing, seeing as we’ve all had to go through the password reset shuffle once or twice. Google might not be able to provide the actual unencrypted password, but could reset it and tell the FBI what they’ve changed it to.
If law enforcement can gain access to a phone, the SMS and photos therein will be theirs for the taking. That is more than likely the only way investigators will get into Dears’ photos, unless in the unlikely event he was backing them up to Google+. The text messages are not going to be saved on Google’s servers anywhere, so if Dears was conducting his business via SMS, the FBI will have to go after the carrier instead of Google.
Shortly after the subpoena was served, Google made a statement on what has become a bizarrely big story. “Like all law-abiding companies, we comply with valid legal process,” a Google spokesperson said. It also added that if a subpoena is too broad, the internet giant could seek to narrow it. Still, the moral of the story is that even a device lock can’t keep all your data safe when it’s synced to the cloud.
Read more at Ars TechnicaRemember that Cyprus bailout we told you about Monday? It might not happen after all.
Reports from Nicosia suggest that the bailout plan — negotiated between the Cypriot government and the so-called "troika" of the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB), and International Monetary Fund (IMF) — doesn't have the votes to pass that country's unicameral legislature. Update: The budget failed Tuesday afternoon, garnering 0 votes in parliament.
This comes despite President Nicos Anastasiades amending the plan's most controversial provision, a haircut on bank deposits. Initially, the plan was to confiscate 6.75 percent of the first €100,000 of each bank account and 9.9 percent of any money above that, but Anastasiades changed the plan to exempt the first €20,000 in deposits. That likely means the plan wouldn't raise the €5.8 billion demanded by the troika, but the hope was to mitigate the effect on average Cypriots. But even that more measured plan appears to be dead in the water.
So what are Cyprus's options now? Here are a few.
Negotiate another European bailout, complete with haircut.
Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who leads the European Commission's finance ministers, talks with IMF head Christine Lagarde on Friday. (Virginia Mayo -- AP)
The troika is clearly still worried that the Cyprus situation is spiraling out of control, and so might be amenable to a different bailout package. One possibility is to slightly amend the plan beyond Anastasiades's changes, for example by increasing the exemption at the bottom and increasing the cut of large accounts, which would both meet the troika's €5.8 billion target and possibility ameliorate the concerns of Cypriot legislators. This approach would have the same pros and cons as the previous plan, more or less, and given that that plan failed to rattle world markets or cause bank runs in larger vulnerable economies like Italy and Spain, the pros could well outweigh the cons.
But there are other concerns. The central bank chief of Cyprus, the aptly named Panicos Demetriades, has said that 10 percent of the country's bank deposits will flee should any kind of bank levy take effect. That would likely increase the necessary scale of the bailout, perhaps to a level the troika is unwilling to tolerate. Worse, it could prompt an even larger haircut, leading to further capital flight, and so on, creating a deadly spiral. Demetriades, the central bank, and the ECB all want to exempt deposits under €100,000, which are subject to government guarantees which the bank levy would abrogate, but his warnings suggest he doesn't think that change would be sufficient to stop significant withdrawals as soon as banks open on Thursday.
There are also geopolitical concerns. Russia, a patron of sorts to Cyprus and source of about a third of its bank deposits, is firmly against any kind of bank levy. President Vladimir Putin has described the plan as "unfair, unprofessional and dangerous," while Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev said it "was just like a confiscation of someone else's money." Medvedev ominously warned that Russia may be forced to "correct" its relationship with Cyprus if the levy should go into effect. It may be that preventing that sort of "correction" is important enough to Cypriot legislators to render any deal including a haircut a non-starter.
A more traditional European bailout.
Greek austerity, ladies and gentlemen. (Yannis Behrakis -- Reuters)
Most countries in Europe receiving bailouts have been forced to raise money as a condition of receiving emergency funds, but usually that money is raised through austerity measures. Greece, for example, typically has to agree to debt reduction to be achieved through some combination of spending cuts and tax increases as a condition of getting bailout funds. Cyprus could, in theory, agree to raise its €5.8 billion share of the European bailout through these means.
There are a number of disadvantages to this approach, however. The experience of Greece, Spain and Britain in recent years confirms what Keynesian economists have always known: Austerity is a great way to make a recession worse, or even cause one to come back. Should the pattern repeat itself in Cyprus, the country could, paradoxically, see its debt situation worsen as tax revenues fall with incomes and government social transfers increase as more citizens fall into poverty.
What's more, €5.8 billion is a huge figure for Cyprus. For context, the country's GDP in 2012 was about €17.9 billion. Their share of the bailout, in other words, amounts to 32.4 percent of GDP. For context, in 2012 government spending was 47 percent of GDP. Presumably, their payments of the bailout money would have to be spread out over the course of a number of years to avoid economic catastrophe, which might be less attractive to their European lenders. And even that would likely deepen the country's already bad recession.
Bail out the banks themselves.
Neel Kashkari, seen here straight chillin', managed TARP, the largest bank bailout financed by a country on its own without international help. (Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)
The main problem in Cyprus is that the country's banks have taken on toxic Greek assets which wrecked their balance sheets and put them in danger of failing. It's commonly assumed that Cyprus is incapable of financing its own bailout, given its high 7 percent interest rate on long-term government debt. Any bailout package it puts together itself would have to be financed through some combination of expensive debt and crippling austerity measures. But worst comes to worst, the country could loan a ton of money on the open market (as opposed to from the Troika) to finance that. Whether the country would have a functioning economy or a non-bankrupt government after that is an open question.
A Russian bailout.
Who could say no to that face? (Associated Press)
Russia has a vested interest in Cyprus not collapsing in on itself. For one thing, the Russian government relies on it as a means of funneling arms to Syria to help it kill its citizens, a project that most governments understandably shy away from. But more importantly, Russian banks have lent $40 billion to Russian-controlled businesses on Cyprus.
If the Cyprus situation worsens, to avoid capital fleeing the country it's likely the government will impose capital controls. That means less money leaving Cyprus and going to Russia to repay those loans. That's a big deal. The AP quotes Ivan Tchakarov, chief economist at the investment bank Renaissance Capital in Moscow, as estimating that capital controls would lead to Russian bank losses on the order of 2 percent of GDP. That's a genuine economic catastrophe for Russia.
But Russia would likely demand something in return. That something might be a share of Cyprus's bountiful natural resources, not least of which are its significant natural gas deposits. Gazprom, the world's largest extractor of natural gas which Putin nationalized in his previous tenure as president, has offered to bailout Cyprus itself. All the island has to do in return is give Gazprom all of its natural gas. It's also possible that Russia would want Cyprus to crack down on the many Russian oligarchs who use the island for money laundering and tax evasion. That would deprive the Cypriot banking sector of a significant source of revenue.
An American bailout.
Ben Bernanke's got 99 problems, and Cyprus probably doesn't have to be one. (Reuters -- David Stubbs)
Yeah, right, I know, but Ben Bernanke can technically decide that the latest round of asset buys the Fed is conducting should be switched from mortgage-backed securities to Cypriot bonds. If he buys those at bargain basement rates, Cyprus could finance the bailout without bankrupting itself. Same goes for any other central bank, like the Chinese or Indian banks. Brazil could get involved, maybe Britain or Canada. Who knows, it could be a whole party. Whether any of these countries think it's worth the political risk of bailing out a tiny island in the Mediterranean which none of their constituents care about is another story. That's why discussion focuses around Europe's central bank rather than any institutions outside the European Union.
Leaving the Euro.
The Cypriot pound, before the country joined the Euro in 2008. (Cyprus.com)
This is the scenario where everyone's justified in panicking and freaking out. The reason Cyprus has very little control over its interest rates is that it does not have control over its own currency. The ECB controls its currency. However, if it were to leave the euro and start issuing Cypriot pounds again — or, even worse, start converting bank deposits and obligations into Cypriot pounds from euros or rubles or dollars — that problem goes away. It could default on its debts, not an option while still in the euro, or it could use financial repression to pull down interest rates to a manageable level, or it could pile on more debt, bail out the banks, and then inflate its way out of debt.
That would definitely cause bank runs in Cyprus, as a key component of that strategy is devaluing the Cypriot pound to well below the current value of the euro, so people would want to take their money out of Cypriot banks before that happened, and their money became worth much less. But it would also raise fears that Greece and possibly Spain, Portugal, or Italy was about to leave too, which could trigger bank runs in those countries. It would be really, really, really, really bad.
That's why President Anastasiades's statement over the weekend that failing to pass the bailout could force Cyprus to leave the euro was so terrifying.
Update
Here’s yet another option, passed along by Felix Salmon:
Converting deposits to CDs.
In a short three-page paper, lawyer Lee Buchheit and Duke law professor Mitu Gulati suggest another option. They would leave deposits under €100,000 alone but convert all deposits in excess of that amount into five or ten-year certificates of deposit (CDs), which would pay out interest over time. That allows the banks to delay payment until Cyprus’s gas deposits start to yield fruit. Buchheit and Gulati estimate that this would raise €6.6 billion, or more than the bank levy was set to, and would probably not trigger the same kinds of bank runs. Then again, if depositors want to keep their money liquid, they may not look kindly to seeing their money locked into banks like this.1 of 7 View Caption
Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Interim Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown addresses the national convention of the Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Interim Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown addresses the national convention of the Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Interim Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown addresses the national convention of the Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Interim Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown addresses the national convention of the Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Interim Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown addresses the national convention of the Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Interim Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown addresses the national convention of the Steve Griffin | The Salt Lake Tribune Interim Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown addresses the national convention of theJames Waterson
OUTSOURCING firm Serco could face a fraud probe after a government report alleged it was charging for electronically tagging criminals who were either dead, in prison, or had never been tagged.The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) yesterday confirmed that the Ministry of Justice has asked it to consider a full-blown investigation into the firm, following issues raised by this summer’s audit of electronic tagging contracts,Serco’s fellow tagging contract holder G4S was already known to be under investigation by the SFO. Both firms could be excluded from all government contracts as a result of the issue, threatening a major revenue stream.“We can confirm we are considering the information provided by the Ministry of Justice on the G4S and Serco electronic monitoring contracts. We have no further comment at this time,” the SFO said yesterday.“We are clear that new business can only be awarded where the integrity of the contracts and the conduct of suppliers can be assured,” the Ministry of Justice said.Serco said it would co-operate but insisted that it was billing the government in line with accepted practices.Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2 frontrunners Roberto Merhi and Stefano Coletti have joined Formula 3 regulars on the entry list for this year’s Macau Grand Prix.
Merhi, who sits second in the FR3.5 standings and has been doing Formula 1 practice sessions with Caterham, will join up with the Double R team – just as he did for the British F3 round at Spa – for his first attempt at Macau since 2011. He will be Double R’s sole entry in the event.
Just as last year, Coletti will drive a solitary EuroInternational car, and will also drive for the team in next weekend’s FIA F3 European Championship finale at Hockenheim in order to become eligible to compete.
Topping the entry list is current European series leader Esteban Ocon at Prema Powerteam, together with Antonio Fuoco and Nicholas Latifi. The team’s entry is again in conjunction with the Theodore Racing project, which carried Alex Lynn to victory last year.
Ocon’s rival Max Verstappen will make his final F3 appearance before becoming a Toro Rosso F1 driver, and is partnered at Van Amersfoort Racing by Gustavo Menezes.
Carlin will field five cars, with the Jogonya Ayam trio of Tom Blomqvist, Antonio Giovinazzi, and Sean Gelael all present together with Jordan King (entered in partnership with Hong Kong-based GR Asia) and Jake Dennis.
Mucke Motorsport will run cars for Lucas Auer, Felix Rosenqvist and Tatiana Calderon, with Rosenqvist making his sixth consecutive Macau appearance and aiming to improve on his previous best finish of second in 2012.
Fortec Motorsports will field their new recruit Santino Ferrucci as well as British F3 champion Martin Cao and Euroformula Open ace Alex Palou – the car racing rookie making his FIA F3-rules debut.
Other European series regulars are West-Tec with Felix Serralles and Macau local Andy Chang and ThreeBond with T-Sport, who will have their regular driver Spike Goddard and recent recruit Nick Cassidy.
Signature and Motopark are due to make their European F3 returns this weekend at Imola and next weekend at Hockenheim respectively, and both will continue on to Macau. Will Buller will remain with the French squad for his fifth consecutive Macau F3 appearance, while Motopark will take their German F3 champion Markus Pommer.
Three Japanese teams complete the 28-car entry. Top squad TOM’S will field Kenta Yamashita and Sam MacLeod – a race winner in the British and German series and a one-off entrant in Japan with Toda Racing, who will instead take fellow Briton Dan Wells to Macau. Wells made his F3 debut with Double R at Brands Hatch at the end of August and is aiming to do Japanese F3 full-time. Nissan-backed Mitsunori Takaboshi will race for B-Max Racing.
A number of European series regulars are absent from the entry list as many teams reduce their number of cars for the event: Dennis van de Laar (Prema), Jules Szymkowiak (Van Amersfoort), Ed Jones (Carlin), Roy Nissany (Mucke), Alex Toril (T-Sport), Michele Beretta (EuroInternational).
Entry list
No. Driver Team No. Driver Team 1 Esteban Ocon SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 17 Jordan King GR Asia with Carlin 2 Antonio Fuoco SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 18 Jake Dennis Carlin 3 Nicholas Latifi SJM Theodore Racing by Prema 19 Lucas Auer KFZ-Teile 24 Mucke Motorsport 5 Max Verstappen Van Amersfoort Racing 20 Felix Rosenqvist Kashbet.com by Mucke Motorsport 6 Gustavo Menezes Van Amersfoort Racing 21 Tatiana Calderon JZR/ Mucke Motorsport 7 Kenta Yamashita TOM’S 22 Mitsunori Takaboshi B-Max Racing Team 8 Sam MacLeod TOM’S 23 Felix Serralles Team West-Tec F3 9 Martin Cao Fortec Motorsports 25 Andy Chang Team West-Tec F3 10 Santino Ferrucci Fortec Motorsports 26 Spike Goddard ThreeBond with T-Sport 11 Alex Palou Fortec Motorsports 27 Nick Cassidy ThreeBond with T-Sport 12 Markus Pommer Motopark 28 Roberto Merhi W66.com Double R Racing 14 Tom Blomqvist Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 29 Stefano Coletti EuroInternational 15 Antonio Giovinazzi Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 30 Dan Wells Toda Racing 16 Sean Gelael Jagonya Ayam with Carlin 31 Will Buller SignatureJaden Smith
If you have seen recent paparazzi photos of Jaden Smith holding a box of water to his ear, you may have thought — not unreasonably — that the 18-year-old teen mystic was just attempting to commune with the H2O molecules, or perhaps pioneering a new brand of particularly fashionable earwear. As it so happens, he’s just been doing some stealth viral marketing for his ecofriendly water-bottle concern.
“People in Atlanta rap music videos put money to their ear,” he explains. “I just put it to my ear because I love rap music, but I wanna put out a different message.”
The water-bottle business was a long time coming. “When I was 11, I told everyone I wanted to make a really sustainable water bottle for humanity,” Jaden tells me, nonchalantly. We are traipsing through the woods outside of Glens Falls, the small town in upstate New York where Just Water’s distinctive rectangular paper water bottles are sourced and packaged, before being sent off to Whole Foods and other supermarkets nationally. While the Smith family have long been listed as investors, only recently has the extent of their involvement become public; yesterday, a small group of reporters were bussed three hours from New York City to see the finished product.
“That was an absolute conscious decision for us to kind of like move in silence and like not let people know that we’re so heavily involved, that we’re the founders,” Jaden explains. “Now we’re just letting people know in a really gradual way. Like, Hey, here’s what’s happening, here’s how human life is affecting our environment, and here’s an alternative.”
Jaden is dressed in Adidas Ultra Boosts and pink socks, a denim jacket from his own MSFTSrep brand that says “Volunteer Firefighter,” and a maroon baseball cap reading “Non Violent Direct Action Program.” He darts through the forest like a particularly stylish wood nymph, climbing between the bars of a gate while the rest of us go around, and offering me his hand to climb down a stony ledge. All of a sudden, Will Smith — did I mention Will Smith is here? — bounds up, enthusiastically. “Let’s take a group picture!” Will says. “Everyone come in for a photo.”
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for JUST Water
Will is both a warm and intimidating presence. Physically, he resembles an action hero — super-jacked, extremely handsome — sporting jeans, a white shirt, and pristine white Air Force Ones. In all other ways, he resembles a dad chaperoning a school field trip. “Cheese!” He guffaws as we get our photo taken. “That’s so bizarre, right? Why do people say ‘cheese’?” (Today I learn that Will Smith really loves dad jokes. “One of the major issues we’ve been dealing with is there’s a Bigfoot in these woods,” he says. We all laugh.)
Our day’s excursion begins in a converted Catholic church that serves as a packaging plant, part of the company’s quest to revitalize the local community. Here we learn the origins of Just: Jaden went surfing and was alarmed by ocean plastic pollution; the Smiths’ longtime friend and Glens Falls native Drew Fitzgerald was called in to help bring the idea to life. In an ideal world, we learn, everyone would drink tap water, but since bottled-water consumption continues to spike, Just is attempting to offer a practical and ecofriendly solution, with bottles sold for an economical 99 cents. The water tastes, to my palate, like standard New York City tap water. Jaden, who says he can “definitely taste the difference in different kinds of water,” describes it as “crisp and natural.”
We don hairnets and head deeper into the plant to watch a Tetra Pak machine bottle the water. Jaden gets up close to scrutinize the bottling process; I get up close to scrutinize Jaden, who has artfully folded his dreadlocks under a hairnet and then fastened his baseball cap over the top. I ask if we can take a selfie holding the Just bottles up to our ears, and he obliges. “It’s lit,” he says approvingly.
and now I am woke pic.twitter.com/iJQEzML6QO — Anna Silman (@annaesilman) September 22, 2016
We then take a short bus ride up to the woods to visit the well site. Jim Siplon, the COO, sings the company’s praises, including the fact that they pay six times the municipal tax rate to access the town’s water, and tells us how hard they have worked to keep their business quiet and unobtrusive. He gestures around at the trees: “That’s the sound of our operation 90 percent of the time.” We close our eyes and try to imagine silence, which is difficult, because Jaden’s iPhone has been playing DJ Snake & Bipolar Sunshine’s “Future Part 2” for the better part of two minutes. Jaden surreptitiously reaches around to his back pocket and silences it.
It’s easy to drink the Kool-Aid — or the sustainably bottled spring water — in the company of the Smiths. They are both good listeners who speak with intense conviction and clarity. Initially, Jaden stands around with chin down and arms folded, the eternal stance of jaded teenage boys, but he perks up when we start talking about the project. His favorite phrases are “it’s lit!” “100 percent,” “awesome,” “that’s hot,” and “no way.” He appears to be best friends with all the Just employees, frequently embracing them in hugs and effusive clasped handshakes. I hear him refer to someone as “brewski.” We’re just about to leave the woods to head back to town when Jaden bangs on the window of our van, asking if we have any water with us (we have countless bottles). “It’s lit!” says Jaden. “The lit way. Hydraaaaaation.”
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Our final stop of the day is lunch at a café in downtown Glens Falls. Jaden scans the street approvingly. “I love it here, it’s sick,” he says, holding the door for us. A group of us sit to eat, and Will plops down with us. He engages us, for the next 45 minutes, in lively lunch conversation. Over the course of this lunch, we learn a lot of things about him. We learn that he’s still friends with Alfonso Ribeiro (Fresh Prince’s Carlton) and just texted him on his birthday. We learn that of all his movies, he wishes Concussion had gotten more attention. We learn that he had to convince the studio to let him choke a dog in I Am Legend. Mostly, we learn that he is a very proud dad.
“Jaden is an interesting, funny, beautiful spirit. I’m really proud to have that one as a child,” says Will, as he plows through a plate of rice and pasta, then scrambled eggs and potatoes, topped off by a slice of grilled chicken. (I note, pedantically, that he has not expunged the plastic stirrer from his coffee cup.)
He echoes his son’s declaration that they have no desire to make a celebrity brand. “Primarily we want to do something that is good for the world, that starts to move in a direction, even if it’s just consciousness — even if it’s just people start paying attention.”
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for JUST Water
As the day wraps up, I finally get to talk to Jaden one-on-one. I ask if he feels a primal connection to water, which seems like something he wouldn’t mind being asked, and he nods effusively. “I feel totally connected to water. I love water. I feel like its one of the most spiritual and interesting elements on Earth. If you freeze anything on Earth, it will get smaller, but water expands when you freeze it. It’s the only thing that expands when you freeze it! It’s literally the only thing. Even in some trees, water will flow up the bark of the tree and go against gravity. Water does so many things that are just unnatural and not normal,” he explains. Still, he says, that’s not why he got into the project, and then he launches into a rather complicated and technical explanation of the hazards of petroleum-based plastics and CO2 emissions.
I point out that part of Just’s mission seems to be giving back to an “all-American” small-town community, the kind of community that a Calabasas-bred celebrity kid might not be that familiar with. He nods. “It’s not really hard for me to balance,” he says, “because we’re all humans at the end of the day. We all grew up in different worlds, but that doesn’t mean we can’t relate at the end of the day. We’re all thirsty. I’m thirsty, and I was still forced to drink out of plastic. Not even forced — I had no alternatives.”
Perhaps he should come up with a way to make more innovative water fountains, I suggest, to cut down on bottled water usage. “Literally, the next time you see me I’m gonna be like: I have this new water fountain company, OMG. It’s called Just Fountains. It’s super cool,” he agrees. “I feel like the thing with water fountains is people not really trusting a water source that’s been outside. You always wonder if people are spitting on them and stuff, or, Is this a pigeon’s bath?” Jaden’s mind appears to be whirring. “I feel like there has to be a way for us to innovate on water fountains.”
Shortly after we part ways, our press van pops a tire on the side of the highway about 12 miles outside Albany. I know in my heart if Will and Jaden had been there, we would have been on the road in no time. Perhaps Will could have patched up the tire using a trick he picked up on set, or Jaden could have fashioned a new ecofriendly tire out of twigs. I put my bottle of Just to my ear, like Jaden taught me, and mouth his name into the wind, attempting to conjure up his presence, but his air-conditioned Navigator SUV is nowhere to be found. Three hours later – tired, hungry, but extremely well-hydrated – a rescue bus finally arrives to take us home.Russian officials have vigorously rejected accusations of meddling in the US presidential elections and dismissed allegations that Moscow was behind a series of recent hacks on US institutions. “Everybody in the United States is saying that it is Russia which is running the (US) presidential election,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with television channel CNN on Wednesday.
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“We have not seen a single fact, a single proof,” he said. The US last week accused Russia of coordinating the theft and disclosure of emails from the Democratic National convention and other institutions and individuals in the US to influence the result of the election.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Vladimir Peskov, told reporters Wednesday that such claims were “absurd” and said Russia remains committed to efforts to combat cyberterrorism.American outfit Garmin-Sharp has unveiled their 2014 jersey along with news of a partnership between the team and the WWF (World Wide Fund). Related Articles Dennis leads Garmin at Tour Down Under with Slagter set to miss the race
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The jersey, manufactured by Castelli, has a number of design and colour modifications, including a red Sharp band across the back and the WWF's logo.
The partnership with the WWF came after Dan Martin's win in Liege-Bastogne-Liege. With the line approaching Martin was chased by a fan in a panda suit, leading to a huge social media campaign that lasted all the way until the Tour of Beijing in October.
“We are honored to partner with WWF and help its critical mission of creating a future where people live in harmony with nature,” said. Jonathan Vaughters, CEO, Slipstream Sports and Team Garmin-Sharp. “We’re thrilled to contribute to WWF’s efforts to ensure that cyclists, cycling fans, and everyone else have a healthy, thriving planet to enjoy for generations to come.”
“This collaboration is a natural fit for WWF because athletes and fans can be great advocates for the environment,” says Maria Boulos, Director Corporate Partnership, WWF International. “Cyclists do the sport they love outdoors, and they want to have beautiful landscapes and clean air and water to enjoy – not just today, but forever.”
Garmin keep argyle pattern with which they've become synonymous with, but have chosen to go for a paler blue than in previous years.Sign-up for the Urban Milwaukee daily email
Governor Walker has proposed significantly increasing resources for Wisconsin’s public schools, a move that has gotten a great deal of attention – and has attracted some controversy for the size of the increase. But his budget also includes a major increase in the amount of public money that goes to pay for private school tuition, a fact that has been mostly overlooked.
Through the state’s private school choice program, Wisconsin uses publicly-funded vouchers to pay tuition at private schools across the state. To participate in the program, students must have family incomes of up to 300% of the poverty level if they live in Milwaukee or Racine (about $73,000 for a family of four) or of up to 185% of the poverty level if they live in the rest of the state ($45,000 for a family of four). About 36,000 students are expected to receive publicly-funded vouchers to pay for private school tuition next year.
The Governor’s budget proposal increases the amount that the state pays private schools, by $217 per student in the first year of the two-year budget, and then by another $217 in the second year. That’s in the same neighborhood – but slightly more – than the per-student increase that public schools would receive: $200 in the first year, and another $204 in the second year.
With the increase in tuition amounts, the annual cost of the voucher program is estimated to grow to $283 million in fiscal year 2019. The state reduces aid to school districts by about $90 million a year to make up part of the cost, bringing the net annual cost to the state to $193 million in 2019.
The state actually spends more money for each student attending private school than it does for each student attending public school, a recent memo by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau shows. Under the Governor’s budget, the state would spend an average of $6,703 on each public school student in 2019, an amount that includes general aid, categorical aid, and aid reductions for the voucher program. In comparison, the state would pay pay private schools $7,757 for each student in kindergarten through 8th grade participating in the voucher program in 2019 and $8,403 for each high school student.
The state pays more per student to private schools than public schools, but it’s difficult to make valid apples-to-apples comparison across both systems. In addition to state aid, public schools also receive money from the property tax, an amount that is not included in the per-student amounts described above. But public schools are also required to provide a higher level of services to students than private schools are. For example, vouchers schools are not required to provide transportation to students, or provide the same special education services that public schools are. The state does not require teachers in voucher schools to obtain teaching licenses, and does not require voucher schools to do a background check on employees. Voucher schools can kick out students who don’t meet academic or behavior standards, while public schools must accept all students and try to provide services to meet their needs.
Governor Walker has proposed a big boost to public schools in his budget – but has matched it with a big boost to private schools as well. His budget continues Wisconsin on the track of funding two separate school systems: one governed by locally-elected school boards accountable to voters and taxpayers, and the other a system of publicly-funded but privately-operated private schools that operate without the same level of accountability. Increasing the amount that Wisconsin spends on private school tuition vouchers decreases resources available for public schools, which educate the large majority of Wisconsin students.With $2.5 million hanging in the balance, an unpaid $2 library fee prevented a lawsuit from moving forward. A Virginia lawyer, C. Kailani Memmer, |
4041 N. Milwaukee Ave. At the meeting the association will be collecting non-perishable food and toiletry items for a local food pantry.The Justice Department announced a new federal policy Wednesday to help state and local police take cash and property from people suspected of a crime, even without a criminal charge, reversing an Obama administration rule prompted by past abuse by police.
Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein said the Justice Department will include more safeguards to prevent the kind of problems that have been documented in the past. Police departments will be required to provide details to the Justice Department about probable cause for seizures, and federal officials will have to more quickly inform property owners about their rights and the status of the seizures.
“The goal here is to empower our police and prosecutors with this important tool that can be used to combat crime, particularly drug abuse,” Rosenstein said at a news briefing. “This is going to enable us to work with local police and our prosecutors to make sure that when assets are lawfully seized that they’re not returned to criminals when there’s a valid basis for them to be forfeited.”
[Jeff Sessions’s Justice Department turns a $65 million asset forfeiture spigot back on]
Two years ago, then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. barred state and local police from using federal law to seize cash and other property without criminal charges or warrants. Since 2008, thousands of police agencies had made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a Justice Department civil asset forfeiture program, which allowed local and state police to make seizures and then share the proceeds with federal agencies.
A Washington Post investigation in 2014 found that state and local police had seized almost $2.5 billion from motorists and others without search warrants or indictments since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Post series revealed that police routinely stopped drivers for minor traffic infractions, pressed them to agree to searches without warrants and seized large amounts of cash when there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
Police then spent the proceeds from the seizure with little oversight, according to the Post investigation. In some cases, the police bought luxury cars, high-powered weapons and armored cars.
[Stop and Seize: A Washington Post investigation]
“You’re never going to eliminate allegations of abuses,” Rosenstein said, “never going to eliminate mistakes 100 percent. But I think this new policy is going to position us very well to make sure there are very few credible allegations of abuse, and where there are we’re going to make it a priority to follow up.”
The new policy from Attorney General Jeff Sessions authorizes federal “adoption” of assets seized by state and local police when the conduct that led to the seizures violates federal law. Rosenstein said that the department is adding safeguards to ensure that police have sufficient evidence of criminal activity when property is seized. Property owners will receive notice of their rights within 45 days, which is twice as quickly as required by current law. Law enforcement agencies will be required to provide officers with more training on asset forfeiture laws, he said.
State and local law enforcement officials supported the change, but Democratic and Republican lawmakers were skeptical.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) called Sessions’s policy “troubling” and said it would “expand a loophole that’s become a central point of contention nationwide.”
“Criminals shouldn’t be able to keep the proceeds of their crime, but innocent Americans shouldn’t lose their right to due process, or their private property rights, in order to make that happen,” Issa said in a statement.
[Jeff Sessions’ defense of civil asset forfeiture, annotated]
Holder tweeted that Sessions’s policy was “another extremist action” and said the Obama administration policy was “a reform that was supported by conservatives and progressives, Republicans and Democrats.”
Kanya Bennett, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the action “outrageous.”
“We are talking about people who have not been convicted of a crime and are often not given a day in court to reclaim their possessions,” Bennett said. “Civil asset forfeiture is tantamount to policing for profit, generating millions of dollars annually that the agencies get to keep.”
At a meeting with county sheriffs on Feb. 7, President Trump made clear to law enforcement officials that he is a strong supporter of the civil asset forfeiture program and told the Justice Department to rescind the Obama administration restrictions.
On Wednesday, Sessions defended the reversal at a meeting with representatives from the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Major Cities Chiefs Association and other law enforcement officials who back the new policy.
“Civil asset forfeiture is a key tool that helps law enforcement defund organized crime, take back ill-gotten gains and prevent new crimes from being committed, and it weakens the criminals and the cartels,” Sessions said.
Earlier this week, Sessions told the National District Attorneys Association that “no criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime.”
But the ACLU’s Bennett said, “The problem is that we are not talking about criminals.”
“We are talking about Americans who have had their homes, cars, money and other property taken through civil forfeiture, which requires only mere suspicion that the property is connected to a crime,” she said.
Read more:
Jeff Sessions wants police to take more cash from American citizens
Holder ends seized-asset sharing process that split billions with local and state police
Sessions’s Justice Department turns a $65 million asset forfeiture spigot back onSALEM -- A coalition of Oregon's largest public employee unions and other advocacy groups unveiled a proposal on Tuesday to raise an additional $5 billion over two years from new and expanded taxes on corporations, health care providers and insurers.
A majority of the new revenue -- $4 billion -- would come from a 2 percent tax on all corporations' gross annual sales in Oregon above $100 million. The proposal is similar to Measure 97, a 2.5 percent tax on Oregon sales above $25 million that was pitched by many of the same groups. Voters roundly defeated the tax initiative in November.
Oregon faces a projected $1.7 billion shortfall in the next two-year budget, if lawmakers and the governor want to continue providing the same level of government services. The gap is largely due to the rising bill for the state's Medicaid expansion and higher personnel costs, including from public employee pensions.
"What we heard loud and clear is that voters do want a solution to our budget crisis, that we do believe that corporations in Oregon should be paying more," said Andrea Paluso, co-founder and executive director of Family Forward Oregon, at a press conference at the Capitol. Paluso added that tax increases "need to be game-changing and significant" and the proposal is just the start of a conversation.
In a report, the coalition said Oregon needs to pour an additional $6 billion every two years into education, health care, senior services, public safety, and programs for children and families. That's roughly the amount Measure 97 would have raised, according to estimates from Oregon's Legislative Revenue Office. It would have amounted to a 33 percent increase in the state budget.
Katherine Driessen, a spokeswoman for the union-backed group Our Oregon that campaigned for Measure 97, said many state lawmakers supported the initiative and are working on the new tax proposal.
But none has introduced a bill. Driessen, who also represents A Better Oregon, declined to identify the lawmakers. Missing from the press conference in Salem Tuesday was Ben Unger, executive director of Our Oregon and a chief sponsor of Measure 97.
Supporters of the new proposal said it accounts for criticisms of Measure 97, including concern that Measure 97 would have applied to utilities. The latest gross receipts tax proposal would exempt utilities, although it would still apply to grocery stores.
At least two of the coalition's key proposals were featured in Gov. Kate Brown's proposed budget, which was released on Dec. 1.
Approximately $1 billion of new revenue would come from the tax increases on health care providers and insurers that Brown sought. The coalition also wants to expand the state's Medicaid program so that every child in Oregon has insurance, another Brown proposal.
Chris Pair, a spokesman for the governor, said "there was no collaboration" between Brown's office and the coalition on either proposal.
Paluso rejected the idea that lawmakers should consider cost-saving reforms to the state's public pension system as part of a deal to raise tax revenue, an idea suggested by business leaders at a conference in Portland last week.
"The state has entered into a contract with public employees that they need to uphold," she said, "and we shouldn't be balancing the budget on the backs of those folks while we continue to allow corporations to not pay their fair share."
But it will be difficult for the coalition and Democrats to muscle tax increases through the Legislature without buy-in from businesses -- and impossible without help from Republicans. Though Democrats hold large majorities in Salem, they remain a few votes shy of the three-fifths supermajorities needed to raise taxes.
On Tuesday, House Republican spokesman Preston Mann poured cold water on the coalition's proposal.
"It says a lot about Democratic politicians and government employee unions that even in the face of an overwhelming defeat," Mann said in a statement, "they still have the audacity to stand before Oregonians and demand massive new tax increases with only vague details about how the money will be spent and a hardline stance against budget reform."
-- Hillary Borrud
503-294-4034; @hborrudMost transparent White House ever...
Police chased reporters away from the White House and closed Lafayette Park today in response to a gay rights protest in which several service members in full uniform handcuffed themselves to the White House gate to protest "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
People who have covered the White House for years tell me that's an extremely unusual thing to do in an area that regularly features protests.
A reporter can be seen in the YouTube video above calling the move "outrageous" and "ridiculous."
UPDATE: U.S. Park Police spokesman David Schlosser tells POLITICO his service erred in pushing the reporters back, and stressed that the White House played no role in the move.
"That was strictly the U.S. Parks Police that screwed up – that has nothing to do with the Secret Service of the White House or the Administration," said Sergeant Schlosser. "We had some young officers who, when they were told to move the people back -- which we typically do when we're going to make arrests - they moved the people back a lot further than we typically do. That was a rookie, amateur error and they screwed up on that."
(video courtesy of John Aravosis)Back when I was in high school (and dinosaurs roamed the Earth), the comedian George Carlin released an album named Class Clown where he taught America about the seven dirty words you can’t say on television. I’m not going to list them here, even though four of them are now regularly heard on cable television, even during the family hour. But now the old list can move aside, at least at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There’s a new grouping of seven dirty words which are not to be used in any of the agency’s publications next year and it’s been handed down by the White House.
Some of these entries may seem like a welcome relief to those who have grown tired of the previous administration’s embrace of the social justice warrior movement and liberal groupthink, but this is no way to set government policy. (Washington Post)
The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for next year’s budget. Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing… In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or “evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered.
Let’s just get right to the full list and then we can kick off the debate over the merits of each and how government language control is always problematic. The words are:
“Vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
Vulnerable: No clue where this one came from in terms of banning words. People with weakened immune systems are more vulnerable to contracting infectious diseases. This is an ancient and eminently useful word. A pointless and stupid prohibition.
Entitlement: The CDC deals with a lot of medical issues faced by people who rely heavily on entitlement programs. It probably doesn’t pop up very much in clinical medical conditions, but it’s also a completely viable word.
Diversity: Okay… I get it. The Left has turned the previously salutary word “diversity” into some sort of rallying cry being tossed around everywhere you go. Yes, it’s annoying. But it’s also a word which crops up a great deal in actual science, not just “social science.” Diversity of lifeforms in a given ecosystem. The list goes on. Removing this from the medical lexicon is not only pointless but self-defeating.
Transgender: If you were expecting me to get onboard with any of them it was probably this one, right? But no. The word is out there and there’s a heated debate going on which ties in very heavily to debates in the medical science community. Forcing the CDC to stop using it isn’t going to make it go away. We need the traditional scientific method to be applied to confirm or at least define whether gender dysphoria remains a clinical medical condition and how to help those so afflicted. Clarification should begin in the scientific community and be confirmed in the courts where strange new distortions of words such as “gender” find their way into our laws and government policies. It’s not the job of the White House to try to erase the problem by forbidding the use of words.
Fetus: Seriously? A fetus is an unborn baby. It’s a word which has been around since Middle English and was borrowed from Latin. I understand that some in the pro-abortion crowd have annoyed pro-life conservatives with various words and phrases such as “clump of cells” and all the rest, but fetus is simply a medical term which in no way denies that the unborn baby is alive and a human being. It’s just silly to ban it from medical research papers.
Evidence-based and Science-based: Are you really just trying to make the point for liberals who argue that conservatives and Republicans are the “party that doesn’t believe in science” here? I understand that those phrases have previously been used in political circles to insult people who hold positions which may be more faith-based, but the CDC isn’t a religious or philosophical institution. (Or at least it wasn’t supposed to be, though it has bowed at the altar of the Church of Liberalism lately.) You want actual scientific positions to be based on actual evidence and good, solid science. Current scientific consensus doesn’t always turn out to be correct on any subject. (Prior to Copernicus and Kepler, a majority of astronomers thought that Mars did loops in its orbit because they didn’t understand retrograde motion.) But as long as you keep an open mind as new evidence is presented, earnest scientific research at least gives you an evidence-based starting point.
While I have despaired at the abuse our language has suffered in the name of politics, largely (though not entirely) in the interest of liberal causes, this is no solution and the list being handed to the CDC is a joke. Banning language is pretty much on par with burning books. You don’t win an argument by forcing people to stop talking about a particular subject or using certain words. (Well.. you can, but then you’ve pretty much turned into North Korea.) If you want the CDC to deal with the issue of transgender questions seriously, demand that they produce rigorous, scientific research showing how you could identify a person as being transgender without asking them. If the agency is studying problems with “diversity” in income or racial distribution, ask them what the heck they are researching and what it has to do with disease control and prevention. Don’t tell them to stop writing the word where appropriate. And learn what “fetus” actually means before you try to wipe it from the record books.
There was obviously a political motive in issuing a list such as this and it was no doubt intended to please the conservative base. But it’s a horrible approach which proves the point of liberal critics far more than improving the situation in the scientific community.When Google introduced Google Cloud Print, it added a really great tool for sharing a printer and perhaps made a lot of lives easier in the process. The Chrome print dialog is well equipped with options, providing you with a preview of the document you want to print, allowing you to choose which pages to print, and letting you change the layout and margins of your document. If you never ventured to the Google print page because you don’t have a cloud printer set up, here are three other things you can do with it that might make you visit it more often. The print dialog allows you to not just print with a cloud printer but also a network printer and should your printer double as a fax machine, you can fax documents from Chrome’s print dialog as well. You can also save a web page as a PDF, and even connect Chrome with your Google Drive for saving web pages directly to it. Intrigued? This post details exactly how you can do each.
Save A Web Page As PDF To Local Drive
When you’re on a web page that you want to save as a PDF file, type Ctrl+P to open Chrome’s print dialog. In the left panel, you will see ‘Destination’. Click the ‘Change’ button and chose the ‘Save as PDF’ option. The confirmation box at the top of the left column will still read ‘Print’ but the action button will change from ‘Print’ to ‘Save’. The PDF is saved to your local hard drive and while not all design aspects of a web page may render correctly, the output file is of an overall decent quality. The title of the web page serves as the document title, and the URL is added to the footer.
Save Web Pages As PDF To Google Drive
To save web pages directly to your Google Drive as PDF documents, follow the same process as above but instead of choosing ‘Save as PDF’, select the ‘Save to Google Drive’ option. The same changes will be reflected in the left panel with the ‘Print’ action button being replaced by ‘Save’.
Send A Web Page In Fax
Want to directly fax a web page to someone? just revisit the exact same ‘Destination’ option as above, and select the ‘Fax’ option. If you have a Fax machine or modem set up with your computer, it will automatically send the document (in greyscale) to it. If your printer serves as a fax machine, the command will be sent to it automatically. On the other hand, if you haven’t set up a fax machine and decline to do so when prompted, the document you want to fax is sent to your desktop email client to send via email, which in itself can be a handy option.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTERWith all the talks about sports and exercise science, and the recent confirmation that Chip Kelly went and hired guys from the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), I thought as resident Australian around here that I would try and explain to what you guys a few things that we could be seeing as time goes on. And if you could hold off on playing 'Land down under' until after I've explained everything, that'd be great. There's four things that the sports science of every club has seeked to implement to get the most out of their athletes: Individual Training Schedules, GPS data and its analysis, Advanced Injury Prevention and Rehab, and Player Education. But this list is by no means exhaustive: there are other things like altitude training and ice baths that I could include, but don;t have anywhere near enough data on. There are also peptides, and its best to stay away from those (not exactly WADA approved). Anyway, on with the show: I'll introduce each thing under each heading and try and explain them as best I can.
Individual training schedules
We know Chip has used these in the past and is using them. However it does provide a stepping stone on which the rest of what I'm discussing is based. Individual training schedules are personalized schedules so that players can condition and prepare themselves for the game and the season to their own requirements and needs.
GPS data and its analysis
This is probably a big one, and a prime example of the AIS pushing its athletes to such great heights. Put simply, every player/athlete is given a GPS watch and a running program, which they must stick to. In the case of an AFL footballer, this would probably be close to 8 miles in 45 minutes/1 hour, or the same ratio distance/time. The data would also be personalized with individual courses for individual players. This is even completed on days off during the offseason or during the 24 week season. The data is then collated and put together as what each player has done for their conditioning. If a player hasn't conditioned themselves properly and either cut corners or not participated at all, then the GPS data can re-affirm that and there will probably be a few questions asked of players who do not want to train.
Now granted, the AFL is a harder running league than the NFL (and I urge each of you to at least give it a look in) and it is not uncommon for a guy to run anywhere from 10 miles in a single game, but this is why sports science is such a brutal necessity. Conditioning based on GPS locations of your players, even in the offseason, is a great way to make sure that a) there is brutal conditioning in your squad - just like Chipper likes it and b) there is brutal competition in your squad, as each player tries to condition themselves better than the next guy to have a better chance of success. Its also a great way of weeding out the guys who don't want to be there - the Haynesworths and the like.
Advanced injury prevention and rehabilitation methods
Its strange, because I've kind of grown accustomed to how we do things over here with Injury Rehab and prevention that I forget what its like when say, JP goes down with an ankle. Read: Not much. And that saddens me, because I know if I was coach (and I'd imagine Chipper feels the same way) I'd want all of my players hanging in and around the clubhouse during as much of the season as they could.
AFL Clubs and the AIS did the same things, and brought in their own "in-house" rehab facilities. Most of the time you'll spend your time in 'the dungeon' getting to know the team doctor and rehabbing your torn hamstring, or knee tendonitis or whatever. And if you're not doing that? Then you're doing work on other parts of the body that could still do with conditioning - unless of course you can;t do that due to the injury.
There's also a step-by-step approach to re-integrating a player back into the club. First we rehab, then they start running again (typically laps of the oval, until they are are at a pace the coach is happy with) then they start back with the main training group before and training with them before we put them back into a full match situation. Typically, they would also only play a half game their first game back (I'm not sure on the equivalent - Special Teams?) and again monitor progress from there. Again, I don't know how feasible that is, but it something that has happened before, so you never know.
The advanced injury prevention comes in at least one kinda left field way - Yoga. I've seen clubs break down their all day training sessions with three half an hour sessions of Yoga (mid-morning, just after lunch, mid-afternoon) as it increases flexibility of the tendons and bones and un-restricts the blood vessels. As such, this prevents injuries and allows for the harder training as it allows the body small amounts of'rest' whilst enhancing flexibility. That added flexibility turns into the ability for muscles to flex or bend further. While I'm not saying you should go out and try bending your muscles as far as possible, if it does happen on the field, the Yoga diminishes what could be a nasty tear.
I should put a note in here about Post Game Recovery sessions. Put simply, the morning after a game the team get together and begin a form of warm up/down that involves a few laps in the pool, a few sprints, and a few stretching exercises for an hour/hour and a half. Its both a great way to meet the fans both home and away as well as restrict injuries or soreness.
Education of coaches and players about how to prepare as a professional athlete.
Chips already started implementing this, and I think this is the real one where its going to pay dividends.A simple fact of exercise science is that you only get out what you put in and that nothing can be achieved without good dietary practice.
Well, gone is the fried chicken and the burritos. Instead we've got organic fat-free ice cream and smoothies. I think that's great for year one of a new program, and I also suspect Chip pushes it further next year if he hasn't already: diet plans, recorded eating, and instruction by team dietitians and sports science guys on what to eat, when to eat it, and how to cook and prepare it.
The diet plans are huge, and match up with what was listed before about the running plans. Basically, that the players health and diet will be monitored. Not getting enough protein? Try some lean steaks with veggies. Not enough carbs after the game to keep you going? Home made fat-free pizza. This is all instructed by the teams sports science guys and dietitians, who try and maintain the safety of their players at all times.
Which leads me to recorded eating. Put simply, after each day the club requires players to log in and record how much they have eaten and of what to better control what goes into the bodies of the players and control differing levels of proteins, fats, carbohydrates and sugars. It's a great method of accountability which requires the players to stick to their diet plans. It also allows the coaches to go back and look at a player during training camp if they're flagging behind as to why that might be - are they following the programs or they simply not up to snuff? Have they been eating properly? I've seen a lot of players criticized on here and elsewhere for showing up to camp in poor shape - I think the quote is they sat on the couch playing video games and eating Cheetos - and this is where that gets prevented if at all possible.
In conclusion, much like before, it can be hard to see why this hasn't been implemented before. Its a system that has proven results and can push a team further. Might there be a few teething problems with perceived invasion of privacy? perhaps, but also remember that you're going for guys who are passionate about their game and wanting to take it to another level.
If anything else crops up over here or I hear anything I'll put another post up about the AIS and what it does and a few of the other more'sciency' programs they run. Until then, got any questions/comments/trolls, leave 'em in the comments and I'll see what I can doMeet Anthony Bartilucci, a young man from Long Island. Last Friday, Anthony and his friend came to Manhattan for a concert.
"We were running as fast as we could from Penn to here, about 42 blocks," says Anthony, "we get here in about 15 minutes, so we tried to take a breather and we saw you guys filming, so we thought it would be funny to take a random picture outside."
That random picture was taken during a commercial break of Eyewitness News at 11. So as Anthony posed, "Attack, Attack" shirt and all, Rob Powers posed, too, in the background. It was a perfect photobomb.
Anthony's friend Angelo knew it, and posted the picture on the social news site, Reddit.
"I didn't think it would get as big as it did, but when I saw it start rising, I was slowly waiting," says Anthony, "But it hit the front page, then it hit the first rank, and I was like 'wow!'"
Anthony says that when he went to look on Reddit, there were almost a million views, even though his friend had only posted the picture a couple of hours earlier.After disappearing from Limitless since its pilot episode, Bradley Cooper finally returned to the small screen spinoff of his 2011 movie of the same name. Cooper plays Senator Eddie Morra, the NZT mastermind pulling lead character Brian Finch’s (Jake McDorman) strings.
The sixth episode of CBS’ freshman drama, entitled “Side Effects May Include…”, focuses on Finch’s desperate attempts to contact Morra to save the career of his FBI handler, Special Agent Rebecca Harris (Jennifer Carpenter). After snapping Finch out of an NZT-induced blackout, Morra reveals that he never expected Finch to turn on his partner. The exercise was merely a test of his character.
Morra admits Finch’s distrust is not unfounded, noting all Finch has “ever seen is the ugly side of what we do,” then proceeds to explain how he needs Finch’s help to bring about positive change in the world. He needs Finch’s help to overcome the obstacles of politics, obstacles like anti-science, anti-GMO protesters.
Morra: Don't worry. You're gonna be just fine. Take it slow. Been through a lot. Hit your head pretty good, but you're gonna be okay once the shot kicks in. Finch: No, no, no, no. Morra: Brian, it's okay. It's over. Finch: I'm not gonna frame Rebecca. Morra: I know. I never thought you would. Finch: What? Morra: I didn't think you'd do it. I just needed to know what your limits are. If you're somebody who just takes orders like Sands, or if you're somebody who has... Character. Finch: So, what? That was some kind of a test? I could've died. Morra: I would never let that happen to you. Finch: And what about her Rebecca? Uh, her dad was taking nzt. She's not gonna just let that go. Morra: I'm not worried about Rebecca. This is about you, Brian. About whether you're just an employee or you're somebody who can be a partner. Finch: A partner? You threatened my family. You threatened my friends. Morra: All you've ever seen is the ugly side of what we do. But there's so much more, Brian. Finch: There's rice? Morra: This rice contains a complete nutritional profile. Everything the human body needs. It can grow in the harshest environments. Places we need it the most. With a little more research, this rice... Could feed the entire world. Finch: I don't understand. Why can't you tell anyone about it? I mean, if that's true, why aren't you shouting it from the rooftops? Morra: Because people won't want it. I make an announcement. Lobbyists bring it to action. People rave over GMO's and it's buried. Science can't change the world on its own. The world needs to be willing to change. And it takes leaders. Leaders who are willing to chip away at the obstacles, cut through the noise and play the game. And win the game. Finch: And that's you? Morra: I think so. With people like you helping me, I think so. I mean what I say about wanting a partner. Five nzt pills. Those weren't just hollow words. Finch: What are those for? Morra: Whatever you want. Think of it as discretionary funds. A token of my... Trust in your judgment.
Given Limitless’ history of bashing corporate CEOs and blaming an “anti-government militia” for a New York bomb plot, it’s interesting to see the show’s writers take on the anti-GMO crowd, a liberal darling, as their issue of choice for saving the world. Even worse, they insinuated GMO opponents were “anti-science,” a denunciation generally reserved for Republicans.
The Limitless writers could have easily gone with that faithful standby, “climate change,” which the “Independent Democrat” from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, recently declared as the “greatest threat to the United States.” Perhaps there is some hope left for the series.oOooooOOooooo~ Halloween is approaching, and we’re launching one of our spookiest mysteries to date in celebration! DaAznSensazn is bringing to us Killer Nights, written by Stray Cat for Life!
We are seriously veering off the path of the normal this time with this mystery thriller. When I read it, it gripped me from chapter one and didn’t let go. I just had to find out what was going on! It has the perfect amount of thrill without turning into horror, so fear not! You can read this alone on a cold and dreary Halloween night… 😀 DaAznSensazn is a fantastic writer himself, and editor Taishi Ci has had experience with professional editing before, so we’re in for a literary treat, everyone!
From the novel itself:
She is a street-walking prostitute; he is a cog in the law enforcement machine; they live in different worlds, but life has brought them together. This is a beautiful love story, this is a series of mysterious murders, this is the story of a fantastic supernatural power. Perhaps they live right beside us, or perhaps they never really existed at all…
DaAznSensazn brings us 20 chapters today and will keep a schedule of 5x a week! Please give him a warm welcome to volare!In a 2009 article published in the Boston Globe, Mormon author Carol Lynch Williams explains how book publishers these days have a tendency to look at the proliferation of authors in Utah and wonder, “What the heck is in the water here?” They’re not the only ones who have taken notice. From book publishers to bloggers to scholars of Mormon culture, a number of people have noted the success of Mormon authors, particularly in the genre of science fiction and fantasy, and have speculated as to why Mormons seem to be unusually well-represented in this field.
The most well-known Mormon writer of science fiction and fantasy is, of course, Orson Scott Card. With the publication of his first science fiction story, “Ender’s Game,” in Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine in 1977 and his receiving the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer from the World Science Fiction Convention in 1978, Orson Scott Card was the first Mormon science fiction and fantasy author to achieve notable success in this field. He won both the Hugo and Nebula awards two years in succession for Ender’s Game (1986) and Speaker for the Dead (1987), something no author had done previously nor has done since.
A number of other Mormons have followed Orson Scott Card’s break into the science fiction and fantasy scene. Dave Wolverton, M. Shayne Bell, Susan Kroupa, James Jordan, and Virginia Baker, inspired by Orson Scott Card’s success, have all been winners in L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest, the highest-paying contest for amateur writers of science fiction and fantasy—one that is said to draw thousands of participants each year.
In just the past few years, there has been quite a bit of high-profile activity from Mormon authors in the national science fiction and fantasy market. Brandon Sanderson, who writes epic fantasy novels, is a New York Times bestselling author who was recently given the distinction of being asked by Robert Jordan’s widow to finish the Wheel of Time, a popular fantasy book series that has sold over 44 million copies worldwide. Shannon Hale won a 2006 Newbery Honor award for her bestselling middle-grade fantasy novel Princess Academy. Stephenie Meyer followed up her wildly successful vampire paranormal romance series Twilight in 2008 with a science fiction novel, The Host, which stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for over a year. Internationally known crime fiction author Anne Perry has recently taken her own plunge into the market with the publication of two fantasy novels, Tathea and Come Armageddon. Brandon Mull, Aprilynne Pike, and other Mormon children’s authors have consistently shown up on the New York Times Best Seller list for their middle grade and YA fantasy series.
Along with the success and awards, there is also the strange trivia of Mormon involvement in science fiction and fantasy. According to Scott and Marny Parkin, who maintain the online Bibliography of Mormon Speculative Fiction (mormonsf.org), Zenna Henderson, another Hugo Award winner, was raised Mormon. Glen Larson, producer of the science fiction television show Battlestar Galactica, is famously credited with having included aspects of Mormon theology and culture (a planet of origin called “Kobol,” a Council of the Twelve, marriage for “all the eternities,” etc.) in the series. Screenwriter David Howard co-wrote the screenplay for the successful Star Trek spoof, Galaxy Quest, which won the 2000 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. Gary Kurtz was the executive producer of Star Wars: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and a fantasy film directed by Jim Henson called The Dark Crystal.
There’s even an unlikely connection between Mormonism and Ray Bradbury, one of the most honored and influential writers of science fiction and fantasy in the 20th and 21st centuries. According to BYU professor Linda Hunter Adams, Ray Bradbury once told her in a phone interview that he was good friends with Reid Nibley (Hugh Nibley’s brother) when he was a boy, that he sometimes attended MIA activities with Reid, and that they even wrote Mormon roadshows together—Ray writing the scripts and Reid composing the music.
Several people have speculated about why Mormons seem to be unusually represented in the science fiction and fantasy genre. Mormon scholar Terryl Givens points to Mormon theology as a possible source for the “affinity” Mormons have with science fiction in particular and speculative fiction (defined as “imaginative” or “non-literary” fiction) in general.
Says Givens in his book People of Paradox, “Science fiction (or the more-encompassing ‘speculative fiction’), though still struggling for respect as serious art, is the literary form best suited to the exposition and exploration of ideas at the margins of conventional thinking, whether in technology, ethics, politics, or religion. And indeed, some Mormon doctrine is so unsettling in its transgression of established ways of conceiving reality that it may be more at home in the imagined universes of Card than in journals of theology.”
Two examples of Mormon doctrine that Givens sees influencing Mormon science fiction and fantasy writers’ work are (1) the theme of apotheosis—that men and women can progress to the point of becoming divine beings, and (2) that God has created other |
ification itself (1989–1990), the debate about the Stalin notes played no part.
Discussion in the 1950s [ edit ]
The American historian Ruud van Dijk remarked that in the later discussions much more sincerity was attributed to Stalin than in 1952. The clearer it became that the chances for German reunification were dwindling, the stronger the debate about whether or not an important chance had been missed in 1952. According to Manfred Kittel, the discussion increased in extent as the chances for reunification decreased.
Within journalism, it was Paul Sethe who most sharply criticized Adenauer's non-acceptance of Stalin's offer. Sethe was the co-publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung in the beginning of the 1950s and had always spoken out in his commentaries for at least checking into the seriousness of Stalin's notes. Thus he saw the neutralization of Germany as an appropriate price for reunification. He completed the thesis of the "missed chances" in his book, "Von Bonn nach Moskau" (From Bonn to Moscow) and thus he lay the cornerstone for a debate about the Stalin notes that lasted for decades.
The idea of the "missed opportunity" received attention through a debate in the Bundestag on January 23, 1958. The CDU/CSU had a government coalition with the small DP, when two former Ministers asked to speak, Thomas Dehler (FDP) and Gustav Heinemann (first CDU, now SPD). Both of them had left the government in the dispute with Adenauer at that time. They accused Chancellor Adenauer of not having done enough for reunification.
Discussion in the 1980s [ edit ]
The debate came again in the 1980s, when the Western archives were opened for historians. The archives of the Soviet Union and the GDR were not yet accessible to researchers at that time. The historian, Rolf Steininger, asked in his article, "Eine Chance zur Wiedervereinigung?" (A Chance for Reunification?) in 1985, which is based predominantly on Western sources, whether an important chance had been missed at that time. Steininger and others disputed the question whether it would have inevitably led to a divided Germany and whether the course of Adenauer was the best possible way. His argument is based on three assumptions:
Stalin's offer was meant seriously
The Western powers intended to sound out Stalin's offer
Adenauer attempted to stop any attempt in this direction
The historian Hermann Graml, on the other hand, justified the actions of the Western Powers. Quite the opposite and also on the basis of the Western archives, he attached little importance to Adenauer's influence on the negotiation. Graml interpreted the note itself and the "planned" failure of the negotiations as more or less that the Soviet Union wanted to create an alibi for being able to push forward on the integration of the GDR into the Eastern Bloc.
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]The debacle of the ‘Seas of David’ terrorist plot
There have been a series of alleged terrorist plots that the White House has claimed to have disrupted. Sometimes Bush and his team tout these thwarted plots to defend torture, and sometimes it’s to defend illegally tapping Americans’ phones, but the bottom line is always the same — there are dangerous bad guys out there, and the president is stopping them.
As it turns out, most, if not all, of the examples of thwarted plots touted by the Bush gang fall apart under scrutiny, but my all-time favorite has to be the “Seas of David” cult (aka, the “Miami 7”).
When these would-be terrorists were captured, the administration characterized it as an enormous victory. Shortly after the suspects were taken into custody, Dick Cheney personally bragged that the Miami group was “a very real threat.” Then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was so excited he held a press conference to highlight this stunning counter-terrorism success story.
The AG said the group represented a “new brand of terrorism” created by “the convergence of globalization and technology.” The Justice Department said the terrorists in Miami intended to even blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago.
Except the story was wildly exaggerated. These alleged terrorists had no weapons, no bombs, no expertise, and no money. They didn’t behave or operate as terrorists. They apparently swore an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden, but because an undercover FBI infiltrator suggested the idea. For that matter, these guys weren’t even Muslims, but instead practiced their own hybrid religion that combined Islam and Christianity.
Their “plots” against the United States were “embryonic at best.” The New York Daily News described the group, which was more a cult than a terrorist network, as the “7 Boobs.” They’d have trouble attacking a convenience store, better yet the Sears Tower.
Yesterday, a jury found the administration’s case unpersuasive, at best.
One of seven indigent men charged with plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as part of an Islamic jihad was acquitted on Thursday, and a mistrial was declared in the prosecution of the six others after the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked. The outcome was a significant defeat for the Bush administration, which had described the case as a major crackdown on homegrown terrorists. Officials had acknowledged that the defendants, known as the Liberty City Seven for the depressed section of Miami where they frequently gathered in a rundown warehouse, had never acquired weapons or equipment and had posed no immediate threat. But, the officials said, the case underscored a need for pre-emptive terrorism prosecutions.
Maybe in some cases, but probably not in this one. The FBI accused these seven people of wanting to destroy the Sears Tower in large part because one of the seven had once visited the building.
Indeed, Paul Kiel reminded me of the group’s ringleader.
The clique, adherents of a sect “that mixes Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Freemasonry, Gnosticism and Taoism,” met in a windowless warehouse they called the “Temple.” The leader of the group, Narseal Batiste, was described as a “‘Moses-like figure’ who would roam the streets in a cape or bathrobe, toting a crooked wooden cane and looking for young men to join his group.” And when the group met in their Temple, the men “took turns standing guard outside the door, dressed up in makeshift military uniforms and combat boots.” … The group trained by shooting paintball guns in the woods.
Something to remember the next time Cheney describes something as “a very real threat.”
As for the mistrial, the administration reportedly will re-file charges next year against six of the seven. Stay tuned.When I was a kid with a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), sometimes my games wouldn't load. But I, like all kids, knew the secret: take out the game cartridge, blow on the contacts, and put it back in. And it seemed to work. (When it failed, I'd just keep trying until it worked.) But looking back, did blowing into the cartridge really help? I've talked to the experts, reviewed a study on this very topic, and have the answer. But first, let's talk tech.
Famicom, NES, and Zero Insertion Force
The NES console marketed in the US looked very different from Nintendo's original Famicom console sold in Japan. The Famicom (short for Family Computer) is shown above -- it featured a top loading design in which you crammed the cartridge into a slot on the top. (It also featured a snazzy red-and-cream color scheme that to my eye looks a bit like Voltron.) By putting the cartridge in on top, the label on the Famicom cartridge served as a kind of billboard, advertising the game currently being played. When Nintendo created the NES for the US, a major design change was to place that cartridge slot deep inside a VCR-style gray box (shown below). It was similar technology, but hidden in a way that American consumers might assume was more like a familiar VCR -- and more importantly, different from game consoles like the Atari 2600, which were old news. Nintendo wanted to be new, and better -- so it hid its slot.
What Nintendo tried to emulate was a "Zero Insertion Force" (ZIF) connection -- a phrase that sounds like a bad joke about problems in bed, but is a real engineering notion. A ZIF connection is one in which the user doesn't directly press the cartridge into its host connector -- no insertion force is exerted by the user. This is a good thing from an engineering standpoint because users can do things like push too hard, and eventually connectors that require this kind of contact wear out. A typical mid-to-late 80s VCR is a variant of ZIF design: the tape goes in the front, then the machine grabs it and gently pulls it into place. That's a pretty durable design. That's not what the NES had, though. Its slot required insertion force, and it was buried inside a box -- making it hard to fix when things went wrong.
In the NES, the user opened a front flap, slid a cartridge into the machine, and the insertion force occurred at the back of the machine, where the (hidden) cartridge slot lived -- pins within the cartridge crammed up against the slot in the back. Then the user pushed the cartridge down (again emulating the behavior of a VCR) and powered on the console. This little ritual felt very satisfying, but over time the cartridge slot got dirty, its springs wore out, and the cartridges themselves got dirty. All of these factors worked together to cause poor contact between cartridge and slot, which meant your game just didn't work -- the machine couldn't communicate with the cartridge over a bad connection, and frustration ensued.
Metal Versus Oxygen: FIGHT!
Nintendo designed its NES connector using nickel pins bent into a position so that they'd give slightly when a cartridge was inserted, then spring back after it was removed. These pins became less springy after repeated use, which make it hard for them to firmly grasp the game cartridge's connectors. To make things worse, the cartridges themselves had copper connectors. Copper tarnishes when exposed to air, causing it to develop a distinctive patina. While this patina was often not bad enough to cause problems, an overzealous kid (ahem, like me) might notice this effect and (ahem) attempt to remove it using all sorts of things from erasers to steel wool to solvents (side-note: my father, being a computer guy, had access to a magical substance called Cramolin -- apparently worth its weight in gold, it could clean anything). Enough overzealous cleaning could ruin a connector, rendering the cartridge unplayable. I know this because I did it.
Blowing into the Cartridge
When things went wrong inside your NES, the problem was usually a bad connection between the cartridge and its slot. That could be due to tarnishing, corrosion, crud in various places, weak pins in the slot, or other issues. The symptoms of a bad connection could include the game not starting at all, the console showing a blinking light, or the game starting up with garbage all over the screen (below, a photo of Zelda II shows this form of startup glitch). To combat these problems, in the mid-1980s my friends and I somehow learned this secret: if we took out the cartridge, blew in it, and reinserted it, it worked. And if it didn't work the first time, it eventually worked, on the second or fifth or tenth time. But looking back on it, I wondered: did that blowing actually help? And if it did...why? Was dust the culprit, and I was blowing it out of the cartridge? I spoke with several experts (who insisted they were not experts, despite their backgrounds) to find out.
Zelda II glitch image courtesy of Flickr user Kevin Simpson, used under Creative Commons license. See more glitch images at Flickr!
First up, Vince Clemente, producer of Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters -- a documentary about players of the classic NES Tetris. Clemente said, "[Blowing in the cartridge] is actually terrible for the games and makes the contacts rust. You're really not supposed to do it. But it works. [laughs]" This sums up the problem: although intellectually we knew that blowing into electronics was bad, we did it anyway. It seemed to work.
So I turned to another authority, Frankie Viturello, who is one of the hosts of the gaming show Digital Press Webcast among many other gaming-related projects -- he also worked in a game store for years. Viturello's first response was: "While I admittedly may have dabbled in a little cartridge-blowing as a naive NES-playing youth, I've long-since been an advocate for not doing it with the stance that for whatever it may do to aid in the temporary functionality of an NES, it ultimately opens the door for damage and distress to the hardware." So I went deeper -- in the following mini-interview, I have added emphasis in various places.
Higgins: "How did this lore about blowing into the cartridges spread across the US?"
Viturello: "It was very much a hive-mind kind of thing, something that all kids did, and many still do on modern cartridge based systems. Prior to the NES I don't recall people blowing into Atari or any other cartridge-based hardware that predated the NES (though that likely spoke to the general reliability of that hardware versus the dreaded front-loading Nintendo 72 Pin connectors). I suppose it has a lot to do with the placebo effect. US NES hardware required, on most games, optimal connection across up to 72 pins as well as communication with a security lock-out chip. The theory that 'dust' could be a legitimate inhibitor and that 'blowing it out' was the solution, still sounds silly to me when I say it out loud."
Higgins: "Why would blowing into the cartridges have any effect? It feels like it works, sometimes."
Viturello: "While there are some collectors/enthusiasts who will defend their position that the moisture in human breath will likely cause no damage to an NES cartridge, based on what I've personally seen over the past 20 years, I not only disagree with them, but feel strongly that the connection/correlation between blowing into an NES cartridge and the potential for long-term effects including wear, corrosion of the metal contacts, mold/mildew growth, is sound logic.
"So, WHY does blowing into a cartridge have any effect? I'm not a scientist and I don't have any real empirical evidence, but I'm happy to speculate. The most reasonable explanations -- in my opinion -- are: 1.) The act of removing, blowing in, and re-seating a cartridge most likely creates another random opportunity for the connection to be better made. So removing the cartridge 10 times and putting back in without blowing on it might net the exact same results as blowing on it between each time. And 2.) The moisture that occurs when you blow into a cartridge has some type of immediate effect on the electrical connection that occurs. Either the moisture helps to eliminate/move any debris/chemical buildup that has occurred when the contacts and the pin-readers rub together, or the moisture increases conductivity to a degree that it can send the data through any existing matter that was previously interfering with the connection. Those are my best theories."
Higgins: "What about other ways could you make a cartridge work when it was misbehaving? I've heard about stacking an extra cartridge on top of the one you're playing, to force it down."
Viturello: "Things like pressing down on the cartridge just helped with the connection because everything was horizontal in the pin-connector. Downward pressure pressed the cartridge pins more firmly against the connectors and eliminated some possibility for a missed or imperfect connection."
Studying Cartridge-Blowing
Viturello actually conducted a nonscientific study on this very subject. He took two very similar copies of Gyromite, removed the plastic cartridge shell to expose the contacts (making them easier to photograph), and proceeded to blow on one of them ten times a day (all in one go, to simulate a zealous young gamer's efforts), for a month. The second copy was a control -- it didn't get the blowing treatment. The blown and non-blown games were stored in the same location in his house, so in theory, this test should reveal the visual effects of repeated blowing on cartridges -- though they don't include functional results attempting to play the games. There is at least one issue with the methodology of the test: the cartridges weren't exactly identical to start with (they look to me like slightly different revisions of the same circuit board), so it's theoretically possible that the contacts were coated differently between revisions. Still, it's the best evidence we have, and the results are super gross.
While I encourage you to read the study, I can summarize the results. Here's a look at the cartridges at the beginning of the test:
And after a month:
So that's pretty gross, right? It's unclear what the result is -- whether that's copper patina, mold, or what -- but it appears that some effect occurred. See also: this guy's response to the study relating the story of an extreme case of N64 cartridge licking.
Nintendo Weighs In
In a brief note on its NES Game Pak Troubleshooting page, Nintendo states:
Do not blow into your Game Paks or systems. The moisture in your breath can corrode and contaminate the pin connectors.
So the Answer is No
So, dear readers, all signs point to no: blowing in the cartridge did not help. My money is on the blowing thing being a pure placebo, offering the user just another chance at getting a good connection. The problems with Nintendo's connector system are well-documented, and most of them are mechanical -- they just wore out faster than expected.
Having said that, it's true that kids can be grubby, and getting crud into the cartridge or slot was a real problem -- I suspect that most of that crud was not just dust, though, and required a more thorough cleaning than a moist mouth-blast could provide. In fact, Nintendo released an official NES Cleaning Kit in 1989 in an attempt to keep both the slot and cartridges clean. Ultimately, Nintendo redesigned the NES console, releasing an NES 2 console in 1993 that's commonly known as the "top loader." Its main feature? A top loading slot. It was more like the original Famicom, using a slot that held up better to abuse. Similarly, the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) was a top loader.
Fixing Your Old NES & Maintaining Your Games
If you have an NES with connector problems, it can probably be repaired, and you might even be able to do it yourself. Check out iFixit's repair guides for some common fixes, including a relatively easy one -- fixing the springs that hold up the cartridge slot. While mine never broke, I had a bunch of friends with dead springs. We can fix it!
And when I asked Viturello about cleaning cartridges, he told me:
Viturello: "The best methods for cleaning game cartridges are: isopropyl alcohol and swabs or, more recently I and others have discovered that non-conductive metal polish such as Sheila Shine or Brasso is very effective and also helps to protect against some of the elements that would otherwise cause that natural tarnish that occurs through regular exposure to the elements and standard usage."
Share Your NES Memories
I know we have a variety of old-school gamers out there. Do you remember the tip to wiggle the cartridge side-to-side? What about whacking the cartridge with the palm of your hand before putting it in? I'm curious what tricks you guys got up to, trying to make your game systems work. Also, many thanks to Frankie Viturello for answering my questions -- check out the Digital Press webcast for gaming goodness. (Episode 5 is devoted to the NES.)
Update: I appeared on the How to Do Everything podcast discussing this story. It's fun, check it out!
Follow Chris Higgins on Twitter for more stories like this one.In January 2007, a SWAT team in Lima, Ohio, shot and killed Tarika Wilson, a 26-year-old mother, during a drug raid at the home of her boyfriend, Anthony Terry. When the unarmed Wilson was shot, she was kneeling on the ground, complying with police orders. She was holding her 1-year-old son, Sincere, who was also shot, losing his left hand. A subsequent investigation revealed that Officer Joseph Chavalia heard another officer shooting Terry’s two dogs, mistook the noise for hostile gunfire, panicked, and fired blindly into the room where Wilson was kneeling. Chavalia was charged with involuntary manslaughter, but acquitted.
As reckless and violent as the raid was, the police did at least find a substantial supply of illegal drugs inside the house, and Anthony Terry later pleaded guilty to felony drug distribution. A subsequent investigation by the Lima News showed that despite the inherent danger and small margin for error, SWAT raids conducted by the Lima Police Department frequently turned up no drugs or weapons at all. The paper found that in one-third of the 198 raids the SWAT team conducted from 2001 to 2008, no contraband was found.
Similar reviews in other cities have produced similar results: A surprisingly high percentage of raids produce neither drugs nor weapons. And the weapons that are found tend to be small, concealable handguns, with few raids resulting in felony convictions.
A Denver Post investigation found that in 80 percent of no-knock raids conducted in Denver in 1999, police assertions that there would be weapons in the targeted home turned out to be wrong. A separate investigation by the Rocky Mountain News found that of the 146 no-knock warrants served in Denver in 1999, just 49 resulted in criminal charges, and only two resulted in prison time. Media investigations produced similar results after high-profile mistaken raids in New York City in 2003, in Atlanta in 2007, and in Orlando and Palm Beach, Florida, in 1998. When the results of the Denver investigation were revealed, former prosecutor Craig Silverman said, “When you have that violent intrusion on people’s homes with so little results, you have to ask why.”
Lima police apparently aren’t as concerned. When told of the Lima News investigation, police spokesman Kevin Martin said, “That means 68 percent of the time, we’re getting guns or drugs off the street. We’re not looking at it as a win-loss record like a football team does.”Election 2016: Country Liberals MP Natasha Griggs tells voters to preference far-right Rise Up Australia
Updated
A Coalition MP in a marginal seat junked her how-to-vote cards on election eve, telling voters to direct preferences to the far-right, anti-multicultural Rise Up Australia Party.
Natasha Griggs is the Country Liberals member for the Darwin electorate of Solomon.
Labor has laid siege to the seat, which she holds by just 1.4 per cent, and leaders from both major parties have made multiple visits to Darwin over the eight-week campaign.
Her original how-to-vote cards instructed voters to direct second preferences to a Liberal Democrats candidate, but in an 11th-hour move, fresh cards handed out on the day before the polls now instruct voters to preference businesswoman Silvija Majetic from Rise Up Australia Party.
Rise Up is a Christian-based party, led by controversial Victorian preacher Danny Nalliah.
Mr Nalliah sparked controversy several years ago when he claimed the Black Saturday bushfires were God's revenge for Victoria's abortion laws.
He has also addressed a number of Reclaim Australia rallies over recent years.
Ms Griggs said she was aware the Northern Territory's Country Liberals Party was negotiating a new deal ahead of July 2.
"They were talking about a how-to-vote card for polling day," she told the ABC.
"I was aware there were discussions that were occurring, but I hadn't paid any attention to the how to vote.
"It's a matter for the party; it's got nothing to do with me."
In a pre-election candidate biography, Ms Majetic said: "I stand for Australian values, culture and way of life, which we can attribute largely to our Judeo-Christian heritage".
"I am sick of political correctness which is curtailing every Australian's right to freedom of speech."
Labor NT said it made a decision to preference Rise Up Australia below the Country Liberals, fearing its anti-multicultural platform would create division in the community.
"They've got some policies that we just don't agree with," ALP NT secretary Kent Rowe said.
"I think being anti-multicultural creates an unnecessary division and tension within this country, the strength of this country was built off everyone coming together.
"We just don't think [Rise Up Australia] should be supported at any level."
The ABC has sought comment from Country Liberals headquarters.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, federal-elections, elections, australia, nt, darwin-0800
First postedTrump demands closure of 'corrupt' Clinton Foundation
Donald Trump has demanded that Hillary Clinton shut down the charitable foundation founded by her husband, former US president Bill Clinton, branding it a "corrupt enterprise."
The Republican presidential candidate also called for a special prosecutor to investigate his Democratic rival, accusing the FBI and Justice Department of a "whitewash" during their probe of her use of a private email server while secretary of state.
"The amounts involved, the favors done and the significant number of times it was done require an expedited investigation by a special prosecutor immediately, immediately, immediately," Trump told a rally in Akron, Ohio, speaking of the State Department under Clinton.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump branded the Clinton Foundation "the most corrupt enterprise in political history" ©Molly Riley (AFP/File)
The crowd responded with rowdy chants of "Lock her up! Lock her up!"
In an earlier statement, Trump called the Clinton Foundation "the most corrupt enterprise in political history."
The charity has raised some $2 billion since it was founded in 2001 after Bill Clinton left office.
"It must be shut down immediately," Trump said.
The Republican nominee said the foundation had received financial contributions from various countries "that discriminated against women and gays and everybody else."
That remark apparently referred to various nations seen as having checkered histories on human rights, Saudi Arabia among them, that made generous donations to the foundation when Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee, served as President Barack Obama's secretary of state between 2009 and 2013.
"I mean, that money -- it should be given back. They should not take that money," Trump told Fox.
- 'People are gonna die' -
James Carville, Bill Clinton's top strategist in his ultimately successful campaign for the presidency in the 1990s, warned of dire consequences should Trump and his supporters manage to shutter the foundation.
"There will be people that are gonna die because of this," Carville told CNN, estimating that the foundation helped around 10 million people get access to low-cost HIV drugs.
"All of the people that helped shut it down will say, 'Gee, some people, a million people, had to die, but we had to prove a point,'" Carville said.
The Clinton Foundation disburses funds domestically and overseas, handing out some $218 million in 2014.
A firewall was supposed to have been in place to ensure that the foundation's work remained completely separate from Hillary Clinton's role as head of US diplomacy, but critics said that barrier was permeable at best.
- Newly released Clinton emails -
Meanwhile, nearly 15,000 emails Hillary Clinton sent from her private server while secretary of state were released, and raised fresh concerns about potential conflicts of interest between the foundation and her service as the top US diplomat.
Judicial Watch, a conservative group that has targeted Clinton for years, released the emails, including some purporting to show that various donors to the Clinton Foundation had lobbied one of her top aides, Huma Abedin, for access to the former first lady.
The emails were made public by a judge after the group filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
The newly released email exchanges appeared to show that a rich donor, Casey Wasserman, asked Bill Clinton aide Doug Band to contact Abedin for help in setting up a meeting with diplomatic officials in London, raising fresh questions about special favors for top Clinton Foundation donors.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had handed over about 14,900 new emails to the department, both personal and government-related, that would be made public.
"There was nothing that we have seen that implied any kind of untoward relationship" giving a donor to the Foundation privileged access to the then-secretary of state, he said.
Concerns were recently revived after emails surfaced showing that Band had contacted two senior State Department aides of Hillary Clinton, seeking their assistance in helping a donor -- Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury -- to secure a meeting with a US diplomat in Lebanon.
Bill Clinton sought to tamp down the controversy, announcing last week that -- if his wife is elected president in November -- the Clinton Foundation would no longer accept foreign or corporate donations, and he would step down from the board.
The former president said additional measures would also be taken under a Hillary Clinton presidency to make sure some programs are continued independently.
"Much of the foundation's international work, like that of most global NGOs, is funded in part by donor governments' bilateral aid programs. If Hillary is elected, we will transition those programs out of the foundation to other organizations committed to continuing their work," Bill Clinton said.
Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign manager, told CNN on Sunday that the additional safeguards were "unprecedented... in terms of disclosure and limits."
The Clinton Foundation has raised some $2 billion since it was founded in 2001 after Bill Clinton left office ©Michael loccisano (Getty/AFP/File)
Former US President Bill Clinton (R) helps to fit an earmould on 13-year-old Kevin Njoroge, at Nairobi's Starkey Hearing Foundation, a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, in May 2015 ©John Muchucha (AFP/File)This mod attempts to replicate the Fallout: New Vegas style of ammunition crafting. In the settlement menu you can build a Reloading bench, which is host to several methods for creating ammunition.
Workbench
Settings
Component Output:
# Massive (200%)
# Regular (100%)
# Small (50%)
# Minimal (20%)
Perk Restrictions
Encode
This options allows you to lock in your settings. This is meant for people who don't want the temptation of changing the settings. Commiting to this action will remove the "Settings [Craftable Ammunition]" holotape permanantly.
Construction
The following list are the components added by the mod, and used by the recipes for ammunition crafting. The recipes to create these are found under 'Components' at the Reloading workbench.
Case,.308
Case,.38
Case,.44
Case,.45-70
Case,.45
Case,.50
Case, 10mm
Case, 5mm
Case, 5.56mm
Case, Hull
Fuel Canister
Gunpowder
Processed Lead
Primer
Ballistic ammunition is created by crafting together the correct Case with Processed Lead, Gunpowder and Primer. The amount of Processed Lead, Gunpowder and Primer needed for each batch of ammunition differs. The recipes for construction can be found under the categories 'Construction' and 'Batch Construction'.
The following is a list of the ammunition types available in this mod:
.308 round
.38 round
.44 round
.45 round
.45-70 round
.50 round
10mm round
5mm round
5.56mm round
Shotgun Shell
Flamer Fuel
Missile
Mini Nuke
Fusion Cell
Plasma Cartridge
Gamma round
2mm EC
Cryo Cell
Reclamation
If you have excess ammunition, you can reclaim the constituent parts and use them to make your desired ammunition. This is only available for ballistic ammunition, energy ammunition has to be recycled. The recipes for reclamation can be found under the categories 'Reclamation' and 'Batch Reclamation'.
Recycling
To create new energy weapon ammunition (Fusion Cell, Plasma Cartridge and 2mm EC) you have to recycle any ammunition you currently have into your desired type. The recipes for recycling can be found under the categories 'Recycling' and 'Batch Recycling'.
Fusion Cells can also be made in a separate recipe, requiring only raw components.
Unique
There are additional recipes under 'Unique' that allow you to build Gamma rounds, Cannonballs, Railway Spikes, Missiles, Harpoons, Nuka Grenades and Mini Nukes.
This mod attempts to replicate the Fallout: New Vegas style of ammunition crafting. In the settlement menu you can build a Reloading bench, which is host to several methods for creating ammunition.The Reloading workbench is the main focal point of the mod. All recipes are completed at this workbench. The workbench costs 5 Lead, 5 Gears, 10Steel and 10 Wood.You can alter settings for the mod by using the "Settings [Craftable Ammunition]" holotape. The options are as follows:# On# OffHaving lost its spot for having the world’s most popular Internet browser, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer is now clawing its way back up as Google’s (GOOG) Chrome continues become the browser of choice. In a rather risky move, Microsoft has launched a new video ad featuring an online troll who goes on a rampage attacking Internet Explorer for its dated compatibility. In the words of the online troll “IE SUCKS!!! 4evUR! Srsly!” Microsoft’s admission that previous versions of Internet Explorer have been lackluster is a step in the right direction if it’s to regain lost market share with Internet Explorer 10. The ad doesn’t tout IE 10 as the best browser available, but shows humility; that Microsoft is aware of its past mistakes and is working on improving IE so that it “sucks less.” Microsoft’s IE 10 ad follows below.Looking for news you can trust?
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President Donald Trump demanded on Friday that the Justice Department and FBI investigate his political opponents, claiming federal authorities are ignoring the “dishonesty” of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. He also referred to a new excerpt from former Democratic National Committee interim chairwoman Donna Brazille’s forthcoming book detailing the presidential election, in which she alleges Clinton rigged the nomination process against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The series of angry tweets comes a day after the president expressed frustration over his lack of authority to direct the Justice Department to investigate his favored issues.
“I look at what’s happening with the Justice Department,” Trump said on the Larry O’Connor Show Thursday. “Well, why aren’t they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with her, the dossier?”
“I’m very unhappy with it that the Justice Department isn’t going,” he continued. “I am not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing—and I am very frustrated by it.”
Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn't looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary & the Dems.. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
…New Donna B book says she paid for and stole the Dem Primary. What about the deleted E-mails, Uranium, Podesta, the Server, plus, plus… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
….People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
The real story on Collusion is in Donna B's new book. Crooked Hillary bought the DNC & then stole the Democratic Primary from Crazy Bernie! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
In recent weeks, Trump has launched fresh new attacks against Clinton, alleging that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and the Russian government was distracting from the real criminal actions of his former presidential rival.
Trump ended his indignant exhortations on Friday by citing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)’s recent comments that she believed the nomination process was rigged. He did so by resurrecting his racially charged moniker for the senator, who claimed Native American ancestry: Pocahontas.
Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI & Justice Dept. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017
When asked about his tweets, Trump told reporters, “I don’t know. I’m really not involved with the Justice Department. I’d like to let it run itself. But honestly, they should be looking at the Democrats. They should be looking at Podesta and all of that dishonesty. They should be looking at a lot of things. And a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me.”Who doesn’t love gadgets, especially when it is the latest iPhone? People in most parts of the world are known to make a beeline in front of electronics and mobile stores to become proud owners of Apple’s latest devices. In the recent days, increasing number of e-commerce platforms has saved people from waiting in queues to buy the most coveted gadgets.
A Pakistan-based e-commerce store Cellistan.com has today announced the availability of the latest iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. This particular platform stands apart from rest of the online stores in the region because of its acceptance of Bitcoin payments.
According to reports, the price of iPhone 7 on Cellistan will range from 80,000 to 85,000 PKR. Similarly, the higher version, iPhone 7 Plus will be available for 102,000 PKR. Pakistani customers on Cellistan can choose to pay for their brand new gadgets with multiple payment options, Bitcoin being one of them. Once a customer completes the purchase, the platform promises to ship it to anywhere in Pakistan on the same day.
Cellistan is the poster child of Bitcoin adoption in developing nations. Nations like India and Pakistan are seeing increasing adoption of Bitcoin and other digital currencies in the recent days. Even though Bitcoin hit the shores of the Indian subcontinent much later than the rest of the world, the rate of adoption is surprisingly high. People in both the countries are actively involved in trading digital currencies.
The recent developments in the Indian Bitcoin ecosystem is an example of how the digital currency revolution is taking the region by storm. Three major Indian Bitcoin platforms, Coinsecure, UnoCoin, and ZebPay have all raised over a million dollars in investment till date. They have been constantly launching new products to meet the various customer requirement while educating them about the benefits of digital currencies at the same time.
READ MORE: Coinsecure Launches Bitcoin App to Nearly 200 Million Smartphone Users
Cellistan is one of the new generation stores which started |
ism among Europeans.138
But the bottom line is that the Zionists were successful. Israel would not have become a state without a great many deeply ethnocentric Jews willing to engage in any means necessary to bring about their dream: a state that would be a vehicle for their ethnic interests. It would not have come about without the most radical among them—people like Jabotinsky, Begin, Shamir, Sharon, and their supporters—a group which now includes the entire organized American Jewish community. The impending dispossession of Europeans will only be avoided if people of their ilk can be found among the political class of Europeans.- A year after Detroit's medical marijuana ordinance went into effect, city officials say it's working.
In a phone interview with FOX 2, Corporation Councilman of the City of Detroit Melvin "Butch" Hollowell says more than 150 facilities have been closed from it.
"We have shut down 167 of the facilities," he says. "Fifty one still remain to be closed down, but we have been vigilant enforcing the city council's ordinance."
The crackdown isn't easy. Hollowell says enforcement teams are on the constant lookout for facilities in violations so a padlock can go on their doors.
"Our inspection teams will knock on the door of the facility," says Hollowell. "If they are not allowed in they will kick down the door. I'll file an action in Wayne County Circuit Court to ask the court to give me an order of closure and padlocking."
Activist Winfred Blackmon says he's been working for years to get medical marijuana facilities operating illegally out of his community.
"This one right here on corner is in violation of a 1,000 foot spacing of a controlled use. A controlled use is a liquor store," he says.
Blackmon says using the law to fight these centers is what's helping to make a difference.
"It's a great ordinance, it's working," he says. "But as the law department will tell you it's not the best ordinance. It's not working as fast as we would like to see it but something is better than nothing."
As the city continues its effort to shut down these centers operating illegally in the city of Detroit, they'll also be talking about key issues surrounding marijuana at the policy conference on Mackinac Island.
"We're keeping an eye on whether or not the legalization - not just for medical purposes of marijuana, very well may be on the ballot next year," he says. "There is an effort well underway statewide to put it on ballot next year. We don't know if it will be successful but we certainly won't be caught by surprise."Illinois Soybean Association
Soy is one of the big three genetically engineered crops along with corn and canola. Since its introduction to farmers in 1992 90% of the soy grown in the United States has been bought from Monsanto and comes Roundup Ready. Up until now it seemed like Monsanto had a lock on the U.S. soy industry, but this year there is a small whiff of change. After a decade of astronomical growth this could be the first year that farmers start turning away from the GE giant's seeds. The Organic and Non-GMO Report is reporting the increase of soy farmers deciding to plant non-GMO seeds.
Low commodity soybean prices, attractive premiums, and rising prices for genetically modified soybean seed are leading American farmers to plant more acres of non-GMO soybeans this year.
According to the report, the going rate for a bushel of soy is $9, and there is a premium of $1 per bushel for non-GMO. Farmers are also turning away from Monsanto because of a price increase on both Roundup Ready soybeans and Roundup itself. Add to that the growing evidence that weeds are becoming resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup and farmers are starting to take notice.
Because of the demand there has been a run on non-GMO seeds and now there looks to be a shortage.
With the big emphasis on GM soybeans in recent years, many private seed companies have focused their breeding efforts on GM varieties and phased out non-GMO. However, good non-GMO soybean seed varieties are becoming available through some private companies in the US and Canada and through many US universities.
This trend looks good for consumers and farmers but not so good for the seed companies. The Report goes on to quote Grover Shannon, a soybean breeder with the University of Missouri, Delta Research Center, who explains the motives of the seed companies.
Shannon says the seed industry prefers selling GM seed because of the technology fee requiring that farmers buy seed every year; farmers can often save seed from non-GMO varieties. "The seed distributors don't want to go back to selling non-GMO. They want to sell seed every year; it's more profitable."
It's tough to say how this will all shake down. There's so much GMO seed in the system that it's going to be tough to ensure that it doesn't contaminate non-GMO fields. I wouldn't be surprised if here ends up being a bunch of Monsanto vs. Farmer lawsuits if Roundup Ready plants show up on fields planted with non-GMO seeds. Percy Schmeiser, who won a lawsuit against Monsanto over his canola crop, may find himself in high demand as a consultant on how to fight the GMO giant.
More on Monsanto
Monsanto pays $1M for GMO bribe
Monsanto's Monopoly Challenged in Munich
Monsanto and Michael Pollan Talk About Creating a World That Can Feed Itself
Saying No To Genetically Modified Foods In JapanA few weeks ago I highlighted “Dope Rider,” the trippy Wild West cartoon that appeared in High Times over a number of years in the 1970s and 1980s. The talented artist of those comic strips was Paul Kirchner, whose masterwork may well be a thoughtful and surreal strip about a municipal bus that appeared regularly in Heavy Metal over the same period, from 1979 to roughly 1985. That strip, “the bus” (always scrupulously set in lower-case), provided an ideal starting point for Kirchner’s fertile imagination, as the strip explored many variations of futility and disaster, fueled as much by The Twilight Zone and Godzilla as the paintings of Salvador Dali and M.C. Escher. As Kirchner himself writes in the afterword to a dandy collection of “the bus” published in 2012 by a French company called Éditions Tanibis,
The humor was inspired by the crazy logic of Warner Brothers cartoons; the paranoia of the Twilight Zone television program; and the surrealistic artwork of Bosch, Magritte, Dali, and Escher.
Escher, for sure—although the comic strips remind me of nothing so much as the playful, deadpan philosophy presented in the works of Jorge Luis Borges.
The book collects 73 of the strips (if my counting is accurate), which would represent almost precisely six years’ worth of output, as reflected in Kirchner’s account. According to Kirchner, he had wanted to present the strip in a horizontal format in the hopes of selling it to the Village Voice, but an editor at Heavy Metal had the shrewd idea of reducing the size:
Shortly after getting my foot in the door, I approached editor Julie Simmons [at Heavy Metal] with a comic strip called “the bus” (always written in lower case). I had drawn the first ten episodes in a horizontal format because I had intended to sell it to a weekly newspaper, the Village Voice. However, the Village Voice turned it down, though the art director was gracious enough to tell me it was the best thing he had ever rejected. Julie liked it and decided to run it as a half-page feature, as Heavy Metal often sold half-page ads and had to fill the remaining space.
Many, though not all, instances of “the bus” have precisely six panels, and most of my favorites are wordless. Tanibis to be saluted for rescuing these great strips from obscurity—even Kirchner himself admits that he never had much idea if anyone really liked the strip:
In those days before the internet, I rarely got feedback from readers about my work. It was published and I was paid, but what did people think of it? I didn’t know.
According to Tanibis, Kirchner has recently started doing “the bus” cartoons again, and Tanibis intends to publish an updated collection before the year is out. Very good news for all of Kirchner’s fans.
(For all the comics embedded in this post, clicking on the image will spawn a larger version.)
I am grateful to the Biblioklept blog for showcasing these gems over the last few months.Researchers led by teams at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Wenzhou Medical University of China have discovered a way to keep adult stem cells that are destined to become testosterone-producing cells multiplying and on track to fulfill their fate, a new study reports.
The findings could eventually help scientists develop transplantable cells that can churn out testosterone, avoiding the multitude of drawbacks associated with other ways to administer this quintessential male hormone. A report on the research is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Scientists have long known that testosterone, produced by Leydig cells in the testicles, is necessary for the male reproductive system to develop in fetuses and to maintain male reproductive function later in life. More recent research has shown that testosterone performs a host of other critical jobs in the body, with deficiencies contributing to increased body fat, decreased muscle mass, increased fatigue, depressed mood, decreased cognitive function and reduced immune response. Low testosterone has also been linked to increased mortality risk in older men.
To combat these issues, and to synchronize secondary sexual characteristics with gender identity in transgendered men, doctors often prescribe testosterone supplements that can be administered a variety of ways, including injection or topically. But these methods have a number of side effects, including increased risk of heart attacks and strokes, prostate enlargement, breast enlargement and acne. These issues, says study leader Haolin Chen, Ph.D., senior scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Bloomberg School, stem from the dramatic peaks and valleys in blood concentrations of the hormone that result from artificial administration.
One way to avoid these issues would be to mimic the way the body naturally releases testosterone, with cells that release the hormone steadily over time. While Chen and his colleagues had been successful at isolating adult stem cells set to become Leydig cells, they were unsure how to keep the cells multiplying, a process known as proliferation, and additionally to direct them to be testosterone producers, a process known as differentiation.
In the new study, the researchers used a method they'd previously developed to keep the stem cells alive, culturing them along isolated sections of the tubes that carry sperm in the testicles known as seminiferous tubules. For the next several weeks, the researchers fed these samples with various growth factors and other proteins that previous research had suggested might play a role in proliferation and differentiation.
They found a variety of factors that stimulated proliferation, including the proteins desert hedgehog (DHH), basic fibroblast growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor and activin. DHH and activin also stimulated differentiation. The research also showed that DHH played a vital role in transforming the stem cells into fully functioning, testosterone-producing Leydig cells.
Additionally, Chen and his colleagues determined that a protein called CD90, found on cell surfaces, could reliably distinguish the stem cells on the surfaces of seminiferous tubules that could be steered into Leydig cells.
Together, Chen says, these findings could be useful both for basic research as a model system for stem cells in general, and also to someday help researchers to create a population of testosterone-producing cells fit for transplant by isolating the right stem cells, prompting them to multiply and then to differentiate into Leydig cells.
"Our work could eventually offer a whole new therapy for individuals with low testosterone," Chen says.
"Regulation of seminiferous tubule-associated stem Leydig cells in adult rat testes" was written by Xiaoheng Li, Zhao Wang, Zhenming Jiang, Jingjing Guoa, Yuxi Zhang, Chenhao Li, Jinyong Chung, Janet Folmer, June Liu, Qingquan Lian, Renshan Ge, Barry R. Zirkin, and Haolin Chen.SGamer: Hello LongDD, thank you for the interview. As a top 10 ranked player in the previous season, you’ve gone even further this season to place first. How do you feel?
LongDD: I’ve actually had a top 4 in the past. Anyway, it’s great. I’ve been participating in CDEC since a few years ago, but never got first, because in the past I didn’t have the time to play much CDEC, but now I’ve finally done it.
SG: Compared to last season, this season’s top 10 sees far fewer professional players, and the overall amount of games has decreased as well, why do you think that is?
LongDD: They’ve all gone to play at events, of course, so that’s why there aren’t as many professional players.
SG: The lack of professional players should mean that there is room for newcomers to prove themselvess. Have you paid attention to any particularly talented players here?
LongDD: I think that xiaohong guy plays decently. Others I really haven’t paid much attention to.
SG:What are the main differences you see between pub games, competitive games, and in-house games?
LongDD: Pub games see different item choices that you wouldn’t see in CDEC, plus there is no points-based ranking system.
SG: TongFu won the DSL title — what do you think about their rise to power?
LongDD: I like the atmosphere they have at TongFu, lots of passion in their game. I can only say that TI3 is right in front of them, and if they want to achieve success then they must continue working hard.
SG: iG of late has been mired in a crisis, why do you think that is, and how do you think they should go about resolving it? Can [their new coach] 121 help them get back to their invincible old selves?
LongDD: iG’s main difference is that they’ve lost their confidence. So then they don’t even know what their strongest points are anymore.
SG: With iG’s fall and TongFu’s rise, what are your views on the current scene amongst Chinese teams? Which team is the strongest right now?
LongDD: Currently I think LGD has the best chance, they’ve been the most stable in recent times.
SG: TI3 is a mere few weeks away. Compared to last year, which team do you think has changed the most since TI2?
LongDD: Surely it is iG. Their current form is so worrisome, but I hope they can get out from it soon.
SG: Compared to last year, it would seem that this year, Western teams will come much better prepared. Alliance and NaVi both came to China and played excellently, what are your views on these two teams? Can they dominate TI3 and defeat the Chinese teams?
LongDD: I can only say, that there’s a chance of it. But I still favor the Chinese teams.
SG: How should the Chinese teams go about defeating these top tier Western teams? What should they do to counter the flexibility that these Western teams show in drafting?
LongDD: Learn, they must learn and analyze their strategies. Chinese teams should be good at that, learning.
SG: Even though you’re no longer playing professionally, you still stream frequently via YY, and have spent a lot of time playing in CDEC and pub games. What exactly do you think has brought so many viewers to your streams of these games?
LongDD: I think because I’m fairly interesting… and there’s still some professionalism about me, yeah!
SG: You’re a very experienced veteran pro player, and you’ve also shown that you can take on the role of a coach. Simultaneously, you also seem to be a very popular streamer. So given the choice, would you lean towards being involved in the pro scene, or as a streamer?
LongDD: If there’s a chance, I’d rather continue playing professionally. This is also the reason I continue to play every day.
SG: You’ve played with both DK and TongFu, and also put in some good performances in a short stint with LGD. Is it safe to say that you still possess the drive needed to be a competitive player? Which team would you favor joining, why?
LongDD: If I had the chance, I would still want to go back to the traditional Big 3 teams, and go for another championship.
SG: Thank you for your time. Anything to say to fans?
LongDD: I hope you all will give me your support.
Source: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201307/151557.html
AdvertisementsBut there appear to be few faces from neighboring towns like Mandan and St. Anthony. Residents from Morton County — population 30,000, about 92 percent white — often pass by the camp, cellphone cameras out. Few make the turnoff to head in.
“We don’t know our neighbors,” said Jana Gipp, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux who lives on 130 acres along the Missouri River here. “They don’t know that we’re hard workers. We don’t all drink. We have jobs. We have to support our families.”
The main camp sits on federal land managed by the Army Corps of Engineers and is run by a group of volunteers and members from the Standing Rock Sioux. People line up for communal breakfasts, dance and sing around campfires, and march a mile up the highway to the privately owned ranch land where construction on the pipeline has halted for the moment.
Tribal officials say they have applied for a camping permit from the corps, but law enforcement officials say they do not appear to have one. The corps did not respond to emails asking about the legality or status of the camp. On Tuesday, the chief executive of Energy Transfer Partners, the company developing the pipeline, sent a memo to employees saying it is committed to the project.
There are many ties between Indian and non-Indian residents here. Every weekend, people drive down to the Prairie Knights Casino and Resort on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation to gamble and see concerts. Plenty of friendships straddle reservation boundaries.
But each side views the protests through a starkly different prism.
Last month, Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier of Morton County warned that his officers had been threatened with pipe bombs. Tribal leaders said that was a misinterpretation of a call for demonstrators to “load up their pipes” — their ceremonial chanupa pipes.Part of the Light of the Guru Nanak Yatra
Anandpur Sahib, India
Written by Guru Nanak in the 15th Century, in a part of ancient India that is now in Pakistan, Japji Sahib, or the Song of the Soul, was revolutionary during his time. His message was: “There is no Hindu. There is no Muslim. We are all One.” Today, as we enter the Aquarian Age, these teachings are powerfully relevant. Japji is a message of peace and deep spiritual wisdom. In it, Guru Nanak touches the deepest essence of individual consciousness, elevating one to universal consciousness.
Today, many people are having spontaneous spiritual experiences. The soul is opening up, ready to understand and embrace life in more subtle and profound ways. Japji is made up of 40 remarkable segments where Guru Nanak not only explains the mysteries of the cosmos, but also gives spiritual instruction to achieve the same experience of higher consciousness that he embodied. Each pauri is conveyed through a unique sound current which has a transforming effect, like a step that takes your soul ever higher on the path of spiritual elevation.
The Japji for the Aquarian Age Course is an opportunity to experience the subtle power of reciting Japji. You will learn and improve your pronunciation of these divine sounds and delve into the deeper meaning within each of the 40 sections. The course teachers are Kundalini Yogis who have been practicing this technology for decades as part of their daily spiritual practice (Aquarian Sadhana).
Whether you are new to Japji, or you want to deepen your experience with Japji, this course will give you a precious opportunity to vibrate these divine words.
This Japji for the Aquarian Age Course is part of the Light of Guru Nanak Yatra. It’s a “2 for 1” experience. You get to participate in a Yatra to India and also partake in this wonderful course to connect to the Song of Your Soul. We hope you can join us!A Two for Tuesday Recipe
Seven years ago I landed in a foreign land called Japan... Okinawa to be exact. It is the largest island south of Japan where the largest amphibious battle occurred during World War 2. Little history for ya! Authentic Japanese food does not compare to the food served here in the USA. There are some staples such as Yakitori, served as street food, but the menu usually consists of seafood and other items I did not recognize. However, there was one restaurant I dined in that was reminiscent of an American diner called Cocco's Curry House, where I had Cocco's Curry Chicken. The second you open the door you are blasted with the smell of curry. You can order it on any type of meat (I chose chicken) as well as the level of heat; it's served with white rice, and as odd as it may sound, it had melted cheese. It was absolutely delicious, and the crunch from the panko and the sauce slathered over top and the gooey melted cheese, just makes you hungry for more! After the trip I HAD to recreate it and I couldn't believe how simple it was to make and that my adaptation captured it so well. With a little help from your local Asian market or Asian section of your supermarket, you too can create this authentic Japanese meal. It is very simple: panko, chicken breasts/cutlets and curry sauce. My recipe is for two people however you can certainly adjust the amount of chicken to the amount of people you are serving. Enjoy!2 chicken breasts, halved2-3 tablespoons flour1 egg, beaten1 cup Japanese panko1-2 tablespoons canola oil1 3.5oz box Golden Curry Mix1 Polly-O string cheese (optional)1. Butterfly the chicken breast so that you total to 4 chicken breast pieces.2. Prepare three separate plates with the flour, egg and panko (I use aluminum to save on washing).3. Dredge the chicken breasts in the flour followed by the egg and finally cover in panko breading. Repeat with all pieces.4. Heat pan with oil to medium heat and cook the chicken until crispy, golden in color and cooked through. About 6 minutes per side depending on your stove/heat settings.5. In a small sauce pan, add the curry sauce mix and follow the direction on the box to make the sauce.6. Prepare a plate with the chicken on one side, white rice on the other. Pour the curry sauce over the chicken while hot and if using the cheese add immediately so it may melt with the heat.Enjoy!Getty Images
In the span of about 23 months, Lions wide receiver Ryan Broyles suffered three serious leg injuries: a left ACL tear in November 2011 at Oklahoma, a right ACL tear in December 2012 and a left Achilles tendon tear in 2013.
The Lions’ second-round pick in 2012, Broyles told Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com that he feels pressure to perform but also wants to be prudent in his rehabilitation from the Achilles injury.
“I know the deal with the Lions right now and you feel like you have a deadline because there’s guys counting on you, especially coming in from the second round. I feel like I have to go in there and prove something and maybe I did that a little bit before my body was ready (last year),” Broyles told the club’s website for a story published Sunday. “This time around I have to just focus on my future. I’m 25 years old right [now]. I just have to be smart from this point on.”
Broyles told DetroitLions.com that his knees are now healed, but his left calf needs to be strengthened.
“Last year I didn’t hit the ground running like I wanted to, but I wasn’t as strong as I needed to be last year. This year my knees are healthy right now,” Broyles told the club’s website. “I feel my glutes, back, hamstrings and quads are back. Now I just have to work on my left calf.
“I’m excited for that day to go out there and just be able to cut where I want to cut and jump when I want to cut. I’m going to work as hard as I can and it’s going to fall in my favor sometime soon.”
The Lions seem one of the more likely teams to add at wide receiver either in free agency and/or the draft. The club’s recent attempts to bring in capable wideouts opposite of Calvin Johnson have mostly fallen short, though in the case of Broyles, terrible luck is as much to blame as anything else. Nevertheless, the Lions are going to have to try again to find targets who attract attention opposite of Johnson, who draws no shortage of focus from opposing defenses.Who knew consent could sound so catchy? Comedians Jack Howard and Dean Dobbs, the British duo behind YouTube channel OMFGItsJackandDean, prove that clear communication is as easy as it is necessary with their new rap music video, “Consent.”
The video opens with a typical club scene. Our well-dressed, sunglassed protagonists strut onto a dark, steamy dance floor where heads turn and people swoon. Jack, who seems at ease in his natural habitat, wastes no time finding a potential love interest and immediately confronts the visibly uncomfortable woman, singing, “I wanna get close to you and get all up inside your space.”
Here’s where it gets good. Without missing a beat, partner Dean grabs Jack by the face, putting an end to his unchecked harassment with a simple, “Whoa there. What are you doing?”
What follows is a consent educator’s dream. For starters, both men actually acknowledge that they’re talking about a real person, saying, “She’s a human being. She’s got a brain.” In fact, Dean actually pauses to apologize to her for speaking so candidly right in front of her. After emphasizing that it is all so “clear and simple,” John concludes, “I get it now. It works only with your consent.”
This sex-positive music video reminds us that consent doesn’t have to be confusing or scary; it’s a simple but necessary step towards confirming that everyone is (or isn’t) on board.
The song is especially effective at emphasizing that while asking for and receiving consent is a kind of contract (literally, the video displays a massive old-timey parchment), it is neither exhaustive nor unalterable. The two remind their listeners that, “One of them decided to change their mind, and just to clarify, that’s completely fine.” It’s also important that the woman asks for consent, offering Dean an opportunity to join in the fun (he politely declines).
The video climaxes with an important final reminder about consensual sex: Though she signed the consent “contract” earlier, the woman soon passes out from drinking too much. Recognizing that there can be no consent during incapacitation, Jack and Dean give the sleeping woman a blanket and leave her alone, returning to the stage to enjoy an admittedly cheesy guitar solo.
Jack and Dean’s piece is a welcome addition to the growing movement showing that consent, so often bemoaned as hopelessly ambiguous, doesn’t have to be so gray after all.
Screenshot from “Consent” via OMFGItsJackandDean.
James Hildebrand is a senior at Amherst College and editor-in-chief of the independent student blog AC Voice. He is interning this summer at Ms. magazine.For once a group of Valve fans have banded together, and it's not over a stupid cause. The legendary Counter-Strike has managed to stand the test of time for a billion years, and is still one of the best known PC shooters around. That said, fans are ready for more. They want a sequel, and they want one now!
Sam England has organized fans into a 25,000-strong army with plans to get Valve's attention. As well as an official response from Valve, the group wants to see the announcement of Counter-Strike 2. While a new and updated game would be great, the main goal is simply to make people play Counter-Strike again.
"We want to bolster interest in CS so more people play it, and if we want to regain mainstream attention in the game it needs to be re released as Counterstrike 2. Even if it was just re released with some fixes/patches, additional official maps, a graphical upgrade and a new shiny box... Counterstrike would then survive as a franchise and become popular once again."
England laments that there is "No longer a single iconic game on the PC," and who knows? Maybe Counter-Strike 2 could be that game. Would you bust your nut over a new Counter-Strike or do you feel the world has moved on?
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I have long thought about applying technology to improve contract creation and management. My first blog post on the topic dates from 2004 (see my contract management posts here.)
Recently, I have read several articles about how blockchain technology – which underlies Bitcoin – can support self-fulfilling contracts. So when I had an opportunity to learn more about Ethereum, a player in this space, I took it.
Sometimes I ask for a demo of new tech but that did not seem useful here. Ethereum’s approach is new and distributed, so I was not sure what I could see. Instead, I posed a series of questions by email, which Dr. Aeron Buchanan, a Researcher at Ethereum, answered. I edited his answers lightly before posting (after after he reviewed them).
Ethereum is a not-for-profit organization. Its home page states “Ethereum is developed by a worldwide team of passionate developers from EthDev on behalf of the Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss nonprofit.”
For more information, see this Ethereum infographic (thumbnail version at end of post).
[UPDATE of 9 Oct 2015: Over the last couple of months, Shawn S. Amuial and Josias N. (“Joe”) Dewey, lawyers at Holland & Knight, published a series of five blog posts on the blockchain and smart contracts at the Bloomberg Business of Law blog. As of today, the collected set of posts, which I highly recommend, are available here.)
[My usual qualifier when I write product-specific posts … I receive many offers to view products. Occasionally, I engage when I think the new tech or service is interesting. I do not look for competing products to compare and I have no financial interest in the company or product.]
My Comments
Many readers will find the tech here difficult. Lawyers and professionals who work with them must decide, as a strategic matter for any new technology:
Might a new technology affect the practice of law? What opportunities or threats does it create? Does it raise substantive issues of law? Might it affect how we practice or deliver client service? If an impact might occur, how much should we invest to understand and track it? At what point – and how do we know when that point arrives – must we do a deeper dive? Or adopt it?
These are hard questions. As far as I am concerned, most lawyers blew these questions in the 1980s and 1990s on PCs, email, and the Internet.
My answer to these for Ethereum is that “there is enough there there” that, as a market, we need to understand more and start tracking it. Hence this post.
[In the interview below, my questions are in italics.]
The Interview
Q: In the legal market, I’m always reluctant to start with technology. But understanding what Ethereum offers – and it’s potential to substitute for some contracts – is the best place to start. For those who are not tech-oriented, what’s the easiest and quickest way to explain what you do and how the technology works?
This is a tricky question to answer, because Ethereum is a foundational platform layer for using the internet, intranets, VPNs, etc. So it’s not much easier than explaining what computer networks are for and how they work.
The most helpful explanation is that Ethereum, as a technology, is a robust, secure, shared computing resource: it provides guaranteed computation and storage, with customizable cryptographically secured permission schemes for both. This means it can act as a trusted authority for digital information and processing, even though (and in fact because) it is not controlled or controllable by any entity or cohort.
Now, no system is perfectly secure, and it is possible for Ethereum to be subverted if a majority of its uses somehow managed to coordinate and collude (the so-called “51% attack”).This would, however, involve a huge number of actors going against their own self-interest. Furthermore, because of the Ethereum built-in cryptographic security, it is not possible to spoof actions. That is, if Ethereum says a particular person uploaded a specific instruction, you know it was him or her.
All this means that Ethereum, its technology and, eventually, web 3.0, make it possible to collaborate in ways that have not been practical or even possible until now. For example, being able to write a document with others where every update is fully auditable by all parties involved (and no-one else, if desired).
At the heart of Ethereum is the concept of reliability: every use of the Ethereum “shared computer” is initiated by a cryptographically signed instruction and the rules relating to that instruction are strictly adhered to, which means everyone can rely on the veracity of the instructions and the outcomes. Needing a secure digital signature means that the concept of identity on Ethereum is very strong and guaranteed.
There are two main types of instruction that can be given to Ethereum: the first is a request to create a new contract (with its own program code and storage); and the second is to interact with any existing contract. Contracts can be as simple or as complicated as you want. They also come with as much data storage as you want, although storage is very expensive on Ethereum.
Everyone on the network can see what every contract is programmed to do. Indeed, this is an important aspect as it is part of the trust and of the security: everyone can be sure of what contract they are entering into and everyone checks that instructions are executed correctly so everyone can be sure that all the data Ethereum holds and all the decisions it has made are correct. Note that because all instructions are cryptographically verified, contracts can be given permission lists for their execution, with access to particular functions being as restrictive or complex as required.
Putting all this together creates a platform which will become the basis of new web services which will lower the barrier of cooperation and coordination and will provide features and functions that we have, do date, only dreamt about.
Q: Are there existing commercial applications now, ones that are deployed and in use? If yes, what are some example. If not, what types of players do you expect to be among the early adopters? From your website, it seems the early adopters will be pretty tech.
The technology involved and the Ethereum platform itself (which launched on July 30th, only a month ago) are still too new. A huge amount of development is going on, from the tech start-ups you have perhaps already seen to global banking institutions.
Because of the territory, it is only to be expected that the first uses are tech-oriented, just as with when the internet was new. However, as well as the many fin-tech flavored applications, there are currently people working on a range of services, including information-provision (Augur, Gnosis), supply-chain tracking (Provenance), real-world interaction (Airlock, Slock), and many others.
I think we will see “waves” of development, with the first services being themselves platforms that others can build on. However, entrepreneurs are a creative bunch, and I think we should be prepared to be surprised!
Q: Lawyers arguably should care about this technology for two reasons. First, it could raise new legal and regulatory issues. That would mean new business for them. And second, it could be a substitute for contracts. Do you already have a sense on the first – what legal issues are you seeing now or do you expect to see?
There will undoubtedly be legal issues, and they fall into three main categories. The first is regarding ether, the “crypto-fuel” that Ethereum relies on to manage the provision of computation and storage and avoid spamming, i.e. avoid the myriad tragedy-of-the-commons pitfalls. (Programs running on Ethereum need to pay the network for the resources they consume. Volunteers earn this ether by validating transactions, securing the network.) It’s not clear how authorities will judge and react to people transferring ether to each other in order to be able to use Dapps (the applications that run on the Ethereum platform).
The second is in relation to the use of Ethereum contracts as being legally recognized as a component in legally binding contracts; that is, having the results of computation on the Ethereum platform as being legally actionable.
The third will be a secondary effect coming from the impact of services built on the Ethereum platform. Uber is upsetting a lot of people at the moment, with riots in Paris, etc, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. Technology continues to transform society and Ethereum is no exception.
Interestingly, the introduction of Ethereum creates more work for lawyers than just legal assessment and regulatory compliance. I foresee a new job-title emerging: the code lawyer, whose job will be the creation of and translation to and from legally useful Ethereum contracts. The potential effects of Ethereum and smart-blockchain technology are exciting and far-reaching.
Q: Let’s turn to contracts. I’ve read a couple of articles about blockchain and sidechain technology and how these could be used as contracts. That is, as I understand it, for certain agreements, we would not need any text terms. The terms would be built into the technology. How does or would this work? And are there examples that exist? How does enforcement occur? What if there is failure to deliver? How are disputes handled?
You have just summarized the hurdles that need to be addressed to move into the age of digital law. At first sight, they might feel insurmountable, but the progression from where we are now with paper contracts and digital commerce to digital law is fairly incremental and relatively straight forward. First, we must recognize that a contractual agreement is just information, and can be taken as having two components: a set of “if X then Y” statements (where, in general, X and Y can be arbitrarily complex); and a set of identifiable, legally responsible entities.
At present, paper contracts use the insanely archaic and highly forgeable mechanism of written signatures to indicate the entities party to a contract. A huge step forward can be made simply by leveraging Ethereum’s intrinsic cryptographic identity and robust time-stamping features to sign contracts once the wording is finalized. Indeed, |
Um homem morreu e outro acabou preso durante confronto entre policiais do 7ºBPM (São Gonçalo) e traficantes na Favela do Capote, no Colubandê, na noite de sábado. Na ação, foram apreendidas arma e drogas.
PMs checavam uma denúncia de tráfico na Rua Clóvis da Cunha Paz e Castro quando foram surpreendidos a tiros pelos criminosos. Após intenso confronto, os militares encontraram Yuri Gomes de Souza, o Naruto, 23 anos, ferido numas das vielas da comunidade, ao lado de um revólver calibre 38. Ele chegou a ser socorrido e levado para o Hospital Estadual Alberto Torres (Heat), também no Colubandê, mas não resistiu.
Outro suspeito, de 22 nos, acabou sendo preso com um rádio transmissor e 145 trouxinhas de maconha. O caso foi registrado na central de flagrantes da 74ªDP (Alcântara).- A takeout order at a St. Petersburg McDonalds turned into a drive-thru shooting.
The sound of gun fire echoed through the parking lot of the restaurant on 34th Avenue South Wednesday afternoon.
Police said a bail bondsman, who was after a felon, accidentally shot a woman, sending her to the hospital in critical condition.
Crime scene investigators were staged in the McDonald's parking lot late into Wednesday night. Police tape blocked off the drive-thru to any customers.
"You can not pick the location and time when you are going to do things. I would have picked a better location than this," said Chief Anthony Holloway.
St. Pete police say Kyle's Kwik Bail Bonding had been tailing a white car all day. It had three people inside. The bail bondsmen were only after the guy in the back seat, Deveon Stokes.
The 26-year-old had a felony warrant for intent to sell cocaine, driving with a license suspended or revoked, failure to appear, and he owed the company more than $20,000.
As the car rolled up to the window, Holloway said, "One vehicle came in front of the suspect vehicle, the other vehicle came up on the side of the vehicle."
The white car was blocked in.
"The driver of the vehicle decided he was going to try to get out of there," Holloway said. "The bail bondsman has his gun in the vehicle. He said it went off as they were trying to pull away."
Holloway said the single bullet hit a female passenger in the hand and grazed her head. She was rushed into surgery in critical condition, a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"She was just the front passenger in the vehicle," Holloway said.
According to Holloway, the department has a good working relationship with many local bail bondsmen. As for why this takedown happened the way it did, he has a lot of questions.
"They are going to go through the same procedure if you shot off your weapon," Holloway said. "That's why we are interviewing them to see what happened. We are going through the crime scene right now, talking to everyone to see what exactly caused the shooting."
When we stopped by Kyle's Kwik Bail Bonding, they had no comment. No charges have been filed, but that could change.
Police have not yet released the victim's name or given an update on her condition.
As for Stokes, he was taken into custody. He has a lengthy criminal history in Pinellas County, including arrests for grand theft auto, domestic battery on a pregnant woman, and drug possession.Suspect in boy's stabbing has long history of brushes with law
Che Lajuan Calhoun has been arrested almost three dozen times. Che Lajuan Calhoun has been arrested almost three dozen times. Photo: HOGP Photo: HOGP Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close Suspect in boy's stabbing has long history of brushes with law 1 / 29 Back to Gallery
In the courtroom and on the streets, Che Lajuan Calhoun has shown he can juke the law.
The day before police believe he fatally stabbed 11-year-old Josué Flores with a knife as the boy walked home from school, Calhoun slipped away from tasers and police who tried to arrest him after an altercation on a light rail platform.
The latest charges add to a rap sheet that includes nearly three dozen arrests in Texas, Tennessee and Michigan over the past decade, for making terroristic threats, assault, drug possession, home invasion and destruction of police property.
Yet Calhoun appears to have avoided any heavy time behind bars.
THE IMPACT: Fear grips neighborhood after boy's fatal stabbing
In just the six cases he has previously faced in Harris County, Calhoun worked out plea deals, bartered for probation and was able to violate the court's terms and still remain with just days - not years - in the county jail.
His arrest this week in the death of the sixth grader - who stayed a little late for a Science Club party Tuesday and wanted to be a doctor - has left the northside neighborhood wondering how Calhoun built such a long criminal history so short on punishment.
Neighbors were already on edge over what they see as an increase in crime tied to drug usage, homelessness and other problems in the area, said Councilwoman Karla Cisneros.
"They are fearful," Cisneros said. "They are worried about what could happen and then we have this terrible thing. What could be worse?"
The Harris County District Attorney's Office declined to comment on Calhoun pending a court appearance on the murder charge.
Concerns about rail
A day before Josué was killed, Metropolitan Transit Authority police almost had Calhoun in custody.
"He was fighting with another person, and the officer encountered them and tried to break up the fight," Metro Police Chief Vera Bumpers said Thursday.
Calhoun, 31, became "combative," however, and the officer shot one taser dart into Calhoun's leg and another into his back, the chief said.
Calhoun jumped up and ran, but not before he'd dropped his identification, she said.
Metro and Houston police officers, as well as a canine unit, searched for him for about 90 minutes, but came up empty-handed.
The next day, just blocks away, he attacked Josué, police said.
"I have no way of knowing how he escalated or why," Bumpers said of the murder investigation, which is being handled by Houston police.
THE CRIME: Boy stabbed to death on north Houston street
Word that Calhoun had clashed with police so close to a Metro platform strengthened concerns among some residents that the rail's expansion to the area in December 2013 brought more crime to an already troubled neighborhood.
People with mental health and drug abuse problems have descended on the neighborhood because of the train access, they say.
"They are a bunch of vagabonds in the streets drinking and smoking - we are not safe," said Esmeralda Rivera, 50, who mourned the loss of the Marshall Middle School pupil.
"He was a baby," she said. "It hurts."
Didn't know Calhoun
Court records filed Thursday show that Calhoun lived just two blocks from the boy's house in the Northside Village area, and Josué may have walked near Calhoun's house on his way home from school.
Josué, one of seven children, left school about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday after staying about an hour late for an end-of-year Science Club celebration.
Witnesses say they saw a man approach the boy, then heard loud screaming. The two appeared to struggle and then Josué collapsed and fell to the ground. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital from multiple stab wounds.
The assailant fled the scene on foot, and one of the witnesses followed in his vehicle but eventually lost him.
The boy's mother and sister have said they don't know Calhoun and have never seen him before. It is unclear how long he'd lived in the area.
Calhoun's Facebook page doesn't offer obvious signs for concern.
In a recent post from last week, he talked about the importance of making the right decisions in life, and included a photo of what appears to be a prison inmate sitting in a cell surrounded by piles of packages of instant noodle soup that are often sold in prison commissaries.
"To all the young Cats out there doing all that shooting. This is your future. Bail Out," the post states.
"Children need love from both parents whether they are living together or in separate homes," according to another post.
Former Harris County prosecutor Colleen Barnett said the posts, taken alone, suggest he had a bad upbringing and was trying to get his life together.
That may have contributed to his ability to navigate the justice system through multiple jurisdictions, she said.
The challenge now is knowing why he would have committed such a brutal crime against someone he apparently didn't know.
"You just don't do that," she said. "This is just somebody who is extremely angry or has obvious mental health issues or a combination of both."
Stabbings uncommon
Mental health concerns were raised during Calhoun's most recent case in Harris County in October.
Calhoun was charged with making a terroristic threat, and court records indicate the judge appointed an attorney with experience at handling mental health issues. He also ordered mental health records be released from the county about Calhoun's mental competency.
Calhoun eventually reached a plea deal with prosecutors, however, even though records show he was wanted in his hometown of Detroit for violating probation in a 2009 cocaine possession case.
He pleaded no contest to the Harris County charge and was sentenced to 15 days in jail, with credit for three days he'd already served.
It was one of two charges he'd faced in Harris County for making a terroristic threat. He also had been charged four other times since 2012 - twice for assaulting a family member, once for violating a protective order and once for resisting arrest, records show.
He has been formally charged with murder in the death of Josué, and with evading arrest and causing bodily injury in the Metro platform altercation.
He remained behind bars Thursday under $5,000 bond.
Melissa Hamilton, a visiting professor at the University of Houston Law Center, said certain mental illnesses, as well as a prior history of violence, can help determine the threat level a person poses.
Stabbings by a stranger are relatively uncommon in the United States, she said.
"On the face of it, a 31-year-old who suddenly stabs an 11-year-old in broad daylight and they don't know each other? It is just odd - there is likely something else going on," she said.Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he assumes newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a Muslim, denies the existence of Islamic terrorism.
Khan on Tuesday described Trump's views on Islam as "ignorant."
"Well, I assume he denies that there's Islamic terrorism," Trump said on the Kilmeade and Friends radio program. "I mean, if you look at this, there's radical Islamic terrorism all over the world right now. It's a disaster what's going on. I assume he's denying that. I assume he's like our president that's denying it's taking place."
Trump said earlier in the week that Khan perhaps could be an "exception" to his proposed ban on Muslim immigration. Khan responded by saying, "Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam — London has proved him wrong."
Trump said in the interview on Wednesday that Islamic terrorism proved his proposed ban was necessary.
"We have a serious problem. It's a temporary ban," said Trump. "It hasn't been called for yet. Nobody's done it, this is just a suggestion until we find out what's going on," said Trump, citing recent terror attacks in San Bernardino and Paris and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"If they want to deny it, they can deny it," Trump said. "I don't choose to deny it."October 8, 2012 (Estelí, Nicaragua) — Joya de Nicaragua® (JDN), the oldest Nicaraguan cigar manufacturer, announced today that it is rebranding its new Cuenca y Blanco to “CyB by Joya de Nicaragua”. This change is being proactively, self implemented to satisfy the possibility of any unintended, potential trademark conflicts with other brands, and is being done so in the spirit of maintaining the harmony within our small industry of premium handmade cigars. The brand name change will not alter the blend in any way; the CyB cigar will be preserving its unrivaled quality and essence.
“We did not realize there was any potential conflict over the name, otherwise we never would have used it to begin with”, expresses Dr. Alejandro Martínez Cuenca, Owner and President of JDN, “It is never our intention to imitate others and rather than waste energy in a possibly long, drawn out legal dispute, simply changing it resolves any issue. I want our efforts focused solely on the working tobaccos, maintaining the quality of our cigars and satisfying our customers. Our industry is facing much more relevant challenges today that demand our united and collective efforts. We appreciate the forty-five years of trust our cigar consumers, retailers and distributors have afforded Joya de Nicaragua and it is our duty and honor to always ensure our brands continue to be the global icons of the Nicaraguan Spirit”.
José Blanco, Senior VP of JDN adds, “All of us are extremely proud of CyB. We spent a year perfecting this intricate blend of tobaccos to deliver a truly unique smoking experience. It’s a medium to full bodied smoke, with lots of flavor and complexity, with a great aroma and a long finish. We may have changed the name, but the jewel we have created continues to be exactly the same!”
Cigars shipped to our wholesale customers from today forward by Drew Estate, our US Distributor, will reflect this name change. Like the cigar itself, the brand’s overall design and packaging remains identical, the only difference being the name. Some legacy-boxed cigars from the initial launch may remain in the marketplace during the transition.Getty Images
Seattle — This wasn't so much a game as it was a multi-layered coronation, done in the guise of a punch to the face, thrown by a gentleman. Instigated by an angry defense. Egged on by a volatile crowd.
These are the Seattle Seahawks, officially your NFC favorite to reach the Super Bowl. Sorry San Francisco. Buh bye New Orleans. G'night, Carolina.
Barring some sort of cataclysm, the road to New Jersey will go through here. That was established during the 34-7 disemboweling of the Saints on an unbelievable Monday night. It was established in the rawest, most guttural terms as the Seahawks bashed a good Saints team—strutting, shoving, battering, jawing and intimidating along the way.
This game was the equivalent of the Seahawks walking to the 50-yard line while holding a baseball bat and daring anyone to enter the territory they just marked.
You feeling lucky?
Really?
Well step on up, dude. Let's go.
Some of you will flame the message boards and stomp your feet about the Panthers or 49ers. This year, in this moment, the 49ers aren't winning here. Joe Montana ain't walking through that door. If you think a team like Carolina could win in this maelstrom of violence, you need to visit a doctor's office.
What makes the Seahawks most dangerous, more dangerous than any other NFC team, isn't solely their physicality or noisy home-field advantage, it's the Gentleman Destroyer, Russell Wilson.
Wilson has elevated himself to the position of the most well-rounded pass thrower in football not named Aaron Rodgers. This isn't a reactionary declaration but the culmination of a steady climb up the quarterback ranks. There were passes he made against the Saints that were Tom Brady-like and moves that were Randall Cunningham-esque.
The comparison for Wilson has been Fran Tarkenton, but he's actually more Steve Young because of the power of his arm and accuracy of his throws. Before this game, in his previous 19, Wilson was 299-of-458 for 4,014 yards, 35 touchdowns and eight interceptions. According to Sports Illustrated, his passer rating of 111.2 over that span is the best in football.
Coach Pete Carroll said that Wilson does so many things well he makes it almost impossible for opponents to game-plan against him. That's definitely a true statement.
Wilson had two touchdowns in the first half as the Seahawks jumped to a 27-7 lead. That means, according to the NFL, Wilson became only the fourth quarterback in league history to reach 20 touchdown passes in his first two seasons. He joins Dan Marino, Peyton Manning and Andy Dalton. Wilson is 22-6 as a starter.
What Wilson did against the Saints is use his feet and athleticism to recreate the pocket once protection broke down. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle and then throw, instead of running just to run.
Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Wilson used almost hypnotic footwork to dodge a fatty diving at him on numerous occasions. The escape would be followed by a dart down the field. On one play, Saints defensive lineman Akiem Hicks had Wilson cold, but Wilson stepped quickly to the side and Hicks went sprawling helplessly to the ground. After the play, Hicks just sat on the turf, hands in his lap, stunned by what had just happened.
Wilson does all of this with an All-American smile that hides a viciousness. Wilson at half had led the Saints to an offensive advantage of 315 total yards to 90 for New Orleans. Wilson finished 22-of-30 for 310 yards and three scores.
"He's an extraordinary person and it goes beyond his football abilities," Carroll said.
The aw-shucks stuff from Wilson is real. The talk of his work ethic is real. The player is…real.
On Sunday, Wilson texted Carroll to say how happy he was with the team's week of practice. Most players don't send those kinds of texts to coaches. Usually, texts are sent to coaches when they want more playing time, or bail money.
This Seahawks team is wonderfully athletic and formidably powerful. They can knock you out. They can outrun you. If they so choose, they can do both of the above. New Orleans had its largest halftime deficit since 2007 and Drew Brees' 74 passing yards through two quarters was his lowest since 2008. This was one of the few times you will ever see Sean Payton out-coached.
The Seahawks are brutal and they are also not always the most likable group. In fact, what the Seahawks are is quite possibly the first Super Bowl contender that is both lovable and hate-able. Wilson is the talented teddy bear, so likable he's Red State electable, while other components of the Seahawks can be absolutely jerkish.
Wide receiver Golden Tate preens and jaws after seemingly every routine catch. On almost every occasion, Seattle defensive backs mouthed off to Saints players. There was a solid cheap shot or two from the Seahawks as well, including a nasty one in the end zone. None of this includes how Seattle has enough suspended and PED'd dudes to create their own practice squad.
Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
At CenturyLink Field, however, all of this works for Seattle. The intense crowd noise…the fervor…it creates not just an electricity but an almost elevated sense of being. Everything Seattle is elevated: the play, the energy, the water that rolls next to the stadium.
The Seahawks almost can't help themselves because the energy level acts like a propellant. It's not Adderall—it's 12thMan-erall.
The 11-1 Seahawks are two games ahead of New Orleans and Carolina (9-3) in the NFC. The conference belongs to Seattle.
"As of right now," said quarterback Drew Brees, "it's looking like the road to the Super Bowl goes through here."
If Seattle keeps playing like this, it won't just be home-field advantage they win.Before his world was thrown into turmoil, Fasil Tekola lived a comfortable life in Ethiopia’s capitol city, Addis Ababa. Born into a wealthy family, his father a colonel, he was one of only a few kids who drove their own cars to school. But his family also had a strong connection to the land: They owned farmland along the Awash River, a few hours south of the city. Tekola remembers his parents planting eucalyptus trees around Addis Ababa because the trees had been cut down.
Outside of Ethiopia’s larger cities, people relied on wood fires to heat their homes and cook. But after years of forest cutting, the Sahara Desert began extending its reach, which caused crops to fail. While deforestation played a part, there were more devastating changes afoot. Sulfate emissions from North America and Europe were cooling the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, which prevented moisture from being swept up in the air and returning to the ground as rain. The decline in rainfall in Africa’s Sahel desert region, combined with forest cutting and a chronic drought that spanned from the 1960s into the 1980s*, claimed the livelihoods of thousands of proud, generational farmers.
Tekola’s life, like those of most city-dwellers, was largely unscathed. But with Ethiopia’s agricultural-based economy in shambles, violence broke out. Militants, disillusioned with the Ethiopian government and newly enamored of communism, swept through Addis Ababa. Catching the city by surprise, they rounded up men of all ages, targeting the educated and wealthy, and gunned them down. Known today as the Red Terror, the genocide claimed more than 10,000 lives in Addis Ababa alone.
Tekola was 19 years old. He and other students were rounded up and jailed. But because his father was a well-known community leader and had left the military in the years preceding the war, he was later released. Two of his friends were not so lucky. After hearing about their murders, Tekola and a friend decided to flee the country.
Their escape began a journey that would send Tekola bouncing across the world in search of asylum. After years of traveling, he’d end up literally a half a world away in Seattle.
Tekola says he fled the violence not the drought. But the drought, exacerbated by human-caused climate change, likely created the conditions for civil war*. Climate change is a silent aggressor, which makes it difficult to pinpoint it as the sole culprit in droughts, hurricanes, or typhoons. Events like these set Tekola and many others like him into motion — and such disasters are happening with greater frequency as global temperatures rise.
The term climate refugee is controversial, says Ellicott Dandy, a policy associate at OneAmerica, a Seattle-based immigrant justice group. The United Nations has no official designation for climate refugees in its refugee aid programs, Dandy says. “The U.N. has gone back and forth about using a specific designation that you point to to claim refugee status. [In general], that’s a really difficult thing to do worldwide.”
But because climate affects all aspects of human life, it can act as a catalyst for hundreds of subsequent events. “There are absolutely people who have been negatively impacted by climate change enough to force them to move,” Dandy says.
And there will be more. Today, between the rising sea levels threatening to swallow up Pacific island nations and the drought-induced civil war in the Middle East, hundreds of thousands of people already face the prospect of having to leave their homes.
A 2014 working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) reported that rising temperatures will make violent tensions more common. These include everything from rape and murder to more country-wide disasters such as government collapse and civil war.
“Small amounts of [temperature] change have tremendous consequences,” says Solomon Hsiang, assistant professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley who is a co-author of the NBER study.
The likelihood for intergroup violence, which includes everything from government breakdowns to civil war, will increase by about 11 percent per degree Celsius of warming, according to the NBER study. That means we’ll see a significant rise in violence long before we reach the 2-degree-C warming threshold set down by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“The 2-degrees-C number gets thrown around a lot,” says Marshall Burke, another co-author of the NBER study. “All our research shows that we will see substantial impacts below that.”
And in a cruel irony, many countries that will experience the worst impacts of climate change will be those least responsible for the climatic damage. Currently, developing countries are bearing most of the burden hosting people displaced by climate change, said Alex Lenferna, a Fulbright Scholar and PhD student at the University of Washington who focuses on climate justice. “There’s this compounding injustice going on. [These countries] are some of the least responsible for causing climate change and they’re also the poorest.”
After fleeing Ethiopia, Tekola and his friend made their way to Nairobi, Kenya. To support themselves, the duo made North African-styled art to hawk to tourists. When they scraped together some money, they could stay in a hostel. When they couldn’t, they slept in one of the local parks. The friends were out of immediate danger, but they were foreigners in a neighboring country. And they couldn’t go back home.
After several months of scraping by in Kenya, Tekola saved enough money to get to Israel, where he had a brief stint working on a kibbutz, and then passed through Greece and Sweden. He attempted to apply for asylum in Stockholm, but did not have adequate identification and was eventually deported back to Kenya. By that time, he was 23.
Back in Kenya, Tekola attended college briefly, studying wildlife range management, and took an interest in environmental work. He left the university after a year and worked for a short time with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), helping to address problems with desertification in African communities.
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He first came to the U.S. in 1980, with an American girlfriend he’d met while she taught English in Kenya. After spending a couple months in Annapolis, Md., the couple took a cross-country road trip, eventually landing in Seattle. They drove into the city at night and ended up camping out in Volunteer Park, an urban oasis atop Capitol Hill, above downtown, with sprawling gardens and a commanding view of Puget Sound. Within a week of arriving to Seattle, they moved into an apartment across the street from the park.
“We decided to stay because [the city] supported interracial relationships,” Tekola told me, laughing over lunch at a local café. “The people were free and they didn’t restrict you. It’s a kind of world where I think of as God’s place.”
Tekola and Debby married in 1981 so he could get U.S. citizenship. He has lived here ever since.
As the world experiences seemingly small, but significant temperature spikes, Seattle could become a haven for more people like Tekola.
According to the 2014 National Climate Assessment, the temperate climate will allow Northwesters to weather the changes better that residents of other regions. And it won’t just be international immigrants who flock here. Between the drought in California and the Southwest, and more frequent, severe storms along the Eastern Seaboard and Gulf Coast, climate change will likely push populations around the U.S. as well.
We’ve already seen it happen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which saw hundreds of thousands of people displaced to neighboring counties and states.
In the 1930s, 2.5 million people left the Great Plains region when the Dust Bowl decimated agricultural communities. An exodus of Midwesterners headed for the coasts, with some 200,000 immigrating to California where they found there weren’t enough houses or jobs — let alone the discrimination the displaced faced.
The Great Plains are expected to see twice as many days above 100 degrees F by 2041 than in the latter part of the 20th century, and water shortages and drought will become more common, according to the National Climate Assessment. Hsiang says there’s about a 20 percent chance that the central U.S. could take on the more permanent climate conditions of the Dust Bowl.
Today, Tekola lives with his second wife, Susan, in Maple Valley, about 45 minutes southeast of Seattle. The couple has four daughters, the oldest of whom is in graduate school, the youngest finishing up high school.
Sarra, the Tekolas’ second daughter, is an outspoken activist and recent graduate from the University of Washington’s environmental science and natural resources management programs. When I met her this spring, she was skipping out on a school lecture to speak out against a plan to allow the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to harbor its Arctic drilling fleet at the Port of Seattle. She talked about how her father left Ethiopia because of drought and how Shell’s “climate bomb” would create new generations of climate refugees.
“His story has inspired me to do the work that I’m doing,” Sarra told me later. “My whole family is kind of displaced around the world. They all had to leave. When [scientists] talk about 2 degrees of warming, that really hits home because that’s like the displacement of the last few family members I have in Ethiopia. That’s going to uproot them from their homes.”
The family’s home is surrounded by a lush garden full of flowers and vines, perhaps an ode to the Tekola’s family farms back in Ethiopia. Sarra even monitors her own rain garden along the driveway. Inside, a few of the charcoal drawings Fasil made while living in Kenya hang on the walls.
Watching father and daughter, it’s clear that he worries about her activism. And she gets a kick out of telling him about the threatening emails she occasionally receives because of her environmental work.
But it is also apparent that, despite their good-natured tussling, Tekola admires what Sarra is doing. “It’s more than being proud,” he told me. “Sometimes I think, ‘Those are the kinds of things I wanted to do!’ … [The connection] is very special to me.”
*This story originally attributed desertification in Africa’s Sahel to forest cutting. While that was a factor, according to University of Washington PhD student and Fulbright Scholar Alex Lenferna, emissions from North America and Europe were the biggest drivers. Grist regrets the error.Soccer attracts a ton of local talent in the nation’s capital but the arrival of a local professional team is long overdue and necessary in growing the sport’s popularity.
The new professional squad, Fury FC, has kicked off their inaugural season and they’ll soon take to the brand new pitch at Lansdowne Park. As a result, you’re going to see an abundance of young soccer fans that finally have a team to cheer for.
Top-flight soccer is something that has eluded Ottawa for years — like light rail or a sewage-free river — while cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal have teams and the infrastructure to support them.
On the infrastructure front, the announcement of more soccer fields at Ottawa's revamped equestrian park should help improve this city's outlook for youth soccer.
But what you hope to see is a number of young players and their families who see soccer as more than just an affordable option to keep children in decent physical shape.
Canadian soccer still a work in progress
Soccer is still a work in progress in Canada even though there are close to a million registered players across the country. That’s compared to about 600,000 registered hockey players in Canada.
Canadian women have done very well and compete among the world’s best, which is why this country will host the FIFA Women's World Cup next summer, with some games in Ottawa.
Canada’s men, meanwhile, rank 110th in the FIFA rankings, nestled between Latvia and New Zealand.
That’s a tad better than their lowest-ever ranking of 114 in November and 70 places lower than the highest ranking ever, which came 18 years ago.
Professional teams foster competitive young minds
When professional teams take the field in your city, the idea of playing the sport at a high level becomes more realistic and that results in a more competitive atmosphere.
The Toronto Raptors are the best example. The team’s popularity — namely Vince Carter’s popularity — sparked a factory of young basketball players coming out of the GTA.
Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Ennis, Nik Stauskas — last year’s first overall pick in the NBA draft and three projected first-round picks in this year’s draft — are four products of that era.
Ottawa Fury FC started playing and practising at Keith Harris Stadium, located at Carleton University, before Lansdowne Park was ready. (CBC) The Fury may not feature star players as role models for young athletes, since the team is brand new and isn’t in Major League Soccer, the highest league in North America.
But they are just one level below in the North American Soccer League. That’s where Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal all got their start before jumping to the MLS.
FC Edmonton, entering just its fourth season, is also in the NASL and it will be interesting to monitor that squad as we watch the Fury and its fan base.
This continued growth is vital to the sport’s popularity in Canada and in Ottawa, as fancy footwork is moved from the playground to the pitch."They all must be wins from here on out"
Ashley Cole said it best. The Galaxy left back and captain for the afternoon was candid when speaking to the Galaxy Insider following a morale-sapping defeat to the Portland Timbers on Sunday, acknowledging LA are in real danger of missing the MLS Cup playoffs.
All things considered, its not looking good. With twelve games remaining in the regular season, LA sit 3rd to last in the Western Conference, just one point above expansion side Minnesota United FC and nine points behind the San Jose Earthquakes for the final playoff spot.
Even worse, the Galaxy have been in poor form for some time. Winless in eight straight matches, the attack is a disjointed mess and the back line continues to be a mystery. LA have still only won once at the StubHub Center all season.
And yet, there is hope. The Galaxy’s plot strangely resembles the situation Seattle found themselves in last year. Buoyed by a coaching change with Brian Schmetzer replacing Sigi as well as the arrival of Uruguayan DP Nicolás Lodiero, the Sounders went on a late season tear, winning 8 of their final 13 matches en route to capturing their first MLS Cup.
Let’s take a look at LA’s remaining schedule.
Aug. 13 vs. NYCFC
Aug. 23 at Columbus
Aug. 27 vs. San Jose
Sept. 2 vs. Colorado
Sept. 10 at Seattle
Sept. 16 vs. TFC
Sept. 20 at Atlanta
Sept. 24 at Sporting Kansas City
Sept. 27 at Houston
Sept. 30 vs. RSL
Oct. 15 vs. Minnesota
Oct. 22 at Dallas
For the Galaxy, the future is now. Three of the next four matches are at home, all of which are winnable games.
See that brutal five game stretch in September when LA play four away matches in 18 days, including stops in Atlanta and Sporting Kansas City? If the Galaxy can string together a few results now, they have a real chance to go on the road and steal points in some tough venues, and from there anything can happen.
LA do have some positives going for them: Despite their atrocious home record, the Galaxy are an impressive 5-5-1 on the road. The lineup appears to be fully-loaded, with Romain Alessandrini likely available for Saturday’s match and Jonathan dos Santos possibly starting. Perhaps most importantly, Sigi Schmid is an experienced manager capable of turning LA’s fortunes around.
The question is, will he have enough time?Illustration: Gluekit/Photos by Patrick MCMullan/WireImage/AP Photo/Getty Images/Splash News
In an industry where no one knows anything, here, finally, was someone who seemed to know something: Ryan Kavanaugh, a spikily red-haired man-child with an impish grin and a uniform of jeans and Converse sneakers who had an uncanny ability to fill a room and an irresistible outlook on how to make money making movies. Not yet 30 when he founded Relativity Media in 2004, he very quickly became not only a power player in Hollywood but the man who might just save it. With a dwindling number of studios putting out ever fewer movies, other than ones featuring name-brand superheroes, Kavanaugh became first a studio financier and then a fresh-faced buyer of textured, mid-budget films. To bankers, Kavanaugh appeared to have cracked the code, having come up with a way to forecast a famously unpredictable business by replacing the vagaries of intuition with the certainties of math.
Even Hollywood wasn’t used to a pitch this good. Kavanaugh alternately dazzled and baffled — talking fast, scrawling numbers and arrows and lines on whiteboards, projecting spreadsheets. “You get caught up in the enthusiasm,” a former colleague says of Kavanaugh’s powers of persuasion. “It’s like trying to analyze love. I know that sounds absurd. This guy’s charisma is really that good.”
Kavanaugh knew when to turn on the language of Wall Street, speaking of financial modeling and risk mitigance and calling films “widgets.” He also knew when to turn it off and shower East Coast bankers with the soft currencies of the movie business: the poolside tables at Chateau Marmont, proximity to celebrities. He was “the ringleader of having a good time,” in the words of one business partner, and his friendships with Bradley Cooper and Leonardo DiCaprio, his private-jet trips with actresses Kate Bosworth and Natalie Portman, his showstopping charity pledges and restaurant-silencing tips — all of this became part of the sale, further proof of his success. Later, when Relativity’s fortunes turned, the helicopters and grand pronouncements and inclusion on the Forbes billionaires list became still more essential to perceptions of Kavanaugh, as much as they started to suggest a departure from reality.
And even now, with Kavanaugh struggling to rescue Relativity from bankruptcy and increasingly resembling a false prophet, his disappointed followers as well as his most bilious antagonists allow that the studio mogul is one of the greatest salesmen Hollywood has ever known. “He’s unlike anything we’ve seen in a long time,” says Jon Schwartz, a former Relativity executive, who fondly recalls meeting with producer Al Ruddy about a remake of Cannonball Run: “At the end of the meeting, after Ryan leaves, Ruddy says: ‘ |
, feel the air upon your skin and see all the different shades of green which usually go unnoticed. Lie in the bath noticing the way hot water feels on every part of your body. You’ll find that it helps with weight loss and you’ll also find that it makes everything feel more enjoyable.
Eat whilst noticing the colours, smells, tastes and textures of every mouthful. Keep going with this until it becomes a habit. Whilst practising this, keep checking into your thoughts and feelings. Don’t edit them, don’t correct them, simply observe them.
Doing this will help you to recognise thoughts such as ‘I’d like a twix right now’ and will give you the space to simply let them pass. Doing this will allow you to recognise those old reflexes of reaching for more chocolate / cake / biscuits and you’ll find yourself having the space to decide – ‘do I really want / need this?’ Thoughts and cravings used to be followed as if they were commands. This approach puts you in the driving seat!
*Never listen to it whilst driving or if suffering from any heart defect, organic mental health condition, epilepsy, breathing condition or uncontrolled diabetes.
Don’t skip breakfast
This is a real biggie. If you skip breakfast then you’re storing up those hunger cravings for later, a later time in which you’re probably going to be busy and less able to eat healthily. Eating breakfast will release energy throughout the morning and will leave you less desperate for a snack later on.
Brush your teeth after dinner
How many people eat after brushing their teeth? Nobody does, what’s the point of brushing if you just have to do it all again? You have years of conditioning on your side here. Brushing your teeth is a sure-fire signal to the brain that the day’s eating is done. So, eat a good dinner / supper / tea or whatever you call it and brush your teeth soon after (dentists recommend waiting twenty minutes). That’ll be it. No more snacking for you!
Eat small regular meals
Ghrelin is the hunger hormone and is one of the fat-fighter’s most deadly enemies. Keep it at bay with small and regular meals. Hunger is not a good sign. It simply means that your body is running short of energy and the cravings will build until you reach for the nearest food.
This will not be the best way of eating. What’s more, will-power depends upon the brain being in a good state and for this it needs glucose. Eat small, regular meals to keep your brain fighting fit and on your side.
Use weird or inappropriate cutlery
The big enemy of the fat-fighter is unconscious eating. This is that kind of eating we do when we’re sat in front of the TV whilst munching away and barely tasting a thing. You can learn to enjoy less food a whole lot more. Eat with a wooden spoon and a chopping knife. Eat ice cream with a ladle.
Use chopsticks or cutlery for treats such as crisps. Use the most inappropriate cutlery you can find for every meal. It could mean that you end up eating less and enjoy your meals a whole lot more.
This will
a) slow you down. The brain is slow to recognise that the body is full and so fast eaters tend to over-eat. Slowing down will reduce the amount you eat. b) make every mouthful a conscious choice. At some point you will realise that you’ve had enough and you then have a choice – ‘do I really need any more?’ If the answer is no then you’ve turned down a forkful of surplus calories and you’ll be lighter on the scales as a result.
Cakes and biscuits can be eaten with knives and forks. Crisps can be eaten with chopsticks. As with tip 4, this will make every single scrap of food a conscious choice and will help you to learn to eat mindfully. You’ll eat less, enjoy it more and every single crisp refused will see the weight disappear.
Are you aware that eating a pack of crisps per day adds up to 5 litres of cooking oil in a year? Cutting back on these, whilst enjoying them more, is an easy way of losing weight.
6. Drink plenty of water
Hunger is sometimes misidentified thirst. Drinking our eight glasses of water per day will reduce our hunger craving and will help the body to feel fitter. Fitter bodies bring happier minds and happier minds are less likely to eat rubbish for comfort or through boredom.
7. Do something new and exciting as often as possible
Losing weight could see you changing your entire life. You’ll feel more confident, you’ll want to go out more, you’ll want to try new things. Begin now! At the very least, making these changes to your way of living, or at least to your routine, will cause you to re-evaluate habits and old ways of doing things.
Park further away from the supermarket
As I said above, this isn’t a sprint, this is a marathon and every step carries a marathon runner closer to the finish line. Every single calorie you expend will help you to lose that weight in a sustainable manner. Stop trying to park as close as possible to the supermarket doors, Park as far away as is reasonable and enjoy the fact that the extra ten seconds will have seen you burn off a few milligrams of fat. Every step counts, every calorie matters.
If you’d like to learn more about how I work with people wanting to slim down then click here
Take stairs instead of the escalator or lift
Every calorie counts! Take every possible opportunity to burn a few more away. Exercise needn’t be all about punishing routines in the gym (consult a personal trainer before going from nothing to seven days a week torture sessions), exercise leading to weightloss can be little and often.
Turn down the heating
People tend to gain weight during winter but this is more due to the fact that we tend to stay in more, eat more and pig-out over Christmas. Cold weather actually encourages the production of ‘brown fat’ which is then burned in the cold to keep us warm. Researcher Jon Dempersmier, in the University of California, found that mice kept in lower temperatures put on 30% less weight than others kept in more ambient temperatures. Turn down the heating, get out in the cold, wear a layer less and the benefits will build. Every calorie counts!
Visualise your ‘just a little bit more won’t hurt’ thoughts as a cartoon character
Many people feel as if their good intentions are at the mercy of thought patterns and urges beyond their control. Picture the part of your mind which is prey to temptation as a cartoon character. Give it a voice and a character. Picture it and talk back to it when those thoughts or urges appear. Tell it why you’re no longer paying it any attention. Explain why you don’t need that item of food right now. Tell it go get bent / stuffed or worse. Personifying your ‘I want it’ thoughts and urges will make them easier to master. This means that you can take control when they begin to misbehave. Besides, when you follow the other tips in this article this character won’t show up nearly as often as it used to during those old, ineffective diets.
Use a smaller plate
Research has shown that the same sized servings appear differently in different sized plates. Pour identical servings of breakfast cereal into two bowls- one twice as big as the other – and the person who receives the bigger bowl will feel short-changed.
Find yourself a plate and bowl which are 4/5 as big as your usual crockery. The mind will adjust to see this as being a complete meal, even though you’ve reduced the amount eaten by 20%.
Don’t ban treats. Weight loss doesn’t happen if we feel miserable
My clients still eat cakes, chocolate, crisps etc and they’re losing weight! They simply eat them using the other tips in this article. They eat their cakes and biscuits with knives and forks. They eat crisps with chopsticks. They eat every morsel using the mindful approach outlined in tip no. 1 and so enjoy ten times less ten times more. You can too!
Deprivation just builds resentment and cravings. Most people in this world eat cake and biscuits and remain at a healthy weight. You will learn to be like them. You can do it!
Eat lots of fibre
Fibre contributes nothing to weight gain but bulks out our food, helping us to pass stools more easily and helping us to feel fuller. Processed foods such as white pasta and bread don’t give us this benefit and so try to eat more whole-grain products. Fibre is also found in vegetables which tend to be healthy choices too. Eat more of these foods (whilst not depriving yourself of ‘treats’) and you’ll feel fuller, fitter and the weight will begin to disappear.
Drink less alcohol
People tend to discount the calories they drink but alcohol is simply full of them. Cut back on your drinking and the weight will begin to decline. Furthermore, alcohol reduces our inhibitions and so we’re much more likely to succumb to other temptations and pile the weight on.
If you feel as if you have a problem with alcohol then click here to find out how to stop drinking
Don’t shop when hungry
Shops recycle odours from bakeries and spit-roasting chickens and pump this into the air we breathe whilst shopping. The intention is to make us hungry and hungry people buy more. Hungry people tend to buy more of the high-sugar and fat foods which provide immediate relief. Eat before you go shopping and you’ll find that your wallet will be as grateful as your waistline.
Order food online
I’m not totally certain about this one but it occurs to me that we see lovely food, beautifully presented, and are tempted to put it in the basket. If we shop online then we’re not quite so subject to the psychological tricks employed by supermarkets.
If we buy online then no food can look quite so beautiful as it does on the shelf. Give it a try and let me know how you get on.
Drink coffee
Coffee is full of anti-oxidants and raises metabolism. A higher metabolism loses weight more quickly. Don’t pour in full-fat milk or sugar, this will completely destroy the gains to be had. For best results, drink your coffee black.
Weigh yourself once per week
We all want to see progress but this weighing yourself every day is simply an over-anxious behaviour which is likely to prove psychologically counter-productive. There are all kinds of reasons why our weight will move up and down on a daily basis. Don’t be all neurotic about it. Stop! Weigh yourself at the same time, in the same place, on the same scales once per week.
Plot weight loss results on a graph
All we need is a simple line graph with weight on the vertical axis and time along the horizontal. Plot your weight on this graph every week and it will give you a sense of progress. Furthermore, even if we have a blip of a week we can still look back and see how far we’ve come without being overly discouraged.
21 Pick a favourite piece of aspirational clothing
I expect you have a piece of clothing which you once loved but which you can’t wear anymore. So, there it lingers at the back of the wardrobe or at the bottom of a drawer. Well, you’re going to wear it again. Take it out, put it on and repeat this every week. Every week those buttons will come closer to being done up. Every week that zip will move closer to the top. You’ll begin to feel the difference in how it fits and this will prove to be a motivating force.
Take up aerobic exercise (cardio)
Well, we all know that exercise is going to help. Don’t, however, rush into silly commitments in expensive gyms. Consult a GP if suddenly exercising might pose a health risk. Consult with a gym as to realistic and sustainable weight-reducing programmes of exercise.
Remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint. You are going to lose weight and this time you’re going to keep it off by adopting sustainable and new relationships with food and exercise. Every calorie counts and ‘get-thin-fast’ routines haven’t worked for you in the past anyway.
Do weights to prevent muscle loss
Again, consult with a GP and/or fitness professional but weight-lifting will help you to maintain tone whilst your body is busy cannibalising your fat reserves. Exercise will also help you to fit into those clothes again, more quickly. Be aware, however, that exercise can actually slow down weight loss because the muscle you build will weigh more than the fat you lose. Still, this is fine because what you’re actually after is to feel better about yourself. Weight-loss is never a goal in itself.
24 Eat more slowly
Some of the tips explained above will force you to eat more slowly. However, you should also make a conscious effort to eat slowly even when you’ve become a world-class expert with chopsticks or ladles. Eating slowly causes us to realise that we’re full before that horrid feeling of being over-full kicks in. Eating slowly means that every mouthful becomes a conscious pleasure and we can feel more satisfied with less.
Sleep
There’s sooooo much science and research to support the idea that people who sleep well tend to be slimmer than those who skimp on shut-eye. Sleep keeps our brains in tip-top condition, leaving us with a higher level of impulse control.
Tiredness causes people to skimp on exercise and exhaustion means that we often reach for fatty and sugary foods for a burst of energy. Sleep is the friend of weight-loss. Get your eight hours and sleep that fat away!
If insomnia is a problem and you’d like some help then please click here
Get some therapy to find alternatives to comfort eating
Most of my weight-loss clients have an emotional connection to food. Food is comforting. Food can be a reward. Food is reliable and always there. If you have rushed through the introduction to this article and have some kind of emotional problem for which food provides a temporary solution then it really is a good idea to have this resolved through counselling, hypnotherapy or a clever combination of both.
Reduce your consumption of fizzy drinks and fruit juice
Not so long ago I had a client who drank two litres of full-fat coke per day. By stopping this, alone, he shed so much weight so fast that I was amazed. Fizzy drinks are full of sugar. Fruit juice, perhaps surprisingly, is also full of sugar. Cut back on every single fizzy, sweet drink. The amount of sugar hidden within is astounding and it’s often a surprisingly easy path to weight-loss.
Eat more vegetables and fruit
Well, they’re healthy and a healthy body is a healthy mind. A healthy mind needs rubbish food less. Furthermore, they’re full of fibre which helps us to feel full and so reduces the room for sugary, salty foods.
Plan meals ahead
If you’re always living hand to mouth then you’ll often reach for the quick option. Unfortunately, however, the ready meals and snacks tend to be just those foods which are full of salt, fat and sugar. Make time to plan ahead and you can choose healthier options.
Cook your own meals
This works in three ways. First of all you’re in control of what goes into your food and can make healthier choices than the mass-manufacturers of processed foods would bother with. You’ll also be able to make far more than you need and can freeze some for meals later in the week.
Secondly, those who cook commonly report feeling less hungry than otherwise would be the case whilst enjoying their meals more. It’s good to sit down and enjoy something you cooked yourself.
If you’d like to learn more of how I work to help my clients lose weight then click here
Eat in a different chair
When we get into bad habits everything which surrounds that habit tends to help it become difficult to shake. The pint becomes associated with the cigarette, for example, and the pint of beer later feels strange when there’s no cigarette to accompany it. Our brains are strong at building associations between situations, people and objects.
So, if we have learned to associate a certain chair with a certain way of eating, weaken the habit by sitting elsewhere. New habits, new traditions, new results!
32 Don’t eat whilst watching TV
You may be getting the hang of this by now. If we’re busy watching TV then we’re not eating mindfully and consciously. If we’re not doing this then over-eating or needless eating becomes more likely. Turn it off and focus on what you’re doing.
Go straight to the butter section when you visit a supermarket
Each pack of butter is about half a pound in weight. Stack up as many packs of butter as it takes to represent your total weight loss to date. Lift them all and feel how heavy they are.
If you’re one of those strange types who prefers metric measurements of weight then head for the sugar aisle instead and do the same thing.
Let yourself break into a smile, feel proud and then complete your shopping determined never to allow the process to reverse itself.
Ignore any bemused looks from other shoppers whilst you stand there with 20 packs of sugar in your arms. When you next see them they might not even recognise you!
Eat spicy foods
The British Journal of Nutrition reports that eating lots of spicy food causes an increase in metabolism. A faster metabolism burns calories faster than a slower one. Be careful, however. This doesn’t mean that you can go to the local Indian every evening for supper – some curries are loaded with calories.
Get cracking!
Eggs are full of protein and are low in calories. Go to work on an egg, as the adverts used to say!
Don’t let yourself get hungry
Hunger is not a friend of weight-loss. It builds a feeling of resentment and leaves us more likely to reach for unhealthy snacks when these become available. Don’t let yourself get hungry. Losing weight using these methods (save for those who comfort eat and who should focus on tip 25) could be a surprisingly easy and simple process.
Keep a food diary
The American Journal of Preventative Medicine reports studies which show that those who keep food diaries are significantly more likely to lose weight. All it involves is writing down everything you eat during the day.
I ask my clients to do this BEFORE they eat because this then introduces a sense of choice and responsibility. Make a record of it all and it becomes conscious and you have a choice. It also means that any mistakes or slip-ups are recorded and lessons can be learned.
Put one spoonful back in the pot
Serve up a normal serving and then put something back in the pot. This may only remove 50 calories but that could add up over a year and lead to significant weight-loss.
Cut back on the salt!
Salt makes you thirsty and this can be confused with hunger. Salt is commonly found in less healthy food choices. Cut it back and see if it helps.
Don’t serve food at the table
Those ‘just a little bit more’ thoughts are easier to obey if the serving dish is on the table next to you. Make eating more than is necessary a little bit more inconvenient and you’ll probably find that it’s easier to eat less.
Don’t continue to take part in ‘there’s always an excuse’ dynamics
Years ago, as a teacher, I noticed a group of staff members who talked about nothing but food. They nattered on about their weight, their diets and how terribly difficult losing weight really was.
They reassured each other that it was OK to fail to lose weight. After all, ‘it’s your birthday, Christmas, Friday, St Michael’s Day, the third Tuesday of a leap year day’ and so on. They provided each other with plenty of excuses, comfort and…cake.
If any of them had actually lost their weight they would have had nothing to discuss and so the group dynamic conspired to keep each of them obese.
If you find yourself creating excuses for yourself or others then be honest about it and stop. You are responsible, you are in charge and you can make changes. Others may comfort you or provide excuses but it changes nothing. You will still be overweight. If you want to make changes then you can make changes and if others hold you back then you can decide whether to let them or not.
Pre-load before parties.
It was a thing in the media, a few years ago. People were worried that youngsters were getting drunk before heading out for the night, so as to avoid high drinks prices. ‘Pre-loading’ was a symptom of our supposedly decadent youth.
Well, now you can do the same. Eat before you go out to a party and you’ll be far less likely to binge on generally unhealthy nibbles.
Wear tight clothes
Don’t go out and buy a new set of clothes because the old ones are a little too tight. Stick with the tight ones. First of all, you’re going to fit into them again. Secondly, their tightness will be a constant reminder of your goals and the necessity of achieving them. People who buy bigger clothes often tend to relax and so grow to fit them. Stick with discomfort and it’ll spur you onto success.
Find a friend to lose weight with
Finding a friend to do this with will give you a sense of responsibility. It will make you accountable. It will bring about a feeling of mutual support and even a little competition. Share this article with a friend and tick off each of the 50 tips as you put them into operation. Keep each other on course and others will want to know your secret!
Stressed? Find ways of relaxing and take the time to do so.
When we’re stressed we produce a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol causes us to crave sweet and fatty foods. Stress is the enemy to weight-loss. Find time to relax and make sure you do. If you need further help with stress then book in to see a good, local therapist. It’ll be worth the money. You’ll be thinner and calmer too!
Praise yourself for every achievement!
Look at yourself in the mirror every evening. Tell yourself the three best things you’ve achieved that day and what those things say about you as a person. Focus on the positive because positive people have less need for food as a source of reassurance and comfort.
Don’t be put off by blips or setbacks
Successful people, in every field, learn to let go and learn from setbacks, mistakes and failures. If things have taken a bad turn then take some deep breaths and decide that tomorrow is going to be different. Besides, if you’ve followed these guidelines for a while there’s still a whole lot of progress to look back upon. Take another look at that graph and let this week go down as a learning experience.
Be aware of triggers and use breathing exercises to get through them
One former client of mine had an unsupportive mother in law who would wave cakes beneath her nose. You’ll soon find out where the biggest temptations to excessive eating are to be found and you can breathe your way through them. Take a deep breath over three seconds. Hold it for three and exhale for six. Repeat. Let the thoughts come and go – just as described in tip 1 and its recording – and the trigger moment will pass. Don’t forget to recognise and praise yourself for the achievement. Well done you!
Eat foods with high water content. Soups, curries, stews etc are all water based
Water doesn’t have calories and any thirst will be sated. These meals can be surprisingly filling too.
Tell family and friends
Tell people about this plan and enlist their support. If you’re lucky then they’ll keep any temptations out of arms’
reach. Besides, if you’re following this plan then things will quite possibly be a lot easier anyway.
Vary your diet!
Firstly, varying your diet will make it less likely that you’ll become bored. Secondly, new foods eaten in different ways and in different places will mean that the old, bad habits have been entirely broken. No associations will link these new foods to old ways of eating.
If you stick to these approaches then it’s likely that you’ll find it easier to lose weight. By the time the weight has gone these new habits will have had the chance to become ingrained and it would take a lot of will-power to let it all slip again.
I wish you all the best with weight loss and please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you’re looking for hypnotherapy for weight loss in Reading, Thame, Wallingford, London or Oxford. I work to help people lose weight in simple and sustainable ways whilst resolving any underlying psychological issues. Hypnotherapy for weight loss has helped a great many people in London, Berkshire and Oxfordshire to lose weight and it could help you too.
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For those who don't know, Wulong Forest is the area in which Avatar Aang faced Firelord Ozai.
TTFN ~Spender
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
It took years, but the earth prevailed at Wulong Forest. Earth built up against the warships' hulls, spurred on by the wind. The ash mixed in with the soil, water fell from a moonlit sky that the large, narrow towers of earth, for which the area was named, fruitlessly stretched for, and the ocean constantly threw against on the beach.
Soon, the forest returned. It started with the moss, creeping ahead of the canopy like an advance scout, digging its heels into the scorched earth and refusing to be moved by the other elements. Saplings followed years after. Their springy forms jutted out from the plain, swaying in the slightest breeze, but remaining rooted. Their progress would not be stopped; they had but one purpose, one goal, one drive—they would reclaim their land scarred and disfigured by the crazed Phoenix King.
The cloth balloons of the airship were the first to go. Under the onslaught of exposure, they disintegrated and were carried away by the wind, no longer the impressive display of industry they were when they bore the mark of the Fire Nation. Then, the rains brought with them rust as a gift for the metal frameworks. The water ate away at the intrusive objects and the once strong supports began to bend.
Soon, for in the mind of the world centuries pass like minutes, the warships were entirely gone. Their parts had been taken apart to the basest materials which then rejoined nature. The area once left scorched, bare, and desolate by the ambition of one sole man, one who desired to change the world forever, was vibrant with life, as it once was; its inhabitants ate, hunted, slept, breathed, mated and reproduced, and lived their lives as best they could. The heartbeat of the world was felt by many plants, for the foliage grew thick, dense, and lush.
And when names like Phoenix King Ozai, or Aang, or Sokka, or Katara, or Firelord Zuko, or Toph, or the Dragon of the West were but whispers of a distant past, the single scar that remained in the area was nothing but a small area where the spires were shorter and more stout than those around them. It was a sole memento of heroics, ambition, evil, friendship, love, struggle.
But nature did not concern itself with the pointless tug-of-war that humans were ever so fond of. For the first time in centuries, nature was content; it had reclaimed what had been stolen from it.
The world always wins.Bematists or bematistae (Ancient Greek βηματισταί, from βῆμα bema 'pace'), were specialists in ancient Greece who were trained to measure distances by counting their steps.
Measurements of Alexander's bematists [ edit ]
Bematists accompanied Alexander the Great on his campaign in Asia. Their measurements of the distances traveled by Alexander's army show a high degree of precision to the point that it had been suggested that they must have used an odometer, although there is no direct mentioning of such a device:
The overall accuracy of the bematists’ measurements should be apparent. The minor discrepancies of distance can be adequately explained by slight changes in the tracks of roads during the last 2,300 years. The accuracy of the measurements implies that the bematists used a sophisticated mechanical device for measuring distances, undoubtedly an odometer such as described by Heron of Alexandria.[1]
The table below lists distances of the routes as measured by two of Alexander's bematists, Diognetus and Baeton. They were recorded in Pliny's Naturalis Historia (NH 6.61–62). Another similar set of measurements is given by Strabo (11.8.9) following Eratosthenes.[2]
Pliny 6.61–62 Strabo 11.8.9 Actual distance Route Milia passuum 1) English miles Deviation Stadia 2) English miles Deviation English miles Northern Caspian Gates – Hecatompylos — — — 1960 225 0.8% 227 main road Southern Caspian Gates – Hecatompylos 133 122 2.4% — — — 125 main road Hecatompylos – Alexandria Areion 575 529 0.4% 4530 521 1.9% 531 Silk Route Alexandria Areion – Prophtasia 199 183 3.2% 1600 184 2.6% 189 Herat-Juwain Prophtasia – Arachoti Polis 565 520 1% 4120 474 9.7% 525 Juwain – Kelat-i-Ghilzai Arachoti Polis – Hortospana 250 230 0.4% 2000 230 0.4% 231 main road Kelat-i-Ghilzai – Kabul Hortospana – Alexandria ad Caucasum 50 46 2.1% — — — 47 Kabul – Begram Alexandria ad Caucasum – Peucolatis 237 218 3.2% — — — 211 Begram – Charsada Peucolatis – Taxila 60 55 20% — — — 69 Charsada – Taxila Taxila – Hydaspes (Jhelum) 120 110 4.8% — — — 105 Aurel Stein’s route Alexandria Areion – Bactra – Zariaspa3) — — — 3870 445 1.6% 438 via Kala Nau, Bala Murghab, Maimana and Andkhui Average 4.2% 2.8% Median 2.8% 1.9%
Notes:
1) 1 mille passus = 1,480 meters or 1,618.5 yards
2) 1 Attic stadion = 606’10’’
3) The route is not recorded to have been followed by Alexander himself.
Addenda: Leaving out the highest outlier each, the average deviation of the rest of the bematists's measurements would be 1.9% with Pliny and 1.5% with Strabo at a measured distance of 1,958 respectively 1,605 miles.
List of bematists [ edit ]
Amyntas [3]
Baeton
Diognetus
Philonides of Chersonissos[4][5]
References [ edit ]
^ Engels 1978, p. 158 ^ All data from: Engels 1978, p. 157 ^ Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire, Blackwell, 2006, Heckel, Waldemar:, Blackwell, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4051-1210-9, p. 26 ^ Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great: Prosopography of Alexander's Empire, Blackwell, 2006, ISBN Heckel, Waldemar:, Blackwell, 2006, 978-1-4051-1210-9, p. 216 ^ Epigraphical Database: Elis — Olympia — 336–323 BC
Sources [ edit ]
Engels, Donald W.: Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army, University of California Press, Los Angeles 1978, ISBN 0-520-04272-7Dear Reader, As you can imagine, more people are reading The Jerusalem Post than ever before. Nevertheless, traditional business models are no longer sustainable and high-quality publications, like ours, are being forced to look for new ways to keep going. Unlike many other news organizations, we have not put up a paywall. We want to keep our journalism open and accessible and be able to keep providing you with news and analysis from the frontlines of Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will make his first official visit to Israel in mid-October to discuss the Jewish State’s ongoing concerns regarding Iran’s presence in Syria.
Shoigu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman are expected to discuss the cooperation between Russia and Israel; the continuing coordination of the two militaries over Syria; as well as the Iranian entrenchment in the war-torn country and transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah by Tehran through Damascus.
Israeli officials have repeatedly voiced concern about the entrenchment of Iran and its proxies, such as Hezbollah, in Syria, and is reported to have passed messages to that effect to Tehran through Russia.Russia intervened in the Syrian conflict in September 2015.Although Shoigu’s visit will be the first of a Russian defense minister to Israel in several years, officials from the two countries meet regularly to discuss the deconfliction mechanism implemented over Syria to coordinate their actions in order avoid accidental clashes.Nevertheless, Shoigu’s visit will be the first of a Russian defense minister to Israel in several years.Jerusalem has stressed that it would not allow Iran to set up a permanent presence in Syria, and Liberman, in the past, has warned that while Israel has no interest in entering Syria’s seven- year civil war, there are redlines Jerusalem has set including the smuggling of sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah and an Iranian presence on its borders.Russia, which views Iran as a key player in resolving the crisis in Syria, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the role Iran plays in the war-torn country.The Russian defense minister met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in mid-September and discussed the ongoing military cooperation between the two, the Russian Foreign Ministry said at the time. Shoigu’s surprise visit to the Syrian capital was followed by a visit by Iran’s Javad Zarif to Sochi to meet with the Russian defense minister.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly criticized a US-Russian cease-fire deal in Syria, saying it does not include any provisions to stop Iranian expansion in the area.Last month, Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi where he re-emphasized the danger the growing Iranian presence in Syria poses as a threat not only to Israel and the Middle East but the entire world. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, later stated that Israel’s security interests in southern Syria were being taken into account in the cease-fire deal.Following Netanyahu’s return from Moscow, Liberman warned that Israel will not remain a bystander as Iran creates a new reality in the Middle East.“Iran, through the Revolutionary Guards, is trying to create a new reality around us with Iranian air and naval bases in Syria, with Shi’ite militias with thousands of mercenaries and precision weapons being produced in Lebanon,” he said.As the war in Syria seems to be turning in Assad’s favor due to Moscow’s intervention, Israel fears that Iran will help Hezbollah produce accurate precision-guided missiles and help Hezbollah and other Shi’ite militias strengthen their foothold in the Golan Heights.Russia is reported to have rejected a request from Jerusalem for a 60-kilometer buffer zone between the Golan Heights and any Iranian-backed militias in Syria, agreeing only to make sure that no Shi’ite fighter comes within five kilometers of Israel.Israel’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, has been strengthening its defenses along the northern border over the past several years, creating obstacles such as artificial cliffs and building high concrete barriers to help prevent any such ground attacks by Hezbollah.While Israel already has walls near northern communities with reinforced concrete panels several feet high and concrete blocks and fortified watchtowers, a new six-meter high steel and barbed wire “smart fence” stretching several kilometers with information collection centers and warning systems is being built along two stretches of the Lebanese border.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>Chip Zdarsky, Kris Anka, and Matthew Wilson’s Star-Lord comic, which released its third issue this week, is great so far. It’s telling a fun tale of Peter Quill making his way while stuck on Earth without his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy around. But we’re not here to talk about that. We’re here to talk about abs.
One thing that has struck me the most reading Star-Lord so far, beyond its story or its brilliant visuals—Wilson is a sublime colorist, and Anka’s line work is crisp and beautiful—is how it treats its perspective of Peter Quill’s physical presence. Specifically, its sensual perspective of his presence.
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Not an issue of Star-Lord has gone by without the reader witnessing at least one moment of Star-Lord shirtless. The first time we even see him in the entire series is splayed out on a couch in his temporary new home, shirtless and gleaming.
Star-Lord #2 even opens with a shot of Peter after a brawl, his clothing torn and chest brazenly exposed in that classic sort of “battle damage” style.
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The most oblique of these moments came in this week’s third issue, which features a whole two-page scene of a post-workout Quill, in nothing but a pair of very snug gym shorts.
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Chiseled, ripped male phsyiques are a dime a dozen in superhero comics. Practically every male hero around has got a body like Peter Quill’s, or better, and we see them in and out of skintight spandex every issue. But these moments in Star-Lord aren’t the atypical images of the male power fantasy that we’re used to seeing these physiques portayed in, though.
I mean for gods sake, look at that Star-Lord #3 page. That man’s goddamn abs are sparkling. It’s refreshingly sexy. It’s erotic. It’s very deliberately made from the perspective of a people-who-are-attracted-to-men gaze. And if you think I’m drawing too deep an interpretation from a couple pages of shirtless Star-Lord, well, it’s an interpretation that both Zdarsky and Anka believe in enough themselves to sell Star-Lord to their audience. A cursory scroll through the twitter accounts of both the writer and the artist easily provide evidence that the comic’s erotic portrayal of Star-Lord is a deliberate highlight of the comic, and so far a repeated selling point in their eyes.
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The fan reaction they |
son Michael Edward Reagan (born March 18, 1945), and Christine Reagan (born prematurely on June 26, 1947, and died later the same day).[18] Wyman, who was a registered Republican, stated that their break-up was due to a difference in politics (Ronald Reagan was still a Democrat at the time).[19] She filed for divorce in 1948; the divorce was finalized in 1949. In 1981, Ronald Reagan became the first divorcee to assume the nation's highest office. This made Wyman the first former wife of a United States president who was still living at the time to have her former husband become president. Although she remained silent during Reagan's political career, she told a newspaper interviewer in 1968 that this was not because she was bitter, or because she did not agree with him politically:
I've always been a registered Republican. But it's bad taste to talk about former husbands and former wives, that's all. Also, I don't know a damn thing about politics.[citation needed]
In spite of her divorce and according to her former personal assistant, she still voted for her former husband in the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections.[citation needed]
Frederick Karger [ edit ]
Following her divorce from Reagan, Wyman married German-American Hollywood music director and composer Frederick M. "Fred" Karger (1916 – 1979) on November 1, 1952, at El Montecito Presbyterian Church, Santa Barbara. They separated on November 7, 1954, and were granted an interlocutory divorce decree on December 7, 1954; the divorce was finalized on December 30, 1955. They remarried on March 11, 1961, and Karger divorced her again on March 9, 1965. According to The New York Times report of the divorce, the bandleader charged that the actress "had walked out on him."[20] Wyman had a stepdaughter, Terry, from Karger's first marriage to Patti Sacks.[21]
Wyman, who had converted to Catholicism in 1953, never remarried.[22] She was a member of the Good Shepherd Parish and the Catholic Motion Picture Guild in Beverly Hills, California.[23]
Later life [ edit ]
After Falcon Crest ended, Wyman made a guest appearance on the CBS series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and then completely retired from acting, spending her retirement painting and entertaining friends. Wyman was a recluse and made only a few public appearances in her last years in part due to suffering from diabetes and arthritis. She did attend her daughter's funeral in 2001 after Maureen died of melanoma. (Ronald Reagan was unable to attend due to his Alzheimer's disease.) She also attended the funeral of her long-time friend Loretta Young in 2000. Wyman broke her silence about her former husband upon his death in 2004, issuing an official statement that read, "America has lost a great president and a great, kind, and gentle man."[13]
Death [ edit ]
Wyman died at the age of 90[1] at her Rancho Mirage home on September 10, 2007.[24] Wyman's son, Michael Reagan, released a statement saying:
I have lost a loving mother, my children Cameron and Ashley have lost a loving grandmother, my wife Colleen has lost a loving friend she called Mom and Hollywood has lost the classiest lady to ever grace the silver screen.[25]
Wyman reportedly died in her sleep of natural causes. A member of the Dominican Order (as a lay tertiary) of the Roman Catholic Church, she was buried in a nun's habit.[26] She was interred at Forest Lawn Mortuary and Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California.[1]
Filmography [ edit ]
Box office ranking [ edit ]
For several years, film exhibitors voted Wyman as among the most popular stars in the country:
1949 – 25th (US), [27] 6th (UK) [28]
6th (UK) 1952 – 15th most popular (US) [29]
1953 – 19th (US)
1954 – 9th (US)
1955 – 18th (US)
1956 – 23rd (US)
Television [ edit ]
Radio appearances [ edit ]
The Martin and Lewis Show Jane Wyman November 30, 1951
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
Wyman has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; one for motion pictures at 6607 Hollywood Boulevard and one for television at 1620 Vine Street.The persistently hilarious new female Ghostbusters film has been released into a perfect storm of troll-feeding media nonsense. An admittedly unfunny trailer. An even unfunnier tendency to review trailers and consider them important or interesting standalone events. An ugly Gamergate mob of male online commenters, and the lamestream media’s need to reward and amplify their abuse.
And why was the Ghostbusters trailer so ropey when the film itself fires off a top-quality zinger every 10 seconds or so – except for the lengthy action scenes? Maybe to save the best material for the film itself. Or perhaps it was to lure the misogynists into precisely that online abuse that the movie itself satirises so cleverly.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Watch the Ghostbusters trailer
Ghostbusters: The Ectoplasmic Force Awakens – as I am now calling it – does more than sport with the increasingly tiresome subject of identity politics and pop culture. It delivers a really funny and spectacular action comedy that pays tribute to the first film with in-jokes, twists and cameos, and yet produces a brand new work, as smart as paint.
In the 1984 original, directed by Ivan Reitman and co-written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, it was Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Ramis and Aykroyd as the gung-ho paranormal specialists, hunting down ghosts in New York City. The new version comes from Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids, and co-written by him with Katie Dippold, who gave us Parks and Recreation on TV. Their script absolutely sparkles – in a different way: looser, more self-aware, more allusion, more riffing. Kristen Wiig is Erin Gilbert, the super-serious physicist at Columbia, who is trying to live down an early interest in the paranormal and a book she once co-wrote called Ghosts from the Past: Literally and Figuratively. This was created in tandem with her schoolfriend, the stroppily unrepentant spirit-chaser, Abby Yates, played at full proton throttle by Melissa McCarthy. Abby is still pursuing her vocation with tech specialist Jillian Holtzmann, played by newcomer Kate McKinnon.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Breakout star … Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzmann. Photograph: Allstar/Sony Pictures
Why Ghostbros on Twitter are monstering my Ghostbusters review Read more
The reappearance of their book on Amazon causes Erin to be fired, and she has no choice but to join up with Abby and make a living ghostbusting to pay the bills and because it makes them feel good. They are joined by Patty, a New York subway employee who alerts them to ghosts underground – a terrific performance from Leslie Jones. They are helped by a stupid male beefcake secretary called Kevin, played by Chris Hemsworth. That dumb-male twist is maybe a bit pedantic, and where the film wobbles a bit. I could have done with more funny stuff within the action sequences themselves, and quite simply I wanted a bigger, longer, earlier blast of Ray Parker Jr’s classic theme song. (I always feel the same way, incidentally, about the James Bond theme in every Bond film.)
But there are such tremendous gags. It is hardly out of the starting gate before we get lines about a haunted 19th-century mansion having an “anti-Irish fence” and containing the very room where Phineas T Barnum had the idea to enslave elephants. I especially loved Kevin having a dog called “Mike Hat”, which leads to misconceptions. Another great touch is the way the ghosts of Broadway past are revealed in the film’s climactic confrontation, old buildings, old posters for old shows.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Beefcake … Chris Hemsworth as Kevin. Photograph: Hopper Stone
In a way, the breakout star turn is McKinnon – a graduate of TV’s Saturday Night Live who was entirely new to me. She has a kind of limber improv-ish eccentricity and natural comedy that is the closest in spirit to Bill Murray from the first film. Not that such comparisons are necessary or desirable. All the ghostbusters have that quality of lovability that is most prominent when they are united in adversity, especially when up against the city’s dodgy mayor, played by Andy Garcia, who has a very funny line about his fictional opposite number in Jaws.
The real triumph of this new Ghostbusters is that it doesn’t feel like an inversion, or an experiment, or a novelty. It just feels funny. An update or upgrade to the original, not a rebuke to it, or to its fans, although certainly a rebuke to those who believe that being funny is an XY chromosome thing. This is a blockbuster.To Weissbourd, shows like Dance Moms are a symptom of a broader societal malaise. It’s an example of how ego-driven society, and by extension, teenagers, have become, thanks in part to the pressures placed on them by parents and colleges. The Harvard initiative Weissbourd co-directs—called “Making Caring Common”—is aimed at changing media messages and school policies in order to promote concern for others among youth. Essentially, he hopes to make kids into better people and America a little less like Dance Moms.
Weissbourd was shocked when, a few years ago, his research team asked 10,000 middle- and high-school students to rank what was most important to them: achieving at a high level, feeling good, or caring for others. Almost 80 percent picked high achievement or happiness as their top choice, while just 20 percent chose caring. The majority of the teens thought their parents were more concerned about achievement or happiness than caring for others. As one such budding Objectivist put it, “If you are not happy, life is nothing. After that, you want to do well. And after that, expend any excess energy on others.”
The students’ self-involvement spurred Weissbourd and his colleagues to try to tweak their perceived reward structure. For the past several years, he’s been pushing college deans to make changes to their admissions processes in order to de-emphasize laundry lists of achievements and activities. Instead, he wants to promote the idea that simply being a great person can help you get into a great school. And early signs suggest it’s working: Several schools, including top colleges like Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale, have made changes to their applications to better accommodate students whose concern for the common good is their most outstanding quality. The changes may reflect on the admissions decisions these universities make as they process applications in coming months.
The college-application process, always a bit of a rat race, has in recent years become ever more tortuous and with an ever-dwindling piece of cheese at the end. High-school seniors and their families are seeing elite schools’ admission rates plummet, so they are applying to more and more colleges, spending hundreds on admissions fees, and piling on activities to get an edge. “When people are anxious, it’s easier to latch onto quantity rather than quality,” Weissbourd says.
Many high-schoolers do volunteer, but to Weissbourd, it seems the public service doesn’t always come with pure intentions. Many well-heeled students find themselves in a "community-service Olympics," as he calls it, jetting off to an exotic country to build houses for a week and signing up to be treasurer of five or six clubs when they return. “One of the things we're saying is that it doesn't advantage you to go to Belize,” he said. “It's just as good to work in a local soup kitchen.”February 3, 2013 | Filed Under Congress, Conservatives, Elections, Ethics, GOP, Government, Karl Rove, Liberals, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off on Hey, Karl Rove: Take a Hike Loser
-By Earner Todd Huston
Karl Rove has declared war on conservatives. With his new Super PAC, he is targeting not Democrats, he is not trying to raise money for good candidates, no he is raising money to defeat conservatives who might have the temerity to make a run for office in 2014.
Karl Rove has identified the enemy… and he is us!
It should be remembered that everything Rove did in the late presidential election misfired terribly. He spent millions of those gullible enough to donate to his efforts, then he went on Fox News and insisted Romney would win despite the evidence mounting by the minute on election night that we were trounced.
Rove is not part of the solution. He is part of the hide-bound, country club Republican, RINO, problem.
The Senate Conservative Fund has issued a statement which perfectly encapsulates what our message to this loser should be.
The Senate Conservatives Fund issued the following statement today regarding news that American Crossroads has formed a new super PAC comically named the “Conservative Victory Project” to oppose conservative candidates in GOP primary elections. The new super PAC is supported by Karl Rove and will be run by Steven Law, the former Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY). “The Conservative Defeat Project is yet another example of the Republican establishment’s hostility toward its conservative base,” said SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins. “Rather than listening to the grassroots and working to advance their principles, the establishment has chosen to declare war on its party’s most loyal supporters. If they keep this up, the Republican Party will remain in the wilderness for decades to come.”
Click HERE to read the rest.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.
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commentsBy Gulsen Solaker and Tuvan Gumrukcu
ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament approved a law to allow some state-employed religious officials to administer civil marriages, a move opposition parties view as another blow to secularism and women's rights under President Tayyip Erdogan.
The law, passed late on Thursday, will allow muftis - officials employed by the state's Religious Affairs Directorate - to perform civil marriages that were previously administered only by municipal officials.
The secularist main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP) has vowed to take the law to the Constitutional Court "as soon as possible", while the leftist pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has also opposed it.
Critics fear the new law could lead to an increase in underage marriages, citing the religious ceremonies practiced in rural areas where brides are sometimes under 18.
"This paves the way for child brides because according to Islam, there is no age limit, a girl who has reached puberty can get married," CHP Deputy Chairman Ozgur Ozel told Reuters.
Ozel said the law included "constitutional breaches" and disregarded the founding values of the constitutionally secular Turkish republic.
Civil marriage under the age of 18 is illegal in Turkey, although in rural parts of the Sunni Muslim nation of 80 million religious ceremonies are common.
HDP lawmaker Huda Kaya said the law was a "slightly formalized" version of a previous controversial proposal that critics said could allow men accused of sexually abusing girls to avoid punishment if they marry their victims. The proposal was retracted from parliament last year after a public uproar.
'AGAINST SECULARISM'
"They say this is against secularism. The church does this in the West," Erdogan said last week.
Erdogan, whose roots are in political Islam, and his ruling AK Party say the law is designed to speed up the officiating of weddings, normally carried out by mayors at municipal offices.
But one CHP lawmaker, Ali Seker, said each state official had on average fewer than one wedding to conduct per day last year, citing official statistics during a debate in parliament.
The law states that the offices of muftis will be given the right to carry out weddings, meaning the religious officials could also appoint Muslim clerics or imams to officiate civil weddings - an authority that has never been granted to non-state employees in modern Turkey.
"This is the act of legalising a social event that is part of Turkey's traditions. The spirit of the laws must be in harmony with the spirit of social life," Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul said.
Erdogan has spent his political career fighting to bring religion back into public life in Turkey and has cast himself as the liberator of millions of pious Turks whose rights and welfare were neglected under the secular elite.
Liberal Turks see Erdogan as attempting to roll back the work of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the Western-facing founder of modern Turkey.
"This is a clear alternative to secularism. Even bringing this bill on the agenda is igniting a spark against secularism," said Canan Gullu, chairwoman of the Turkish Women's Associations Federation, told Reuters.
"No matter what they do, women's fight will continue, and democracy and secularism will survive."
(Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by David Dolan)Ethereum is going through a crisis right now due to problems related to The DAO, which was the smart contract platform’s most notable project up to this point. While Ethereum supporters tout it as a more advanced, more powerful alternative to Bitcoin, those added features also may cause issues in terms of the reliability and security of the applications built on top of the blockchain.
Although not an Ethereum basher by any means, 21 CEO Balaji Srinivasan recently shared some of his concerns with Ethereum at an event hosted by Boost VC. When initially talking about Ethereum in response to a question from the audience, Srinivasan noted that he respects Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin and plays around with the software a bit. He even added that 21 will likely support the Bitcoin alternative at some point in the future.
The 21 CEO likes Ethereum’s 17-second confirmation times and commitment to on-chain scaling, but he also pointed out three unresolved issues with the ambitious project.
1. Ethereum Has a Much Broader Attack Surface
Now that real projects have been built on top of Ethereum, more hackers are taking a closer look at the platform. In a way, The DAO was a more than $100 million bug bounty built to test the reliability of the kinds of smart contracts that can be written on top of Ethereum. Ethereum has seen an increase as a percentage of Bitcoin’s overall market cap this year, which means more people are now paying attention to the project.
During his recent talk, Srinivasan noted the number of people looking to find vulnerabilities in Ethereum will grow as the market cap rises. He stated:
“Ethereum is close as a percentage [of Bitcoin’s market cap], and if it ever did become really close, I think you would see a level of Internet trollery and DDOSing that you’ve never seen before.”
Srinivasan added, “Ethereum has a larger attack surface, and Bitcoin has been more stress-tested.”
In addition to possible issues with Ethereum’s base protocol layer, there is also the issue of smart contracts being extremely difficult to write properly -- as was evidenced by the recent fiasco with The DAO. It may be true that Ethereum allows developers to create more complex smart contracts than what’s possible with Bitcoin, but it’s also important to realize these smart contracts are extremely difficult to verify as safe -- as Cornell Professor Emin Gün Sirer recently pointed out in a blog post.
I personally don't believe in the vision of a "JavaScript for Smart Contracts" — fiduciary class security is hard. https://t.co/SDiGPOVERU — Christopher Allen (@ChristopherA) June 27, 2016
2. Complications with a Transition to Proof-of-Stake
Ethereum developers have also been planning a move from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake for quite some time. In a proof-of-stake system, hashing power is replaced by holding tokens (in this case ether) for the mining process. During his recent talk, Srinivasan referred to proof-of-stake as “a major, open technical question.”
Srinivasan then explained one of the issues he sees with a proof-of-stake system:
“With proof-of-work, you have a fundamental measure of how much computation went into the length of the chain, whereas with proof-of-stake, you only know how many votes were taken. You could imagine a situation where people do an attack called ‘grinding’ where you have a hydra-like thing with lots of competing Ethereum blockchains. And you have to figure out which one is actually the canonical one to follow, and then you’ve added trust into the system -- as opposed to the simple heuristic of just picking the longest chain with the most proof-of-work.”
“Vitalik says he’s got an answer for this, and he’s a smart guy, so I’ve an open mind on this. But it’s an unsolved problem in my mind,” Srinivasan added.
3. Ethereum is Attempting to Solve Difficult Problems
When comparisons are made between Bitcoin and Ethereum, one point that is almost always brought up is that Bitcoin tries to keep things simple. While Ethereum is attempting to be Bitcoin 2.0 and “decentralize all the things,” Bitcoin developers are focused on making sure their particular network is able to maintain a digital bearer asset.
Srinivasan touched on the difficulties associated with expanding on Satoshi Nakamoto’s ideas and applying that sort of game theory to other aspects of society:
“It took Satoshi-level game theory to figure out a way to do a decentralized wire transfer. That’s what Bitcoin is -- a decentralized wire transfer... If it took that to get a decentralized wire transfer, how much more challenging is it to decentralize corporate charter?”
Srinivasan then explained that Andreessen Horowitz, where he is a board partner, knows all of their limited partners, and they tend to be pretty conservative institutions. “They all know each other. We all eat food together or whatever,” he noted. “Still, our charter runs to thousands of pages with all kinds of weird edge cases and stuff.”
In the case of The DAO, those known institutions are replaced by anonymous individuals who don’t necessarily need to protect any sort of reputation attached to the real world.
In terms of when these sorts of problems may eventually be figured out, Srinivasan stated, “Decentralizing corporate law, I think, is going to be like at least ten or twenty years... When you start doing game theory not on two people but on 2,000 people, that’s an unsolved problem.”
Smart contracts may be to cryptocurrency what autonomous robots were to computers. Doable eventually, but the breakthroughs took decades. — Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) June 23, 2016
Srinivasan clarified that Ethereum is about much more than just The DAO, but he also added:
“[The DAO] gets to a really core thing about Ethereum, which is that the programs -- their difficulty may not be in the implementation but they may be in the game theory and the human dynamics around them. So I think it will take a lot of iteration for Ethereum to become useful beyond simply the fact it has 17-second block times and a commitment to on-chain scaling.”
Of course, it’s possible that Ethereum will eventually find solutions to the various issues that it’s facing right now. After all, the Ethereum blockchain hasn’t even been live for an entire year. Much like Bitcoin, Ethereum is still very much an experiment -- a much younger experiment.We recently stayed at Coronado Springs and absolutely loved it! This is the only moderate Resort with a Convention Center. With 1921 rooms comma Coronado feels very spread out and luxurious. It really starts when you enter El Centro and first view La Fuentes de Las Palomas (Fountain of the Doves) with its beautiful mural painted above. This is also where you check in and check out.
There are several places to eat in this building including the Peppermill food court. The Maya Grill is a very nice restaurant but remember to get reservations.
Coronado Springs is separated into three distinct areas. The Casitas are the most formal feeling of the buildings. They have over 1000 rooms and are styled in a Santa Fe or Monterey Bay fashion. The Ranchos are rustic and the details will bring you to the American southwest. The Cabanas are two-story Mexican style bungalows.
There are multiple quiet pools throughout the resort. The main pool is the big dick. The centerpiece is a Mayan temple. There is an arcade and a children’s play area. There are quick service meals and a full bar at this pool. The hot tub section is definitely my favorite amenity.
Although this Resort is spread out, there are plenty of bus stops throughout. I prefer to walk around the resort and enjoy the views.
I look forward to our next stay at Coronado Springs!
Gina
AdvertisementsIf you have your eye on a new TV or getting a head start on your Christmas shopping, you only have a few days before your Amazon bill goes up.
Starting Nov. 1, Amazon will start collecting and remitting sales tax in Alabama. As part of Alabama's Simplified Seller Use Tax Remittance Program - an effort to streamline the collection of sales taxes from online retailers located outside the state- the tax rate is set at a flat 8 percent.
The tax applies to all sales regardless of where an item is shipped in the state.
The flat tax rate is available to any retailer that sells services or items in the state but does not have a physical presence here. In return for agreeing to join the program, retailers like Amazon can lock in the 8-percent tax rate even if the federal government adopts a higher figure later. Companies that pay their bills by the 20th of the month will also be able to deduct and keep 2 percent of the taxes it collects.
In all, more than 50 retailers have signed on to be part of Alabama's simplified tax remittance program since it was launched in 2015.
Taxing online purchases has been a goal of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers - many of whom feel tax-free online shopping puts them at a disadvantage - and governments looking to shore up their own coffers. In Alabama, 50 percent of the collected taxes will go the state's general fund; 25 percent to cities; and 25 percent to counties, prorated based on population.
The Nov. 1 change will make Alabama the 29th state to collect sales tax from Amazon.Abstract
Teixobactin is a recently described antibiotic of a new class produced by a hitherto undescribed soil microorganism (provisionally named Eleftheria terrae). It was isolated with a new tool, the iChip, that allowed the environmental bacterium to grow and for the antibiotic it produced to be isolated and subsequently identified. Teixobactin has activity against Gram-positive (but not Gram-negative) organisms and mycobacteria and a novel mode of action inhibiting peptidoglycan biosynthesis. In vitro no teixobactin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or Mycobacterium tuberculosis were selected. In experimental infections of MRSA and Streptococcus pneumoniae in mice, teixobactin was effective at reducing the bacterial load. Although teixobactin is at an early stage of development and there are no guarantees it will make it to market, the use of the iChip will hopefully result in the discovery of further potential new antibiotics.
Introduction
There has been a great interest from scientists, doctors and the public about a new agent from a new class of natural product antibiotics, teixobactin. Ling et al.1 were able to isolate teixobactin by using a new tool, the iChip, which was used to screen for compounds from antibiotic-producing soil microorganisms with activity against Staphylococcus aureus. This not only yielded a new natural product, but also allowed isolation of the unculturable microorganism. It is estimated that <1% of microorganisms from soil are grown by conventional microbiological approaches,2 so the iChip offers a significant advance in sensitivity. The iChip is an assembly of plastic plates and membranes to capture environmental microorganisms that produce antimicrobial compounds. In essence, it comprises plastic plates, which contain hundreds of holes, each forming a very small diffusion chamber. Each chamber allows the growth of only one microorganism. One plate is dipped in a dilution of an environmental sample, such as a soil suspension. This plate is clamped to membranes and a top and bottom plastic plate to allow growth of the producing microorganisms as well as diffusion of any antimicrobial compounds (see Figure 1 in Nichols et al.3). This method of screening will greatly facilitate the discovery of new antibiotics as it allows compounds to be isolated from environmental microorganisms that do not grow under normal laboratory conditions. Although teixobactin has mostly anti-Gram-positive activity, it is possible that other natural products isolated with the iChip will be active against Gram-negative bacteria.
Teixobactin: spectrum of activity, mode of action and development of resistance
This new antibiotic is produced by a new species of β-proteobacteria provisionally named Eleftheria terrae, which belongs to a new genus related to Aquabacteria. The authors showed that teixobactin was able to kill representative strains of bacteria that cause wound and invasive infections such as S. aureus including MRSA, those that cause pneumonia (Streptococcus pneumoniae) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It also showed good activity against Clostridium difficile and Bacillus anthracis. Teixobactin was also effective as a single dose in significantly reducing bacterial numbers in mouse models of MRSA septicaemia and pneumococcal pneumonia.
From the culture supernatant of E. terrae a partially purified active fraction was obtained and shown to contain a compound, teixobactin. It is an unusual depsipeptide containing enduracididine, methylphenylalanine and four d-amino acids. The biosynthetic pathway of teixobactin was identified by genome sequencing of E. terrae and homology searches.
Teixobactin has a different mode of action from other antibiotics currently used to treat bacterial infections in people (and animals). Ling et al.1 showed that teixobactin inhibits peptidoglycan biosynthesis in S. aureus by binding to a highly conserved motif of lipid II (a precursor of peptidoglycan) and lipid III (a precursor of teichoic acid). No teixobactin-resistant S. aureus or M. tuberculosis were isolated at four times the MIC. Furthermore, no resistant S. aureus were obtained after serial passage in subinhibitory concentrations of teixobactin. This led the authors to suggest that it will be difficult for bacteria that cause infections in people to become resistant to teixobactin. However, teixobactin is a natural product from a microorganism that lives in the soil. Many antibiotics have been discovered from the natural environment, and the microorganism that produces the antibiotic, and sometimes its close microbial neighbours, are resistant to the antibiotic.4–6 For the producing microorganism, resistance is essential, otherwise production of its own antibiotic would cause the microorganism to kill itself. Likewise, close neighbour environmental microorganisms can be resistant so that they can survive in the same environment as the producing microorganism. ‘Natural’ antibiotic resistance genes can be transferred into pathogenic bacteria.7 Indeed, the gene encoding one of the most common mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, ESBLs, was acquired from an environmental bacterium.8 This is the most likely route of any resistance, should it occur, to teixobactin. However, this could be a very rare occurrence because the bacterial strains that cause infection in people would need to have mixed with the teixobactin-resistant soil bacteria. Nonetheless, to be sure that resistance to teixobactin is unlikely to occur when used in human medicine, bacteria isolated from the same environmental niche as the teixobactin-producing organism should be screened for teixobactin-resistance conferring genes.
Activity against Gram-negative bacteria
According to the WHO's report in April 2014,9 one of the major global concerns of physicians is antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp. The Gram-negative bacterial cell envelope structure makes it difficult for many antibiotics to gain entry into the bacterium and once inside many antibiotics are exported by multidrug efflux pumps.10 Ling et al.1 showed that teixobactin had no activity against E. coli, suggesting that E. coli is impermeable to this agent or it is effluxed (or both). Either way, teixobactin does not inhibit E. coli and so is unlikely to be effective against other Gram-negative bacteria.
Will teixobactin be developed into a new drug?
For teixobactin (and any new compound with antimicrobial activity) to become a drug to treat infections in people, clinical trials will need to be carried out to make sure that the drug is safe, well tolerated and efficacious in patients. To do this, teixobactin will need to be formulated so that the antibiotic remains active in vivo at clinically relevant sites of infection. Full toxicology tests will also need to be carried out to ensure that there are no adverse reactions or drug–drug interactions following administration of teixobactin. NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals owns the novel chemical entities produced by the iChip and it has been stated that the hope is that teixobactin will be ready for a clinical trial in 2017. Whether it will be fully developed as a new drug remains to be seen, not least because it is questionable whether more drugs against Gram-positive bacteria are required. However, as teixobactin is active against M. tuberculosis, it could offer the opportunity for a new treatment for patients with TB. Teixobactin may also fulfil the requirements for approval by the FDA under the qualified infectious disease product (QIDP) framework, as envisaged in the USA Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now (GAIN) Act, so it could be licensed quickly. Even if teixobactin itself cannot be turned into a new drug, it is probably the first of a series of new antibiotics in its class.
Transparency declarations
None to declare.
References
1 Ling LL Schneider T Peoples AJ et al. A new antibiotic kills pathogens without detectable resistance. Nature 2015 ; 517 : 455 – 9. 2 Pham VH Kim J Cultivation of unculturable soil bacteria. Trends Biotechnol 2012 : 30 : 475 – 84. 3 Nichols D Cahoon N Trakhtenberg EM et al. Use of ichip for high-throughput in situ cultivation of “uncultivable” microbial species. Appl Environ Microbiol 2010 ; 76 : 2445 – 50. 4 Petković H Cullum J Hranueli D et al. Genetics of Streptomyces rimosus, the oxytetracycline producer. Microbiol Mol Biol Rev 2006 ; 70 : 704 – 28. 5 Forsman M Häggström B Lindgren L et al. Molecular analysis of β-lactamases from four species of Streptomyces: comparison of amino acid sequences with those of other β-lactamases. J Gen Microbiol 1990 ; 136 : 589 – 98. 6 Ogawara H Kawamura N Kudo T et al. Distribution of β-lactamases in actinomycetes. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 1999 ; 43 : 3014 – 7. 7 Wright GD The antibiotic resistome: the nexus of chemical and genetic diversity. Nature Rev Microbiol 2007 ; 5 : 175 – 86. 8 Oliver A Pérez-Díaz JC Coque TM et al. Nucleotide sequence and characterization of a novel cefotaxime-hydrolyzing β-lactamase (CTX-M-10) isolated in Spain. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2001 ; 45 : 616 – 20. 9 WHO. Antimicrobial Resistance: Global Report on Surveillance 2014.... 10 Blair JMA Richmond GE Piddock LJV Multidrug efflux pumps in Gram-negative bacteria and their role in antibiotic resistance. Future Microbiol 2014 ; 9 : 1165 – 77.
© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.comWhen the first settlers arrived to this exoplanet all they found was a barren landscape.The whole world was covered with a gigantic desert, scattered with unusual faceted rocky hills. Fortunately, some of the probes found a few pockets of water under the sand, in some scattered places. Encouraged by this find, more probes were sent.The settlers then established colonies in and around these pockets of water, like the two cities we see in the image. After a complex process of water purification, they planted there some tropical species they brought from old Earth, thereby recreating oasis-like environments. Soon, someone started calling them "sub-oasis", since they were below ground level.The cities are interconnected by large multi-purpose tubes, hosting a high-speed public transportation and forced water circulation (to balance the water level between cities).The search for more pockets of water still continues. Until now, they've established 27 of these cities on the surface of this planet.----------------------Other related images from my gallery (more on each below):The Rooftop Gardens of Lyra 7:Hidden Garden:The Colony of Sigma Draconis:This image is a kind of sequel of my other image "The Rooftop |
-Chief of Cinema Retro magazine), Paul Scrabo (Emmy-winning video engineer) and Nate Sears (performer and event manager)—who along with Laura Gagnon and Lorcan Ortway this past week produced a 50th anniversary celebration of the show at New York’s legendary Theatre 80 St. Marks. The event featured Barbara Feldon, the only surviving main cast member, as the guest of honor, as well as Joe Sirola who played memorable villains in a couple of classic episodes. The Bits caught up with the group a few days prior to the event. (The interviews were conducted separately and have been edited into a “roundtable” conversation format.)
Michael Coate (The Digital Bits): In what way is Get Smart worthy of celebration on its 50th anniversary?
Carl Birkmeyer: I think the most important way it’s worthy is because people want to celebrate it. Think about that for a minute. Fifty years after a show debuted, it still has fans and those fans still want to connect with the show and the people involved in the show. Amazing. Its humor has held the test of time and we should celebrate quality whenever we can.
Lee Pfeiffer: Get Smart is the type of situation comedy we just don’t see any more. I don’t want to sound like a prude, but today’s shows are just about how many sleazy jokes can be stuffed into a half hour (or probably nine minutes, which is about all that is left after commercials). Get Smart was the brainchild of two comedic geniuses: Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. Consequently, every episode seemed to get the TLC it needed to ensure it was smartly written, produced and directed. It would be hard to find episodes that didn’t live up to those standards of excellence.
Nate Sears: I think many fans of Retro-TV can likely sing the tune to one show or another; Gilligan’s Island, The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, the tune to I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched. How many people, even to this day, can maybe hum the tune to Get Smart? A few perhaps, maybe even a lot. But how many quote catch phrases like, “sorry about that, Chief,” “missed it by that much,” or “would you believe” and don’t even know where it came from? Those quirky quotes along with a dozen or so more and other “bits” from the show became pop culture staples starting 50 years ago and are still used commonly today?
Coate: Can you recall when you first saw the show?
Birkmeyer: I was probably ten or twelve and I started watching the show in reruns. I would try and talk my parents into scheduling dinner around the show, which never worked, but didn’t stop me. If Get Smart was on at six, I wanted dinner at six-thirty!
Pfeiffer: I can’t recall the first time I saw the show. There was a glut of Bond-inspired TV series in the mid-1960s and I was hooked on most of them: The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Secret Agent (aka Danger Man, which actually preceded Bond), The Wild Wild West, Mission: Impossible, I Spy—they were all favorites of mine. I think the genius of Get Smart is that the show captured the larger-than-life elements of those programs and combined them in a way that gently satirized them. That was difficult to do because some of the programs, such as U.N.C.L.E. and Wild Wild West were somewhat satirical in nature as it was. Get Smart was “must-see” TV in the truest sense. It reflected an era in which families would watch the same programs together. TV actually helped increase the dynamics among family members unlike today when everyone seems to watch programming in isolation.
Paul Scrabo: I was there for the very first show and it exceeded all my expectations. This was the “perfect storm” for me; I was a Bond fan, and also fan of the previous Leonard Stern show I’m Dickens, He’s Fenster. I thought Don Adams was great on The Jimmy Dean Show and The Bill Dana Show, where he played Byron Glick, a house detective, who was an earlier version of Maxwell Smart. And to top it off, there is Barbara Feldon, who we were all in love with via the Top Brass commercials!
Sears: In my youth at age 10 I saw Moonraker in the theater and I thought James Bond was the end all be all, even better than Star Wars. Prior to that though, at around age 8 or 9, I was introduced to Get Smart in re-runs on TV 38 WSBK in Boston, a UHF channel (remember those?). At that age I had no idea that the show was a social and political satire let alone a spoof of the spy genre. But what a testament to the writers, cast, and directors that the goofball slapstick humor and the relationships of the characters alone could be so captivating, I loved it! Leonard Stern, the show’s Executive Producer for the run of the show and consultant or producer of its future incarnations (not counting the 2008 film) said that the show appealed to sophisticates and lovers of slapstick alike. How true! As an adult I went on to discover the layers of satire and further enjoy the sometimes subtle and often overt gags and jokes even more.
Coate: Where do you think Get Smart ranks among 1960s era TV shows?
Birkmeyer: Tough one. I don’t think you can compare comedy and drama so I’ll answer it differently. I think the two best comedies to come out of the 60’s were Get Smart and The Dick Van Dyke Show. I think that both of those shows are still funny today and that’s the key to their success. You don’t see people holding reunions for Captain Nice.
Pfeiffer: The show’s legacy is apparent. If you say Get Smart to virtually anyone of any age, they are aware of the premise of the show. Some of the younger people know it from the big screen feature film of recent years. It’s a pity that vintage shows like Get Smart don’t get wide exposure in syndication any more. The premise and humor is timeless. Get Smart ranks among the best shows of the 1960s and early 70s. I also wouldn’t hesitate to call it one of the best sitcoms ever.
Scrabo: The mid-60s were the time of the spy shows (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Spy, even Wild Wild West), but I do think Get Smart is the most fondly remembered. Even when the show was exhausted, we were not through with Don or Barbara. We wanted to see them again.
Sears: Would you believe number 32? Would you believe 27? How about number 1? I am biased!
Coate: Which episodes were your favorites?
Birkmeyer: I have always loved The Not-So-Great Escape from season four. Laugh out loud funny with the appropriate amount of silliness and smart humor. The scenes between Don and Bernie Kopell are brilliant. However, I have to go with A Man Called Smart as the best. Originally scheduled as a Get Smart movie, the show is brilliant from start to finish. The perfect physical comedy with the revolving doors, the dialogue between Max and the bellman over the phone calls, and the parody swordfight at the end of the episode is amazing. One of Leonard Stern’s best works.
Pfeiffer: I’m prejudiced when it comes to favorite episodes. They are Bronzefinger and Satan Place, both excellent in their own right. However, I have a great deal of sentiment for them because my old friend Joe Sirola played the villains Bronzefinger and Harvey Satan. I might also add that Joe played the baddie in two episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Scrabo: I would defer that question to the others here, as their research is superior. But I would like to bring up an interesting thing about 99 Loses CONTROL. The pre-title sequence shows Max genuinely hurt by 99 getting “engaged.” And although there are plenty of laugh lines, there is NO laugh track during that section. I would assume that was by Don Adams’ insistence.
Sears: The first season episodes are the best in my opinion with the following seasons in order of production following that. Among the best for me are: Rub a Dub Dub…Three Spies in a Sub, School Days, Our Man in Leotards, A Man Called Smart (intended as a theatrical release but the poor reception of the feature film Munster, Go Home motivated the production to air it as the series’ only three part episode. An interesting side note: The Nude Bomb, the 1980 Get Smart feature film, was intended as a TV reunion entry but was released theatrically), 99 Loses CONTROL, Snoopy Smart vs. the Red Baron. My personal list of favorites goes on and on.
Coate: What are your thoughts on the DVD release of the series?
Birkmeyer: They did a fantastic job. Okay, I’m biased, as I helped put them together, but Time-Life really cared about doing it right. They wanted to make sure the right pictures were included and in the right season. They polled fans for the extras they wanted. I just wish the mess over rights had been settled before Don Adams died. Unfortunately, he died in the same month that they received the go-ahead.
Pfeiffer: I have the initial release of the series on DVD which Time-Life brilliantly marketed in packaging that was designed like a telephone booth. It was very pleasing to finally see the show released in such a first class manner. All aspects of the DVD set were excellent, especially the beautiful, remastered transfers.
Scrabo: The sets are a fan’s dream. From the package design to the elaborate extras.
Sears: Immensely well produced! The content of extras and the packaging are wonderful! Some of the episodes are remastered from previous syndicated runs so for the discerning eye, there are the occasional two or three second screen shots that are missing. Unfortunately for me, my favorite episode, Rub a Dub Dub… Three Spies in a Sub, which features the brilliantly hilarious second appearance of Max and 99’s arch enemy, Siegfried, has a sound issue right in the middle of the episode for a few minutes. It’s not enough to detract, but a shame nonetheless.
Coate: Would you like to see the series get released on Blu-ray Disc?
Birkmeyer: No, no interest at all. There’s no reason to do it.
Pfeiffer: The show cries out for a Blu-ray release. Hopefully, they can include even more extras, which I have an insatiable appetite for. It would be interesting to get some Smart experts to weigh in on the hits and misses found in the Carell movie. Get Smart remains laugh-out-loud funny. If a major network was clever, they would simply run it again in prime time. It would cost practically nothing and I would be willing to bet it would get decent ratings. It would certainly be a more inspired program than the junk they are currently spending a fortune on.
Scrabo: Yes. The colors are striking and we have real flesh tones! Barbara’s outfits remain super cool, and Don Adams was voted the best dressed man on television at one point! The show was lit for comedy, and it’s actually refreshing from today’s post-production palette.
Sears: I doubt we will ever see that because I’m not sure the viewing public demands it, but would you believe… yes, I would?!
Coate: Like it or not, Get Smart is a franchise. What are your thoughts on the follow-ups?
Birkmeyer: The less said, the better. Actually, I did enjoy The Nude Bomb a bit, but it wasn’t that funny. Get Smart, Again! was very good but it used too many of the old bits instead of updating them. It was nice to see them all together again and it gave a great feeling of completion. The idea of Hymie now working as a crash test dummy was brilliant. Get Smart 1995 on Fox was an abomination, as was the [2008] movie.
Pfeiffer: The 1980 big screen film The Nude Bomb was a missed opportunity done just to make a quick buck. There was no passion behind it. The writing was weak, the direction even weaker. The finale of the film became just another cheesy Universal film of that era that seemed to exist to showcase their theme park. There were a few inspired moments, but by and large, the movie was very lame. I haven’t seen the 1989 TV movie Get Smart, Again! in many years but I do recall it being pretty good in that it brought back many elements of the original series and had Leonard Stern involved, which made all the difference. The 1995 attempt to revive the show was a terrible misfire. Who the hell wants to watch Get Smart with Andy Dick as the star and Adams and Feldon relegated to cameos? I guess I answered my own question: no one wanted to watch Get Smart with Andy Dick as the star and Adams and Feldon relegated to cameos. The Steve Carell feature film was by no means the worst big screen adaptation of a classic TV series. However, it seemed to prove that in some respects, you just can’t go home again. The Carell film proved that some series should just be left to stand on their own legacies because trying to improve upon them generally proves to be a fruitless task. The more successful feature films based on series from that era generally dispensed with most of the original elements and reinvented the premises. The Mission: Impossible films and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., for example, had virtually no relationship to the original show’s concepts and ended up being entertaining in their own way. The less said about attempts to revive The Wild Wild West and I Spy, the better.
Scrabo: There are some clever things in The Nude Bomb, but, of course, it’s diluted by the absence of 99 and Siegfried. The recent Steve Carell Get Smart film was odd, as it handled slapstick very badly. If it’s not done correctly, it just comes off as regular painful violence. It’s pretty uninspired when you have the Chief of CONROL saying lines like, “You want a piece of me?!”
Sears: I am the rare Get Smart fan who actually enjoys the follow ups. Though Ed Platt and Barbara Feldon are sorely missed and painfully unreferenced in The Nude Bomb, for me it is still the goofy, silly, and hilarious world of Maxwell Smart. Don Adams seems to really be enjoying himself in the role. Without the pressure of a weekly production and the 10 year “hiatus” after the show’s original run, perhaps he felt more able to relax and have fun. Though he stated that he never enjoyed the follow ups, he shines in his performance. It’s the only entry of the whole series that truly full on spoofs specifically the James Bond films. Get Smart, Again! is a marvelous entry and has some wonderful nostalgic bits. To boot, Barbara Feldon returned to recreate the role that, like Don Adams as Max, only she could play. It’s just a wonderful entry. As for the Fox TV series, it’s not the strongest but still very much the world in which Agent 86 and his fellow familial and professional adventurers live. Having Don and Barbara in it is what saves it. Even Agent 13 and Siegfried return! And though I was fortunate enough to win a Warner Brothers video contest imitating Maxwell Smart and got to attend the premiere of the Steve Carrel version a few years ago, it really for me failed to recapture the “lightning in a bottle” that was and still is the canon of the original Get Smart series and follow ups.
Coate: What is the legacy of Get Smart?
Birkmeyer: I think it left a legacy of smart, funny TV. It also, corny as it sounds, impacted people’s lives in a positive way. I’ve been running the Get Smart website for 20 years now and I’ve had thousands of messages from people telling me how much the show meant to them and how grateful they are to have seen it. Women that tell me they were inspired to become doctors, lawyers, and professionals because they saw Barbara’s portrayal of a competent working woman in a man’s field, someone who lost relatives in 9/11 and had their therapist prescribe Get Smart to show them to laugh again (it worked), or men that just used Max’s pursuit of niceness as a role model. When Don Adams died, I received so much e-mail praising him and his impact on people’s lives that I had to take the day off work. One of my favorite stories is of someone who used to watch the show with his dad and loved how they bonded. So when his children were born, he watched the show with them and it became one of their family’s “things.” They love to toss out Get Smart lines to each other and laugh. What a great tribute—people loved the show, shared it, and became closer. Does it get better than that?
Pfeiffer: I guess the enduring legacy of the show is demonstrated by the fact that, [as this interview is being conducted], my colleagues and I are in preparations to present a 50th anniversary celebration of the show at New York’s legendary Theatre 80 St. Marks with Barbara Feldon and Joe Sirola in attendance. The fact that we aren’t preparing an anniversary celebration of My Mother the Car or Captain Nice is an indication of how many shows are deemed dispensable while a handful of others such as Get Smart resonate for generations to come.
Scrabo: In its day, Get Smart surpassed all expectations, and today I believe it can rest as one of the cleverest comedies ever on television.
Sears: Barbara Feldon said that perhaps the niche of Get Smart is that it is one of those shows that is incapable of being reproduced. I have to wholeheartedly agree. The combination of the entire cast, crew and production team created something so unique that, even today 50 years later, it transcends the time in which it was created. The catch phrases, the slapstick humor and the insightful satirical spoofing it presented us still holds up today. Would you believe it?
Coate: Thank you, Carl, Lee, Paul and Nate, for participating and sharing your thoughts on Get Smart on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.
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- Michael CoateSantiago, Chile (CNN) -- Joran van der Sloot, the suspect in a young woman's slaying this week in Peru and previously considered a suspect in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway in Aruba, was captured Thursday in Chile, authorities said.
Van der Sloot is the main suspect in this week's slaying of 21-year-old Stephany Flores Ramirez, who was found Wednesday in a Lima, Peru, hotel room registered to the Dutch man. Chilean police told CNN that paperwork showed that van der Sloot entered Chile on Wednesday.
Peruvian Interior Minister Octavio Salazar Miranda said Thursday that Peru has made arrangements with Interpol to extradite van der Sloot. Interpol confirmed that Chile will send van der Sloot back to Peru.
Van der Sloot also faces an arrest warrant on charges of extortion and wire fraud in Alabama, U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said Thursday. The charges are unrelated to the killing of a Peruvian woman, and deal with an attempt to sell details about Holloway for $250,000, Vance said.
Van der Sloot, 23, was traveling alone in a taxi near the Chilean central coastal city of Vina del Mar when he was detained, said Douglas Rodriguez, spokesman for the Chilean Investigative Police.
Van der Sloot was transported Thursday afternoon to police headquarters in Santiago, Chile's capital.
TV images showed him emerging from a black police SUV at the police station. His hair, which had been black in previous images, was red and worn in a close-cropped crew cut.
In Peru, a wake was held Thursday in Lima for Flores, who was scheduled to be buried later in the day.
An uncle of Natalee Holloway said he was saddened by the Flores family's loss.
"We are disappointed that Joran has been able to do this to another young girl," Paul Reynolds told CNN. "He was not held accountable for what happened to Natalee and as a result has been able to repeat his actions. Sorry this other family has to go through the same thing we have.
Van der Sloot, who was arrested in connection with Holloway's disappearance in 2005 but later released, has denied any involvement in her case.
There is "incriminating evidence" linking van der Sloot to the killing of Flores, said Peruvian criminal investigator Cesar Guardia Vasquez.
The woman's bludgeoned body was found in Room 309 of the Hotel Tac in the Miraflores section of Lima, police said. She suffered blunt trauma to the head, breaking her neck, and to her torso and back, Peruvian police said Thursday.
Van der Sloot had been staying at the hotel since arriving from Colombia on May 14, police said. Room 309 was booked in his name, authorities said.
A hotel guest and an employee witnessed the pair entering the hotel room together at 5 a.m. Sunday, Guardia said. Police have video of van der Sloot and Flores together the previous night at the Atlantic City Casino in Lima, he said.
Two Peruvian cab drivers said in an interview on CNN affiliate America TV that they drove a man matching van der Sloot's description to a city on the other side of the Chilean border.
"He paid me and I took him to Arica, to the border," cab driver Oswaldo Aparcana said.
The man sat in the front seat and smoked many cigarettes, Aparcana said. The passenger told the cabbies he used to live in Aruba, said the other driver, Carlos Alberto Uribe.
The victim's father said he believes van der Sloot is responsible for the young woman's death.
"We have all the evidence to show that the killer is this man," businessman and race-car driver Ricardo Flores told CNN en Español.
But van der Sloot's former attorney, Joseph Tacopina, told CNN it was too early to reach any conclusions.
"I just think we need to take a step back before we get to the 'I told you so' stage, and let's see what the evidence is here," Tacopina said Thursday.
Tacopina said he is not representing van der Sloot and no longer has a good relationship with the family.
Holloway, the Alabama teenager, disappeared May 30, 2005, five years to the day since the hotel videotape that officials say showed van der Sloot and Flores going into his hotel room. Both women are reported to have met van der Sloot at a night spot.
Ricardo Flores said police found his daughter's car about 50 blocks from the hotel. Inside the car, he said, authorities found pills like those used in date rapes.
Ricardo Flores said he did not believe his daughter knew the Dutch citizen beforehand.
Both of them speak English and they struck up conversation at the casino, he said.
Interpol had alerted its office in Chile and other bordering countries of the case and placed them on alert in case van der Sloot tried to leave that country, Peruvian Interpol Interim Director Gerson Ortiz told CNN.
Van der Sloot was arrested in Aruba in 2005 along with two other men, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, in connection with Holloway's disappearance. They were later released.
In 2007, they were arrested a second time after Aruba's then-chief prosecutor, Hans Mos, said he had received new evidence in the case.
Van der Sloot, who was attending college in the Netherlands, was brought back to Aruba. But judges ruled the new evidence -- which included an Internet chat the same day Holloway disappeared in which one of the three youths said she was dead -- was not enough to keep them jailed.
In 2008, prosecutors sought unsuccessfully to arrest van der Sloot a third time after a videotape surfaced on Dutch television. In it, van der Sloot tells a man he considered to be his friend that he had sex with Holloway on the beach after leaving the nightclub, then she "started shaking" and lost consciousness. He said he panicked when he could not resuscitate her and called a friend who had a boat. The two put Holloway's body in the boat, he said, and then he went home. The friend told him the next day that he had carried the body out and dumped it in the ocean.
But an Aruba court ruled there was not enough evidence to re-arrest him. Aruban prosecutors said authorities had met with van der Sloot in the Netherlands, but in a two-hour interview he denied any role in Holloway's disappearance.
CNN's Beth Carey contributed to this report.Sixteen races have been confirmed on the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series calendar, with a near-ideal blend of six street races, five ovals and five natural road courses. These have also been spread out to span six months, rather than the much criticized five-month schedule of 2015.
The revival of the springtime race at Phoenix International Raceway, and the confirmation of a fourth straight year at Pocono, will help partly allay the fears of traditionalists that with the disappearance of Fontana’s Auto Club Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile, IndyCar was losing touch with its oval racing roots. Road America’s first Indy car race since 2007 will also provide Wisconsin natives with a home race now that Milwaukee has gone.
Mark Miles, CEO of Hulman & Company, the parent of IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, said: “Overall, the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule is another key step forward in IndyCar's strategic vision. We’re confident that the momentum that IndyCar has experienced in fan engagement over the past two seasons will continue as a result of the tireless efforts of our event promoters and our improved scheduling on ABC and NBCSN.
“The 2016 season is defined by the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500,” Miles continued. “The historic significance of our season is marked by this legendary event and the return of several storied venues such as Road America and Phoenix. Half the venues on our schedule have hosted 25 or more IndyCar races and further our rich heritage as the premier form of open wheel racing in the United States.”
However, doubts continue to swirl around the new Boston race. One of the cachets of the Labor Day Weekend race when it was announced last May was that it would be the season finale – an obvious fallacy now, with Sonoma’s return as the championship closer.
More significant, however, is the number of permits and approvals that have yet to be given by local authorities to the inaugural Boston Grand Prix. As recently as last week, The Boston Herald cited three crucial entities that have yet to clear the plans. The hurdles include the state Department of Transportation which needs to sign off on the course taking in the South Boston Bypass, the head of Massport who is refusing to pay the $500,000 requested by IndyCar for road improvements, and the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority head who says his agency is “not anywhere close to a deal right now.”
The latter figure, a Mr. Fred Peterson, told the Herald, “Not to say it can’t happen, but there’s a lot of work to be done.”
Should the Boston race not happen, it would leave a month-long gap between the penultimate race and the finale. While some hoped this might be filled by Gateway Motorsport Park, in Madison, Ill., an oval last used by Indy cars in 2003, this is not going to happen… for now at least. Mark Miles, CEO of IndyCar’s owner, Hulman & Company, has acknowledged the track’s interest but as with the much-rumored return to Mexico City, it won’t happen until at least 2017.
Also worth noting is that the Phoenix, Texas and GP Indy races will all be held on Saturday, the first two as evening races, Iowa has moved to Sunday afternoon to avoid clashing with NASCAR, while the Dual in Detroit on Belle Isle remains the only double-header.
2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule and broadcast times (Eastern Time)
Rd 1 – Sat., March 13: St. Petersburg, Fla. (street) - ABC, 12.30pm
Rd 2 – Sat., April 2: Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale, Ariz. (oval) - NBCSN, 8pm
Rd 3 – Sun., April 17: Long Beach, Calif. (street) - NBCSN, 4pm
Rd 4 – Sun., April 24: Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala. (road) - NBCSN, 3pm
Rd 5 – Sat., May 14: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (road) - ABC, 3.30pm
Rd 6 – Sun., May 29: Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (oval) - ABC, 11am
Rd 7 – Sat., June 4: Detroit, Mich. (street) - ABC, 3.30pm
Rd 8 – Sun., June 5: Detroit, Mich. (street) - ABC, 3.30pm
Rd 9 – Sat., June 11: Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth, Texas (oval) - NBCSN, 8pm
Rd 10 – Sun., June 26: Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis. (road) - NBCSN, 12.30pm
Rd 11 – Sat., July 10: Iowa Speedway, Newton, Iowa (oval) - NBCSN, 5pm
Rd 12 – Sun., July 17: Toronto, Ontario, Canada (street) - NBCSN, 3pm
Rd 13 – Sun., July 31: Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio (road) - NBCSN, 2pm
Rd 14 – Sat., August 21: Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, Pa. (oval) - NBCSN, 3pm
Rd 15 – Sun., September 4: Boston, Mass. (street) - NBCSN, 2pm
Rd 16 – Sun., September 18: Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, Calif. (road) - NBCSN, 7pmThe sparks occur because of a little-known fact: all the world is a gigantic electrostatic generator. There is a flow of charge going on vertically everwhere on earth. Thunderstorms pump negative charge downwards, and the charge filters upwards everywhere else on earth. Depending on the height of your circuitry above the earth's surface, depending on the area covered by your wires, and depending on whether there was a thunderstorm above you at the time, there might be a fairly huge DC charge on your electrical distribution system. This charge might be several hundred volts; enough to zap computers and delicate electronics. Or... it might be many tens of thousands of volts, enough to create enormous sparks which jump across switches and leap out of wall outlets, wall switches, across transformer windings, etc. Your electric power system is acting like a sort of capacitive "antenna" which intercepts the feeble current coming from the sky and builds up a huge potential difference with respect to the earth.
In addition to the above, you would find an unsettling phenomenon whenever lightning directly strikes your electrical distribution system. The lightning impulse-voltage spreads instantly throughout your whole network, which not only can explode every single appliance plugged in at the time, but can create lethal arcs many feet in length that reach out to "touch" your customers should they be anywhere near those wires within the walls.
There is a simple solution to these problems: connect your system to the Earth. Drive some long metal rods into the dirt, and connect them to your wires. That way, lightning currents will be directed into the Earth rather than spreading throughout your power lines. Also, the clear-weather sky current can no longer build up a high voltage, if any excess charge immediately leaks into the earth.
Of course you cannot connect BOTH wires to ground, since that would also connect your wires to each other and short out the system. So, you must close your eyes and pick one wire. Connect that wire to ground. Do this at many points throughout your system of power lines, so if one part is disconnected for any reason, it won't present a lightning hazard or static discharge hazard. Now the clear weather sky-voltage will be discharged to Earth, and during a lightning strike, the huge current will be diverted into ground at many points, and hopefully will find very few customers' bodies on its way into the earth.
The story isn't over. Since you've made a change to your system, Murphy's Law crops up and informs you that for every problem that you cure, another one is created. Before you "grounded" your system, the AC voltage in general acted pretty safe for your customers. The only way they could get a shock was if they touched both wires at the same time. This was a fairly rare occurrence. One single wire acted as if it was "safe," and it did not deliver shocks. If a miswiring inside an appliance caused one wire to accidentally touch the metal case of the device, your customers could still touch that metal case without danger. Curious kids might still stick their finger in a light socket and receive a shock, but the unwanted current was directed through the length of their finger and caused no danger of heart-stoppage.
Now that you've grounded your system, you'll find that suddenly your customers are occasionally dying! One wire of your system is now almost totally safe because it is connected to ground. But the other wire has developed a new hazard, because whenever the occasional customer comes into contact with it, that foolish customer is usually STANDING ON THE GROUND! By grounding half of your electric network, you've accidentally connected one entire half of your network indirectly to everyone's feet. Most of the time the floor is a pretty terrible conductor, so most of the time the hazard is small. However, when someone stands barefoot upon a damp floor, this electrically connects that person into the system. If they touch the grounded ("neutral") wire in the AC system, nothing happens. But if they touch the other, non-grounded wire, this applies the full AC voltage between their feet and finger. The new unwanted current path within their body then includes the heart muscle, and the resulting AC current induces rapid, tail-chasing heartbeat waves called 'fibrillation' in their main blood pump. And so your new, half-grounded AC system has developed a lethal characteristic. Unfortunately, removing the ground connection causes even more danger, so you can't go back to a "floating" system where Hot and Neutral don't exist.
One solution would be to insist that all customers wear dry, insulating footwear, never walk on wet floors, never sit in bathtubs, etc. This guarantees that they are not connected to one half of your system, and it makes the other half of the system act safe again should they touch it by accident. Professional electricians might enjoy the challenge of learning all these rules, but your new requirements would cause some negative repercussions in selling your service to non-experts. To say the least. Some other solution is needed.
The solution: guarantee that no one touches the non-grounded wire. Get into the schools and pound into everone's mind that AC wires are dangerous. Teach all electricians and technical people that one of the wires is now to be called "Hot", and that this wire can be lethal if touched. Choose differing colors for the two wires (black is "hot" in the US, brown is "hot" most everywhere else.) Force manufacturers to treat the wires differently inside appliances, designing with careful wire positioning and adding extra insulation to the "hot" wire.
Another problem springs up. At present, some appliance manufacturers INTENTIONALLY connect the outside of their metal products to one of the power wires. This must be stopped. But economic concerns prevent making massive, instant changes. You can't force a recall of half the appliances in the entire world, and you can't force manufacturers to instantly redesign all their products. The economic upheaval from this would wreck far more lives than the dangerous circuitry does. So instead you decide to change the power outlets of all new homes, as well as changing the plugs of all new appliances, in order to force customers to always stick the plug in the "right" way. Manufacturers must use the new types of cords, but at least they don't have to redesign all of their products. For appliances with one wire connected to the metal case, this connects the case to the grounded or "neutral" side instead of to the "hot" side. Now make one slot of the two-slot electric outlet longer than the other. Do the same with the appliance plugs. Choose the neutral side to be the wide slot, the hot side to be the shorter slot. Apply legal pressure to get manufacturers to stop connecting their metal cases to the power wires. Make electricians preserve the polarity of the wiring when they install outlets in new homes. Thus we enter the "Age of the Electrical Outlet with One Long Slot."
__________________________ / \ / \ | | | _ | | | | _ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_| | | |_| | | | | | \ / \__________________________/
Things now seem much improved, but there are still problems. If an appliance is dropped into water, and if that water is touching a grounded container (such as a bathtub, a kitchen sink, or even a basement floor or a standing pool outdoors) then any human sticking more than one appendage into the water will be in serious trouble. Humans are salt water, and they present a low-resistance path for current, which preferentially directs it through their bodies rather than through the water. Another thing: sometimes an appliance with a metal case will suffer internal wear or damage, and then the "hot" wire will wiggle around inside and end up touching the metal case. Anyone standing on wet ground will feel pain and death if they should grab that metal case.
Some unnamed genius realizes that if we could somehow permanently connect all the metal cases of appliances to the "neutral" wire, then if the "hot" wire should ever accidentally touch the case, a short circuit would blow the fuses in the building and quickly remove the electrical connections, and the hazard. However, this is not entirely safe. Occasionally an electrician will accidentally wire an outlet backwards. This can't be helped, because Perfect Electricians are far more expensive than the normal human variety. And so we cannot intentionally wire appliance cases to the Wide Prong of the plug, since it would cause a lethal hazard if the appliance was plugged into a miswired wall outlet. Miswired outlets look exactly the same as the normal ones.
The solution? |
Tata Motors, India’s top bus and truck maker and No. 3 car maker, has sought to expand its presence in the global markets through alliances and acquisitions in recent years.
It bought South Korea’s Daewoo Commercial Vehicles in 2004, and has a minority stake in Spanish bus maker Hispano Carrocera.
It also has ventures with Thailand’s Thonburi for pick-up trucks, and with Italy’s Fiat FIA.MI for manufacturing, distribution and technology, as it gears up for tougher competition at home.
Indian firms have announced overseas mergers and acquisition deals worth nearly $10 billion so far this year, Thomson Reuters data showed, including a $2.6 billion deal at the weekend by Sterlite Industries STRL.BO for bankrupt copper miner Asarco.
Ahead of the news of the deal's completion, shares in Tata Motors, worth about $5.1 billion, ended down 2.4 percent at 562.95 rupees. It shares have fallen 24 percent in 2008, compared to a 21 percent decline on the main share index.BSESN.
($1=42.4 rupees)New Delhi: John Chambers, 67, executive chairman of Cisco Systems Inc., has been a long-time supporter of India and an admirer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, he says, gets it when it comes to creating a digital country. Chambers was in India to announce the creation of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) which he says will take the relationship between the two countries, their companies, and their people, to the next level. The body was created after the existing team of the US India Business Council decided to leave, and the body’s parent, the US Chambers of Commerce decided to merge USIBC with itself. In an interview, Chambers spoke about the new body, India, Prime Minister Modi. Edited excerpts:
Tell us about this new body you are creating. How is it going to be different from existing bodies?
It is different in every way. It is focused on future and it is completely independent. It has 100% focus on the next major technology business societal shift. So, it is really thinking about where we want to be 10-20 years from today and we thought about it and we realised this can’t be an evolution. Every major company knows that they are at an inflection. That is why I like your prime minster so much because he does so much of it so well. He sets a goal. He outlines a vision that gives people hope. That’s why we were so excited about what we can do with this kind of an organization structure.
It is company to government; company to their customers; customers could be consumers or business. It could be companies to start-ups; start-ups together with common goals.
We see the potential of what next generation strategic partnerships can be. Not on trade but more importantly on the society, economic growth, job creation, inclusion, innovation and a new generation of entrepreneurship; if we do this right between our two nations, I think it will not only have major economic impact on the citizens of both nations in a very positive way but it will be a model for others.
At a transactional level, this will also guide US companies that want to do business in India and Indian companies that want to do business in the US?
It very much could. They tend to trust us. The governments seem to trust us. We have complete support from all the political leaders (in both countries) almost regardless of political parties.
You have been a regular visitor to India, and have been working closely with the government for the past few years. What changes do you see?
Let me frame the whole context. Obviously, I am a huge believer in India and I love the country. I think India has some most advanced digital vision and strategy in the world. I see the Prime Minister as one of the top leaders that I have ever met in my life. He has got a vision and a strategy; he knows how to execute them for India’s 1.3 billion people. I think it has been a remarkable progress.
When Prime Minister Modi was elected, I very quickly listened to him and decided to bet on India in a big way as I believed in his vision and strategy. He knows how to form win-win partnerships that most people don’t. He is willing to take the risk that goes with it. Some people might be critical saying he hasn’t moved fast enough. He is moving faster than any leader in the world. (For instance), without the Goods and Services Tax, companies firms are not going to invest here; without it, you are never going to be a manufacturing powerhouse.
You would have said there is no way he would (be able to) do that, yet he has. I would give India an A in terms of progress over the last three years vs. an A+ for what people have thought of doing. But... there is always room for improvement.
Any negatives?
It surprised me, but India tends to be critical of itself and I think that faster people buy the vision and understand what’s possible (the better). That’s how you move to a speed that is equal with others.
Do you think it is easier to do business in India now than it was before?
Absolutely! I could not manufacture in India three years ago; (it was) not an option. I can now manufacture in India very effectively. We have opened our plants. Now, we have to see how do we get the efficiencies where we can use India as an export engine.
What are Cisco’s plans in India?
India is our second headquarters. Every time we bet on India... 1997, we bet in a big way on India. We made it our second headquarters; later we made it our Digitisation headquarters. 40% of our engineering head count is of Indian ancestry.
Using H1-B visas to replace US workers with Indians a mistake: Cisco chairman
So, we are very optimistic about India. India was our top country last year from the sales side. It is our great source in terms of talent and not labour arbitrage.
Finally, a question on culture. Cisco is a quintessential new economy company based on the West Coast. A lot of new economy start-ups are in trouble over how they are run, the kind of culture they have. You never had these kind of issues. So what did you do right and what are these people doing wrong?
A couple of things. Every company will make mistakes and every company has bumps. But if you look at the role of the CEO, he/she only has four jobs: vision and strategy for the company, (recruit and periodically change the) management team to implement that vision and, (to create a) culture, and communicate all the above. And culture to me... People say that culture eats vision; I don’t buy that. I mean it’s one of the four elements but our culture—we put it on the badge... culture is a huge part of who you are. The culture is what broke down Uber... is often what either gets a company to be very successful or cause it to lag behind. I am very proud of (Cisco’s) culture.How the "legal high" industry stays one step ahead of governments
Mind Hacks reports on a study published in Forensic Science International about "legal highs" that contain synthetic cannabinoids that mimic the effects of marijuana. Apparently, these drugs are made by a "highly organized neuroscience-savvy industry" that stays one step ahead of governments that outlaw the designer drugs. As soon as one analog is outlawed, another one appears for sale almost immediately.
Two things came to mind when I read this. One, the US has laws that outlaw drugs that are chemically similar to illegal drugs, so I don't see how these "legal highs" can be sold legally in the US. Two, who knows if these analogs are safe? I keep thinking of that NOVA episode, "The Case of the Frozen Addict," about the guy who destroyed the part of his brain that produced dopamine after he took some kind of Demerol analog he'd cooked up. It turned him into a living frozen statue.
[D]rugs like speed, heroine, cocaine and ecstasy require legally controlled raw materials but the processing stage is low-tech. That's why some types of speed are called 'bathtub crank', because some of it is literally synthesised in a bathtub, as images of meth lab busts illustrate. But this is not the case with cannabinoids which require a complex and careful lab process with many stages and sometimes the separation of mirror image molecules (enantiomers) from each other as only one of the'reflections' is desirable.
These are not trivial process. They can't be done in back rooms and they can't be done by amateurs. What's more, these aren't just copy-cat syntheses done by your average underground lab who know the illicit process and just want to recreate it. These are new compounds, perhaps reported only a handful of times in the scientific literature and selected for their specific effect on the brain.
Spice flow: the new street drug pharmacology
(Image: Spice drug.jpg, GNU Free Documentation License, Wikimedia Commons)blog Think your fevered rantings on Australia’s largest technology forum, Whirlpool, are private and just among mates? Think again. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has admitted he is addicted to trawling threads on the site for the latest posts about his pet project, the National Broadband Network. The Financial Review reports:
“Stephen Conroy is something of an information junkie … He “tragically” monitors a laundry list of online threads related to the $36 billion national broadband network on telecommunications forum Whirlpool”
Wow. Although I’ve always thought of him as something of a jock, the AFR’s profile makes it seem as Conroy is becoming more and more of a geek over the years. Certainly amongst parliamentarians his well-publicised enthusiasm for his iPhone and iPad makes him something of a rarity, but I didn’t realise he was geeky enough to be trawling Whirlpool threads. I do know for a fact that the Minister reads Delimiter, although he hasn’t ever posted a comment on our site, unlike his colleagues in the portfolio from other parties, the Liberals’ Malcolm Turnbull and Greens Senator Scott Ludlam.
Perhaps Conroy’s first port of call at Whirlpool might be one of the forum’s longest-running and most hotly debated threads, entitled How can NBN fight the FUD and WIN? A daily read for yours truly, this thread often chronicles and debunks the exploits of the Murdoch press in trying to squash the NBN. And Conroy is known to be one of News Ltd’s biggest detractors. But then again, an even longer-running thread is devoted to another of Conroy’s projects — ISP-Level Content Filtering. I’m sure he keeps an eye on that one too ;) In the meantime, everyone at Whirlpool, wave at Conroy — you’re on the Ministerial iPad!
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You don't need to have seen the movie to know the scene we're talking about -- it was in every single ad and trailer. The army of evil Persian King Xerxes is on their way to invade. King X sends a messenger ahead to Sparta to demand surrender. When Leonidas refuses, the messenger says, "This is madness," and Leonidas replies by power kicking the messenger into a well while shouting...
This hangs next to the "Warning: Frequent Slow Motion" signs in Sparta.
That scene actually happened, in the sense that the Spartan and a Persian messenger had a meeting by a well. Of course, the real messenger was not there to set Leonidas up for a killer one liner. He was there on business, and got down to brass tacks by specifying that Xerxes wanted Sparta to "give us your earth and water." Having to think on his feet in the face of the messenger's weirdly specific demand, the real Spartan invited the Persians to "dig it out for themselves" while... well, power kicking him into the well. They got that part right. So not only was the real line just as badass, it used verbal Judo to make it look like the messenger had asked permission to be kicked into the well. It was the ancient equivalent of the old bully standby -- "Want a Hertz Donut?" PUNCH "Hurts, don't it?" -- a tactic which we'd imagine is twice as demoralizing when it's being used to kick you to your death.
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The Aftermath:
The historian Herodotus speculated that the horrible war that followed under Xerxes was a consequence of what the Greeks did to his father's heralds, but we're sure the Spartans would agree that it was totally worth it (especially because it inspired so many more zingers).The Appleverse is chock-full of new and refreshed gizmos. First item of the fall Apple offerings on our teardown table—the iPad Mini 4. Apple seems to have homogenized their iPad lineup by putting an iPad Mini 3 and an iPad Air 2 in a fusion chamber—boom, iPad Mini 4. A fused display, 8 MP iSight camera, and 2 GB of RAM in the same 7.9″ mini form factor some of us love.
While the design looks cleaner and the specs are better, repairability didn’t improve correspondingly. The iPad Mini 4 inherits a miserable 2-out-of-10 score from both the Mini 3 and the Air 2. No gold stars from us, Apple.
iPad Mini 4 Teardown highlights:
• The Mini 4 features the same fully laminated screen tech we’ve seen in the iPad Air 2, at Mini 3 size and resolution. This is part of what makes the Mini 4 18% thinner than the Mini 3—but it’s also more expensive to fix when you drop it.
• Not only is the battery thinner and of lesser capacity, it’s now a single cell, instead of two. And still no handy adhesive tabs à la iPhone.
• This iPad is some kind of Mini/Air hybrid—half its antennas on the top (like an Air), half on the bottom (like a standard Mini).----------
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Still overwhelmed/ecstatic about getting to meet Arin and Danny at PAX Prime. I had a print of this and managed to get myself over to them before they were shuffled off to their signing. They were incredibly kind and let me linger a bit after their panel to chat a tad, which truly meant a lot! I was probably a horribly awkward little gremlin, and I'm not entirely sure what I said anymore- as it was pretty shocking, let's be honest- but I do recall Arin squealing about how handsome I had made him look, "How did you do that?!" I think I just flailed in response. Poor guy had to come off the stage to give my short-self a hug. I GUESS THAT MEANS HE LIKED THIS. THANK GOD.Plus, got the Danny treatment, hand shake included- as he leaned over the stage in a very Aladdin-esque sort of way:"What's your name? Alli?."I'll have you know he was dressed as a unicorn at the time. Undoubtedly glorious.Ross was preoccupied with being Shovel knight, and Barry had vanished, but they were there as well, which was awesome! A shame Suzy couldn't make it!Fmr. agent warned ATF about "gunwalking"
Since our first report in which ATF agents told us they allowed thousands of weapons to cross into Mexico, one crucial question has been: Who knew -- how high up? This week for the first time, President Obama addressed the controversy.It was in an interview Tuesday evening with the Spanish language network Univision.
Watch: Obama on "gunwalking"
"Well first of all I did not authorize it. Eric Holder the Attorney General did not authorize it. He's been very clear that our policy is to catch gun runners and put 'em into jail," Mr. Obama said of the controversial ATF operation called "Fast and Furious."
"You were not even informed about it?" asked Univision reporter Jorge Ramos.
"Absolutely not," said Mr. Obama. "There may be a situation here which a serious mistake was made and if that's the case then we'll find out and well hold somebody accountable."
But who? In an exclusive interview with CBS News, the lead ATF official in Mexico at the time Darren Gil says somebody in the Justice Department did know about the case. Gil says his supervisor at ATF's Washington D.C. headquarters told him point-blank the operation was approved even higher than ATF Director Kenneth Melson.
Gunrunning scandal uncovered at the ATF
ATF agents face "gunwalking" blame, danger in Mexico
"Is the director aware of this," Gil asked the supervisor. Gil says his supervisor answered "Yes, the director's aware of it. Not only is the director aware of it, D.O.J.'s aware of it... Department of Justice was aware of it."
Gil goes on to say senior Justice official Lanny Breuer and several of his deputies visited Mexico amid the controversy last summer, and spoke to ATF staff generally about a big trafficking case that they claimed was "getting good results." Gil says Melson, ATF's Acting Director, also visited Mexico City. Gil's Deputy Attache and his Analyst questioned Melson about the case that surrounding all the weapons showing up in Mexico. "His response was 'it's a good case, it's still going on,'" recalls Gil, "and we'll close it down as soon as we possibly can."
AK47s vs. bean bags in border drug war
As to what Melson, Breuer and the other officials knew, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has been asking. Among other things, he has told the State Department to turn over notes and records from any Breuer visits to Mexico City in summer of 2010. But his repeated requests have so far been denied. And the officials mentioned would not speak with CBS News.
The whole controversy was exposed last month when ATF agent John Dodson and others blew the whistle to CBS News. They told us they were ordered to let assault rifles and other weapons "walk" into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in a failed attempt to take down a cartel.
Agent: I was ordered to let U.S. guns into Mexico
But if Justice Department officials knew, it's even more incredible when you find out who didn't: ATF's own agents in Mexico.
Gil first found out something was amiss in early 2010 when serial numbers from a flood of guns used in cartel crimes were all tracing back to the same case in Phoenix: "Fast and Furious." But when Gil's analyst checked ATF's computer files to find out more, he hit a brick wall.
"Not only did he not have access, I as the attache, the head agent in Mexico for ATF operations, did not have access," says Gil. He was locked out.
That was a red flag because Gil says as the senior ATF official in Mexico, it was his job to approve any ATF operation involving Mexico; and he didn't approve this one.
In fact, Gil specifically emailed his staff on Jan. 25, 2010 that no firearms would be allowed to cross into Mexico for a case without his approval. The email also stated that if he ever approved such an operation, he'd make sure the weapons were "stopped on the Mexican side of the border." They'd never be allowed to "walk" or reach the streets.
Gil didn't know it but even as he wrote that email, ATF agents in Phoenix have told CBS News they were already letting traffickers move weapons to Mexican drug cartels without stopping them. The idea was apparently to see where the guns would end up and try to build a big case.
Faced with the flow of guns and the serial number evidence tracing to Phoenix, but locked out of the computer case files, Gil says he repeatedly questioned his supervisor in Washington. He says some of the conversations became screaming and shouting matches. He says he was instructed not to tell his Mexican counterparts about the case. Gil said he inquired, "when is this case gonna shut down? The Mexicans are gonna have a fit when they find out about it." Gil says he also noted "at some point, these guns are gonna end up killing either a government of Mexico official, a police officer or military folks, and then what are we gonna do?"
Gil is the second ATF agent to tell CBS News that he specifically warned of such an outcome. Agent John Dodson says he told his superiors in Phoenix much the same.
"I specifically asked one time, 'are you prepared to go to the funeral of a Border Patrol agent...are you prepared for that fact because it's only a matter of time before that happens," Dodson told CBS News.
That's exactly what happened. Two of the weapons, AK-47 variant assault rifles, were eventually found at the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry last December. Officials are looking into possible connections to the murder of Customs Agent Jaime Zapata in February.
Gil retired from ATF in December, in part over his objections to Fast and Furious and the way it was handled. He says he's speaking out because nobody else in charge has stepped up to explain that ATF agents in Mexico were never part of it. Yet they're now facing threats of prosecution from some Mexican politicians.
"The (Mexican) government's looking at (ATF agents) potentially bringing weapons into their country, which in many cases is an act of war." Gil says by not explaining that ATF agents in Mexico weren't part of Fast and Furious, ATF executives are putting the agents in danger. "They're leaving my guys out in Mexico alone, and they're not doing the right thing."True North Fights & Muaythai Ontario Make History In Timmins
By Ryan McKinnon
Saturday September 23rd, 2017
True North Fights played host to an historic evening of fast-paced and intense amateur Muaythai action on Saturday. Matt Poulin, owner of TMAC (Total Martial Arts Center) organized a great event and fight card that will be talked about by everyone who attended for a very long time. This inaugural Muaythai event certainly set the bar high for future events in northern Ontario, and gave fans a good look at how much Ontario Muaythai is growing in the right direction.
A big thanks to Muaythai Ontario (www.muaythaiontario.org) True North Fights (www.truenorthfights.ca) and Matt Poulin (www.totalmartialartscenter.com) for making this historic night of fights an event to behold.
All photos are courtesy of True North Fights, and can be found on their Facebook Page here https://www.facebook.com/TNFights/
Due to participating in this event in an official capacity with Muaythai Ontario, only the facts of each fight will be discussed, and not my opinion on scoring or others’ scoring of the rounds.
FIGHT BREAKDOWNS
Bout # 4 Crystal Vitelli (Twin Dragons 3-1-0, 6 Exh) vs Brenda Vargas (Lanna MMA 3-1-0, 6 Exh)
This ‘A’ Class bout between Lanna MMA’s Brenda ‘El Gaucho’ Vargas and Crystal Vitelli was the only female fight on the card and delivered lots of action. Brenda is a standout out athlete at Lanna with great hands and killer elbows. She has had a memorable 2017 full of ups and downs. She earned the attention of the Muaythai community in March when she fought ruthlessly for a split decision win over Effie Chan at SHE Fights, but felt disappointed with her showing at the TBAs in June. She has been preparing for a title bout in New York state in October, and arrived in Timmins feeling sharp and ready to put on a show for the fans.
Crystal has been extremely active with Twin Dragon North and is constantly improving her skill set. She came into this fight facing a very tough and hungry opponent in Vargas. Right from the starting bell everyone in attendance knew exactly what Brenda’s game plan was. Vargas smothered Vitelli immediately, mixing up levels with her hands and driving in strong left kicks from her southpaw stance.
Keeping Crystal on her back foot was a smart move for a fighter like Vargas who likes to pressure her opponents. Early in the round Brenda scored her first standing 8 count against Crystal which fired up the crowd, and gave Vargas a solid few seconds to catch her breath, and begin a second assault.
When the action continued, Vargas dove right back into punching range and went to work. Crystal made the best of the situation by clinching Brenda and firing counterpunches in small bursts. However, her counter attacks didn’t do enough to back up Vargas, who went on to score a second standing 8 count against Vitelli. After referee Darryl Marin finished his count, he waved off the fight.
Referee stops contest in Round 1 for the winner Brenda Vargas of Lanna MMA http://lannamma.com/. And visit Twin Dragon North http://twindragonnorth.com/wp/
Bout # 5 Dean Soon (Gorilla MMA 1-2-0, 2 Exh) vs Alexis Liberte (APEX MMA 3-1-0, 3 Exh, 1-1 Boxing)
The fight between Dean Soon and Alexis Liberte had big shoes to fill after Vargas vs Vitelli. Once the bell rang both men engaged in a good battle consisting of heavy kicks from Liberte, and counter punches from Soon. Liberte recently won the championship in his ‘B’ Class Division at the TBAs in Iowa this past June, and showed improvement in his striking. He managed his range well by keeping Soon at the end of his kicks.
At the end of the round it was Liberte who had done the most damage. During the 1 minute break between rounds it was discovered that Dean Soon’s left arm had been broken while defending one of Liberte’s powerful rear swing kicks. Referee Michael Reid called in the ringside doctor to inspect the arm and the fight was ended.
This fight was a true testament to the toughness and heart displayed by Dean Soon, who may have had his arm broken very early in round 1. He fought like a true warrior. We wish him a fast and healthy recovery, and look forward to seeing his return to the ring.
Referee stops bout due to injury for the winner Alexis Liberte of Apex MMA http://www.apex-martial-arts.com/ and visit Soon’s gym here https://www.facebook.com/gorilladojo/
Bout # 6 James Desrocher (Sudbury MMA 0-1-1, 0 Exh) vs Victor Nguyen (Lanna MMA 0-0-0, 3 Exh)
The sixth bout of the night saw another Lanna MMA fighter, Victor Nguyen make his return to the ring after a long break versus a tough opponent in James Desrocher. Both athletes had fire in their eyes during their walkout to the ring, and brought the heat to ‘The Mac’ arena.
Victor demonstrated good Muaythai IQ in this fight against a stronger opponent with a good forward moving style. Nguyen used teeps and hands mixed with pivoting footwork to make himself a moving target, thereby adding more work for Desrochers. After a brief exchange in close quarters at the midpoint of round 1, Victor threw up a well timed and well placed left kick that found its mark on the head of Desrochers, knocking him to the mat, earning him am 8 count, and a 10-8 score in round 1.
For the remaining two rounds Desrochers fought hard to play catchup against Nguyen, knowing that he had to either win both rounds to score the bout a draw, or score an 8 count for himself. In anticipation of that, Nguyen and his corner established a new game plan to stay away from any dangerous exchanges with the powerful Desrochers, and out point him from a distance.
By the third round, both men were totally gassed, and looked to clinch up to score as many points as they could. They put on one hell of a fight for the crowd in Timmins, and received much applause for their efforts.
Unanimous Decision win declared for Victor Nguyen of Lanna MMA. Check out Sudbury MMA to follow James and his team http://www.sudburymma.com/
Stay tuned for the open class bouts coming up in part 3 of True North Fights, Round By Round. Corey Jackson vs Dave Firlotte, and Nathan Boulet vs Jeff WitzelCPC, CPM, Promoted Stories, Promoted Posts – there are a lot of options facing social media marketers interested in advertising on Facebook. It used to be that there were only two choices for advertising on Facebook CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per impressions).
It was common knowledge among social media folks that CPC ads were a much better value for marketers. You expected to pay a cost of.35 to nearly a dollar a click depending on your targeted audience (like Manhattan moms who are very pricey to target). An average Facebook ad CTR of.05% seemed to be the industry benchmark for judging the success of an ad.
For years, if you chose CPM your ad would be relegated to a lowly position on the bottom right hand of the user’s newsfeed and gain very few clicks. CPC ads outperformed CPM ads in all tests that we ran here at the agency as well.
But, that has changed.
While Facebook has talked a lot about the value of their new Promoted Stories ads and Promoted Posts, they also quietly chose a new favorite child in the CPC vs CPM debate. We noticed this at Flightpath when CPC ads that have been performing for years suddenly stopped being even displayed and our testing of CPM ads started showing amazing results.
We switched clients over to CPM ads and saw our average Facebook ads CTR jump from an average range of.05% to.20% jump to a range of.50% –.80%. Then we added in Sponsored Stories, to run simultaneously with the CPM ads, and the average CTR jumped even higher to a range of.80% to 1.2%.
At the same time, we are seeing the average CPC fall from that.35 – $1 range down to a bargain basement.06 –.15 CPC. So, for the same Facebook ad spend our clients are getting about 6 times the likes they were getting earlier this year. This is really helping to rapidly grow page likes without having to dramatically up Facebook ad spend.
Why are ads suddenly cheaper and performing better?
So, this is why we think this dramatic uptick in Facebook ad performance is happening: remember months ago when advertisers like GM pulled their Facebook ad spend because they didn’t feel they were getting much of a return and remember when Facebook’s stock came out of the gate to dismal results?
Facebook had to devise a plan to get advertisers excited about spending on the platform so investors would be consider buying Facebook stock. Lowering the cost of ads and rolling out Promoted Stories (which not all Facebook users like, but they seem to click on them anyway) is a great way to get advertisers excited and spending.
If you are still running Facebook CPC ads for your clients, set up a separate CPM campaign with Promoted Stories pronto for testing. The results will blow you away.
1
person recommended thisShare. Superman 64 never looked so good! Superman 64 never looked so good!
A freelance hardware and software designer has created an adapter to let fans of the Nintendo 64 plug their systems into their sets via an HDMI cable.
Anyone who has plugged their trusty N64 into an HDTV knows all too well the heartbreak that ensues. The games, already painfully dated as far as polygonal graphics are concerned, don't handle well the transition to the 16:9, high definition output of modern sets. The old-school graphical charm is distorted in ways that make them look worse than they did on an old CRT standard television.
Exit Theatre Mode
The creator of the adapter, a 23 year-old by the name of Marshall H, has a background in electrical engineering and design work. He told VentureBeat's GameBeat he was initially sparked to create the adapter by the lamentations of many people, himself included, who noticed how poorly N64 graphics showed on flatscreen televisions.
With HDMI, or DisplayPort, Marshall said you will always get a better picture, even with the "low-res pixel soup from the N64."
The adapter is still in development, with Marshall looking to improve on his original design -- like making the mod easier to install. In its current incarnation, the adapter requires a bit of soldering. He also wants to make sure it works with the various television formats used around the world. "A lot of N64 fans are Down Under," he said.
Marshall has a website, Retroactive, where you can read more about his N64 adapter, along with entries about his other projects.
Seth Macy is a freelance writer who likes taking photos. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy, and MyIGN at sethgmacy.Finnish is related only to Estonian, Hungarian and some minority languages whose speakers are scattered across the north of Russia. But, Kalevi Wiik argues, Finno-Ugrian languages may originally have been spoken by the whole of northern Europe
There are currently three different major families of languages in Europe: the Indo-Europeans, the Finno-Ugrians and the Basques. The numbers of speakers are highly disproportionate: there are around 700 million speakers of Indo-European languages (about 97 per cent of Europeans), about 22 million Finno-Ugrians (including the Hungarians, Finns and Estonians, 3 per cent of the European total), and about 1.7 million Basques (0.2 per cent).
Relations between the families of languages have long been changing in the sense that the proportion of speakers of Indo-European languages has been growing at the expense of speakers of the Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages. The same development has affected the areas in which they are spoken: Indo-European areas have grown while Finno-Ugrian and Basque areas have shrunk. The Indo-European languages have forced the Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages into ever more peripheral areas, the Finno-Ugrian languages toward the Arctic Ocean and Basque toward the Pyrenees.
Over the millennia, in other words, the areas in which the Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages are spoken have shrunk, with areas favourable to farming been transferred into the hands of speakers of Indo-European languages. The change has probably always taken place (at least largely) in the same way as it does today: speakers of the Finno-Ugrian and Basque languages have gradually changed to Indo-European languages; in the process, the border between the Finno-Ugrian languages and the Indo-European languages has, step by step, moved northwards, while that between the Basque languages and the Indo-European languages has shifted closer and closer to the Pyrenees. This shifting of linguistic borders has not been the result of the moving of populations, or migration. Rather, the history of populations in northern and western Europe has been immobile, based more on cultural and linguistic diffusion than on demic diffusion.
The initial shifts in the borders between the Finno-Ugrian and Indo-European and the Basque and Indo-European languages was caused by the spread of agriculture and animal husbandry. Agriculture and animal husbandry were so much more effective as a means of subsistence than hunting, fishing and gathering that the hunter-fisher-gatherers willingly changed their system of livelihood to agricultural and animal husbandry, at the same time switching from their own languages to the Indo-European tongue of the farmers.
I shall present my understanding of the development of the peoples and languages of northern Europe in the millennia following the Ice Age with the help of four maps.
There was, however, no corres-ponding unification of populations and languages in the central and southern zones of Europe: the peoples of this area represented, in the Ice Age, less successful small-game hunters. This area remained variegated in the old way, with smaller cultural, genetic and linguistic areas than in the periglacial zone.
Accordingly, in the year 8,000 BC, Europe had at least three large linguistic areas: the comparatively unified area of Uralic languages (U), the western area of Basque languages (B) and, in the centre and south of the continent, an area of many unknown small languages (X).
It should be said that the genetically unusual Sami population of northern Norway (who, during the Ice Age, lived considerably further to the south on the North Sea continent), belonged, according to my hypothesis, to the periglacial zone whose languages, at least partially, unified. The unusual genetic quality of these Sami is based on the fact that they had for a long time (perhaps from about 10,000 to 3,000BC) been isolated in western and northern Norway from other northern Europeans, and a series of genetic mutations took place in them.
By 5,500 BC, agriculture and animal husbandry and, in their wake, the Indo-European languages, had spread from the direction of Greece into the entire central and southern part of Europe (see
Europe was thus now divided into three in a new way (although the borders were to a large extent the same as in map 1). The peoples of the northern area were hunter-fisher-gatherers who spoke Finno-Ugrian languages and represented a genetically homogeneous human type. They were formerly successful people who were now (with, among other things, the extinction of many herd animals) among the continent's least successful. The population were descendants of the people who had lived in the area in the Ice Age. The peoples of the western area were small-game hunters who spoke Basque languages and perhaps formed, genetically, their own group. The subsistence of the people of this area was not as good as that of the farmer-herdsmen. The peoples of central and southern Europe were farmer-herdsmen who spoke Indo-European languages and also represented a genetic group of their own and had developed as a result of the mixing of peoples from the south-east with local populations. Sub-sistence in the area had previously consisted of small-game hunting, but it had been supplanted (partly as a result of the arrival of new populations, partly as a cultural change) by another subsistence system, farming and animal husbandry. The people of the area had become the fortunates of their continent, whose way of life and Indo-European language were eagerly imitated in the northern and western parts of Europe.
The border between the farmer-herdsmen and the hunter-fisher-gatherers was significant in many ways. It was a border between completely different systems of subsistence, for |
yds. (1,215) and TD recepts. (13). Started all 13 games as sophomore and earned Second-Team All-Big 12 honors after registering 50 recepts. for 868 yds. and 6 TDs. As a true freshman in 2014, saw action in all 13 games (7 starts) and earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and consensus Freshman All-America honors. Set school record for recepts. by a freshman with 58 and added 1,030 yds. and 8 TDs. Attended Mount Pleasant (TX) HS, where he was named first-team Class 4A all-state, first-team all-midlands and first-team all-District 14-4A in 2013 as a senior after recording 80 recepts. for 1,252 yds. and 16 TDs. Born 11/5/95 in Mount Pleasant, TX.
OL John Flynn
6-5, 320
Montana State
Spent five years at Montana State and finished his career by starting 43 consecutive games. Earned First-Team All-Big Sky honors in 2016 after starting all 11 games as a senior. In 2015, started all 11 games at left guard. In 2014, started all 13 games at left guard and earned First-Team All-Big Sky honors. Was named Third-Team All-Big Sky in 2013 after starting the final eight games of the season. Redshirted as a true freshman in 2012. Attended Bettendorf (IA) HS, where he earned first-team all-state honors as a senior after helping lead Bettendorf to an undefeated regular season and state runner-up finish. Born 8/30/93 in Knoxville, TN.
CB Zach Franklin
6-0, 200
Washburn
Appeared in 45 games (34 starts) and recorded 109 tackles, 32 PDs, 6.0 TFLs, 2 FRs and 1 FF during his four-year career at Washburn. Also totaled 34 KORs for 750 yds. As a redshirt senior in 2016, started all 12 games and registered 38 tackles, 12 PDs, 4.5 TFLs, 1 FF and 1 FR to earn Third-Team All-Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association honors. In 2015, started all 11 games and earned Second-Team All-MIAA honors after totaling 34 tackles, 14 PDs, 1.0 TFL and 1 FR. As a sophomore, started all 11 games and recorded 28 tackles, 4 PDs and 0.5 TFLs. Saw action in all 11 games as a freshman in 2013 and registered 9 tackles and 2 PDs. Redshirted in 2012. Attended Wichita Northwest (Wichita, KS) HS, where he registered 14 tackles and 3 recepts. for 45 yds. as a senior. Born 2/14/94 in Wichita, KS.
DL Jimmie Gilbert
6-5, 230
Colorado
Appeared in 51 games (27 starts) during his four-year career at Colorado and totaled 147 tackles, 30.5 TFLs, 20.0 sacks and 8 FFs. As a senior in 2016, started all 14 games and registered 51 tackles, 14.0 TFLs, 10.5 sacks and 6 FFs to earn First-Team All-Pac-12 honors. In 2015, saw action in 13 games (3 starts) and totaled 47 tackles, 8.0 TFLs, 6.0 sacks and 1 FF. As a sophomore, appeared in 12 games (9 starts) and recorded 38 tackles, 6.5 TFLs, 2.5 sacks and 1 FF. In 2013, saw action in 12 games (1 start) as a freshman and notched 11 tackles, 2.0 TFLs, 1.0 sack and 1 FF. Attended A&M Consolidated (College Station, TX) HS, where he totaled 78 tackles, 25.0 TFLs and 10.0 sacks as a senior to earn first-team All-District 14-5A honors. Born 11/9/94 in College Station, TX.
S Malik Golden
6-0, 205
Penn State
Appeared in 46 games (17 starts) and totaled 130 tackles, 8 PDs, 6.5 TFLs, 2 INTs, 1 FF and 1 FR during his five-year career at Penn State. Started all 13 games in 2016 and recorded a career-high 75 tackles, 6.0 TFLs, 4 PDs, 1 INT, 1 FF and 1 FR. Appeared in 13 games (4 starts) as a junior and registered 40 tackles, 2 PDs and 1 INT. In 2014, appeared in 8 games and totaled 7 tackles, 1 PD and 0.5 TFLs. As a freshman in 2013, saw action in 12 games and registered 8 tackles and 1 PD. Redshirted in 2012. Attended Cheshire (CT) Academy, where he was a two-time All-New England and two-time All-Colonial League selection and helped Cheshire Academy win the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council State Championship as a junior and senior. Born 4/27/93 in Hartford, CT.
OL Evan Goodman
6-4, 306
Arizona State
Appeared in 46 games (23 starts) during his five-year career at Arizona State. Started all 12 games at left tackle as a senior in 2016. In 2015, started 11 games at left tackle for the Sun Devils. In 2014, appeared in 12 games playing on the special teams unit. Redshirted during his sophomore season in 2013. As a true freshman, saw action along the offensive line in 11 games. Attended Lakeland Senior (Lakeland, FL) HS. Born 9/15/92 in Lakeland, FL.
TE Cole Hikutini
6-4, 247
Louisville
Appeared in 24 games (13 starts) and registered 69 recepts. for 1,016 yds. and 11 TDs during his two-year career at Louisville. In 2016, appeared in 13 games (10 starts) and ranked fifth among tight ends in FBS with 49 recepts. for 656 yds. and 8 TDs. As a junior, appeared in 11 games (3 starts) and totaled 19 recepts. for 348 yds. and 3 TDs. Transferred to Louisville after spending the 2014 season at the City College of San Francisco, where he registered 40 recepts. for 658 yds. and 4 TDs. Transferred to CCFC after spending two years at Sacramento State. In 2013, appeared in 9 games (4 starts) and recorded 21 recepts. for 204 yds. and 5 TDs. Redshirted in 2012. Attended Pleasant Grove (Elk Grove, CA) HS, where he hauled in 27 recepts. for 536 yds. and 6 TDs as a senior. Born 6/11/94 in Wilton, CA.
DB Lorenzo Jerome
5-10, 204
Saint Francis (PA)
Appeared in 42 games over his four-year career at Saint Francis and totaled 252 tackles, 47 PDs, 18 INTs, 14.0 TFLs, 5.0 sacks, 2 FFs and 1 FR. Also added 45 KORs for 1,225 yds. and 3 TDs along with 18 PRs for 396 yds. and 2 TDs. In 2016, appeared in 10 games and registered 59 tackles, 11 PDs, 6 INTs, 5.5 TFLs, 2.5 sacks and 1 FR to earn First-Team All-NEC and All-America honors. Added 14 KORs for 405 yds. and 1 TD to earn First-Team All-NEC as a return specialist. In 2015, named First-Team All-NEC selection as both a defensive back and a return specialist. In 10 games, totaled 58 tackles, 10 PDs, 5.5 TFLs, 3 INTs and 2.5 sacks on defense in addition to 17 KORs for 531 yds. and 2 TDs as a returner. As a sophomore, started all 11 games and recorded 79 tackles, 16 PDs, 3 INTs, 2.0 TFLs, 1 FF and 1 TD to earn First-Team All-NEC honors as a defensive back. Added 14 KORs for 289 yds. and 12 PRs for 136 yds. and 1 TD in 2014 to earn Second-Team All-NEC as a return specialist. In 2013, appeared in 11 games and registered 56 tackles, 10 PDs, 6 INTs, 1.0 TFL, 1 FF and 1 TD. As a freshman, was named NEC Defensive Rookie of the Year and First-Team All-NEC. Attended J.P. Taravella (Coral Springs, FL) HS, where he was a three-year starter at quarterback and defensive back, finishing his senior season with 1,025 pass yds. and 750 rush yds. on offense while adding 5 INTs on defense. Born 1/20/95 in Sunrise, FL.
OL Erik Magnuson
6-6, 305
Michigan
Appeared in 46 games (37 starts) along the offensive line during his five-year career at Michigan. As a senior in 2016, started all 12 games at right tackle to earn the Hugh R. Rader Memorial Award as Michigan’s top lineman and First-Team All-Big Ten honors. In 2015, earned Third-Team All-Big Ten honors after starting all 12 games at right tackle. As a sophomore, appeared in 8 games, making 5 starts. As a freshman in 2013, appeared in 12 games with 7 starts. Redshirted in 2012. Attended La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, CA) HS, where he was a three-year starter. Born 1/5/94 in Carlsbad, CA.
FB Tyler McCloskey
6-2, 245
Houston
Appeared in 53 games (29 starts) during his four-year career at Houston. Finished his career with 39 recepts. for 406 yds. and 5 TDs. In 2016, appeared in 13 games (12 starts) at tight end and recorded 23 recepts. for 233 yds. and 4 TDs. As a junior, appeared in 14 games (13 starts) and totaled 14 recepts. for 157 yds. and 1 TD. In 2014, saw action in all 13 games with 3 starts at fullback, registering 2 recepts. for 16 yds. and 1 carry for 1 yd. As a freshman in 2013, appeared in 12 games with 1 start at fullback. Attended Memorial (Houston, TX) HS, where he was named the 2012 District 19-5A Co-Offensive MVP and earned District first-team honors after throwing for 1,456 yds. and 9 TDs while rushing for 966 yds. and 18 TDs as a senior. Born 8/11/94 in Houston, TX.
QB Nick Mullens
6-1, 187
Southern Mississippi
In four seasons at Southern Mississippi (2013-16), played in 44 games (41 starts) and completed 928 of 1,546 atts. for 11,994 yds. and 87 TDs. In 2016, made 11 starts and completed 243 of 384 atts., for 3,272 yds. and 24 TDs, averaging 297.5 passing yds. per game. Started all 14 games as a junior in 2015, setting single-season school records for passing yds. (4,476) and TD passes (38) as the Golden Eagles finished with more than 7,000 yds. of offense for the first time in school history. In 2014, started 10 games and completed 218 of 365 atts. for 2,470 passing yds. and 12 TDs. As a freshman in 2013, appeared in 9 games (6 starts) and threw for 1,776 yds. and 13 TDs while earning Conference USA All-Freshman honors. Attended Spain Park (Birmingham, AL) HS, where he had 8,605 career passing yds., finishing his high school career with the 7th-most passing yds. in AHSAA history, to go along with 40 passing TDs. Born 3/21/95 in Hoover, AL.
LB Donavin Newsom
6-2, 240
Missouri
Appeared in 48 games during his five years (2012-16) at Missouri, finishing his career with 165 tackles, 18.0 TFLs, 5.5 sacks, 7 PDs, 5 FFs and 1 FR. As a senior in 2016, registered a team-high 73 tackles in 12 games (11 starts) while adding 5.5 TFLs, 3.0 sacks, 4 PDs and 1 FF. Finished fourth on the team with 63 tackles in 2015 to go along with 9.0 TFLs, 2.5 sacks, 2 FFs and 2 PDs. Saw action in all 14 games (4 starts) and picked up 24 tackles 3.5 TFLs, 1 PD and 1 FR in 2014. In 2013, saw action in 10 games, while recording 1 tackle on defense and 4 tackles on special teams. Redshirted in 2012. Attended Parkway North (St. Louis, MO) HS, where he also was a three-year letterman in basketball, earning all-conference recognition as a junior. Born 10/13/93 in St. Louis, MO.
DL Noble Nwachukwu
6-2, 275
West Virginia
Appeared in 47 games (38 starts) during his five years (2012-16) at West Virginia, finishing his career with 126 tackles, 29.5 TFLs, 15.5 sacks, 7 PDs, 3 FFs and 1 FR. As a senior in 2016, led the team with 4.0 sacks and finished with 40 tackles, 7.5 TFLs, 2 PDs, 1 FF and 1 FR. In 2015, started all 13 games for the second-consecutive season and tallied 47 tackles, 13 TFLs and a team-high 8.5 sacks, 1 PD and 1 FF 2.0 sacks, 3.0 TFLs, 1 INT and 1 FR. As a sophomore, started 13 games and notched 34 tackles, 8.0 TFLs, 4 PDs and 2.0 sacks. Appeared in 9 games in 2013, finishing with 5 tackles, 1.0 TFL, 1.0 sack and 1 FF. Redshirted in 2012. Attended Wylie (TX) HS, where he was a two-time unanimous first-team all-district 10-4A defense member. As a senior in 2011, registered 53 tackles, 8 TFLs and 1 FF. Born 11/30/94 in Wylie, TX.
OL Bret Treadway
6-3, 249
Lamar
Started in all 43 games in which he appeared in during his five years (2012-16) at Lamar University. Started 8 games as a senior in 2016 after making 11 starts in 2015 and earning First-Team All-Southland honors. Made starts in all 12 games as a sophomore in 2014, earning All-Southland Honorable Mention honors and was part of an offense that finished the year ranked fifth in the FCS in total offense (503 yds. per game), seventh in passing (314.3 yds. per game) and eighth in scoring (39.6 pts. per game). In 2013, started all 12 games at right guard and blocked for RB Kade Harrington, who set a school freshman rushing record and was named the Southland conference’s top rookie. Redshirted in 2012. Attended Silsbee (TX) HS, where he earned first-team all-district 21-3A offensive lineman as a senior and second-team selection as a junior. Born 3/11/94 in Silsbee, TX.
OL Darrell Williams Jr.
6-6, 310
Western KentuckyBy now you’ve probably heard about Pastor Sean Harris endorsing violence against children who demonstrate homosexual behavior. He lives here right outside of Fort Bragg. He’s a retired Sergeant Major – but don’t let that influence you, he’s batshit crazy. He’s gotten in shouting matches with our atheist group members that stretched on and on for hours – in public.
He’s an intolerant bigot that many Christian groups are now rushing to help us put in his place. The upcoming MASH Fort Bragg’s protest is getting bigger and bigger.
I think I’ll just leave this here.
If you are local…
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support us – Spread the word! Perhaps, update your ‘Facebook timeline’ cover photo’s to use this image:
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FYI – Soldiers should NOT wear uniforms, or speak to any media as if they represent the US Army or the DoD.I'll be upfront about this: I am very much not a fan of the 4th Edition rules for
Dungeons & Dragons. It's not because I'm old and cranky and hate change
and progress - I'll admit to being old and cranky, but I embrace change. I
like new things... like Neverwinter,
the first MMO to use the 4th Edition rules as a backbone. I like the game,
but I hate the rules.
I'm not going to go into a detailed history of D&D rulesets or my own
experiences with them and other systems. Suffice it to say, I've been
playing tabletop RPGs for a long time and have used a lot of different
systems over the years. The d20 system and the 3.0/3.5 Edition ruleset for
Dungeons & Dragon, to me, represents the pinnacle of roleplaying game
systems. It is simple enough to learn even for newcomers, complex enough to
be interesting, and adaptable enough to be shoehorned into any setting. It's
the backbone for Dungeons
& Dragons Online, and was the ruleset for the game that
converted me from a casual to a hardcore gamer: Neverwinter Nights.
When 4th Edition came along in 2008, I was interested, and paid attention
to its development. The more people talked about it, the more it became
apparent that it was a system attempting to appeal to the MMO crowd. When I
finally got an opportunity to read the books, it was a crushing
disappointment. Like when you try to open that big iron-bound chest deep
inside the dungeon, only to discover that it is, in fact, a Mimic.
Half the core classes were stripped away, gnomes and half-orcs were
replaced by dragon-people, demon-people and yet another flavor of elf, and
the classes seemed to have that same on-rails, cookie-cutter advancement
system that one finds in most MMOs. Everything got homogenized - dumbass
Fighters can now cast non-combat "ritual" spells that were formerly the
province of Clerics and Wizards, everybody can heal themselves with Healing
Surges. Big numbers are the norm instead of the exception. The awesome
becomes the mundane. If you want to play a Druid or a Gnome or, gods
help you, some kind of Monk, you have to spend another 30 bucks on a
supplementary "core rulebook."
And because WotC no longer trusts its customers to use their imaginations,
everything is heavily-focused on minatures, and every attack is given
graphic "flavor text" in its description. It feels like the next logical
step is to have a Wizards of the Coast employee show up at your next gaming
session and say, "You guys are playing this all wrong. Here, let me just
take your character sheets away and play all this for you."
That's how the tabletop rules feel, anyway. When they're out there in front
of you and you have to read the words on the page, the whole thing feels
dumbed-down, overblown and vaguely insulting - you're playing a soulless MMO
without the flashy graphics and sounds. When you experience it as the
backbone of a MMO, on the other hand, it feels far less annoying. The math
all happens "under the hood," so you don't see all the things that make guys
like me so very angry.
The impact of the 4th Edition ruleset in Neverwinter, the first MMO
to feature 4E rules, will be felt more keenly by some than by others. People
coming from DDO, for example, will possibly be confused by the slightly
different role of character stats, the restrictive nature of the classes and
the inability to multiclass. Neverwinter is a very different game than DDO,
not just in terms of the ruleset but also the setting and style.
People coming from a tabletop pen-and-paper D&D background, who are
familiar with the system but not so much with MMOs, will find the system
familiar but altered to make it more MMO friendly. For example, level
benefits are "stretched out" so characters only get a stat increase every 10
levels instead of every 4 levels, characters have far more Hit Points (and
deal far more damage) than they normally would using dice, and characters
will reach higher levels before they are considered "epic." They will also
notice a limited selection of Daily and Encounter powers compared to the
broader assortment available in the books. The guys with all of the core
books and a library of supplemental books will find even more limitations -
a lot of details had to be pared down to make Neverwinter accessible and
manageable.
New players coming to Neverwinter from a MMO background with no previous
exposure to D&D will not likely find anything to rage about. The system,
which is already suspiciously MMO-friendly, fits like a glove, and most
elements will be familiar to some degree. Neverwinter is, after all, based
on the game system (or, rather, the bastard great-grandson of the original)
that stands as the progenitor to essentially all fantasy roleplaying games,
be they video or other. Neverwinter will inevitably get compared to Guild
Wars 2 because the controls are somewhat similar. It will also draw
comparisons to DDO because of the Dungeons & Dragons license, though DDO
is set in Eberron and Neverwinter is set in the Forgotten Realms. And, of
course, it will be compared to World of Warcraft because it is a MMORPG with
a high-fantasy setting. And no, the people making that particular comparison
won't see the irony.
As much as I hate 4th Edition rules, I still found the Neverwinter beta to
be an enjoyable experience. Most of the angry-making stuff happens under the
hood, out of sight and out of mind. And it's not like they had a real choice
in the matter - if a company wants to make a licensed D&D game, they
don't get to pick and choose what ruleset they want to use. The only reason
DDO isn't using 4E rules is because DDO came out first.
Despite the horrible ruleset, Neverwinter feels very D&D-like, as
opposed to feeling more MMO-like. A large part of that is the Foundry, which
will allow players to create their own adventures and distribute them to
other players in-game. This is the very heart and soul of D&D - creating
adventures to play with your buddies, regardless of the ruleset being used.
What's your take on 4E and its use in Neverwinter? Share your thoughts in
the comments!MUNICH, Germany — Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder al-Abadi on Saturday laid out a series of steps that must be taken ahead of launching an offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city,which was seized by Islamic State fighters last summer with little opposition.
During a question and answer session at the annual Munich Security Conference, al-Abadi declined to state when such a campaign might start, though U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Lloyd Austin told the Wall Street Journal last month that an offensive could start by spring or early summer.
Al-Abadi said there are four key conditions that must be met: Iraqi security forces must be ready and that requires delivery of more heavy arms, munitions and training; increased coordination between Iraqi and Kurdish peshmerga forces; support from the people of Mosul, a Sunni-dominant city long suspicious of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad; and air and reconnaissance support from the U.S.-led coalition that has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria for months in support of Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
Al-Abadi said there were signs of growing support in Mosul, that “hearts and minds” were being won over. He estimated that a few thousand fighters in the city were poised. “The people of Mosul must be with us,” he said.
If all those conditions are met, an offensive could be launched in short order, Al-Abadi said, though he suggested it could be three to four months.
Last year, Iraq and the international community were taken by surprise when Islamic State fighters, who had gained strength and territory in neighboring Syria stormed across the border to take control of large swathes of the country. When Islamic State fighters arrived in Mosul, Iraqi forces fled and city residents welcomed the militants.
Al-Abadi said his government has taken strides to try and bring about reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites. He pointed to the recent addition of 4,000 Sunni fighters in Anbar province who have taken up the fight against the Sunni Islamic State as a sign of Iraq coming together.
“That is a huge departure from what was the case before,” he said. Al-Abadi has been under pressure to reconcile Iraq’s Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish populations. His predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki was accused of favoring Shiite allies and alienating Iraq’s Sunni population, which some analysts say contributed to the Islamic State fighters swift advance in Iraq as many Sunni areas welcomed them.
In the Journal interview, Austin said planning for an offensive is under way.
"If we did things alone or with some of the other allies on the ground, it could move faster,” Austin told the paper. “But the Iraqis have to do this themselves.”
Austin told the Journal that he has not yet determined whether to recommend that U.S. ground troops accompany local units pushing into Mosul, but he said the military would “do what it takes.”
While in Munich, al-Abadi said he has received new pledges of support, including what could be interpreted as a promise from Germany of arms, trainers, and high tech equipment to track down foreign fighters.
“I would quite simply say we must not lose this war,” al-Abadi said. “It is threatening the whole world at the moment.”
vandiver.john@stripes.comWASHINGTON — A powerful hurricane moving up Florida’s east coast Oct. 7 caused some damage to NASA, military and commercial facilities at Cape Canaveral, but far less than what some had feared prior to the storm’s arrival.
Hurricane Matthew had sustained winds of nearly 200 kilometers per hour when is passed just off the coast from Cape Canaveral on the morning of Oct. 7. The hurricane’s track kept the strongest part of the storm offshore, but weather stations in the area did report hurricane-force winds for several hours during the storm’s closest approach.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center closed midday Oct. 5 as the hurricane approached, with only a small “rideout” crew in place at the center as the hurricane passed. By Oct. 8, a damage assessment crew had started initial checks of the center’s launch facilities and other buildings.
That initial check showed the center had suffered only modest damage. “After the initial inspection flight Saturday morning, it was determined that the center received some isolated roof damage, damaged support buildings, a few downed power lines, and limited water intrusion,” the center said in a statement late Oct. 8.
Images released by the Kennedy Space Center indicated that the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building was largely unscathed by the storm. The building had suffered some damage when two hurricanes, neither as strong as Matthew, struck the center in 2004.
The images did reveal roof and related damage to some other buildings, including one at the KSC Press Site. The roof of the “Beach House,” a building on the coast used by astronauts prior to launches, also sustained damage. The center said in its Oct. 8 statement it would post a list of damaged buildings once workers completed a full inspection of the center.
Damage was also reported to buildings at neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A photo posted by the U.S. Air Force’s 45th Space Wing showed an unidentified “older building” on station property that had suffered a collapsed wall. A Navaho missile, which had been placed on a stand outside the gates of the center, has fallen over during the storm.
SpaceX said its payload processing facility at Space Launch Complex (SLC) 40 was damaged during the hurricane. “Hurricane Matthew caused some damage to the exterior of SpaceX’s payload processing facility at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,” company spokesman John Taylor said Oct. 9. He added there was no damage to Launch Complex 39A, the former Apollo- and shuttle-era launch pad SpaceX is renovating for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches.
Taylor said that SpaceX has a “ready and fully capable” backup facility for payload processing at a hangar annex building at SLC-40. However, in a speech at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Engineering here Oct. 9, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell suggested that repairs to the payload processing facility could delay a return to flight of the company’s Falcon 9 after its Sept. 1 pad accident.
“We’re going to have to try and get that up and running as quickly as we can so we can get back to flying,” she said, reiterating that the company expects to resume Falcon 9 launches before the end of the year. “It’s a shame that, basically, the ability to process the payload in that building might keep us grounded for a little bit longer than we had hoped.”
United Launch Alliance, which operates Space Launch Complexes 37 and 41 for Delta and Atlas vehicles, respectively, reported “light to moderate damage” to its facilities at the cape, Tory Bruno, chief executive of the company, tweeted Oct. 8. “No damage to any flight assets,” he added.
Spacecraft in various facilities around Cape Canaveral, including the GOES-R weather satellite and SBIRS-3 missile warning satellites, also survived the storm without damage. The launch of GOES-R, on an Atlas 5, will likely be delayed from its previous date of early November because of weather-related delays in shipping its Atlas 5 rocket to the launch site.“Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach” by Paul Joseph Gulino.
Continuum International Publishing Group Inc. New York, NY 2004.
230 pages. ISBN-13: 0-8264-1568-7 Amazon Price: US $14.25
Paul Gulino is Associate Professor of Screenwriting at Chapman University in California. He is a produced screenwriter and playwright.
ORIGINS
The sequence method takes us back to 1897, and the advent of projection. Films rarely extended beyond one reel, and were 10 to 15 minutes long. As theatres purchased second projectors, longer films could be screened almost without a break, but screenwriting manuals written prior to the First World War advised writers to structure their work around the division of reels.
This structure persisted into the 1950’s, with sequences identified by the letters A, B, C, D etc.
The sequence method focuses on
how the audience will experience the story and
what the writer can do to make that story better.
Gulino does not tell us why the sequence approach to writing ended but he does tell us why he believes it should be revived. “…sequencing helps writers create dynamic, dramatic engines that drive their stories forward. And unlike other popular approaches to screenwriting, the sequence method focuses on how the audience will experience the story and what the writer can do to make that story better.”
Any screenwriting method that makes the writer’s task easier and focuses on the audience’s experience is worth examining.
EIGHT SEQUENCES
A typical two hour film, Gulino tells us, comprises eight sequences – two in the first act, fourth in the second and two in the third. Each sequence is a short film which mirrors the structure of a complete film.
But while complete films have conflicts and issues that are resolved at the end, sequences have conflicts and issues that are only partly resolved. Because they are only partly resolved, they engage the attention of the reader and viewer.
According to E.M. Forster a story “…has only one merit: that of making an audience want to know what happens next. And conversely it can only have one fault: that of making the audience not want to know what happens next.” (Aspects of the Novel, 1917)
TOOLS OF ANTICIPATION
Gulino does not just tell us to keep the audience engaged. He shows us how it is done with four tools. They are, in ascending order of significance, telegraphing (and reverse telegraphing), the dangling cause, dramatic irony and dramatic tension (particularly chases and escapes).
Other tools are discussed during his analysis of eleven screenplays.
Gulino’s method makes screenwriting easier. Instead of staring at a blank sheet of paper and wondering how to fill it 120 times, a screenwriter has only to craft a 10 to 15 minute mini movie to be on the road to a complete screenplay.
REMAINING QUESTIONS
The book is an excellent introduction to the art of sequencing but it does not answer all the questions. Why, for example, did sequencing lose its popularity. Did Syd Field’s “Screenplay”, with its three acts and multiple plot points crowd out the art of sequencing? Was sequencing seen as a device that divided a film, rather than emphasised its whole? And why, if sequencing is such a good device, do screenwriters try to hide this structure?
Very few films use chapter headings, but I find chapter heading quite satisfying. “The Sting”, “A Room with a View” and more recently “500 Days of Summer” use chapter headings that identify the sequences. In “500 Days of Summer” this technique was essential, because the film bounces back and forth in time and without the chapter headings the audience would not know the current state of Tom and Summer’s relationship.
DVD SEQUENCING
This brings me to another advantage of sequencing – one overlooked by Gulino. Most people do not view films in theatres. They see them in the privacy of their own homes, with the advantage of remote controls that allow the viewer to pause, go back and fast forward. Most viewers time their food, drink and lavatory breaks to coincide with the end of a sequence, and a screenwriter who bears this in mind will produce a more comfortable viewing experience.
It is interesting that the division of films 100 years ago was dictated by the size of the reel; now they are dictated by the weakness of the bladder. That is progress.
SEQUENCE LENGTH
While Gulino suggests that sequences are usually 10 to 15 minutes there has been a trend lately towards much shorter sequences.
Directors, having cut their teeth on MTV clips, are often deluded into believing they can create a feature film. The result has been a number of films with very short scenes and very short sequences, such as “The Bourne Ultimatum”. In my opinion most of these movies are unsatisfactory. They do not allow the audience to be drawn into the story.
An audience is prepared to suspend disbelief to a certain extent, but sudden and repeated changes of character and location are jarring and serve to remind the audience that it is only watching a film.
ELEVEN ANALYSES
Gulino illustrates his points with an analysis of eleven screenplays. Unlike many writers, he does not chose films that exactly fit his thesis. Five of his examples do not have the suggested 8 sequence structure – “Lawrence of Arabia” (16), “The Fellowship of the Ring” (12), “North by Northwest” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (9) and “The Graduate” (7). One that does conform is “Air Force One”, written by Andrew Marlowe who studied under Frank Daniel, a passionate advocate of sequencing and Gulino’s mentor.
The examples illustrate the underlying drama of each sequence and the relationship to the drama of the film as a whole. I noted that one blogger criticised Gulino for only offering 19 pages of theory and 205 pages of examples, but he obviously missed the pearls of wisdom that reside in each of the examples.
CONCLUSION
“Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach” is one of the best books available on screenplay structure. It simplifies the writing process and emphasises the underlying drama of each sequence and its relationship to the screenplay as a whole. It is essential reading for |
one that was even more worthy of Norris Trophy consideration than the credit some pundits were giving. That seems strange, considering Lidstrom is an established brand when it comes to voting for this trophy, and winning it one more time would give him eight -- the same number as Bobby Orr and tie him for the most ever.
Alas, Lidstrom -- typically a pillar of durability -- sustained an injury and missed 10 games. Detroit's severe dip in form without Lidstrom could be an argument to bolster his candidacy, but the other top candidates are all likely to play at least 80 games this season. While advanced statistics still point to Lidstrom as a leading candidate, his traditional stats are now lacking and, given the tight race, missing 12 percent of the season is a big deal.
So the race for the Norris should come down to four other guys -- previous contenders Shea Weber and Zdeno Chara and newcomers to the elite Erik Karlsson and Alex Pietrangelo. It will be fascinating to see how the general electorate of the Professional Hockey Writers Association votes, because the interesting circumstances with Karlsson's resume.
WINNER
Erik Karlsson, Senators -- Karlsson has had an amazing offensive season. Given the drop in scoring, his 19 goals and 77 points are even more impressive than Mike Green's 19 and 76 from 2009-10. The sweet-skating Swede is tied for 10th in the League in scoring -- Green finished tied for 20th in 2009-10 and tied for 28th the year before when he had 73 points.
What's more, Karlsson is tied for second in goals-for per 60 minutes at even strength (3.41), according to Behind The Net, and his goals against per 60 minutes at even strength has improved from 3.04 last season to 2.48 this year. He also faces tough competition (second toughest among Ottawa defensemen according to Behind The Net's Quality of Competition rating), but not quite as tough as the other guys in this group.
The single biggest strike against Karlsson is he doesn't kill penalties. No active Norris winner (which covers every year dating back to 1999 except for 2004, when Scott Niedermayer won) has played less than 2:10 per night on the PK. Karlsson averages 33 seconds. While the number of penalties called and power plays awarded has dropped considerably this season, it still doesn't excuse the hole on Karlsson's resume.
Will his outstanding offense trump the lack of PK time? Will reputation, something that plays far too much of a role in the voting for this trophy, cost Karlsson, or will the groundswell of support for him in Ontario help fend off more veteran candidates?
The simple answer is this: Lidstrom deserved the award six weeks ago, but he got hurt. Karlsson's body of work -- having 25 more points than the next guy -- should catch enough voters' attention to fend off Lidstrom, Chara and Weber. Unless some voters don't even put him on the ballot; such was Green's fate in 2010.
FINALISTS
Zdeno Chara, Bruins -- There is a very compelling case for Chara. His goals-for per 60 minutes at even strength is exactly the same as Karlsson's (3.41) and his goals-against is slightly better. He's also second among defensemen in scoring with 52 points, and has played nearly 170 more minutes this season on the PK than his Ottawa counterpart.
Chara has also faced tougher competition at even strength -- he's fifth in the League among defensemen in that department (Karlsson is 34th). That said, Karlsson does have seven more goals and 25 more points and it isn't a power-play inflated total (Karlsson has 49 points at even strength).
Shea Weber, Predators -- Lidstrom would be a deserving finalist. Alex Pietrangelo has a decent case -- he's fourth in points with 50 and is sixth in goals-against per 60 minutes at even strength, but some of that value feels a little too "system quarterback." Four of the top six in GA/60 at even strength are Blues, though he has faced the toughest competition on the team.
Weber has 19 goals, which ties him with Karlsson for the most among defensemen. He's also faced tough competition (17th) and played nearly two more minutes per game at even strength than Pietrangelo. Weber also has more hits and blocked shots than any of these five potential winners.
Getting to 20 goals (if Karlsson doesn't) might help his candidacy, along with his reputation, but this looks like another close-but-not-quite resume for Weber.Reel off the most important moments in Toronto Raptors franchise history and some usual suspects will come up: beating Michael Jordan and the 72-win Bulls during Toronto’s inaugural season, Vince Carter‘s 2000 slam dunk contest performance that put the Raptors on the map, winning the Atlantic division title in 2006, the return to the playoffs in 2015 and the birth of Jurassic Park with Masai Ujiri’s infamous “F*@# Brooklyn!”…
But May 4, 2001 marked perhaps the biggest moment of them all.
It was Game 5 of a first-round series between the Raptors and New York Knicks — the same Knicks team that had swept Toronto the year before in the Raptors first-ever post-season appearance. Back then the first-round was a best-of-five, which meant the season was on the line for what was at that time two of the most impressive and colourful teams in the East.
Despite Vinsanity being at it’s peak and the Raptors roster loaded veteran talent including Antonio Davis, Dell Curry and Charles Oakley, it was fourth-year point guard Alvin Williams who would play one of the biggest roles in sealing the franchises’ first-ever playoff series win.
Earlier that season, Williams had been coming off the bench behind Mark Jackson. But a mid-season trade that saw Jackson dealt to the Knicks resulted in Williams being inserted into the starting lineup.
For Williams, squaring off against his former teammate and mentor was surreal. But nothing would compare to the feeling of playing a do-or-die game in the NBA’s most iconic arena, Madison Square Garden, with a chance to make history on the line.
Sixteen years later, I sat down with Williams to re-watch one of the most important games in Raptors franchise history. It’s one that he, and the franchise, will never forget.
Let’s go Inside the Huddle:
Box scores courtesy basketball-reference.comThe Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held its final meeting before the presidential election this week, announcing Wednesday that it had opted not to raise interest rates,
But the FOMC’s decision was not as interesting as the text of its statement, which showed a growing consensus for another rate increase at the Fed’s next meeting in December. “Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September indicates that the labor market has continued to strengthen and growth of economic activity has picked up from the modest pace seen in the first half of this year,” the statement reads.
The Fed pointed to “solid” job growth in recent months and rising consumer spending as reasons to back up their sunny view of the economy, though they did lament the fact that tepid business investment continues to cloud the economic recovery. The Fed decided to keep interest rates at between 0.25% and 0.5%, judging that while “the case for an increase in the federal funds rate has continued to strengthen,” it would “wait for some further evidence of continued progress toward its objectives” before raising rates for the second time in a year.
Though Fed chair Janet Yellen has been at pains to convince the public that politics plays no role in the FOMC’s decision making, the choice to stand pat this time around seems to have a lot to do with the election. As Vincent Reinhart, former head of the Fed’s monetary-affairs division and chief economist with Standish Mellon, predicted last week, the Fed would not act this week because not only do markets affect politics, but politics affect markets. Given that markets will naturally react to next week’s presidential election, it only makes sense for the Fed to wait and gauge that reaction before making its next move.
In fact, Reinhart argued that the Fed should have just moved this week’s meeting altogether, writing that such a meeting is “useless” just days before the polls open. But that would “lift the cloak of denial that Fed officials never look at the political calendar,” Reinhart wrote, suggesting that Fed economists would be afraid of how the public would interpret a rescheduling.
Another clue that the FOMC board members are particularly concerned about timing rate hikes is the fact that Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren joined the board members who wanted to keep rates where they are. Just two months ago, Rosengren dissented along with fellow members Esther George and Loretta Mester, voting against the majority and in favor of letting rates rise. Given that he has publicly said that he fears that keeping rates too low will necessitate much more aggressive, and therefore dangerous, rate hikes later, it seems that Rosengren’s vote shows how some members opinions can be changed by a meeting’s proximity to important political events.Advertisement
Photo: Chris Gunn/NASA
Update, 13 March: NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission had a picture-perfect launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida at 10:44 p.m. ET following a smooth countdown. All four spacecraft that are part of the mission "appear healthy following separation," the agency says.
To solve a mystery concerning powerful geomagnetic storms that can threaten Earth's satellites and power grids, NASA is launching a quartet of spacecraft into orbit on 12 Marchfor a two-year mission to analyze magnetic fields around the Earth.
A geomagnetic storm in March 1989 blacked out the entire Canadian province of Quebec, leaving millions of customers in the dark and damaging transformers as far as New Jersey, and ones 10 times worse are possible, such as the 1859 solar superstorm.
Every step leading to such intense bursts of space weather are ultimately driven by a mysterious phenomenon known as magnetic reconnection, which occurs in clouds of electrically charged gas known as plasmas. Magnetic fields are entrapped inside plasmas, and magnetic field lines can break and reconnect with each other within these clouds, explosively converting magnetic energy to heat and kinetic energy.
Scientists want to know exactly what triggers magnetic reconnection, but until now, researchers have only seen reconnection happen in the laboratory. NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is the first space mission dedicated to understanding of how this phenomenon works not only on Earth, but on the sun, other stars, and throughout space. After a decade of planning and engineering, the mission is scheduled to launch on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:44 p.m. on 12 March. The weather forecast for the launch so far calls for a 70 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time, with some concern over thick clouds.
MMS is composed of four identical solar-powered spacecraft, each armed with an identical set of 11 instruments made of 25 sensors. The octagonal 1,360-kilogram probes will fly in a
During the mission's first phase, the spacecraft will fly for a year and a half through reconnection sites on Earth's day side, where matter from the sun connects with Earth's magnetic field. During the second phase, MMS will zip through reconnection sites for six months on Earth's night side, where that solar material can flow to Earth's magnetic tail.
The reconnection sites are thin, meaning the spacecraft will fly through each in less than a second. However, their sensors are the fastest NASA has ever flown, quick enough to measure the magnetic and electric fields present as well as the particle velocities in those instances. These will help scientists for the first time create 3-D views of magnetic reconnection from the inside as it happens.HARI SREENIVASAN:
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un recently said his goal is to reach an "equilibrium of real force" with the United States and dissuade talk of U.S. military action against his regime. And that he wants to finish his nuclear weapons program despite sanctions.
Kim's comment comes after North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile over northern Japan for the second time.
North Korea's state-run media released this video, which shows the missile launch along with these photos of Kim watching it.
The North Korean threat — and China's assertiveness in the South China Sea — underscore how Japan still relies on the U.S. military for protection, just as it has since the end of World War II.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the U.S. will work with Japan to enhance its missile defenses, and the U.S. commitment to defend Japan remains, quote, "ironclad."
In tonight's Signature Segment, NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Amy Guttman reports from the Japanese island of Okinawa on how U.S. bases there are a cause of concern to many residents.A spokesman for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said both Ireland and the EU will be holding the UK to the Phase 1 agreement reached this week.
It comes as Britain's Brexit minister David Davis described the UK government's pledge to prevent any return to a hard border with Ireland after Britain leaves the EU as "a statement of intent" rather than a legally binding move.
The government spokesman cited in particular Article 46 which states that: "The commitments and the principles...are made and must be upheld in all circumstances, irrespective of the nature of any future agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom."
The spokesman said that "as the Taoiseach indicated on Friday, even if the worse case scenario occurs and there is no final deal, there must still be full alignment north and south under the agreement".
An initial deal to move Brexit talks to a second phase was secured this week, by agreeing terms on how much Britain should pay to leave the EU, on citizens' rights and the border issue, where London agreed a fallback of regulatory "alignment" with the EU.
"This was a statement of intent more than anything else," Mr Davis said.
"It was much more a statement of intent than it was a legally enforceable thing," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr show.
Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week programme, the Government Chief Whip Joe McHugh said while the UK and the EU explored possible trade deals in the next phase of Brexit talks, the Irish position would be protected by Friday's agreement which was binding in principle.
Asked how that could be reconciled with Mr Davis’ remarks, Mr McHugh questioned what was the point of the UK signing up to an agreement if it was not going to uphold it.
He said the Government and the EU would hold the UK to account to deliver on the commitments made last Friday.
Mr McHugh said there will be lots of "rhetoric" and noise about the agreement and he was not going to be drawn into the internal issues in British politics.
"There has been a lot of bruising over the last fortnight," he added.
He insisted the Irish Government and the EU will not be backing away from the agreement.
Art.46 of Fridays agreed text re Ireland/NI: "The commitments and the principles...are made and must be upheld in all circumstances, irrespective of the nature of any future agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom." - clear and positive commitment from UK Govt — Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) December 10, 2017
Mr Davis also said Britain will not pay a €44 billion exit bill to Brussels if it does not secure a trade deal.
The comments appeared to contradict those of UK Chancellor Philip Hammond who has said it would be "inconceivable" that the UK would fail to honour its international obligations.
Pressed on Mr Hammond's remarks regarding the exit payment, Mr Davis said: "No. It is conditional on an outcome. I am afraid that wasn't quite right.
"It is conditional. It is conditional on getting an implementation period. Conditional on a trade outcome.
"No deal means that we won't be paying the money."
Asked if Mr Hammond was wrong, Mr Davis said: "It has been made clear by No 10 already. So that's not actually new."
When asked at a Commons Treasury Committee meeting this week whether Britain's divorce bill was contingent on a trade deal, Mr Hammond said: "Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed in this negotiation.
"But I find it inconceivable that we as a nation would be walking away from an obligation that we recognised as an obligation.
"That is not a credible scenario. That is not the kind of country we are. Frankly, it would not make us a credible partner for future international agreements," said Mr Hammond.
Mr Davis said the chances of Britain leaving the EU without a trade deal have now "dropped dramatically".Three out of three new doctor studies agree: Multivitamin and mineral supplements are a waste of money.
Since November, the publication of three studies has given doctors even more insight into the question of whether or not vitamin and mineral supplements make individuals healthier when it comes to chronic disease prevention. In an editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the authors of the study came out with a strong answer: They do not.
“We believe that the case is closed -- supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful,” the authors wrote. “These vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention. Enough is enough.”
Titled, “Enough is enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements,” the authors stated that, based on studies analyzing the links between multivitamins and cancer, heart health, and brain functions, there’s no reason to think supplements do any good.
Speaking with CBS News, one of the editorial’s co-authors, Dr. Edgar Miller of John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, said that instead of expecting multivitamins to make you healthier, people should focus on eating a healthier diet and exercising.
According to a November study, there’s no clear evidence that supplements reduce the risk of heart disease. In fact, the study found that taking beta-carotene and vitamin E might actually raise the risk of lung cancer in those already susceptible to the disease.
A second study in December found that multivitamins do not help reduce the decay of the mind’s cognitive functions. Meanwhile, the results of a third study showed that supplements do not reduce the risk of a second heart attack or other heart-related hospitalization.
Despite these results, an industry group supporting the use of supplements blasted the conclusions as “close-minded.”
“The editorial demonstrates a close-minded, one-sided approach that attempts to dismiss even the proven benefits of vitamins and minerals," Steve Mister, president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said to CBS. "It’s a shame for consumers that the authors refuse to recognize the real-life need for vitamin and mineral supplementation, living in a fairy-tale world that makes the inaccurate assumption that we’re all eating healthy diets and getting everything we need from food alone.”
While the authors behind these studies say the case against multivitamins, with the possible exception of vitamin D, is closed, the U.S. supplement industry has continued to grow. Some experts, like Dr. Howard Sesso of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, believe that nutrient-deficient individuals could still benefit from multivitamins and in other specific cases.
“For better or for worse, supplementation's not going to go away," he told Fox News. At the same time, he added, "there's no substitute for preaching a healthy diet and good behaviors."Image via: Method
Oct 15th is Global Handwashing Day, and since I happen to be in the handwashing business, I wanted to examine the simple act of washing our hands from a design perspective. When you apply a design lens to how we wash our hands, you realize the current model is deficient. And applying that design lens offers insight to a healthier, greener way to live.Today, the market is dominated by antibacterial hand washes. They make reassuring claims like "kills 99.99999% of germs." Most of them contain a hazardous chemical called Triclosan.
Our primary objective in handwashing is, of course, hygiene. And Global Handwashing Day is about demonstrating the important link between this simple act and staying healthy. But washing our hands with antibacterials like Triclosan has consequences. Some are environmental: packaging waste and soap that must be broken down. But some are, ironically, health-related.
There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that the rampant use of antibacterial soaps not only doesn't make us any healthier, but in fact, may make us worse off. Dr. Stuart Levy is one of the leading researchers on the health effects of using antibacterials (see references 1 and 2 below), and he recommends against their widespread use. And don't forget the environmental effects that persistent and toxic chemicals like Triclosan have.
This is one example of how our current habits can be driven more by the false sense of security the marketing of these products gives us, rather than the real health benefits they deliver.
Design is about intention. And if we want to create change through design, then we have to design with a broader set of objectives in mind. The designer who wants to incorporate all the aspects of health, environment, function, and beauty into her design comes to a different conclusion about what a hand soap should be. She resists the allure of the powerful marketing messages that come from that "kills germs" claim, and instead designs a product to clean, not kill.
Perhaps someday there will be antimicrobial agents that truly provide enhanced health benefits without any negative environmental or human health consequences. But until then, the design solution is what Mom always told us: wash with good old soap and water for 20 seconds. Who knew Mom was a designer?
For more info on Global Handwashing Day and a new UNICEF/WHO report highlighting handwashing as an effective way to prevent diarrheal disease for children in developing countries, visit: http://www.path.org/news/pr091014-unicef-diarrhea.php
Scientific literature:
1. Tan, L, et al. "Use of Antimicrobial Agents in Consumer Products." Archives of Dermatology 138 (2002): 1082-1086
2. Levy, Stuart B. "Antimicrobial Consumer Products: Where's the Benefit? What's the Risk?" Archives of Dermatology 138 (2002): 1087-1088
More on antibacterial soaps
Are you overdosing on Triclosan?
7 Antibacterials to make you feel better, not worse
Better health for all: Critical to reduce population growth and poverty
1.5 Million Children Die a Year From Diarrhea - Unsafe Drinking Water, Lack of Handwashing to BlameAnalytical methods generally follow those described in our previous analysis of fin whale abundance trends [14]. A brief description is provided here.
Process and Observation Models.
Models were developed separately for B. bairdii, Z. cavirostris, a single Mesoplodon species group, and a group of unidentified ziphiids (which were either Z. cavirostris or Mesoplodon), although sighting-distance data were pooled across these groups for purposes of estimating parameters of the detection function. Recognizing that B. bairdii are more easily detectable than other ziphiids (they are larger, occur in larger groups, and have more conspicuous blows and surface behavior), the detection model included covariates for inter-species differences (see below).
Following [14], the model for each species group is partitioned into process and observation components. The process model describes how animal density (D) changes through time, so that abundance at time t, N t = D t * A, where A is the size of the study area. The most general model we considered describes variation in animal density simply as a function of a single temporal trend parameter (β 1 ) and a stochastic error component (random variable, γ t ), for each year (t). Small sample sizes precluded more complex (e.g., geographically stratified) models. If the population is changing exponentially, the full density model is: (1) ∼Normal(0, σ).
The observation model links the state process to the observed data. Following line-transect sampling theory [19], and treating the observed counts of groups each year as a Poisson random variable [14]: (2)where n t is number of groups detected; s is a single mean group size estimate for the species (there was no evidence of annual variation) with overdispersed Poisson variance (see [14]); f t (0) is the value at distance y = 0 of f t (y), which is the pdf of the detection probability function g t (y), with g t (0) being the detection probability on the transect line; and L t is the on-effort transect length (km), considered to be measured without error (Table 1). If variance in the observed counts is over-dispersed (i.e., extra-Poisson), this should be handled implicitly by the process error term in equation 1. This can be seen by substituting the expression for D t (eqn 1) into equation 2 and re-arranging slightly so that the error term, γ t, moves outside of the density term: Thus, we may think of γ t as the sum of γ t,p +γ t,s+, where subscripts p and s+ refer to process error and extra-Poisson sampling error, respectively. Estimates of γ t,s+ in individual years from bootstrapping methods (e.g., [18]) could potentially be used to obtain more explicit estimates of process variance; this would be useful for projecting future abundance estimates with greater precision.
A more intuitive expression of equation 2 is: (3)where w equals the data truncation distance (4 km in our case) and q t is the average detection probability of a group within the surveyed area 2L t w. Equation 3 thus indicates that the expected number of groups detected equals the group density, multiplied by the area surveyed and the average detection probability within the area surveyed, defined as q t = g t (0)/f t (0)·1/w. In other words, q t is the “effective strip half-width” [1/f t (0)] divided by the total distance from the vessel within which searching takes place and corrected for imperfect detection on the trackline. The effective strip half-width is a mathematical re-interpretation of the distance function g t (y) into a single theoretical distance from the transect line within which groups have a detection probability of 1 and beyond which the probability is zero.
Detection probability decreases as Beaufort sea state increases. Thus the estimate of q t in equation 3 is: where L b,t is the amount of survey effort in each of five Beaufort categories (b = 1 (for classes 0 and 1), 2, …5) in year t, and q b = g b (0)/f b (0)·1/w. Note, the estimate for is calculated from the effort-weighted mean of the ratio [g b,t (0)/f b,t (0)], not the ratio of the means. Based on previous analyses in our case study system [18] we assume a half-normal detection function for g b (y): where h denotes half-normal parameters and the proportionality sign is used since g(0) may be less than 1. We estimated the scale parameter σ h,b and hence f b (0) as a function of covariates [20], assuming the following model: (4)where β h 0 is the intercept; and β h 1 and β h 2 are the coefficients for Beaufort sea state and the log of mean group size for the species, respectively (we use log of group size following convention of earlier SWFSC cetacean abundance analyses [14], [18]). The covariate model is based on the one used by Barlow and Forney [18] for beaked whales, the main difference being that we did not include a categorical variable for the ship on which observations occurred. Preliminary analyses did not reveal this variable to have much importance on parameter estimates, while it complicated the weighted-mean estimation of. Species group (B. bairdii vs. other/smaller species) was initially considered as a covariate as well (and was included in a Sensitivity analysis – see Results), but the sample size for B. bairdii was small (Table 1); preliminary analyses suggested that group size was a more useful variable overall and sufficiently acted as a proxy for B. bairdii since they usually occur in larger groups. As sample sizes for B. bairdii increase with future surveys, a separate variable for them should be included. The parameters for equation 4 were estimated from data for individual detections: where i denotes each observed group (all species detections pooled).Here's something unusual: Democrats, independents, and Republicans all agree about what's wrong with the Republican Party. In fact, Republicans are, if anything, even more upset about it than Democrats.
The GOP's uniting sin? It won't compromise.
Gallup asked Americans to name their top problem with both the Democrats and the Republicans. They then broke those responses down by party affiliation.
For the Democratic Party, the top problem was...nothing. Really. That was the answer of 20 percent of respondents -- almost all of them Democrats -- and that made it the top answer for the Democratic Party.
In second place, however, was the argument that Democrats spend too much. But there was considerable partisan disagreement about this criticism. Only 10 percent of Democrats and 11 percent of independents brought it up. But it featured in 23 percent of Republican responses. That vaulted it to second place -- but, in reality, spending is the GOP's main complaint about the Democrats more than it's the country's main complaint.
The Republican Party is a different story. There, 22 percent of Democrats, 17 percent of independents, and fully 26 percent of Republicans complained that the GOP refuses to compromise. That's rather remarkable: It turns out that the GOP's rigidity is the top complaint of both Democrats and Republicans. It easily beats "nothing," even among Republicans!
Every other oft-mentioned criticism of the GOP breaks down by partisanship. Twenty percent of Democrats think Republicans protect the rich, but only 2 percent of Republicans agree. Fourteen percent of Republicans think the GOP doesn't stand up for its beliefs, but only 3 percent of Democrats agree. The GOP's resistance to compromise is unique: It's infuriated Democrats, independents, and Republicans.INTRODUCTION
Europe needs a new foreign policy strategy. Many of the approaches that worked so well for the EU in the past have become ineffectual and counter-productive. The EU’s official strategy - the European Security Strategy - will reach its 10th anniversary in December but Europe and the world have changed so dramatically in the last decade that the EU cannot simply stick to its outdated strategy.
Europe is losing power and influence as a foreign policy actor and needs to develop a new set of priorities how it wants to engage with the rest of the world. In December, the European Council will discuss defence issues for the first time since the euro crisis began – and European leaders should use this opportunity to commission a major strategic rethink.
A new ECFR paper – Why Europe needs a new global strategy - identifies 6 key issues that are holding Europe back and need to be addressed:
1. European soft power struggles in an era of global awakening;
2. European aid and economic assistance are losing impact in an era of big spenders;
3. “Effective multilateralism” is harder in an era of neo-Westphalian rising powers;
4. Liberal interventionism is more difficult because of fatigue and defence cuts;
5. US disengagement is changing the transatlantic relationship;
6. Economic power alone is not enough in Asia.
Susi Dennison: “European soft power is a wasting asset in a world in which other regions and powers are increasingly self-confident and less willing to base their policies on relations with the West. The EU should not give up its values, but it does need to rethink how they can best be promoted at a time when ideological, financial and political competition in both Europe’s eastern and southern neighbourhoods is liable to remain high, and even grow, in the years ahead.”
Richard Gowan: “Traditional multilateralism is not a reliable basis for strategy in a neo-Westphalian world. Europeans may increasingly have to go “forum shopping” to find alternatives to the UN when it is gridlocked over crises.But this à la carte multilateralism risks splitting the EU: France and the UK are typically more willing to manoeuvre around international legal obstacles than Germany.“
Mark Leonard: “No national government or global company would base its policies on a 10 year old strategy. The EU needs a new approach for an era of Chinese-led globalisation, American withdrawal and global political awakening where the very idea of soft power – the notion that people want to be like us – goes against the spirit of the times."
Hans Kundnani: “It is unrealistic to think that Europe could effectively withdraw from geopolitics and become a “European Japan” - one without the ability or will to use military power except in self-defence. Moreover, US disengagement means that Europeans will be expected to take responsibility for sorting out problems in their own neighbourhood.”
Nick Witney: 'The EU's 2003 security strategy is the product of a bygone age - a time when the West still ran the world, and the EU was half the size it is today. Brussels is scared to re-open it because it fears that today's 28 member states have very different world views. But that is exactly why we need the debate.“By Nanci Bompey
Scientists have come up with an explanation of why the Earth rings like a bell.
It’s long been known that earthquakes can cause the Earth to oscillate, or ring, for days or months, but in the late 1990s, seismologists discovered that the planet constantly vibrates at very low frequencies, even when there are no earthquakes. This ever-present background tremor can’t be felt by humans, but can be detected by sensitive seismic instruments.
In the years since the discovery, scientists have come up with explanations for this continuous vibration. One theory suggests it’s generated by ocean waves moving in opposite directions. When the waves collide, they create very weak, “microseismic” waves that add up to a generalized ringing.
A group of French researchers have now tested this theory by using models to calculate how ocean waves could generate seismic waves. They found that opposing ocean waves could initiate a particular kind of seismic waves – those that take 13 seconds or less to complete one oscillation. But, when it came to even slower oscillating seismic waves, the theory did not hold up. That left seismic experts in a quandary, because it’s very slow waves, with periods greater than 50 seconds, that are at the heart of the planet’s bell-like resonance.
The researchers then turned to another theory that suggests the movement of ocean waves over the bottom of the ocean generates these slower oscillating, very long waves. Long ocean waves can extend all the way down to the seafloor. As they make their way back and forth to the open ocean from the coast, these long waves travel over the bumpy ocean bottom. The pressure of the ocean waves on the seafloor generates seismic waves that cause the Earth to oscillate, said Fabrice Ardhuin, a senior research scientist at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Brest, France, and lead author of the new research.
When the team plugged this theory into their models, they found that it could explain the longer microseismic signals, ranging from 13 seconds to 300 seconds. The researchers concluded that instead of one theory explaining all of the microseismic activity, both theories are needed – one to explain the shorter seismic waves and another to explain the longer seismic waves responsible for the Earth’s hum. They suggest that most of the hum comes from the movement of the long ocean waves over the steep continental shelves.
The team published their results in a new study in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
“We have made a big step in explaining this mysterious signal and where it is coming from and what is the mechanism,” Ardhuin said.
Understanding the Earth’s ringing could help scientists map the inside of the planet, Ardhuin said. The long, microseismic waves causing the resonance penetrate deep into Earth’s mantle, possibly to the planet’s core, so recording and understanding these waves could give scientists a much more detailed picture of the Earth’s structure, he said.
Ardhuin said understanding where these seismic signals are coming from also enables researchers to look for even fainter seismic signals. That could allow scientists to better detect faint earthquakes far away from seismic stations or nuclear explosions, he said.
“I think it is a relief to the seismologists,” Ardhuin said of figuring out the source of Earth’s ringing. “Now we know where this ringing comes from and the next question is: what can we do with it.”
— Nanci Bompey is a public information specialist/writer in AGU’s public information office.“I’ve never agreed with psychiatry, ever.”
“And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science.”
“There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance.”
If any of those quotes sound familiar to you, you probably watched (or later read about) Matt Lauer’s awkward interview of Tom Cruise on The Today Show back in 2005. That interview was just the cherry on a cake baked with so many ingredients explaining why I’m not a fan of Tom Cruise; specifically related to this subject, the whole “Brooke Shields shouldn’t be taking antidepressants for postpartum depression” thing. I don’t care if Shields got to have her say, and I don’t care if Cruise later apologized to her; I’m still carrying baggage.
Judging from this morning’s interview, however, it seems that Lauer and Cruise have made up. Cruise stated that looking back at the earlier interview, he saw that he “came across arrogant,” it was not what he “intended,” and he could have “handled it better.”
During the interview, Lauer asked Cruise how he emotionally dealt with all the blows the media started delivering to him a few years ago, and Cruise admitted he “took responsibility for it” and “learned a lesson” about the proper “time and place” to talk about his humanitarian issues. Well, that’s good.
Cruise clearly still prescribes to Scientology’s stance on psychiatry, and that’s totally fine by me. I’ll be the first to defend that we’re all entitled to our own beliefs.
I’ll also even defend another Cruise quote from the earlier interview: “The ideal scene is someone not having to take antipsychotic drugs.”
That is the ideal scene, isn’t it? Many |
first time that I have been excluded from testifying on subjects both of us have been concerned about and have discussed. Remember your invitation to testify at your unofficial public hearing right after the 2004 elections regarding "irregularities" in Ohio? Within two days, your chief of staff, Perry Applebaum, persuaded you to disinvite me.
Applebaum has been a problem with my appearing before a Committee Chairman whom I have known, admired and worked with for nearly forty years. He has performed his exclusionary behavior on other occasions. It is time to make this public and to ascertain why he prevails again and again with his superior either not to invite or to deny requests to testify regarding subjects well within my knowledge, experience, and forthrightness.
Sincerely,
Ralph Nader
P.O. Box 34103
Washington, D.C. 20043
For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign, see: VoteNader.orgRonaldinho joined Mexican club Queretaro in September of 2014.
Two-time FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho has signed with Brazilian side Fluminense.
The former World Cup, Champions League and Copa Libertadores winner had been in advanced negotiations with the Rio de Janeiro club for the past week, and announced the move via his Twitter account on Saturday. The club confirmed the accord soon after.
Official details of the deal with were not immediately available, but local media said Ronaldinho will earn a monthly salary of about 600,000 reals ($190,000), plus bonuses from the sales of jerseys and other club products.
The 35-year-old midfielder was released from his contract with Mexican side Queretaro last month, and was reportedly close to signing with fellow Rio club Vasco da Gama before a deal broke down.
The move to Laranjeiras will be the former Gremio, PSG, Barcelona and AC Milan man's second passage in the city.
He previously spent a tumultuous spell with Fluminense's eternal rivals Flamengo between 2011 and 2012 then left for Belo Horizonte's Atletico Mineiro, whom he helped to a Copa Libertadores crown in 2012, before signing with the Mexican side in September of last year.
Ronaldinho said he wants to try to win the Brazilian league, which is one of the few tournaments he still hasn't won in his career.
"It was one of the things that motivated me to return to Brazil, to try to win a trophy that I still don't have," he said.
At Flu, Ronaldinho will join former Brazil striker Fred, who struggled in last year's World Cup but remains one of the club's top players, as well as highly-regarded youngsters Gerson and Marlon.
Ronaldinho will be officially introduced to fans before Fluminense's July 19 match against Vasco at the Maracana Stadium, but he will only begin training on July 27.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.A bit of disclosure: First, to me, Economy Minister A bit of disclosure: First, to me, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) is one of the shallowest people I’ve ever encountered here in recent years. Give me Moshe Feiglin, give me Uri Elitzur, give me Shlomo Ben-Zvi, but spare me this hollow charisma.
Second, in my view, Habayit Hayehudi is a party of people who hate Arabs and non-Jews, of people who are eternally frightened, driven by the Holocaust and are, above all, horribly simplistic. If my father, one of the founders of the party that later became Habayit Hayehudi, were alive to see Second, in my view, Habayit Hayehudi is a party of people who hate Arabs and non-Jews, of people who are eternally frightened, driven by the Holocaust and are, above all, horribly simplistic. If my father, one of the founders of the party that later became Habayit Hayehudi, were alive to see his political descendents in the Knesset on Wednesday (and not only on Wednesday), I have no doubt (to borrow the analogy so beloved by some of the Internet commenters so dear to my heart) that he would have died on the spot, if only to be able to turn over in his grave.
Third, I was the first Knesset speaker to allow a German president (the late Johannes Rau) to deliver a speech there in the German language. That speech was full of the love and humanity which are so rare in the Knesset plenum. It turns out that every language can be either beautiful or ugly, depending on the speaker and his worldview. On Wednesday, for instance, we saw Hebrew in all its ugliness. So what? Because of them, we should forbid speaking Hebrew in the Knesset?
And fourth, Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, is a close friend of mine. On most issues connected to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict we disagree. He is closer to the Israeli mainstream, and his positions resemble those of Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog. He once told me, during a frank and stern conversation, “For me, the new Germany exists only in order to ensure the existence of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.” He’s a brilliant intellectual and a thoughtful politician, and we don’t need to worry – he won’t give up his existential friendship so easily. And certainly not because of Bennett or his colleague Orit Strock, the party whip.
But if he sometimes needs to think a bit before he accepts the messages delivered by Israeli cabinet ministers, I’ll understand him, for Martin Schulz doesn’t come from that branch of the Bnei Akiva youth group I’ll call “the occupiers.” Nor was he a soldier in an elite unit. He’s a European public figure who learned in his parents’ home to stand up against all tyranny, evil and discrimination. He and his family were social democrats before Naftali Bennett knew anything about high-tech or how to shoot a gun, and even before Bennett’s parents moved to Israel. For him, equality is something he imbibed at home. The same as how Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imbibed discrimination and victimhood at home.
But beyond these personal disclosures, we ought to be grateful to President Schulz. Perhaps the disparity in access to natural resources isn’t precisely what he was told in Ramallah. Perhaps it’s even greater or perhaps it’s smaller. But that is completely unimportant. What matters is that he did to Netanyahu what Netanyahu loves doing to others: He removed a few masks from the prime minister's arrogant, hysterical face.
“Those figures aren’t accurate,” the prime minister charged. “So what are the correct figures,” opposition members shouted back. What difference does it make?! What matters is that the prime minister admitted there are disparities between Jews and Arabs, between Israelis and Palestinians. So we’ve agreed on the principle; now we’re just arguing over the numbers?! Big deal.
I have no doubt that not many hours will pass before this newspaper's major talents, like Uri Misgav and others, I have no doubt that not many hours will pass before this newspaper's major talents, like Uri Misgav and others, make us much wiser about exactly how large this disparity is. But let’s get back to the principle. The current Israeli government, headed by that man of “moral confusion,” accepts the premise that the Jews deserve more. And this is the fundamental moral premise that is ticking like a bomb at the gateway to any present or future peace agreement. For only an agreement based on full equality has even the faintest chance of proving durable.
Now that the mask has been stripped from the face of the current Israeli government, a rare opportunity has arisen, if only for a moment, to think of an alternative to the built-in Israeli discrimination. For several years now, we – a joint group of Israelis and Palestinians with similar views – have been trying to formulate principles utterly different from the premises of separation, discrimination, exploitation and arrogance. And this is what we have agreed on so far:
Twenty years after the signing of the Oslo Accords, 47 years after the occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by the Israelis and 66 years after the establishment of the State of Israel and the Palestinian Nakba, we have reached a stalemate in which there is no freedom for the Palestinian people or security for Israelis. We have not even come close to a just and sustainable solution of two states for two peoples. For all practical purposes, we all live under a single regime of discriminatory Israeli rule. In addition, many of us have given up in despair and are no longer capable of imagining any such just solution in the foreseeable future.
In an effort to pave a new path toward historic reconciliation and true political commitment between both nations, we must give up the view of the current solution that is based on many layers of separation, isolation and acts of built-in discrimination. We need to replace that solution with a completely different method and set of principles. Many of our members, Israelis and Palestinians, both here and in the diaspora, have reached this conclusion and, as a result, share a commitment and an understanding that it is both possible and vitally important. The purpose of these principles is not to propose practical, detailed solutions, but rather to lay out a completely different groundwork for a just and sustainable Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian partnership. Our starting point is founded in the belief that the fate of both nations is bound up in an unbreakable link; that the Jewish Israelis and Palestinians are part of the Middle East, and neither of them has a surplus of rights or exclusive sovereignty over any part of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Therefore:
* Every person who lives (or has the status of a resident) between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea shall be assured equal personal, political, economic and social rights. These rights include: the right to protection and security; equal treatment without regard to sex, race, ethnic origin or religion; freedom of movement; ownership and possession of property; the right to bring a lawsuit to court; and the right to vote and hold elected office.
* The collective rights of Jewish Israelis and Palestinians - linguistic, cultural, religious and political - shall be ensured in every political setting. It is understood that neither side shall have exclusive sovereignty over any part of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (including exclusive ownership of land, exclusive access to natural resources, and so on).
* All remaining exclusive rights possessed solely by Jewish Israelis, including ownership of land and access to natural resources, shall be abolished. All resources - material and political - shall be redistributed on the basis of principles of affirmative justice.
* The right of return of the Palestinians is an integral part of UN Resolution 194. The implementation of this resolution shall take into account the existing reality. The moral and political injustice of dispossessing the Palestinians in the past shall not be remedied by creating new injustices.
* The new political institutions shall make democratic immigration and citizenship laws. However, Jews and Palestinians who live in the diaspora will be able to receive immunity in situations of danger (according to UN resolutions) and will have special status in the process of obtaining citizenship in comparison with any other ethnic or national group.
Like many people, both among my colleagues and others, I believe with all my heart that mutual recognition based on these principles could advance a different political reality, in which memories of exile and being refugees would give way to a comprehensive realization of rights, citizenship and belonging. They would turn bereavement into life, and despair into hope. And so, I want to say a big “thank you” to Martin Schulz, one of Israel’s last and best real friends in the world.The Green Bay Packers are at a crossroads.
Aaron Rodgers is likely to miss at least the next four weeks as he recovers from a broken collarbone. At 5-3, Green Bay's playoff hopes will hinge on how they manage without their best player for the next month.
Harrison: Week 10 Power Rankings The Elliot Harrison's Power Rankings?
The Seahawks narrowly avoided falling to the Bucs. Did they also stave off a drop in's Power Rankings? READ
The Packers find themselves in a very difficult situation, but they're not the only NFC team working with a slim margin of error over the next two months. The Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Carolina Panthers, New Orleans Saints, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks all have the talent to make a deep run in January. (Some people might include the Cardinals in this mix, but not us.)
That's seven worthy teams competing for five playoff spots (one postseason seed is already spoken for in the messy NFC East). On the latest edition of the "Around The League Podcast," we discussed which of those contenders is most likely to be left on the outside looking in come January.
(Note: There's a 65 percent chance an NFC team not discussed here will rise to playoff status. This is understood. Feel free to call me an idiot when this inevitably happens.)
Seahawks (8-1)
Why they will make it: They have impact players on both sides of the ball, they're the best home team in football, and Percy Harvin will make his debut before long.
Why they won't make it: The offense hasn't looked too hot the past two weeks, and they barely beat the winless Bucs at home on Sunday. Still, we're not worried. See you in January.
49ers (6-2)
Why they will make it: They've quietly been the NFL's best team over the past five weeks. Colin Kaepernick is starting to look more and more like the guy who took over the league last season, and Aldon Smith, Michael Crabtree and Mario Manningham are all on the way back.
Why they won't make it: The Niners have a difficult schedule down... who are we kidding? They're in.
Saints (6-2)
Why they will make it: The Saints have found themselves with Sean Payton back in the fold. Drew Brees has played like an MVP and Rob Ryan has transformed the Saints' D from an abysmal state to one that can be legitimately respected. No small achievement.
Why they won't make it: The Saints aren't nearly as good a team away from the Superdome, but we put them in the same category as the Packers. If Brees is healthy, New Orleans will cruise to January. If Brees goes down, all bets are off.
Bears (5-3)
Why they will make it: We don't want to take anything away from Josh McCown, who's done great things in Jay Cutler's stead. But the Bears' loaded offense could make almost any quarterback look good. Matt Forte is in vintage form, and looked like one of the game's best backs against the Packers on Monday night. And is there any wide receiver duo with more upside over the next three years than Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery?
Why they won't make it: On the ATL Podcast, Chris Wesseling suggested that Chicago's defense simply isn't good enough. The numbers certainly back that assertion: The Bears have allowed 28.2 points per game, the fourth-worst figure in the NFC. Their inability to stop the run (even against the Brandon Jacobses of the world) is alarming.
Lions (5-3)
Why they will make it: Matthew Stafford is having the best season of his career. Calvin Johnson and Reggie Bush are studs, but the real revelation in Detroit is the offensive line. The unit has gone from team weakness to major strength.
Why they won't make it: The defense hasn't been the train wreck it was a season ago, but it hasn't gained our trust either. The unit is ranked 25th in the league, has depth issues at linebacker and a lack of consistency in the secondary.
Packers (5-3)
Why they will make it: The Packers' schedule without Rodgers in the lineup is very favorable. Home to Eagles, at Giants, home to Vikings, at Lions. Is it crazy they could win two of those matchups? Of course not.
Why they won't make it: We don't want to put it all on the shoulders of one guy, but we will. If the Packers miss the playoffs this year, it will be because Seneca Wallace wasn't qualified for the job. Don't rule it out.
Panthers (5-3)
Why they will make it: No team had scored a touchdown on the Panthers in the first half before the Falcons managed the feat on Sunday. Of course, Atlanta became the fourth straight team to lose to Carolina in blowout fashion. Cam Newton's vast improvement in recent weeks has elevated this team to scary status.
Why they won't make it: The combined record of the five teams the Panthers have beaten this season is 8-33. The wins have been impressive, as has been the rise of "Riverboat Ron," but we want to see the Panthers beat some teams that matter. A win in San Francisco on Sunday would certainly qualify.
The latest "Around The League Podcast" previewed "Thursday Night Football" and "stuck a fork" in the Raiders' 2013 chances.The collapse of bee colonies nationwide is well-established and beyond dispute. Beyond that, things get a bit murky.
Many researchers, but not all, blame the mass die-off of bees on the use of neonicotinoid products — pesticides that are widely used by farmers and gardeners on 50 kinds of fruits and vegetables in Canada. They're even used on pet flea collars.
Bees in some parts of Canada have been dying in record numbers. When the dead bees were collected and tested by Health Canada in 2012, 70 per cent were found to have traces of neonicotinoids on them. (Andy Duback/Associated Press) There's general agreement that these insecticides are toxic to bees and some other species. But the industry argues that when the insecticides are applied to seeds, which are then buried, it's a stretch to say that the bees are dying because of their products.
Enter the Ontario government. It is proposing to dramatically restrict the use of these chemicals by the start of the 2016 corn and soybean planting season. It wants farmers to have to prove they actually have pests before they could use certain pesticide-treated seeds that are suspected as being bee-killers. Right now, farmers can use these products preventatively.
And use them they do, and in large volumes. Virtually all the corn grown in Canada and two-thirds of Canada's soybean crops are neonic-treated. In Ontario, five million acres of farmland are planted with neonicotinoid-treated seeds.
'The strongest action'
Ontario trumpets its proposal as "the strongest action in North America to protect bees, birds, butterflies and other pollinators."
The province's environment minister, Glen Murray, puts it bluntly. Neonics, he says, have become "a chronic problem affecting ecological integrity."
But grain farmers, pesticide-makers and their supporters are increasingly framing Ontario's proposal as little more than a sop to urban, vote-rich Torontonians who don't understand modern agriculture.
Grain farmer Stephen Denys says he was "dumbfounded" by the Ontario move. "We're in a situation where one per cent of farmers feed the other 99 per cent and we've got a communication gap." Denys, who is also VP of marketing for Pride Seeds Canada, says farmers believe neonic seed treatments are safe. The proposed Ontario restriction, he says, "pits urban against rural," saying the government move shows that it is effectively saying that it doesn't "trust farmers."
Somehow, the honeybee has attained sacred cow status - Art Schaafsma, pest management researcher, University of Guelph
University of Guelph pest management researcher Art Schaafsma goes even further. He says Ontario has taken"a political and environmental position."
"Somehow, the honeybee has attained sacred cow status," he says. In an email to CBC, he said he fears the proposal to restrict neonics is "not for the neonics and pollinator agenda but represents instead, the start of a major paradigm shift which is anti-modern agriculture."
He says Ontario's move is designed to play off Toronto's "delusion that the world can be fed with small-holdings organic agriculture."
Defending neonics
Ted Menzies heads CropLife Canada, the industry association that represents many of the large pesticide corporations such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, and Bayer. Menzies, a farmer himself, says "neonics are the best thing that ever happened for farmers."
Beekeepers and some scientists say neonicotinoid chemicals are contributing to bee colony collapses. The chemicals face restrictions in several European countries. (Ben Margot/The Associated Press) Ontario Environment Minister Glen Murray says Menzies represents"the people making most of the money here — the large pesticide and seed companies." But Murray acknowledges that Menzies' position has some support outside the farming and pesticide industry.
"There are some scientists who would agree with Mr. Menzies' view, [but] there are more that do not," Murray says. "It's not that neonics are the only problem, but you're not going to solve the problem as long as neonics are omnipresent."
As Ontario floats its controversial restriction, the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) — which is part of Health Canada — has approved 29 new neonic products for growers to use to whatever extent they feel is necessary. Like the EPA in the U.S., the PMRA says the products are safe for wide-scale use.
Health Canada, which is in the midst of conducting its own review of these products, sees no reason for Ontario to enact its precautionary move until the federal department's own re-evaluation is completed in 2017. Supporters of the use of neonic-treated seeds wonder why Ontario wants to restrict their use if Health Canada has stated they're safe. Why not at least wait until the results of their re-evaluation are in, they say?
Ontario's Glen Murray says he prefers to be safe rather sorry. "The biggest problem is that it's been left to the provinces to clean up the mess after national governments released these things on conditional trials that, more than a decade later, they are still re-evaluating."
In the meantime, it will be business as usual in most of Canada's gardens and farmlands — at least, during this spring's planting season.ACCORDING to statistics, about 20 per cent of the 65 million people that live in the UK have a Twitter account. Less than that number actually use it. Still, it is arguably the most important social media platform out there today, shaping the narrative of news stories and used by a man who has been Tango’ed as a weapon against his enemies.
It’s a common theme, therefore, to ask how things from the past would have been received had Twitter existed back then. How long would Bill Shankly have been given to transform the club into the behemoth it is today before someone would have been tweeting #ShanklyOut? Imagine how certain egg-based accounts would have reacted to the news that Bob Paisley was essentially Liverpool’s physiotherapist before he took over as manager. Would Dalglish have been allowed the time to settle in his first spell at the club, or would he immediately have been called a ‘fraud’?
Twitter did exist back in 2007, but it certainly wasn’t the narrative-driving force that it is today and was barely off the ground when Liverpool went away to the Algarve for a warm-weather training camp. If it had I dread to think what would have happened when news of the squad’s behaviour emerged into the public domain.
Imagine, just for a second, that Liverpool weren’t off to La Manga this week because we haven’t got a game for a fortnight. Instead when Premier League hostilities resume we’re taking on Manchester United who are a point ahead of us at the top of the table. Jürgen Klopp wants to spend the time abroad to work on tactics, to get us ready for the fight that could decide if we end our long wait for a top-flight crown.
The lads have been working hard all week so the German decides to let them go out on the last night of the break to let their hair down. He tells them they can have ‘one beer’, as a reward for their hard work. Only they don’t have one beer. They have lots and lots of beers. They end up in a private karaoke booth and Alberto Moreno refuses to sing a song.
Roberto Firmino isn’t having any of it. Moreno’s spent the week telling everyone how good he is at everything, so Firmino keeps thrusting the microphone in his face and telling him it’s his turn to pick a song. Eventually Moreno snaps and shouts in Firmino’s face, embarrassing him in front of everyone. The Spaniard heads back to where they’re staying and goes to sleep.
Firmino’s fuming. He has a few more beers and heads back to where they’re staying with Nathaniel Clyne, who he’s sharing a room with, in tow. In the lounge area of the resort Firmino sees his golf clubs and picks out the eight iron, tossing it backwards and forwards while thinking of what to do to get revenge on Moreno for publicly humiliating him. He goes into Moreno’s room, despite Clyne’s protestations.
Firmino wakes his team-mate up by smashing him across the arse with the golf club. Moreno jumps out of bed in just his underwear to be confronted by the Brazilian screaming at him and telling him that if he disrespects him again he’ll do more than hit him on the arse with an eight iron.
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The rest of the team gets back to where they’re staying, entirely unaware of what’s gone on. Having all had a few too many to drink they proceed to smash the lounge to bits, upending couches, breaking plates and generally acting in a pretty disgraceful manner.
The next day Klopp and Željko Buvač call Firmino down into the lounge. Surrounded by the mayhem of the night before, they tell him Moreno has made a complaint that he hit him with a golf club. They don’t seem that arsed, all things considered, and it’s only later that he finds out that’s because they had a bit of a night themselves and had to go and rescue Simon Mignolet from a police cell.
Meanwhile the story has been leaked onto Twitter. There are photos of the mess in the lounge doing the rounds on social media and someone has posted a picture of the offending eight iron with what looks like blood on it. #BobbieTwattedAlbie has been trending on Twitter for two days by the time the team returns to Liverpool. Theresa May has been asked to comment on it and she says that it’s disgraceful that football players believe they can ignore the will of the people by behaving like this.
Meanwhile someone’s created the account @TheEightIron and is tweeting pictures of various players’ arses with a golf club being swung at it. José Mourinho has used his press conference to ask why no-one is banning Liverpool from playing golf in the same way that he’s been banned from attempting to gouge people’s eyes out. The FA is against him, he says.
Because #BobbieTwattedAlbie has now been trending for a week, the FA have decided to ban Firmino for 15 matches. Yes, Gary Cahill was only banned for six games when he attacked David Luiz with a snooker cue, but he was caught on camera whereas this is just word of mouth, so it’s not really the same.
Someone has used Twitter to start a campaign to pay for a plane to fly over Melwood with “#FirminoOut attached to a banner. The incident is mentioned during Prime Minister’s Questions and Jeremy Corbyn reads a letter out from a constituent saying that she once played golf and got hit by a ball, so shouldn’t golf be banned altogether?
Liverpool go on to lose to United, putting them in prime position for another title. For years to come when they play the likes of Stoke or West Brom, United fans sing “Bobby Firmino, he hit Albie Moreno, Klopp said he had to go, Bobby Firmino”.
Of course that’s not what happened. It wasn’t Firmino but Craig Bellamy. He didn’t hit Moreno (though someone probably should) but instead attacked John Arne Riise. The important game wasn’t in the league against Manchester United but the Champions League against Barcelona, at the Nou Camp.
Twitter wasn’t an influential platform back then so barely anyone had anything to say about it. The press tried to make it into a big deal but it definitely didn’t warrant the hand-wringing response that you’d get over the same issue occurring nowadays.
The Reds went to Camp Nou and went behind to a Deco goal after 14 minutes. Just before half-time we equalised and who should get the goal? Craig Bellamy. His celebration could only be one thing: a golf swing.
Liverpool were close to being an unstoppable force for a time under Rafa Benitez, certainly in Europe. Going to Anfield with a 1-1 draw after the first leg of this Champions League last 16 encounter wouldn’t have been a bad result, but the Spaniard rarely settled for less than perfection. Who else could score the winner, then, but ‘Ginge’ himself. And who got the assist? The golf-wielding maniac, Bellamy.
The Reds got to the final that year, narrowly missing out on European Cup number six as AC Milan took their revenge for the Miracle of Istanbul. Still, was the golf club incident the making of those lads?
What news will emerge from La Manga this week? Will we find out that Jordan Henderson has smashed Adam Lallana over the head with a pineapple? Might Philippe Coutinho steal all of Joel Matip’s socks? Could James Milner get absolutely rat-arsed and wind up in a Spanish jail for stealing a traffic cone and standing in the middle of the road, singing the entirety of Madonna’s Immaculate Collection?
Whatever happens, someone will be sure to tweet about it. The days of someone innocently smashing an eight iron across a teammate’s arse and nobody really giving a shit are sadly long gone.
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Bushwick has never seen a house like this before, and not just because of its amenities. DNAinfo gave us the scoop on Hacienda Villa, the 15-bedroom house near the Myrtle-Broadway stop embracing those with alternative lifestyles. Now we're getting up close and personal with its first tenant, Lily.*
Hacienda Villa's first inhabitant half-jokingly bills herself as a “hippie elitist snob" — the result of degrees from Ivy League schools and an abiding interest in Burning Man. In fact, Lily met Hacienda Villa realtor Leon Feingold through common circles at the Nevada art event years ago.
Feingold, who is active in the polyamorous community and considering moving to Hacienda Villa himself one day, only shows the place to a network of friends and friends of friends. But that doesn't mean the house is strictly poly-only. “You can move in if you’re not poly, if you think, ‘Hey, these people are cool!’ and you want to live with them, as long as you’re supportive,” he said. “You don’t have to pass a poly test to move in — you’re not poly enough!”
From Mono to Poly and Back Again
“I was always the token monogamy person,” Lily said. Until she met a couple she hit it off with several years ago. “Our relationship was like Friends, but sexy.” It lasted for four months, and they’re all still pals. “[Being with two people] doesn’t feel like being polyamorous to me. It feels like ‘monogamy twice.’ Did I just invent that term? I should use that term!”
Lily envisions easily transitioning between polygamy and monogamy at any time. If more than one person interests her simultaneously, she’s down. “I don’t view polyamory as a lifestyle. It’s not the act of having sex with someone else. It’s more the energy dynamic.”
“I’m as super, super mega selective as any monogamous person. Maybe even more,” Lily said.
Speaking the Same Language
Before moving to Hacienda, Lily lived in the Village with a roommate who confessed that it would be weird for her if Lily had more than one lover over at a time. “It’s a factor any place where I live, and it’s nice to be in a house where we speak the same language,” Lily explained.
Hacienda Villa's amenities are luxurious by Bushwick standards. A private bathroom on the bottom floor features a towel warmer. The original hardwood on the top floor is highlighted by a kitchen skylight. A fenced-off space in front, currently home to a dumpster, will soon be resurrected as a bike shed. Although all renovations are scheduled to be complete by mid-July latest, tenants are welcome to move in at any point prior, as Lily has.
When asked if she anticipates any potential issues, Lily responded that “the dedicated community space on the first floor should stay there. Bringing that community to the second and third floor without being invited would be something to stay firm on.”
A Polyamory Reality Show?
Numerous media outlets have approached realtor Leon Feingold about a Hacienda Villa reality show. He says it might be an option in the future, but not right now. And it would depend, of course, on how the house's tenants feel. “We want it to be a safe place," Leon said.
For now, life inside Hacienda Villa will be slightly more private than a TV series. The official open house will take place this month as a party hosting, again, friends of friends. At the time of this writing, eight rooms are spoken for. Lily inhabits a sunny spot on one of the upper floors, but she won't be living there 24/7. Currently, Lily spends a lot of time in San Francisco, where she’s involved in a tech startup, but plans to keep one foot firmly planted on the East Coast.
Trust Her - It’s (Partly) For Science
Lily believes there isn’t nearly enough serious material published about open love. In fact, she is a member of a scientific sex research group comprised of colleagues and peers working on their own projects and distributing them via all forms of media, from books to TV shows to blogs. “There is a clear distinction between sex orgy people and people who have a sophisticated understanding of what it means to have relationships with multiple people,” Lily emphasized.
Lily says she might try to fill the dearth of legitimate open love writing and inaugurate her arrival at Hacienda Villa by starting a blog about what life is like there.
“I don’t understand jealousy,” Lily said. “Love is not finite, it’s infinite. You just need to create it.”
*Lily is a pseudonymPresident Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE’s name is being removed from the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Toronto, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
JCF Capital ULC, the firm that owns the Toronto hotel, reached a buyout deal with the Trump Organization’s hotel and management firms for a reported fee of at least $6 million.
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Signage may be removed from the tower as soon as Aug, 1 and the hotel “will likely be operated under Marriott International Inc. St. Regis brand,” the report said.
Trump’s hotels in both the U.S. and Canada have been used as sites to protest the president.I remember the days when "cyborg" was a science fiction term and was unlikely to turn up in a serious science paper. Happily, the old folk who attempt to stand between the seas of scientific and popular discussion are failing, and I am proud to present the cyborg ear.
That's right—researchers from Princeton and Johns Hopkins have come together to grow an ear. The hearing, however, is done with electronics, making this the ultimate in human-machine chimera. On the whole, though, it looks kinda gross.
So how do you go about making a fleshy electronic ear? Well, the first step is to get a 3D CAD model of an ear (they got theirs from thingiverse). The researchers then modified the model to include a radio frequency antenna and cochlea-shaped electrodes. The whole ear was then printed using a 3D printer. You can even watch a clip of the printing process.
By itself, that's an entirely artificial ear. But the skeletal 3D structure was seeded with cartilage cells, which, like teenagers, grow like crazy when fed. Ten weeks later, a fully formed ear—I'm using my own very special definition of "fully formed" as you will see later—emerges from the vat, ready to take on the world.
Of course, an ear has to fulfill certain functions. An ear without strength ends up the shape of a cauliflower. The researchers showed that the grown ears were stronger than the printed scaffolding, which tells us that the cartilage is actually forming properly rather than just agglomerating in a mess of cells. Even better, the cells remained alive and viable, which is important: a dead and rotting ear probably only has niche appeal.
The cool thing about cyborgs is that they have abilities beyond that of the native human—similarly, this ear can do things mine can't. For a start, the researchers printed an antenna in the ear that has significant sensitivity to microwaves. This is actually a very impressive achievement, because the entire electronic circuit was printed using polymer gels (the conductive parts were silicone doped with silver nanoparticles), which generally don't cope well with radio frequency currents.
In principle, with a bit of extra electronics, the cochlea implant would allow a human to hear radio, TV, Wi-Fi, microwave ovens, airport radar systems, and various other electromagnetic signals (much like a satellite finder). This sounds kind of cool on one level, but you would really want to be able to turn it off. Imagine trying to go to sleep to the sound of your Wi-Fi arguing with the neighbor's about who gets channel one.
The important thing, though, is that an ear can... hear stuff. This ear, as printed, has no circuitry to convert audio signals into electromagnetic signals, so in that respect it's a failure. But by simply connecting a loop antenna to the stereo port on a computer, the researchers get an audio-frequency electromagnetic signal. Simply put, they needed to implant a microphone, but that can't be printed, so they kept it separate.
They then compared the left and right audio signals of a piece of music as received by two cyborg ears. You can listen |
archies and algorithms, typical of how mathematics itself is really done. So the Axiom notion of “category” corresponded to that in mathematics, and one algorithm could be conditionally chosen over another at runtime based on categorical properties of the computational domains. This work preceded some later language features that have shown up in Ruby and Sage. The interpreted language was weakly typed in that it tried to figure out what you meant mathematically. So x + 1/2 would produce an object of type Polynomial RationalNumber. While the type interpretation was pretty impressive, the speed and ease of use never made the system as popular as other math systems like Maple or Mathematica.
awk: Great language for regular expressions and sophisticated text processing. I wrote a lot of awk for pre- and post-processing the Axiom book.
C: Better than assembler, great for really understanding how code translates to execution and how it could get optimized. Happy to move on to C++.
C++: Yay, objects. I started using C++ when I wrote techexplorer for displaying live T E X and L A T E X documents. I used the type system extensively, though I’ve always strongly disliked the use of templates. Several years ago I wrote a small toy computer algebra system in C++ and had to implement bignums. While there are several such libraries available in open source for C and C++, none of them met my tastes or open source license preferences. Coding in C++ was my first experience with Microsoft Visual Studio in the 1990s. The C++ standard library is simply not as easy to use as the built-in collection types in Python, see below.
SmallTalk: Nope, but largely because I disliked the programming environments. The design of the language taught me a lot about object orientation.
Java: This is obviously an important language, but I don’t use it for my personal coding, which is sporadic. If I used it all day long and could keep the syntax and library organization in my head, that would be another story. I would be very hesitant to write the key elements of a server-side networked application in something other than Java due to security concerns (that is, Java is good).
Ruby: Nope. Installed many times, but it just doesn’t make me want to write huge applications in it.
PHP: The implementation language for WordPress and Drupal, in addition to many other web applications. If you want to spit out HTML, this is the way to do it. I’m not in love with its object features, but the other programming elements are more than good enough to munch on a lot of data and make it presentable.
Objective-C: Welcome to the all Apple world, practically speaking. It hurts my head, but it is really powerful and Apple has provided a gorgeous and powerful library to build Mac and iOS mobile apps. My life improved when I discovered that I could write the algorithmic parts of an app in C++ and then only use Objective-C for the user interface and some library access.
Python: This is my all time favorite language. It’s got bignums, it’s got garbage collection, it’s got lists and hash tables, it can be procedural, object-oriented, or functional. I can code and debug faster than any other language I’ve used. Two huge improvements would be 1) make it much easier to create web applications with it other than using frameworks like Django, and 2) have Apple, Google, and Microsoft make it a first class language for mobile app development.
Javascript: This has been on my todo list for years and I’ve written a few dozen lines here and there for some web pages. To me, the object system is strange, but I need to get over it. Of the languages that are out there now, this is probably the most important one missing from my coding arsenal and represents an intellectual deficiency on my part.I began listening to the debate on Naturalism vs. Theism between Jeffrey Jay Lowder and Phil Fernandes the other day. I’m about halfway through (it’s over two hours long) and, thus far, Lowder is “winning” decisively. There are several claims made by Fernandes that inspire a facepalm, but I found one claim especially annoying.
You will often hear creationists talk about the Earth residing in a Goldilocks Zone. Here was a claim along these lines made by Fernandes:
If the distance between the Earth and the Sun was to differ by just 2% in either direction, no life on Earth would be possible.
This, like nearly every creationist claim, is demonstrably false. Yet, such things are repeated ad nauseum. Now, we could say why this claim being used as proof of a designer is problematic in terms of philosophy, but I think some fairly simple science will be our best method of debunking here.
The Earth’s orbit around the sun looks something like this (not to scale):
You’ll notice that it is an ellipsis. Why does this matter? Well, we can see that the existing orbit does differ. At the Earth’s greatest distance from the Sun, the distance between them is about 152 million km or 1.0167 AU. This is called the aphelion. When the Earth is closest to the Sun, the distance between them is 147 million km or 0.9833 AU. This is called the perihelion. At this point, you’re probably tempted to take out your calculator. If so, you would find that the distance between the Earth and Sun actually differs by 3.3% or 3.4%, depending on whether you use the aphelion or the perihelion. Either way, we don’t have to wonder what would happen to the Earth if its distance from the Sun differed by more than 2% because it already does. Yet, here we are.
At best, the creationist claim here is poorly phrased. At worst, it’s plainly false.
Similar Posts:Ola Hadaya has always been the youngest. She started high school at 11, graduated at 15, and got her undergraduate degree from Rutgers before she turned 18. So when Hadaya graduated from medical school and became a physician at 21, entering the obstetrics and gynecology residency program at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School before turning 22 was not a big deal.
Not for Hadaya, at least.
“Becoming a physician is a grueling challenge no matter what your age," said Hadaya, who grew up in Princeton and is among the youngest physicians in the country. “Being able to achieve that is my biggest accomplishment. I often forget that I am younger – skimming off a few years is just a little twist in the journey.”
The man behind the steadfast determination to propel Hadaya into a career in medicine, she said, is her Syrian-born father, a physician himself, who fostered his daughter's passion for medicine from a young age – allowing her access to his suture kit to patch up stuffed animals she had torn during play.
While her mother, a stay-at-home mom with a mechanical engineering degree, would spend time after school teaching Hadaya advanced math and science skills and how to think analytically from the time she was about 8, it was her father who convinced school officials to allow her to skip grades and take advanced courses.
“Convincing the schools was one of the biggest challenges in all this," said Hadaya, the middle of five children. "If my parents weren't so persistent, nothing would likely have happened – not for lack of intellect on my part, but merely because there was little precedence."
Hadaya skipped third, fifth and seventh grade and started in high school at 11. She describes herself at that time as very bookish. “I have many fond memories curling up on one of the library's couches – usually on rainy days – to sneak in a quick read of Harry Potter or a Jane Austen novel before break ended,” said Hadaya who also became interested in drawing and animation.
When it was time to go to college, Hadaya decided she wanted to learn more about her Syrian roots, so she majored in Middle Eastern studies and minored in biology. Since she took numerous advanced placement courses in high school, Hadaya received a year’s worth of college credits before she even started in the honors program at Rutgers.
After receiving her undergraduate degree at 17, before she was old enough to vote, Hadaya was off to Wayne State University School of Medicine in Michigan – one of less than 300 students selected out of more than 4,500 that applied. According to a 2012 American Association of Medical Colleges survey, only 2 out of every 1,000 students were in their teens, like Hadaya, when they started medical school.
The youngest in her class, Hadaya said she ploughed forward with her medical studies and didn’t give age much thought. Neither did those she worked with, many of whom she said were unaware of her age.
All Hadaya knew for sure, from watching throughout her childhood as her father balanced his passion for medicine with the love he had for his family, was that she couldn’t imagine pursuing any other career.
“You should never commit your life to something you aren’t passionate about because you will never be truly happy,” said Hadaya, who is fluent in both Spanish and Arabic and has a keen interest in women’s health issues.
This outlook is helping her get through some long days as a medical resident, particularly the times when she has night call duty, which means arriving at the hospital at 5:30 p.m. and leaving at about 8 the next morning.
And once again, Hadaya finds herself as the youngest in her residency program.
“I don’t think about my age much,” said Hadaya, who would like to practice medicine in a diverse community where she can help those living in traditionally underserved areas. “The most challenging thing so far is realizing that I am operating as a physician now and not a student.”
Gloria Bachmann, interim chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, said age was not taken into consideration when Hadaya was selected for the residency, even though her academic foundation and the passion she exhibited as one of our youngest applicants was impressive.
Instead, they saw a young medical school graduate who is a team player and a leader. Someone who would connect with all patients she cared for in a thoughtful and humanistic manner.
“Residents have to think on their feet and this is what is outstanding with Ola,” said Bachmann. “It’s not an age thing at all with Ola. She is the doctor who I would want to go to – as an obstetrician and gynecologist – in a heartbeat.”
For media inquiries, contact Robin Lally at 848-932-0557 or rlally@ucm.rutgers.eduWounded sea lion Broadway Bound euthanized Wildlife
A sea lion rests at the Marine Mammal Center after crossing eight lanes of traffic on U.S. Highway 101 in Burlingame. A sea lion rests at the Marine Mammal Center after crossing eight lanes of traffic on U.S. Highway 101 in Burlingame. Photo: Jim Oswald, Marine Mammal Center Photo: Jim Oswald, Marine Mammal Center Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Wounded sea lion Broadway Bound euthanized 1 / 5 Back to Gallery
Sausalito -- A spirited California sea lion who won public adoration after crossing Highway 101 was euthanized Wednesday, due in part to brain damage caused by a gunshot wound, Marine Mammal Center staff said.
The sea lion, named Broadway Bound because rescuers found her at the Broadway exit in Burlingame, had not eaten and was restless and disoriented since she arrived at the center Saturday, spokesman Jim Oswald said.
She was attempting to climb the fence around her enclosure and did not respond to people, even those bearing herring, he said.
"She was just not acting like a normal sea lion," he said.
Veterinarians determined she had a chronic brain impairment and could not be released back to the bay or learn to live at a zoo or aquarium, so they euthanized her, Oswald said.
During the necropsy, veterinarians removed a bullet fragment from the left side of her brain, which they sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service for investigation. The 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits attacks on marine life, including sea lions.
Broadway Bound was the sixth sea lion to arrive at the Marine Mammal Center this year suffering from a gunshot wound. All six have died of their injuries. Most of the suspects are fishermen attempting to keep hungry sea lions away from their nets.
"People are stunned when they hear about this. After all, who would shoot a sea lion?" Oswald said. "But shooting sea lions is a crime, and people should be outraged."
In addition to the bullet wound, Broadway Bound was suffering from seizures caused by eating fish poisoned by toxic algae, Oswald said.Where's My Water? is a puzzle video game developed by American studio Creature Feep and published by Disney Mobile, a subsidiary of Disney Interactive Studios. Released for desktop web browsers and devices using iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10[2] operating systems, the game requires players to route a supply of water to an alligator. Where's My Water? has been praised for its gameplay and its graphical style, with special recognition of its lead character, Swampy, the first original Disney character for a mobile game, voiced by actor, Justin T. Bowler. The game has inspired multiple spin-offs including: Where's My Perry?, Where's My Mickey?,[3] Where's My Water? featuring XYY[4] and Where's My Valentine?.
In September 2013, a sequel titled Where's My Water? 2 was released.
Gameplay [ edit ]
Swampy, an alligator living in a city sewer system, hates being dirty, but whenever he tries to take a bath, Cranky, another alligator living in the sewers, disrupts the water flow to Swampy's home.[5] Located somewhere on the level is a supply of water, either a finite amount pooled at various locations or an infinite amount flowing from a pipe.[6] Players use the touch screen on their device to dig through the dirt and redirect the water toward an inlet leading to Swampy's bathtub. Occasionally, the water must be routed through other pipes or must interact with machines in order to open up a route to the inlet.[7] When the required amount of water reaches the bathtub, the level is completed and the next level is unlocked.[7] If all of the water flows away the level is incomplete. Also scattered around the level are three rubber ducks that can be collected when they absorb an amount of water.[6] Select levels also include items hidden in the dirt that will unlock bonus levels when three-item collections are completed.[8]
Certain levels are also populated by hazards that must be avoided or removed. For example, some levels contain algae that will absorb water and grow.[6] Other types of fluids will sometimes appear, such as purple poison, reddish mud, and green ooze.[8] A single drop of poison will contaminate pure water, turning it into poison as well, while the ooze will erode through the dirt, pop balloons and react with water, destroying both fluids. Mud eventually hardens into dirt, unless water reaches it, in which case the water turns to mud instantly. If either poison, ooze or mud reaches the inlet, the level is failed and must be restarted. The poison, mud, ooze and bombs will kill all the rubber ducks on contact (regular water kills Cranky Ducks, both poison kills Allie Ducks, Swampy Ducks as well but green ooze kills them both). However, poison and ooze will also destroy the invasive algae on contact—the poison will eliminate it, while the ooze will cause it to solidify, creating a new barrier—and they will react explosively if they touch each other, potentially opening up parts of the level to the benefit or detriment of the player.
Points are awarded for the amount of time taken to complete the level, for collecting rubber ducks and for delivering more than the minimum amount of water to Swampy's tub. Collecting a certain number of rubber ducks will also unlock new groups of levels.
Development [ edit ]
Where's My Water? was developed by Creature Feep, a team of designers within the Disney Mobile division of Disney Interactive Studios.[1] Creature Feep is headed up by game design director Tim FitzRandolph, whose earlier works included the popular game JellyCar that Disney would later acquire and distribute.[1] In an October 2011 interview, FitzRandolph explained that the goal for the development of Where's My Water? was "to contribute a new character to the company, while making a really fun game in the process".[9]
The earliest phase of development centered around the concept of the game, which was players using their fingers to guide water to a goal.[9] According to FitzRandolph, "We had a whole bunch of ideas, and at some point along the line, it kept coming back that water, water was very fresh and people hadn't done a lot of physics around water."[1] Designers invested time in making sure the water flowed naturally and as a player might expect it would in real life, thus making the gameplay easier to learn for newcomers.[9] In actuality, the water is rendered as lots of individual "drops" that interact with each other.[9]
The place players were routing water towards became a bathtub, at which point the designers had to devise a reason for having a bathtub underground.[9] That reason came from the urban legend of alligators living in city sewers, so the game's lead character became a "hygiene-conscious alligator".[9] Unlike many mobile games released by Disney, where characters from the company's films are used, Where's My Water? represents the first time that Disney has produced an original character for a mobile game.[5] In designing that character, Disney Mobile wanted one "that felt like it belonged when lined up with other Disney characters".[9]
Release [ edit ]
Where's My Water? was launched with four chapters - "Meet Swampy", "Troubled Waters", "Under Pressure" and "Sink or Swim" — each containing 20 levels. New chapters are rolled out with updates, each featuring new gameplay mechanics.[8] An October 2011 update added "Change is Good", a 20-level expansion that added the ability to change fluid types from one to another in order to complete levels.[8] "Boiling Point", the game's sixth 20-level chapter, was released in a November 2011 update and included levels where players must convert steam into liquid water.[10] A version for devices equipped with the Android operating system was released on the Android Market in North America on November 23, 2011 and included all six chapters available up to that point.[11]
In December 2011, "Stretched Thin" was released to both platforms, adding 20 new levels, a Christmas overlay for the title screen and new water balloon obstacles.[12] A free, ad-supported version of Where's My Water? was also released to both iOS and Android in December 2011.[12] The free version includes 25 unique levels, plus the ability to unlock five popular levels taken from the main game.[12]
"Caution to the Wind", a new 20-level chapter, was launched in March 2012, adding fans and vacuums that move water and other game elements around the level. In April 2012, "Rising Tide" was added, which introduced valves that can redirect water and the other fluids as needed to complete the chapter's 20 levels. In May 2012, a total of 20 levels that originally appeared in the free version were added to the full version, collectively known as "The Lost Levels". The levels in question are grouped into two holiday-themed chapters, "10 Days of Swampy" (Christmas) and "Hearts and Crafts" (Valentine's Day).[14] June 2012 saw the release of "Out to Dry", which included levels involving wet mud that sets into dirt.[15][16] The update also included two new in-app purchases: the "Mystery Duck" mode (see below) and Locksmith Duck, which would unlock a chapter without having to collect a certain number of ducks within the main game.[15] In connection, Where's My Perry, a version of the game featuring Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb, was released the same day as the "Out to Dry" update.[17] On September 19, 2012, a new update brought a special Birthday Level, "Make a Wish", to Where's My Water and Swampy's 1 Year Birthday. 10 more Lost Levels were also added for free. An infographic of Where's my Water's history teased a new update with a black-and-white and Frankenweenie-based levels.
Cranky's Story [ edit ]
In January 2012, "Cranky's Story", a new subset of levels within the game, was added initially to the iOS version[18] and later to the Android version. The gameplay in "Cranky's Story" is basically the same as the main game, in that players must route a fluid to an inlet goal.[18] However, this time the player must help Cranky by bringing the purple poisonous water into his lair to melt algae that is covering his food. This time, the ducks are now purple and can only be collected by being splashed with poison, while other fluids (including clean water) will kill it. If water or any of the other fluids enter the inlet, the level is failed (the water causes Cranky's food to be covered with more algae, surprising him, while ooze will turn it into a rock and being kicked away, the same is true with mud). If all of the poison is lost, then Cranky will get very angry. The first five levels in the first chapter, "Cranky's First Course", are free to play, while the rest of the chapter and the whole the second chapter, "Hunger Pains", are accessible through a one-time in-app purchase.[18] The update also includes "Cranky's Challenge", a set of 12 challenges and four bonus stages for the player to accomplish.[18] If those challenges are failed, then Swampy will cry as if you lost all the water. An all new Food Groups and the third episode "Bulking Up" were released on April 5, 2012 and adds 6 challenges and two bonus stages.[18] The final episode, "Overstuffed", was released on May 18, 2012.[14] Cranky is voiced by actor, Justin T. Bowler.
Mystery Duck [ edit ]
In June 2012, a new game mode called "Mystery Duck" was introduced. It is a revisit of previous levels from the main game except the player has to deal three special kinds of ducks.[15][16] They are the MegaDuck, a large duck that requires a large amount of water to fill; Ducklings, a group of 10 tiny ducks (which can easily be filled with a drop of water); and the tuxedo-clad Mystery Duck, which goes around an entire level either by disappearing and reappearing in certain spots or physically moving up and down and side to side.[16] Like "Cranky's Story", a one-time in-app purchase was required to play beyond the first five levels.[15][16] On September 19, as part of the Birthday update, 40 more levels were added to Mystery Duck. On October 30, as part of the release of Swampy's Underground adventures, 20 more levels were added to Mystery duck. On November 15, as part of the levels of the week, the last 40 levels were added to Mystery duck.
Allie's Story [ edit ]
In May 2013, a new subset of levels called "Allie's Story" was added in a May 25 update. Allie is Swampy's girlfriend. The gameplay in this mode is the same as the other modes, but this time, it requires players to direct steam to operate Allie's makeshift pipe organ. Ducks are blue and can only be covered in steam, while other fluids (except clean water) will kill them. If water or other fluids get in the inlet, the level is failed. So far, only two episodes in this mode, "Warming Up" and "Tuning In" were available in the update. The last two chapters "Rising to the Top" and "Symphony in Steam" were added on September 11, 2013. As with Cranky's Story and Mystery Duck, a one-time in-app purchase is required to play beyond the first five levels.
Disney has released several spin-off games under the Where's My moniker. They include:
Reception [ edit ]
Reception Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic iOS: 90/100[20] Review scores Publication Score IGN iOS: 9.0/10[7] Gamezebo iOS: [6] Slide To Play iOS: 4/4[8] TouchArcade iOS: [21]
Where's My Water? has received universal acclaim from critics.[20] Mike Thompson of Gamezebo said "anyone who enjoys physics puzzle titles would be out of their mind to miss picking this up".[6] IGN's Justin Davis said players "will have a ton of fun figuring out how to get Swampy clean level after level".[7] Chris Reed, writing for Slide To Play, called the game "a highly polished and appealing physics puzzler that nearly everyone can enjoy".[8] Along with the gameplay, reviewers have made special mention of the game's graphical presentation. Gamezebo said the graphics "are particularly great, featuring crisp and cartoon-like visuals that look like something out of... well, out of a Disney cartoon", and IGN said that Swampy "animates wonderfully and always appears incredibly adorable".[7] Pocket Gamer's Steve McCaskill praised its visual design, stating that it gave "the impression of an interactive cartoon".[22]
After only one day on Apple's U.S. App Store, Where's My Water? ascended to the top of the list of paid apps, surpassing Angry Birds.[23] In its first month of release, Where's My Water? was downloaded more than one million times.[5] The game remained on top of the App Store charts for three weeks, and it has also reached #1 on App Stores in 30 other countries.[5] In March 2012, Apple announced that a copy of the free version of Where's My Water?, downloaded by a user from China, was the 25 billionth application downloaded from the App Store.[24] During WWDC 2012, the app was awarded a 2012 "Apple Design Award" for iPhone apps.[25]
Impact [ edit ]
The popularity of Where's My Water?, and of Swampy in particular, has led Disney to develop a web series based on Swampy and other characters introduced in the game's cutscenes, including Allie, a female alligator who is the object of both Swampy's and Cranky's affection.[5] Where's My Water?: Swampy's Underground Adventures debuted with a teaser August 31, 2012 on the Disney.com website and will feature a 12-episode season, with each episode running around two minutes. The series is animated by Animax Entertainment.[5] According to Mark Walker, the senior vice-president of Disney.com, the series will "build out the world and tell Swampy's story and that of other characters".[5]
See also [ edit ]Story highlights Royce said people shouldn't take too much comfort in the failed missile test
Another House Republican said she didn't know Trump's North Korea strategy
Washington (CNN) North Korea is still on its way to having the ability to hit any part of the US with a nuclear missile despite a failed test over the weekend, the House foreign affairs committee chairman said Sunday.
"We shouldn't take too much comfort, because even in failure, this program continues to advance," Rep. Ed Royce said on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper.
Royce, a California Republican, said he was concerned not only for his home state but for the entire country as North Korea's abilities advance.
"They will be closely in the not-too-distant future in a position where they could hit all 50 states," Royce said.
He called for international sanctions on a group of Chinese banks to stop them from doing business with North Korea, particularly Banco Delta Asia, which the Treasury Department has barred from working with the US financial system.
Read MoreNew Delhi: The Congress on Friday made light of the proposed fast by Ramdev and Anna Hazare on Sunday and accused them of "vitiating" the atmosphere by putting out "half baked, out of reference stories".
"Fasting is good for health in summers. You should eat less and drink more water in the hot months," Congress spokesperson Renuka Chowdhury said on the proposed fast by the activists on the issue of corruption.
Hitting out at Team Anna and Ramdev for targeting the Prime Minister on coal bloc allocations, she said it was "irresponsible" talk by Ramdev and others.
"Will the yoga guru tell in which manner the coal blocks should be distributed?", she said on the campaign by Team Anna and Ramdev for an independent probe into coal bloc allocations.
Asserting that "we will not come under duress", she accused Team Anna and others of trying to undermine investors' confidence in the country.
"They were vitiating the atmosphere by putting out half baked, out of reference stories in public domain," she said dismissing suggestions that the government and the party has trouble at hand on the "coal-gate"" issue.
Chowdhury added that "we are not going to be directed by anybody as to how to handle the matter. It is good enough that other investigation agencies are looking into the matter and there should be some line that we should not cross".
She, however, made it clear that she is not stating that the CAG is wrong. "We do not comment on the draft reports and until the final report comes out, I would not like to comment on the same."
The Congress reaction came as Team Anna stepped up attack on the Prime Minister alleging that the CBI probe into alleged misuse if coal bloc allocations were meant to give a "clean chit" to him.
It says Team Anna and others are trying to undermine investors' confidence in the country.Rob Malda, known to most people on the web as CmdrTaco, the founder of early nerdy community news site Slashdot, tweeted today he is joining The Washington Post as chief strategist and editor-at-large of WaPo Labs, the digital team responsible for Trove and Social Reader.
The response on Twitter can be summed up, mostly, as “Wait, really? Whoa, cool!”
WAT? RT @jeremybowers: HOLY FREAKING CRAP, @washingtonpostJUST HIRED CMDRTACO: marketwatch.com/story/the-wash… My work here is done, people. — Greg DeKoenigsberg (@gregdek) March 5, 2012
It’s a surprising hire (and a marketing coup): The Washington Post is a traditional news organization, and CmdrTaco, er, Malda, built the kind of online counterculture that wants to be an antidote to mainstream media.
“Rob is a true online media pioneer,” said Vijay Ravindran, the Post’s chief digital officer, in a statement. “The number of innovations that Slashdot brought to the online news world is hard to match — from what is still the best commenting experience on the web to creating a hyper-loyal community that led to sites referenced in Slashdot posts to being ‘slashdotted.'” (Indeed, few people can claim to have created new verbs.)
Malda left Slashdot last August after 14 years to try something — he didn’t know what — new. He talked to more than 35 companies, Malda wrote today, before falling for the Post:
[CEO] Don Graham is trying to accomplish something that is a bit of a cliche these days: A startup inside an established corporation. A group that can exist at a nexus between newspapers, websites, cable networks, and TV stations and think about the big picture and the future without the normal burdens associated with a business operating at a large scale.
I exchanged emails with Malda after the announcement to learn more about his new job, which starts today; here is our conversation.
Andrew Phelps: Why WaPo Labs/The Washington Post? What’s the appeal?
Rob Malda: The Labs team is a pretty small group, focused on some more experimental stuff. The Post itself does real, important, significant, big journalism that is really important to me personally. I want to do a job that I think matters…but the labs is actually thinking about distribution, consumption, and community…the sort of stuff that I have been working on for years, but these guys are able to blend mainstream news into the whole thing. They are a bit more skunkworks and nimble. So it’s the mixture that makes me excited.
Phelps: What will you be doing there?
“Traditional Media does important things that bloggers and tweeters DON’T do. Feet on the ground, old school journalism.”
Malda: They have a number of products in various states of deploy here: Social Reader and Trove are 2 of the biggest ones. Initially I’ll be working with those teams to help bring some of my ideas to those tools, but hopefully I’ll be able to take my interests and experience in community/social news to new products.
Phelps: What new projects are planned?
Malda: Wouldn’t YOU like to know! Obviously the short term we will focus on improving Social Reader, and getting it out onto more platforms, but beyond that, I’m looking forward to seeing where we can improve the Trove news aggregation system. I think there’s something broadly appealing there.
Phelps: Is this why you Is this why you “retired” from Slashdot
Malda: I retired from Slashdot really for personal reasons. 14 years is a long time, and I really felt like it was just time for me to move on. In many ways, Slashdot was my baby that had moved on and gone to college…I needed to accept that and let it live its own life, and hope it remembers to call every few weeks and tell me how it is doing. But this job is a pretty perfect place for me: I get to exercise my experience in product design, community, and social news, but in a more mainstream news arena. I really can’t wait to start contributing!
Phelps: Thanks. That Slashdot question must be getting as old as “How do you think the iPod will fare?” :P
Phelps: What strikes me is that you’re very “new media,” as much as a 14-year-old website can be new, and WaPo is “old media.” I’m not implying something bad about the latter. It’s just interesting to see you traveling in the “reverse” direction. A lot of digital people leave news organizations because they can be more nimble and create new web communities (and maybe make more money) on their own. But here you are joining a large, traditional organization.
Malda: I think those are exactly the question that the WaPo Labs is trying to answer. Traditional Media does important things that bloggers and tweeters DON’T do. Feet on the ground, old school journalism. This is important stuff to everyone, even if we don’t realize it. I think those are exactly the question that the WaPo Labs is trying to answer. Traditional Media does important things that bloggers and tweeters DON’T do. Feet on the ground, old school journalism. This is important stuff to everyone, even if we don’t realize it. You could just run a newspaper into the ground, watch revenues decline, and the sun set. But what we as a culture lose in that scenario is giant. Journalism is bigger than print. And my perspective is that The Post knows that, and they are trying to figure out ways to achieve the best from micro blogging to traditional journalism. The world needs both! I bring the other perspective here. And I think I can help.
Photo of Rob Malda by webstock used under a Creative Commons license.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
CLUTHA pub ghoul Charmaine Holmes has finally been jailed after notching up more than 20 separate offences.
Holmes, 18, was given seven months detention for having a knife, trashing a homeless hostel and giving police a false name in a bid to avoid arrest.
She notoriously looted drink and charity money from the wrecked Clutha Vaults bar in Glasgow after the police helicopter disaster that claimed 10 lives in November 2013.
Holmes later threatened to slit a schoolboy's throat and stole his football, attacked a police officer and caused a disturbance in her home town of Paisley.
At one court appearance, Holmes grabbed a security guard in a headlock then punched and kicked her in full view of a sheriff, court staff and the public.
(Image: Facebook)
Despite her record and in once case being too drunk to be charged, Holmes was handed community-based punishments.
But she is now beginning her sentence at a Young Offenders Institution for the further offences - all committed while on multiple bail orders.
Holmes was caught carrying a knife in the street in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, in May. She was also accused of giving police a false name but that charge was dropped.
In July, she was arrested after trashing a Quarriers hostel in the town, shouting, swearing and throwing plates at staff.
And last month, she pretended to police that she was another teenager in a bid to dodge custody.
(Image: Spindrift)
Holmes, care of an address in Stevenston, admitted carrying a knife, vandalism, threatening or abusive behaviour causing fear and alarm, and attempting to pervert justice.
By the time of her final offence she was on four bail orders granted at three courts, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last Tuesday.
Court records revealed Holmes's prior convictions totalled 23 offences including violence, disorder and dishonesty.
Try our quick news quiz below:Britain’s new daily has no leading articles, no website, and columnists but no columns: can it drag readers back to print?
A new national daily paid-for newspaper launched on Monday, aiming to tempt readers who have fallen out of love with print media at a time when the medium is widely considered to be in long term decline.
Two million copies of the New Day will be given away on the first day, as the turquoise-branded upstart attempts to spark a revival in readership and gain ground against the mid-market Mail and Express.
The first edition featured a report on the plight of child carers, David Cameron writing on Brexit - head-to-head with a teacher writing in defence of the EU, and the new pop-royalty romance between |
opinion. It makes each act represent roughly the same dramatic distance, and does not leave Turning Point #3 stranded in the middle of an act. Here is what it would look like...
Incidentally, I have noticed that most models of story structure that are based on 3-acts include a turning point in the middle of Act 2. The W-plot is just one obvious example. On the one hand, this should come as no surprise, since all these models are just different ways to describe the same universal story structure. However, it's one reason 4-act models make more sense to me.
Now, to the point of all this...
Comparing the W-Plot to Dramatica's Act Structure
The first and most obvious point of similarity between the W-Plot and Dramatica is the turning points, which are identical to what Dramatica calls the “drivers.” These are the events that drive or cause the rest of the events in an act to occur.
Dramatica theory states that there are two types of stories: those driven by actions, and those driven by decisions. For instance, an action-story will begin with an action, which will cause some decisions to be made. Then another action will cause a new set decisions, etc. The key action will be the climax of the story (Turning point #4) and the resolution of the story will end with a final action. Or to put it simply...
initial action --> decisions --> action 2 --> decisions --> action 3 --> decisions --> crisis action --> decisions --> final action
A decision-driven story works in the opposite way. It starts with a decision, which causes people to take action, etc. until the story ends with a final decision....
initial decision --> actions --> decision 2 --> actions --> decision 3 --> actions --> crisis decision --> actions --> final decision
The important point here is that the driver or turning point begins an act by pushing the story in a new direction which then has to be explored in the sequence of events that follows. In addition, the drivers of a story will either all be actions or all decisions.
Moore recommends choosing these five turning points or driver events as a first step in solidifying your plot, and I can't argue with that.
Okay, so far Dramatica and the W-plot are in agreement, with Dramatica being perhaps a little more precise. Now let's look at what happens between the turning points, which make up the bulk of each act.
The Events of Each Act
Moore describes the differences between each of the sequences as:
Sequence 1: setting up the problem (creating tension)
Sequence 2: recovering from the problem (new ideas, positive momentum)
Sequence 3: deepening of the problem
Sequence 4: the resolution of the problem (new light or understanding)
Dramatica agrees that each of the four acts should explore different material or move in a new direction. However, while the W-Plot, like many story models, describes a plot as a single sequence of events, Dramatica postulates four separate throughlines that are interwoven throughout the story, each with its own arc. They are...
Overall Throughline: the main plot that concerns the story goal or problem
Main Character Throughline: the story of how the main character resolves his/her inner conflict
Impact Character Throughline: the story of the impact character's influence
Relationship Throughline: the story of the changing relationship between the main and impact characters
Each act will include part of each of the four thoughlines, and these parts are called Signposts. A Signpost can be one big event or a sequence of smaller events. Here's how they would be laid out...
The reason the Signposts are stacked on top of each other on the table rather than arranged in the order they would appear in the story is that the order of Signposts can vary with each story. For instance, some stories begin with an event that introduces the main character and his/her nature. Others begin with the first time the main character sees the impact character and becomes aware of his/her different approach. A romance might start with an event that sets up the initial relationship between the two romantic leads. And some stories begin with an event from the overall plot. The general rule, however, is that all the Signpost 1's must be explored before you move on to Act 2. All the Signpost 2's must be explored before you move on to Act 3, etc. This rule, plus the drivers, are what create the feeling of act breaks.
Because of the need to weave back and forth between the four throughlines, the Dramatica model can appear a little more complex. However, the advantage is that it is more complete. So far as I know, it is the only story model that includes the Impact and Relationship arcs as separate throughlines.
Often when people try to describe a plot as a single sequences of events, they simply describe the overall throughline (since that is often the most obvious). However, sometimes signposts from the other throughlines are so glaring that they cannot be ignored, so the theorist or writer will insert them as additional or minor turning points in the structure. Moore does this when she suggests there is often an additional epiphany or crisis towards the end of the last sequence (her Act 3, my Act 4). I suspect she is referring to the fourth signpost in the main character's throughline, or one of the other throughlines (she does say it depends on the genre).
Incidentally, if you are the type of writer that prefers 3-act structures, you can still use the Dramatica model. The difference is that you will probably think of each signpost as a single event rather than a sequence. The sequences of events between the signposts are then called “Journeys.” So Act 1 will be the journey from Signpost 1 to Signpost 2. Act 2 will be the journey from Signpost 2 to Signpost 3, and Act 3 will be the journey from Signpost 3 to Signpost 4. Here's what the model looks like with the journey's marked...
Neither approach is right or wrong if it makes sense to you on an emotional level.
Incidentally, feel free to watch Moore's video on the W-plot. If you are new to the idea of story structure, it is a good introduction.T
om Ricketts is standing on a ramp at the edge of Wrigley Field, outlining his vision for the neighborhood.
"There's the office building," says the Cubs' co-owner and chairman, pointing to the right in the muggy midsummer dusk. He draws his finger down to a spot just outside the stadium wall. "Everything below is going to be a club for the players." He says it all a little dreamily. "It's going to be the nicest clubhouse -- a big, circular clubhouse, and it will have the best weight room, the best training room, aquatherapy, all of that. That'll be here for the players who have suffered for a long time at Wrigley Field."
As Ricketts, 50, describes his plans for a plaza with a farmers market and a 175-room hotel across the street, it's hard not to think of a king surveying his imaginary kingdom. Right now, that best-in-the-business clubhouse he speaks of is nothing more than a hole in the ground. The office building is just a crosshatch of steel beams. The beautiful hotel is a McDonald's parking lot. "That'll be done in two years," Ricketts says, turning on one heel and bounding up the ramp toward the upper deck. Behind him, a lightning storm comes crackling toward Wrigley from the west.
No franchise in America better exemplifies the tension between baseball's business imperatives and its sentimental attachments than the Cubs, which has made transforming Wrigleyville a gargantuan task for Ricketts and his three siblings. But even that project seems small compared with their ultimate goal: When Tom, Laura, Todd and Pete Ricketts bought the team in 2009, they took on perhaps the most daunting challenge of any team owners -- ending the Cubs' World Series drought, now at 106 years and counting.
"We started right off the bat saying we're going to win a World Series," says Laura, 48. "And we're going to put a team on the field every year that can consistently compete for that."
To show they were serious, the siblings unveiled plans to modernize the stadium and committed to new spring training facilities in Arizona and a new baseball academy for player development in the Dominican Republic. Then in 2011, the Ricketts family brought in Theo Epstein, the front office wunderkind who led Boston to its first World Series title in 86 years, to run the team's baseball operations.
All of these projects were undertaken with a better future in mind, though perhaps even the Ricketts family didn't realize the future would arrive this quickly. The Cubs finished second to last in the NL Central from 2010 to 2012 and dead last in 2013 and 2014. But now, through a rocky and raucous 2015 season fueled by Epstein's inspiring collection of young talent, they seem closer to breaking the curse than they've been since at least 2008, when they were swept by the Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs. Two days after Tom Ricketts outlines his vision at this mid-August night game against the Tigers, the Cubs embark on a six-game winning streak. Then they lose four. Then Jake Arrieta pitches a no-hitter against the Dodgers and the team wins 13 of the next 19, opening a sizable lead in its pursuit of a wild-card spot. However this season turns out, the Cubs will be on the short list of top World Series contenders for 2016 -- and beyond.
Ricketts, who looks like Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in his game-day uniform (white dress shirt, khakis, Cubs staff badge), makes his way through the stadium, performing his Wrigley Field ritual. In one hand he holds a cinched bag filled with date-inscribed baseballs, and with the other he passes them out to kids. Grown men ask him for selfies; young men give him slapping handshakes. The kids who take his baseballs don't really know what to think and remember to thank him only when their parents nudge: "Now, what do you say to Mr. Ricketts?"
"Some kids are almost like: 'Why is this weird old man giving me this baseball?' " he says, making his way through the mess of people zipping from seats to concession stands and back again. But Ricketts, who manages the day-to-day running of the Cubs with Epstein and president of business operations Crane Kenney, sees handing out baseballs as one of his most important tasks. He started doing it five years ago to try to reassure fans that he and his family aren't simply a bunch of multimillionaires but people who love the team as much as anyone.
It's been a tough sell. The family embodies a heady mishmash of business and political ambitions, which sometimes contradict each other and occasionally clash in an explosive way. Most of the family members are high-powered conservatives operating in the Democratic stronghold of Chicago. Todd and Joe Ricketts, the family patriarch, run the Ending Spending Action Fund, a super PAC that opposes what it deems to be wasteful government spending and supports a number of high-profile Republican (and a couple of Democratic) politicians. Todd, 46, also served as the finance co-chair for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's now-defunct presidential campaign. Pete, 51, was elected the governor of Nebraska as a Republican in 2014.
Laura, on the other hand, runs a super PAC called LPAC, which organizes lesbian donors and supports gay rights causes, and she was one of the bundlers who helped make President Barack Obama a financial powerhouse in the LGBT community. The siblings brush off questions about the potential for awkward dinner-table conversations around their divergent views. "I just say to people, 'Do you agree with everything your brother thinks? No,' " Laura told me in an interview earlier this year.
We're going to win a World Series. And we're going to put a team on the field every year that can consistently compete for that. - Laura Ricketts
Tonight, while Tom mingles his way through the upper deck, Laura and Todd sit behind home plate with Laura's 4-year-old daughter, Audrey, and her wife, Brooke. (Pete, the governor, makes it to the stadium less frequently these days.) Behind them sit Scottie Pippen and, a few seats down, supermodel Kate Upton, girlfriend of Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander and a friend of the Ricketts family.
Todd squints at the field and considers whether it's possible to enjoy the games like he did before he took on the responsibilities of ownership. (Tom is the only sibling who has a daily role on the team. Once a week, he holds a conference call with his siblings, who, along with a representative from the Tribune Company, make up the rest of the board.) "Mark Twain has a great quote in Life on the Mississippi, talking about when he became a riverboat captain. And the gist of it is, careful what you gain for what you lose," Todd says. "He talks about how he learned to read the river, and he lost a little bit of just enjoying the beauty of the river. I feel like sometimes I lose a bit of that, like, just pure passion."
But let's not get too sentimental here. He also wants to win. "When it happens, I think it'll be a celebration the likes of which we have never really seen in this country for any event."
Never been seen for any event?
"Yeah," he says. "And it's not going to be, like, a flip-over-the-cars-and-light-them-on-fire sort of party. I think it's going to be a happier event than that. It'll be big."
As Laura and Brooke talk about their June wedding -- they got married 20 days before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, capping off a battle Laura has been fighting in the Midwest for years -- phones begin buzzing with a weather alert. emergency flood warning in your area, seek shelter immediately. Just then, the lightning that's been rolling in for the past hour breaks, and water comes pouring out of the sky so fast and so heavy, it seems possible that it might flood Wrigley instantly. Fans, owners, basketball stars and supermodels go lurching toward the shelter of the concourse.With his visit to the Palestinian Authority, Gaza, Jordan and Egypt last week, Ossur Skarphedinsson, the Social Democratic Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iceland, came to put his two cents into the Middle Eastern debate.
Skarphedinsson enhanced his country’s relations with the Palestinians and promised them Iceland’s support in their bid for statehood at the next United Nations General Assembly. He studiously avoided any diplomatic contact with Israel on that trip. Earlier this month, the Icelandic Birgitta Jonsdottir was the first parliamentarian of any country to visit participants of the failed second Gaza flotilla.
Iceland is a country with a population of about 320,000, just a little more than the city of Haifa. It received much international publicity when its three major banks collapsed in 2008. Creditors abroad lost tens of billions of dollars. The country’s Financial Supervisory Authority had dramatically failed in its task. Last year, not through any fault of its own, Iceland once again received major publicity when ash clouds from an eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano caused major disturbances in European air traffic.
Besides that, one hears little about Iceland in Israel. Relations between the two countries under the present left-wing government of Iceland are plainly bad. This finds expression in many ways. At the previous UN General Assembly, Iceland’s foreign minister spoke out against Israel. When FM Lieberman wrote to him on this issue, Skarphedinsson did not answer. He did not even confirm receipt of Lieberman’s letter. Skarphedinsson also ordered Icelandic diplomats to remain in the hall while Iranian President Ahmadinejad spoke at the Durban review conference in Geneva in 2009. Diplomats from almost all other European countries left.
Iceland’s government shows considerable arrogance toward Israel. Skarphedinsson represents a country that has caused huge financial damage abroad. Yet he believes that he should tell sovereign Israel how it should run its affairs. On his recent visit he requested that Israel unconditionally abandon its maritime blockade on Gaza. He also condemned Israel’s defensive actions during the first flotilla. Moreover, the Icelandic Parliament condemned Israel and some members suggested placing sanctions on the Jewish state or even breaking off relations with it. When the Olmert government sent Minister Yuli Tamir to Europe during the Gaza Cast Lead war, Iceland refused to receive her.
Unimpressive history
Iceland does not have much to be proud about regarding its historical behavior toward Jews. Few Jews live in the country. In the past, there have only been Jewish communities established at times when there were either British or American troops stationed in Iceland with a substantial number of Jewish soldiers among them.
Iceland’s anti-Semitic history has been studied by the only expert on the country’s attitude toward Jews, Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson, who lives in Denmark. In an essay published in my book, Behind the Humanitarian Mask: The Nordic Countries, Israel and the Jews, he notes that the first “Jew” who came to Iceland in 1625 was a Christian convert from Copenhagen. During that same century, an Icelandic clergyman Hallgrimur Pétursson composed a wide selection of hymns. In these hymns, Jews are mentioned more than 50 times, yet only for their “perfidy, falseness, wickedness and other malice.”
In the 1930s, a few Jewish refugees tried to escape to Iceland, several of them in vain. Some of the female refugees were allowed to stay because they married Icelanders.
At the end of the 1980s, Efraim Zuroff, Director of the Israel branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, tried to have war criminal Evald Mikson prosecuted. Mikson had been involved in the murder of Jews in his native Estonia. He found refuge in Iceland, where his sons played in the national soccer team. Zuroff’s justified claims against an accomplice of murderers led to many Icelandic media attacks toward Israel. It took until 1993 before the Icelandic government set up a commission to investigate Mikson’s war crimes. Mikson, however, died shortly afterwards. Only after his death did the investigators find that he had indeed committed atrocities.
When this issue was debated in parliament, some of its members felt compelled to make comments on the Middle East and Israeli political attitudes. One of these was Olafur Grimsson, leader of the People’s Alliance, a left-wing party. He spoke about the Israeli “murder” of Hezbollah leader Abbas Musawi and of Israeli attacks on southern Lebanese towns. Grimsson has been President of Iceland since 1996. As a curious aside - in 2003, he married an Israeli woman.
One may wonder what motivated the Foreign Minister of Iceland, with its small population and poor international record, to come to the Middle East and behave as he did. Is it just plain egotism, for which Skarphedinsson is well-known in Iceland? Is it because he represents a left-wing government? Or perhaps because Iceland endeavours to become a non-permanent member of the Security Council after its failed bid in the 2008 elections? For this it would need the many votes of Muslim countries.
Manfred Gerstenfeld is Chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public AffairThe Santa Ana police officer who shot and killed an unarmed homeless man last year will not be charged, as investigators conclude she feared for her life.
Hans Kevin Arellano, 22, was a homeless man who was drinking by a dumpster near the Harbor Place Shopping Center on July 30, 2013. Business owners in the area had previously made complaints about transients hanging around near their establishments and bothering customers and employees. Arellano was initially approached by a different police officer who tried to arrest him for drinking in public around 3 p.m. Arellano, who had a BAC of.26 according to the Orange County D.A.'s report, ran away.
Officer Jessica Guidry responded to reports of an intoxicated man disturbing the peace and spotted Arellano on South Harbor Blvd. Arellano, who had previous burglary convictions and was a suspect in a robbery, ran away from her and went through a McDonald's parking lot and into a nearby juice bar. Witnesses said Guidry drew her gun and ordered Arellano to stop and put his hands up. He did, a witness said, but put them back down again and acted like a "smartass," using obscenities and lunging at Guidry as he exited the shop.
Guidry said she was afraid he would try to take her gun and that it would be a "fight for her life," so she shot him once in the chest when he was about three feet away. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
There were several witnesses, including one who captured the shooting on a cell phone camera.
Investigators decided that Guidry, a 13-year veteran of the police force, reasonably felt her life was in danger and that they cannot prove she committed a crime.
Arellano's family said at the time of his death that they believe Guidry could have used non-lethal methods to subdue him. Guidry was carrying a Taser at the time.Police are looking for a man after the car of a gay dead Nashville, Tennessee victim was found in North Carolina.
Last week the body of Deon L. Brown was discovered in the parking lot of a West Nashville trucking lot. He was riddled with stab wounds, and authorities are treating the death as a possible hate crime.
Law enforcement want to speak to Christopher Gadsden. According to WKRN.com Brown’s car, a white Pontiac G6, was discovered in Hickory, North Carolina. Police believe Gadsden, who has family in Fayetteville, North Carolina, drove the vehicle to Hickory.
Hickory is approximately a three-hour drive from Fayetteville.
The police want to know how Gadsden got the car and what, if anything, the 26-year-old knows about Brown’s death.
Anyone seeing Gadsden, or knowing his whereabouts, is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 615-742-7463 or West Precinct Investigations at 615-862-7385.
Brown was dressed as a woman when his body was located. There has been no reports of him identifying as transgender. He does not appear to have identified as trans from his social media and friends.
There was no identification on the cosmetologist, and it took police a day until they were able to release his identity.
A candlelight vigil in his memory was held on 18 November.Breed Alaskan Malamute American Staffy Anatolian Shepherd Australian Bulldog Australian Cattledog Australian Shepherd Australian Silky Terrier Australian Terrier Basenji Basset Hound Beagle Bearded Collie Belgian Shepherd - Malinois Bernese Mountain Dog Bichon Frise Bloodhound Border Collie Border Terrier Boston Terrier Bouvier Des Flandres Boxer British Bulldog Brittany Spaniel Bull Arab Bull Terrier Bullmastiff Cairn Terrier Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Chihuahua Chinese Crested Dog Chow Chow Cocker Spaniel Coonhound Corgie Curly Coated Retriever Dachshund Dingo Dobermann Dogue De Bordeaux Dandie Dinmont Terrier English Setter English Springer Spaniel Fox Terrier Foxhound French Bulldog German Coolie German Shepherd German Shorthaired Pointer German Wirehaired Pointer Golden Retriever Great Dane Greyhound Hungarian Vizsla Irish Wolfhound Italian Greyhound Jack Russell Terrier Japanese Chin Japanese Spitz Keeshond Kelpie Labradoodle Labrador Lakeland Terrier Large Terrier Cross Lhasa Apso Maltese Manchester Terrier Maremma Sheepdog Mastiff Medium Cross Breed Newfoundland Norfolk Terrier Old English Sheepdog Papillon Parsons Jack Russell Terrier Pekingese Pharaoh Hound Pointer Pomeranian Poodle Miniature Poodle Standard Poodle Toy Pug Rhodesian Ridgeback Rottweiler Saint Bernard Saluki Samoyed Schipperke Schnauzer Scottish Terrier Sharpei Shetland Sheep Dog Shiba Inu Shih Tzu Siberian Husky Small Crossbreed Small Terrier Cross Smithfield Cattle Dog Spitz Staffordshire Bull Terrier Staghound Tenterfield Terrier Tibetan Spaniel Tibetan Terrier Weimaraner West Highland White Terrier Whippet Wirehaired Fox Terrier Wirehaired Jack Russell Yorkshire Terrier Large Cross Breed Terrier Long Hair Chihuahua American Bulldog Johnson Bulldog Cocker Spaniel, English Corgi, Cardigan Welsh Corgi, Pembroke Welsh Dachshund, Short-haired English Foxhound Fox Terrier, Smooth Labrador Retriever Schnauzer, Giant Schnauzer, Miniature Silky Terrier Schnauzer, Standard Schnoodle Mixed Shepherd Hound Catahoula Akita Blue Heeler Bulldog Heeler HEELER X American Staffordshire Terrier Wolfhound Dalmatian Rottweiller Staffy Poodle Australian Cattle Dog Miniature Fox Terrier Red Heeler Collie Maltese Terrier Kangaroo Dog Miniature Pinscher King Charles Spaniel Shar Pei Akita Inu Spoodle New Zealand Huntaway Irish Wolf Hound English Pointer Red Cloud Kelpie Kangal German Short Haired Pointer Louisiana Catahoula Leopard Dog Cane Corso Bull Mastiff Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog Dachshund, Miniature Deerhound Maltese X Pomeranian X Shih Tzu X Poodle, Miniature X Bull Terrier X Staffordshire Bull Terrier X Kelpie X Fox Terrier X Chihuahua X Labrador X Cross Misc, Medium American Staffordshire Bull Terrier Terrier, Small X Terrier, Medium X Heeler, Blue Papillon X Golden Retriever X Rhodesian Ridgeback X Cross Misc, Large Rottweiler X Jack Russell Terrier X Cocker Spaniel X Border Collie X Dobermann X Pug X German Shepherd X Mastiff X Heeler, Red Cross Misc, Small German Shorthaired Pointer X Poodle, Standard X Siberian Husky X Xbreed Medium Pointer X Boxer X Dutch Shepherd Great Dane X Xbreed Large Lurcher Australian Bandog Alaskan Husky Beagle X Greyhound X Australian Koolie Medium Crossbreed Airedale Terrier Belgian Shepherd Doberman Tasmanian Smithfield Dog Jack Russel Terrier Cross Breed Australian Kelpie Chihuahua (Smooth Coat) Jack Russell Terrier (Smooth) German Shepherd Dog Poodle (Miniature) Collie (Smooth) Fox Terrier (Smooth) Mini Foxie / Tenterfield Terrier Poodle (Toy) Neapolitan Mastiff Chihuahua (Long Coat) Welsh Corgi (Cardigan) Dachshund (Smooth) Collie (Rough) Jack Russell Terrier (Wire) Welsh Corgi (Pembroke) Poodle (Standard) Cocker Spaniel (English) Fox Terrier (Wire) Dachshund (Long Haired) Australian Dingo Akita Inu x German Spitz (Mittel & Klein) Pit Bull German Koolie Belgian Shepherd - Groenendael American Pit Bull Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier Cavoodle Koolie Brittany Boerboel Cocker Spaniel, American St. Bernard Glen Of Imaal Terrier Portuguese Podengo White Swiss Shepherd Dog English Staffordshire Bull Terrier English Mastiff German Shepherd Dog (Long Stock Coat) Belgian Shepherd (Groenendael) English Stafforshire Bull Terrier North Queensland Bullhound Plott Hound Pinscher X Aussie Shelter Dog Mexican Hairless Italian Corso Dog (Cane Corso) Black Mouth Cur Afghan Hound
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just keep pushing.”
But the government could not confirm if the reports of Celil’s commutation are true and say they are still “seeking official confirmation.”
READ MORE: China reduces sentences for 11 Uighurs, including Canadian
“Celil’s case remains important to the Government of Canada and continues to be raised at senior levels,” Global Affairs Canada says in an emailed statement to 16×9.
“We continue to call upon the Chinese government to permit Canadian officials to conduct a consular visit to monitor Mr. Celil’s well-being. Our goal is to ensure that Mr. Celil is safe and treated fairly, in accordance with international norms.”
Telendibaeva says despite the reduction of his sentence, the family has concerns over his health – including digestive and vision issues she attributes to his extensive time in solitary confinement.
“We don’t know anything. His family [in China], they are seeing him every six months. Which is – it’s very, very long. Not six days, not six weeks, six months,” she says.
“I am saying as a Canadian, I am saying as a human, he is missing all his rights.”
Celil has exhausted almost all of his legal options and at this point all indications show that he will not be released from prison until the age of 68, by which time his children could have families of their own.
“At the end of the day it’s entirely up to Chinese officials to resolve this case,” says Neve.
“But that doesn’t mean that in the face of Chinese intransigence to date that Canadian officials should give up.”
16×9’s “The Last Moment I Saw Him” airs Saturday, March 19, 2016 at 7 p.m.
With files from Claude AdamsTwo brothers, both preschoolers, are seated at a counter in the kitchen, quietly munching on syrup-soaked pancakes and drinking milk. Meanwhile, Smith — not her real name — stands patiently to one side, tightly embracing a sleepy little girl in her arms.
A new day is beginning in Roddickton, a picturesque town on the eastern side of Newfoundland's Northern Peninsula, and Jane Smith's home is slowly coming to life.
They are foster children from Aboriginal communities in Labrador, taken from a situation deemed unfit by social workers, and they depend on Smith for everything.
Shelter. Safety. Food. Love.
“It’s our way of pouring a little love into something that we can do,” Smith says.
Meanwhile, in Nain, an Inuit community more than 1,600 kilometres to the north, an Inuit father is feeling the absence of his children.
"I'm just waiting for my children to come back and for a court to agree," one Nain father told me.
His drinking led to losing custody of his children. He has quit and says he is following the steps to responsibility, but he is not there yet. However, he feels empty while his family is not whole.
"I want them to come back home,” he tells me.
“The family is destroyed."
This is the story of two places, home to different people with different lives, different emotions and different perspectives, but deeply connected by the children born in one place, but being raised in another.
In Nain — and in other Inuit communities along Labrador’s remote coast, as well as in Labrador’s Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Natuashish — there is tension, pain and anxiety. Occasionally, there is the joy of reunion, of families brought together under a single roof. But there are other feelings, too, including a sense that Indigenous communities must do more themselves to provide safer homes for their most vulnerable citizens.FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has taken the unprecedented and awesome step of using Title II to ensure that the internet remains open and that ISPs cannot discriminate against the type of traffic flowing across their networks. This is a big deal, as I explained earlier, and now that the Chairman has released the details of the FCC’s proposal it’s time to dive in.
If you want the TLDR version, here it is: The FCC has crafted the strongest net neutrality rules I have ever seen. They will cover both wireline and wireless broadband networks. The FCC has also decided that it will keep an eye on peering agreements between “mass market ISPs” and edge providers and has established a general conduct rule that will allow companies and consumers to complain about unreasonable behavior by ISPs on the internet. To do this, it will use both Title II of the 1996 Communication Act and the Sec. 706 authority it has under that same act.
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Now for the details, where I’ll try to use real-life examples like zero-rating plans for cell phone operators or your Xfinity voice service from Comcast. Or what about those few months when your Netflix service was all screwy because your ISP wanted it to pay more money? The FCC’s rules address all of these services, so read on — it’s your internet, after all.
Bright lines and no blocking
The government is fond of what it calls “bright line” rules. No shades of gray for these folks. For net neutrality we get three types of “bright line” rules that wireline and broadband operators must follow:
No blocking
No throttling
No paid prioritization
This sounds pretty simple, but it gets a bit tricky in practice. For example, this applies to legal content only –no pirated movies — and carriers can argue that they need to block or throttle as part of a network management plan if their network is congested. If they do so, however, they had better be prepared to defend it to the FCC. For example, the FCC came after Verizon over the summer for throttling users of its unlimited plans after they hit a certain data cap. The reason: The carrier couldn’t prove that the decision was about network management as opposed to business.
That same standard applies here. However, zero-rating, where a carrier lets customers listen to a service like Spotify for free on their network (as T-Mobile does) or perhaps lets them use Facebook without it counting against data caps, is okay. Opponents of zero-rating argue that it’s a type of reverse paid prioritization and violates network neutrality, but in a press call, a senior FCC official said the agency would review those calls under the general conduct rule (more on that later).
Even more transparency
The transparency provisions of the original Open Internet Order, which was enacted in 2010 and saw most of its provisions struck down by the courts in 2013, actually stayed in place. The new net neutrality proposal adds to those provisions. One way it does that is by adding to the reasonable network management clause, requiring ISPs to justify and defend their network management decisions (as indicated above in the Verizon data throttling example).
Another example is when it comes to managed services that an ISP offers on top of broadband services. For example, your cable provider might offer a voice service or an alarm service on a dedicated network; U-Verse TV is another example of a dedicated service on top of broadband. If ISPs try to degrade regular broadband service to protect their own dedicated services, they will have to disclose that, and it won’t be allowed. This prevents ISPs from prioritizing their own services at the expense of the rest of the internet — something that was utterly left behind in the original net neutrality rules.
The interconnection rule
The FCC also took on an incredibly esoteric issue called peering that caused consumers a lot of pain in 2012 and 2013 as the major ISPs and Netflix basically engaged in a trade war in the middle of the internet. ISPs wanted Netflix to pay them to open more doors for Netflix traffic to flow through, while Netflix wanted to build its own doors into the ISPs’ networks the way it had done with so many other ISPs. The ISPs eventually won that fight, because without those doors Netflix couldn’t deliver the bits its customers demanded, and their experience suffered.
Netflix likened ISPs’ behavior to extortion and called for the FCC to make peering a network neutrality issue. And to everyone’s surprise, it now has. This rule will let edge providers complain to the FCC about peering and interconnection deals, and any complaint will go through the enforcement office for the FCC to determine if it is “just and reasonable.”
It’s worth noting that this rule only seeks to investigate interconnection deals between “mass market broadband providers and edge providers.” Smaller ISPs and deals between the likes of Google and Facebook or other companies don’t appear to be included here. The FCC is basing its authority to do this on Title II.
The catch-all general conduct rule
Finally we have the catch-all rule, which seems to be the agency’s way of future-proofing the open internet as much as it can. The proposal would create a general Open Internet conduct standard stating that ISPs cannot harm consumers or edge providers. It’s likely that things like zero-rating and sponsored data plans such as the one that AT&T offers will be adjudicated under the general conduct rule.
While it sounds nice, a concern is that the more things that fall under this vague general conduct rule, the more flexibility the agency will have in determining what a network neutrality violation is. Flexibility can be a good thing, but in the government, it can also change with each administration and the political climate. I am concerned that this could be a loophole, but a senior FCC official objected to that characterization. “We see this as a safety net to catch any issues that are not covered as a bright line rule and to protect against new practices that may discriminate.”
Wheeler’s proposal now will go to each of the four other commissioners, who will presumably add their comments and thoughts before it goes to a vote at the open meeting on February 26.
In an ideal world, the agency would vote on the proposal at that meeting, and if approved it will be entered into the Federal Register soon afterward and become part of the official regulations. At that point, I expect AT&T, Verizon or some other entity will sue. In the meantime, expect exhaustive coverage discussing the legalities of the FCC’s proposal, the various reactions to it and even how it may affect the looming Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger.Review of the Cold Storage Hardware Wallet Cryptosteel
There are various ways to maintain bitcoin using cold storage techniques like a paper or a hardware wallet. Lots of these methods keep your cryptocurrency safe, but private keys and seed phrases need to be backed up in a secure fashion. One method of backup is called Cryptosteel, which can safely house private keys, BIP39 compatible seeds, and even secret cryptographic messages.
Also read: The Bitpay Visa: a Bitcoin-Debit Card Review
Testing Out the Cryptosteel Cold Storage Solution
This week I was sent the latest limited edition Cryptosteel product invented by Wojtek Stopinski from Warsaw, Poland. The flagship product has been well-known by bitcoiners since the company initiated its Indiegogo campaign in the summer of 2015. The device has changed a touch since then so I decided to give Cryptosteel a review for our reader base. I decided to save a BIP39 passphrase created by a Mycelium wallet, but the product can store paper wallet keys and 12-24 word hardware wallet seeds as well. A BIP39 passphrase is a mnemonic code or a sentence of easy to remember words found in deterministic wallet infrastructure.
The stainless steel body of the product seems professionally made and carries some weight. The package comes with the Cryptosteel device, alpha and numeric steel pieces, and some retro-style packaging. After unpacking everything and locating my written seed phrase, I chose to empty all the letters and numbers into a small tupperware container. The only thing else you need to get started is a small screwdriver to apply and lock the secret phrase into the device.
Getting Started with a Small Screwdriver and Seed
With Cryptosteel, there are only four spaces for each word which might be confusing to some people at first. However, the backup solution only requires the assembly of the first four letters and most BIP39 restoration services will recognize the words. “Those four letters are unique and sufficient to recover the sentence and the entire Bitcoin wallet. We did a frequency analysis and determined the minimum set of letters that are needed to create the Cryptosteel”, explains the company.
Taking a small screwdriver, I slowly turned the locking mechanism to the left and followed by using the screwdriver to push a release button on the lower right-hand corner. This allows the little steel numbers and letters to slide into the product. However, I did need the screwdriver to help push the letters into place. As you can see from my photographs, I filled the gadget with the first four words of my passphrase. ‘Eight’, ‘duck’, ‘advise’, and ‘outside’ finished the row, and I closed the clasp to see how tightly the letters held. After locking the mechanism clasp, the words did not move around or seem loose inside.
The Cryptosteel product takes a bit of time to assemble as the letter and number pieces are quite small. It took me roughly 45 minutes to assemble a complete 24-word seed phrase onto my new device. After completing the process, I could opt to add a small padlock or nut and bolt to secure Cryptosteel from being opened. Another benefit of Cryptosteel is, after finishing the private key assembly, one could gift the device to someone and it could easily act as a steel bearer bond instrument.
Fire, Water, and Shock-Protected Cold Storage for Catastrophic Elements
The product got me thinking about my digital inheritance plan I’ve been working on recently, and it seems like a superior backup to paper. In fact, CDs, paper, USB flash drives, hardware wallets, and other products could easily be damaged by fire or break down over time. Cryptosteel can definitely survive these types of elements but would also have to be hidden in a secure location. The stainless steel product isn’t 100 percent foolproof as no means of cold storage is completely safe, but Cryptosteel does offer a different solution. Overall the product is an interesting way of storing Bitcoin private keys, PIN numbers, and lengthy passwords in a near-indestructible fashion.
What do you think about the Cryptosteel product? Let us know in the comments below.
Images via Jamie Redman, and Cryptosteel.
Have you seen our new widget service? It allows anyone to embed informative Bitcoin.com widgets on their website. They’re pretty cool and you can customize by size and color. The widgets include price-only, price and graph, price and news, forum threads. There’s also a widget dedicated to our mining pool, displaying our hash power.When harmine was first isolated from the ayahuasca vine, and before it was identified as the same compound found in Peganum harmala, Syrian rue, it was called, variously, banisterine, yagéine, and, interestingly, telepathine. Apparently it was a traveler named Rafael Zerda Bayón who first suggested, in 1905, both the idea that ayahusca visions were telepathic and the corresponding name telepathine for its active constituent. The name was then used by the Colombian chemist Guillermo Fischer Cárdenas when he actually isolated the compound in 1923. In 1939, it was determined that banisterine, yagéine, and telepathine were all the same as harmine, and that is the name that has been used ever since.
And that probably would have been the end of that, except that American novelist William S. Burroughs ended his first book — originally published in 1953 as Junky, under the pseudonym William Lee — with a brief meditation on yagé. “I read about a drug called yage, used by Indians in the headwaters of the Amazon,” he wrote. “I decided to go down to Colombia and score for yage.... I am ready to move on south and look for the uncut kick that opens out instead of narrowing down like junk.” The last sentence in the book said, “Yage may be the final fix.” Burroughs picked up on the name telepathine — which was, of course, no longer being used — and noted that ayahuasca “is supposed to increase telepathic sensitivity.”
Hernando García Barriga, writing in 1958, added to the telepathy narrative. “Savage Indians,” he wrote, “who have never left their forests and who, of course, can have no idea of civilized life, describe, in their particular language, and with more or less precision, the details of houses, castles, and cities peopled by multitudes.” What — other than ayahuasca-induced telepathy — could possibly be the source of such knowledge? Psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo had similar thoughts in 1967, but in the opposite direction. When he gave city dwellers harmaline — note that this is not the same as harmine, although related to it, and also a constitutent of the ayahuasca vine — they reported that they saw tigers and jungle imagery. Clearly the synthetic chemical had somehow connected Naranjo’s subjects mentally to the jungle.
Of course, none of this took into account other possible reasons for these results. As anthropologist Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff has pointed out, even isolated Indians in 1958 knew a lot about cities, having been told about them by missionaries, soldiers, rubber tappers, traders, and travelers, and having seen pictures in calendars and magazines. And we have no idea what expectations Naranjo’s volunteers brought to their experience, although I think we can make a pretty good guess. But so embedded had this meme become that, in 1967, a Haight-Ashbury resident told Andrew Weil that Eskimos given ayahuasca saw visions of huge cats.
Then, in 1971, Charles Lamb published Wizard of the Upper Amazon, which purported to be a transcription of the true story of Manuel Córdova-Ríos, an Iquitos ayahuasquero who claimed to have been kidnapped by Indians, taught their language during group telepathic ayahuasca sessions, and made their chief, finally escaping to become a healer for his urban clientele. The appeal of the tale is archetypal: a civilized person is stolen away by the savage hidden people of the wild places, learns their ways, becomes their chief, and brings their redemptive secrets back to the civilized world.
The reliability of this account has been seriously challenged. But the telepathy meme it contained was passed along by best-selling writer Andrew Weil in his first book, The Natural Mind, published in 1972. Weil was particularly fascinated by the alleged “group vision sessions in which all participants see the same visions” — that is, visions of jungle cats, other animals, enemy tribes, and village scenes — which he took as evidence for the “reality of shared consciousness.” Weil was so enthusiastic about Córdova-Ríos’s alleged telepathic experiences that he wrote a glowing introduction when the book was, at his suggestion, reprinted as a paperback in 1974. It was not until five years later, in 1979, that Weil traveled to Colombia and tried ayahuasca himself, and was deeply disappointed to find no jungles or jaguars in his visions, and no “telepathic news bulletins of distant events.”
Meanwhile, Kenneth Kensinger, a missionary and anthropologist who had worked for many years with the Cashinahua, echoed the narrative of Hernando García Barriga. Several Cashinahua, he wrote in 1973, “who have never been to or seen pictures of Pucallpa, the large town at the Ucayali River terminus of the Central Highway, have described their visits under the influence of ayahuasca to the town with sufficient detail for me to recognize specific sights and shops.” And he echoes Manuel Córdova-Ríos as well. According to Bruce Lamb, during a particularly intense ayahuasca session, Córdova-Ríos saw his mother dying; when he returned to the home of his youth, he learned that she had died just as he had seen. Kensinger similarly reports that, after one ayahuasca session, six of the nine participants told him that they had seen the death of his mother’s father, two days before Kensinger himself was informed of the death by radio.
And then, in 1981, Peruvian poet César Calvo Soriano wrote a novel of acknowledged genius entitled Las tres mitades de Ino Moxo y otros brujos de la Amazonía, which he based on the story of Manuel Cordova-Ríos. He described how the shaman Ximu telepathically controlled the visions of his young apprentice, “calibrating the hallucinogenic apparitions in the mind of the young man…. The slightest gesture of the old man developed in his consciousness the caresses of an order. Whatever Ximu thought was seen and heard by the boy. They understood each other through flashes of lightning and through shadows, amid slow visions and colors, and Ximu began to confide his patience and his strength.”
So the meme continues, with frequent invocations of the old name telepathine. David Luke, for example, is a parapsychology researcher at the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes at the University of Northampton in England. Interviewed earlier this year by James Kent, Luke spoke about telepathy with ayahuasca, “because ayahuasca is reputedly quite potent in inducing telepathic and clairvoyant experiences. One of the active principles, harmaline, was even called ‘telepathine’ when it was first isolated from this decoction in the 1920s.” Paul Krassner, in his book Magic Mushrooms and Other Highs: From Toad Slime to Ecstasy, says that “shamans say that ayahuasca is ‘very telepathic,’ and years ago, after also experiencing a ceremony, the first scientist to isolate the psychoactive alkaloid in ayahuasca named the chemical ‘telepathine.'”
All of these iterations contain echoes of Bruce Lamb, who wrote, in the introduction to his book on Córdova-Ríos,that ayahuasca “has long been credited with the ability to transport human beings to realms of experience where telepathy and clairvoyance are commonplace. When German scientists first isolated harmaline, an active principle of ayahuasca, they named it ‘telepathine’ because of this association.” And I suppose only a pedant would point out that it was harmine, not harmaline, that was named telepathine, or that Fischer Cárdenas did not name the compound he isolated after his own experience, or that he was Colombian, not German.
What is interesting about this persistent meme is not that it is wrong, but rather that it is, in at least one way, correct, although translated into ill-fitting western clothes. In the Upper Amazon, one of the key features of icaros, a shaman’s magic songs, is that they have the ability to modulate the visionary effects of ayahuasca and other psychoactive plants, both for the shaman who is singing the icaro and for a patient or apprentice to whom the shaman has given the medicine. Songs can subir mareación, bring on the vision, or llamar mareación, call the vision; and they can also sacar mareación, take away the vision. The latter can be used benevolently, in order to alleviate frightening visions in a patient, or malevolently, by a sorcerer, in an attack on another shaman, as a means to take away the visionary defenses of the intended victim.
Most important, songs can also modulate the contents of the visions of a patient or apprentice; when my teacher doña María Tuesta tired of my incessant questions, she would tell me, “I will show you,” which meant that I should expect my next ayahuasca visions to give me the answers I was looking for.
So: what the shamans speak about is the magical power of their songs to influence the content of another’s visions. Which is, I think, interesting enough for me.Filipe Augusto and Vinicius won the Youth International Football Tournament in China
Valencia CF internationals are back from international duty. Scroll down to find out how they got on with their countries:
Diego Alves
Brazilian keeper featured in Brazil’s starting XI in both friendlies against Turkey and Austria. Against Turkey Alves kept a clean sheet. Against Austria, Alves conceded a goal but that didn’t prevent Brazil’s 1-2 win.
Filipe Augusto
Valencia CF midfielder took part in the Youth International Football Tournament in with Brazil U-21 squad, in which the 'canarinha' were crowned champions of the tournament. Also Vinicius, currently on loan at Standard Liege, rounded off a great performance, including two goals in the opening match, which earned him the best player of the tournament award.
Paco Alcácer
Valencia CF and Spain’s forward started the European Championship qualifying game against Belarus, and help the team to the final 3-0 victory. The striker was extremely participative and contributed to the team’s win. He was a substitute in the friendly against Germany which ended in a 0-1 defeat.
José Gayà
Valencia CF home-grown player featured in the starting XI and played the 90 minutes in the Spain U-21 vs Belgium U-21 friendly. Spain suffered a dramatic 1-4 defeat.
Joao Cancelo and Ruben Vezo
Portugal U-21 squad played a friendly game against England. Joao Cancelo jumped onto the pitch on 46 minutes, whereas Ruben Vezo wasn’t given the chance to play.
Shkodran Mustafi
German defender played two games with ‘die Mannschaft’. The first one, a Euro 2016 qualifier agaisnt Gibraltar, where the German side won 4-0. The second game, a friendly against Spain ended in a 0-1 victory thanks to a goal from Kroos.
Nicolás Otamendi
Argentine ful-back didn’t take part in the 1-2 defeat of his country against Croatia, but he started and played the 90 minutes of the friendly with Portugal at Old Trafford and which ended in a 1-0 victory of the Portuguese side.
André Gomes
Portuguese midfielder was a substitute in their first ever game against Armenia, a Euro 2016 qualifying game. André featured in the starting line-up and played 66 minutes of the game.
Sofiane Feghouli
Algerian midfielder continues shining in his home country and is one of the key pieces in the squad. In an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying game against Ethiopia, they came down from a 0-1 against to win 3-1. Feghouli scored the equalizer and led the team to the final victory. He also played the full match in the 2-0 defeat against Mali.The U.S. Air Force plans to announce the name of the new B-21 stealth bomber at the Air Force Association's annual conference in September, the service announced.
The Air, Space, Cyber symposium is scheduled for Sept. 19 through Sept. 21 in National Harbor, Maryland, just south of Washington, D.C.
During a nearly three-month-long naming contest that concluded last month, the service solicited more than 4,600 entries, according to a recent press release. Here at DefenseTech, we received many a suggestion, as well.
Some of the more serious names for the new bomber: Super Spirit, Sky Dragon, Nighthawk II, Marauder II, Vengeance, Ghost, Shadow. Some of the less serious: Budget Buster, Overprice, Overkill, About Damn Time.
Officials from Air Force Global Strike Command have reportedly whittled down the list to 15 candidates. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and Chief of Staff Mark Welsh are expected to select the winning name from the list.
The participant or participants who submitted the winning name will be invited to attend the conference. Unfortunately, the fine print makes clear that participants have no financial or legal stake in the name whatsoever.
A team led by Northrop, maker of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber and drone aircraft, in October beat out another led by Boeing Co., the world’s largest aerospace company, and Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense contractor, for the $21.4 billion initial contract as part of the LRS-B program.
The Air Force plans to buy a total of 100 of the next-generation bombers at an inflation-adjusted cost of $564 million per plane to replace its aging fleet of B-52 Stratofortresses made by Boeing Co. and a least a portion of its B-1 fleet.link to tour) Yesterday, I went on a day long tour of early aviation artifacts and sites located in the Washington DC area organized by Smithsonian Associates
The tour was lead by Paul Glenshaw. Paul was acknowledged for his help by David McCullough in his book :" The Wright Brothers ", a book I read in preparation of this tour.
We first visited the National Air and Space Museum to view the early Wright gliders, and of course,the 1903 Wright Flyer.
The next visit was the Smithsonian Castle. The garden there was the site of Professor Langley's construction of the Aerodrome.
'
Afterwards we visited Haines Point, site of the unsuccessful attempt to fly the powered Aerodrome by pilot Charles Manly.
Next was the Air Force Memorial. And then Fort Meyer, where in 1908 Orville Wright demonstrated the Wright airplane for the U.S. Army. On one test flight, the plane crashed, injuring Orville, and killing Lt. Thomas Selfridge, making Selfridge the first airplane fatality.
In 1909 Orville successfully demonstrated the airplane's usefulness to the US Army at Fort Meyer. As part of the contract to sell a plane to the Army, the Wrights had to train two pilots. That training was done at College Park. After the Wright's left, training continued at the nascent College Park Airport, the oldest airport in the world.
I chose some photographs from the many I took, and captioned and shared them
Note: click the first photo, and then Info button
to see captions and a map where the photo was taken. Hover your mouse over the right edge of the photo for an arrow to the next photo.Nagging talk of a reunion has been in the ether all year. His brother Dave is well on for hooking up. Drummer Mick Avory is not averse. Only bassist Pete Quaife wouldn’t attend, having died in 2010. But The Kinks have always been a spontaneous combustion waiting to happen. For reasons lost in the mists, until recently Ray and Dave hadn’t spoken for the best part of a decade, roughly since the former was shot by a burglar in New Orleans and the latter had a stroke. And that’s not even the main stumbling block.
“I really can’t play with my brother as that name, the Kinks, and not have Mick in,” says Davies. “Mick will work with him but Dave doesn’t want to work with Mick. Sibling rivalry is nothing on their rivalry. I have no idea what’s wrong with them.” Dave first kicked over Mick’s drum kit onstage in 1965, and Mick retaliated by knocking him out with a drum pedal, so it’s a long history. And insuperable?
In the absence of the real thing, there is a kind of Kinks reunion happening in the West End. Taking the band’s songbook as its soundtrack, Sunny Afternoon follows the Kinks from their first number one “You Really Got Me” through to the end of the Sixties when they were allowed back into America after a four-year ban caused by, depending what you read, bad behaviour or refusal to pay union dues. On the way there were contractual wrangles, a breakdown for Ray and, stringing them all together, those towering songs about life and love in old London town.
If not quite a Kinks reunion, Sunny Afternoon does reunite the divided selves of 70-year-old Davies, the conflicted colossus to whom songs come as if in a dream but who crumples on impact with the pressures of business. At one point in the show someone asks the reluctant star, “What kind of pop star are you?”
A troubled pair: John Dagleish (left) and George Maguire as Ray and Dave Davies in Sunny Afternoon
“I don’t think I ever was,” Davies says. “Nowadays the Kinks wouldn’t even get on TV. I shouldn’t by any stretch of the imagination be the lead singer. I’ve seen myself on television and I’m not as pretty as I should be. I had a bit of a hang-up because everybody wanted to change the way I looked. I’m just the way I am.”
For the record, he is dressed from the waist up as a country gent with tweed cap and tailored green wool jacket, and urban scruff from the waist down in skinny grey jeans and Adidas trainers. His beady blue eyes scan the middle distance as he talks, the sibilants lisping on his tongue. His puckish smiles are full of mischief. He has proposed we meet outside near his home in Highgate in north London, specifically at what he calls “the break-up bench”, where he split with his first girlfriend. Can there be any songwriter for whom London’s lost, prelapsarian past is so constant a presence?
“When I was writing those songs I already knew it was over,” he says. “I used to write for an older generation. ‘Sunny Afternoon’ was for my dad’s generation. The two characters in ‘Waterloo Sunset’ are my sisters and they are a generation older than I am.” (That’s a new one: Julie is usually thought to be one of his many sisters, and Terry either his nephew or her fiancé.)
Ever since The Kinks split up in 1996, Davies has yearned to recast his past in theatrical form. For several years he toured an autobiographical show called The Storyteller. Then came Come Dancing, a musical celebrating his much older sister Rene who died of heart failure when he was 13. In 2005 Davies heard it would not be staged (it was produced by Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2008) so instead sat down to write Sunny Afternoon. The title song was the inspiration, composed at a nadir in 1966 when he was newly married with a baby and fighting for an income from his hits while others got rich on The Kinks.
“I’d been ill, partly because of all the lawsuits and partly because I realised other people depended on me for a living. Writing the song was an epiphany. That’s where the genesis of the whole idea came. But I didn’t want it to be obvious. I wanted people to grab the story rather than wait for the next sing-along.”
Davies’s obsessive need to claim ownership of his life and work means that he’s not much of a one for acknowledging collaborators, in whom he has been very fortunate. Here, the director is Edward Hall, who triumphantly staged another very British examination of class and ambition in 2012 with Chariots of Fire. Playwright Joe Penhall burst onto the scene 20 years ago with punchy London plays about mental disintegration including Some Voices and Blue/Orange. Throw in charismatic actor-musicians John Dagleish as Ray and George Maguire as Dave, and the show’s ecstatic reception at Hampstead Theatre earlier this year seemed preordained.
For Davies, Sunny Afternoon is “a song cycle about two lads who didn’t really fit together. I never really had a relationship with my brother in a normal way. But what’s wonderful is the telepathy we have. Or did have.”
Scholars of Sixties pop can also enjoy ironic nods to the Beatles, the Stones and the Who, although one abrasive vignette has been cut. “We were supporting the Beatles somewhere. People were shouting, ‘We want the Beatles!’ John came up to me and said, ‘Don’t worry about it, if you run out of songs to play we’ll lend you some of ours.’ The curtain went up and I said, ‘I don’t need any of your f*****g songs.’ We played ‘You Really Got Me’ and they were with us. That was a moment of euphoria.”
The show proposes the idea that Davies’s whole career is a search for a song inspired by the late Rene, who gave him his first guitar, and that it may just be “Waterloo Sunset”. Its apotheosis as the essential London pop song was confirmed when Davies sang it at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. “I had some flak from my brother’s family as I always do: ‘Why was it just you up there?’ They only asked me. I think more than anything else they wanted the song.”
The intensely moving finale finds the band healing wounds as they piece together the song in the studio. Davies concedes that it didn’t quite happen that way.
Rough around the edges: The Kinks (1960s) Photo: Rex Features
“The reality was the band didn’t hear the song. I never told them the lyrics because musicians sometimes laugh or snigger. ‘Terry meets Julie at Waterloo Underground.’ And maybe someone in the band says, ‘Is he going to give her one then?’ We did it at the end of sessions. I didn’t even have a title for it. But people don’t want the reality.”
A less poetic reality excluded from Sunny Afternoon is the personal calamity of Davies’s divorce. Have Rasa, his first wife and Kinks backing singer, and Louisa, the older of their two daughters, seen the show in which they have a central role?
“The daughter has seen the show,” Davies says. “She liked it very much. I think the mother is coming to see it next week.”
Will he be there?
“I’m not sure.” There is a careful pause. “I think I’ve got to go abroad.” Davies smiles ruefully. “It makes one realise all those songs were character studies… Without those wonderful characters around me, I wouldn’t have had subject matter. Samuel Pepys, that’s what they used to call me.”
Buy tickets to Sunny Afternoon from Telegraph Box Office.
Sunny Afternoon is at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London until 31 Jan 2015 www.sunnyafternoonthemusical.com 0844 871 7622My gift arrived yesterday and due to being highly excited, I opened it up straight away.
I praise fiyah1 on his wrapping skills as it took a lot of effort to get inside. However once opened, my eyes were delighted.
On top of my presents was my first ever wax sealed letter. I loved it so much I almost didn't want to break the seal and open it.
I had informed my secret Santa that I loved solving jigsaws on Christmas and that I was a keen traveller, both criteria of which he fulfilled amazingly. I now have a cool jigsaw of my favourite console game ready to be completed on Christmas Day as well as lots of chocolate and biscuits to try out |
they plan to reap returns on their capital. At a June 3 press conference, Google announced the $25 million investment came primarily from a unique pairing of sources.
John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, a founder of @Home (Nasdaq:ATHM) who was an early investor in Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN), and Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, who brought Yahoo! (Nasdaq:YHOO) to market, split the lions' share of the funding. The two big spenders share reputations as powerhouses in Silicon Valley -- so they must expect big returns from Google, right?
Query not found: Google business plan
"We are not saying a lot about Google's business plan," said Kleiner Perkins' Russ Siegleman, who worked with Doerr on the deal. "We think it's the best search engine right now on the Internet. Obviously, we're going to build an interesting business about it."
And Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq:SUNW) co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim, now a vice president at Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO), was an early investor in Google. But Bechtolsheim would shed little light on the company's plans.
"That would be up to the company to communicate," he said.
But Bechtolsheim did reiterate that the company would avoid jumping into the content and portal business, which has been the path of choice of nearly every early search site, such as Yahoo!, Lycos (Nasdaq:LCOS), and Excite (Nasdaq:XCIT).
"What people thought of as search and now as portals are really media companies," Bechtolsheim said. "This is really a search company." Few who have looked at Google, doubt that it does search well. Page and co-founder Sergey Brin began developing Google three years ago while Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Unsatisfied with current search engines -- which often give thousands of bad results -- the two looked for a way to make search smarter.
Searching the entire Web
They didn't get their degrees, but in Sept. 1998, Page and Brin turned their dissertation project into a company. It works like this: The entire Web is constantly downloaded onto Google's computers, where it is aggregated, indexed and prepared for searches. When a user types in a search, Google performs a complex computation -- solving an equation that has 500 million variables and 2 billion terms -- to determine the best results on the "most important" sites. That equation takes into account many factors including how close the search terms are to each other, and whether other "important" Web sites point to the site the terms are on.
"You're asking the whole Web who's the greatest site to ask about this subject," said Page.
In order to do the computation, Google splits up the work on hundreds -- and perhaps thousands -- of low-cost PCs running the free Linux operating system, linked together in a parallel and redundant network. The system turns the low-end PCs into a supercomputer at a fraction of the price, Page said.
Page said he plans to use the $25 million to beef up the company's infrastructure and technology. Google plans to more than quadruple its staff from 23 to 100 by years' end, and has been buying PCs for its network in shipments of 80 at a time, though the company wouldn't disclose exactly how many computers it has.
You gotta sell it!
But John Hagen, an analyst with Forrester Research, said all the technology in the world won't generate revenue without good marketing and a business plan.
"Right now there are weak technologies that have great marketing and are making great progress" said Hagen. "The space moves too quickly and at some point, you have to make money."
Hagen said Google is reaping the benefits of the speculative nature of the Internet, which is still in a Wild West stage.
"We're in an unreal world now where the concept can get you $25 million -- where revenues and business plans, you don't need to have those," said Hagen. "But that blip's got to end at some point."
There are a finite number of ways of making money with search engines, Hagen said. You can build a portal around it like Lycos and Yahoo! did and make money with advertising and e-commerce. But Google said they won't do that. Another way is to partner with the portals and be paid for the searches they generate -- that's something Inktomi (Nasdaq:INKT) and Infoseek (Nasdaq:SEEK) do. But Google also indicated that wasn't on the table.
Build it and wait?
A third way to profit is to license the technology to other sites who can tailor it for their own needs, but Hagen doesn't think that would suit Google. The company could also build its technology and wait for a big company like AOL (NYSE:AOL) or Amazon to purchase them. Amazon might even be likely because Amazon vice president Ram Shriram is on the Google board, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is widely rumored to be an investor in Google.
But Hagen doesn't think that the large companies -- especially the portals -- would be interested in buying Google.
"My sense is those guys are more interested in licensing the 'best of brand,' " Hagen said. "If they buy Google they have to develop the technology. They're publishers really -- they're no longer technology companies."
But companies that have worked with Google think the company must have something up its sleeve. Red Hat has chosen Google as the browser on its home page and has worked with Google to make a search specifically for Linux-related sites. Red Hat Chief Technology Officer Marc Ewing said he's taking a wait and see approach.
"I don't know exactly how they're going to do it," said Ewing. "They're not idiots over there. They must have some sort of plan. They're just not sharing it."ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - The first bodies from a plane crash in Egypt in which all 224 passengers, most of them Russians, died over the weekend arrived in St Petersburg early on Monday morning aboard a Russian government plane.
The crashed Airbus A321 plane, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia, was carrying holidaymakers from the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg when it crashed in the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday morning.
Russian officials have said the plane likely broke up in mid-air but have stressed that it is too early to draw conclusions from this. President Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a national day of mourning.
Russian news agencies reported that a first Il-76 Emergency Situations Ministry plane flew into St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport a little before 6 a.m. local time, carrying 144 bodies.
The ministry said the next plane carrying bodies would leave Cairo on Monday evening for St Petersburg. On arrival, the first bodies were loaded onto stretchers and carried into a large white lorry waiting on the runway at Pulkovo Airport.
A Reuters photographer then saw the white lorry leaving the airport, escorted by police cars. It was heading for a St Petersburg morgue, where the bodies were to be identified.
The identification process was meant to start around 11 a.m. local time.
At Pulkovo Airport on Sunday, grieving Russians piled flowers high in memory of their dead compatriots. Mourners in Moscow arranged candles to spell out 7K-9268, the number of the flight that crashed.
Slideshow (4 Images)
Russia and other former Soviet republics have poor air safety records, notably on domestic flights. Some accidents have been blamed on the use of aging aircraft, but industry experts point to other problems, such as poor crew training and lax government controls.
St Petersburg authorities have decided that official mourning events will last until Tuesday in Russia’s second city.A mom has denied snatching Novak Djokovic’s Australian Open shirt from a teenager, and declared the sweaty souvenir is hers for the keeping.
Article continues below...
Yael Rothschild said she was hurt, and her three daughters very upset, by any suggestion the apparel she took home as a souvenir had been grabbed from schoolgirl Melissa Cook, or that it had even been intended for the 14-year-old.
Cook, a diehard Djokovic fan, had pleaded for the return of the shirt — claiming the world No. 1 tossed it to her after his epic Australian Open victory, only for Rothschild to swoop across and pinch it in midair. The moment was captured on video and went viral.
"I started crying because I couldn’t believe that something I truly believe he meant for me was taken by someone else," a tearful Cook told the Herald Sun.
Rothschild denied she snatched the shirt, and insisted, "I’m keeping it."
"When the shirt was thrown, there would have been 20 excited people, all with their hands out," she said.
"After [it had been] thrown, there would have been 19 disappointed people.
"Such is life. I am not sure how you can snatch it out of the hands [of] someone sitting three seats away from you, with a barrier between the seating," she added.
Rothschild said she thought Cook had caught other items of clothing tossed by the champion into the crowd after Sunday night’s epic final, in which Serbian Djokovic beat Spain’s world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in five sets to claim his third Australian Open crown.
"She was seen holding his sweat band, his towel and his shoe — not a bad night’s winnings," Rothschild said.
Cook denied the claim, saying she had taken along items that had been caught by relatives during the last year’s Open. She added, "And the towel she saw me with wasn’t even Djokovic’s — it was given to me by an official."Spock died. Two llamas went on the lam in Arizona. And an unassuming dress started the largest argument over color swatches since season two of Project Runway.
Just another 24 hours on the network. In my timeline at least, there no revolutions, massive terror attacks, natural disasters or government crackdowns (your timeline may vary). Just an ordinary day with a couple of crazy moments.
Yet the day after the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve "net neutrality" rules designed to make sure service providers treat all Internet content equally was just kind of networked day that a coalition of organizers and organizations worked for years to preserve: a day of shared photos, live video, and gazillions of social media posts bubbling from the bottom up.
In the eyes of those who successfully prosecuted the movement to assure the equal of content on the Internet - from my humble blog posts to the first day of the new streaming season of House of Cards (perhaps the largest discrepancy in bandwidth needs theoretically possible) - the FCC ruling was a major milestone, and a victory for a communal claim to the digital infrastructure that touches everyone's lives. It was a victory that took a decade, and it lifted the interests of everyday citizen over the power of the big broadband providers.
"The Internet is too important to allow broadband providers to make the rules," said FCC chair Tom Wheeler after the vote yesterday. "So today after a decade of debate in an open, robust year-long process, we finally have legally sustainable rules to ensure that the Internet stays fast, fair and open."
The concept of "net neutrality" has always been a little arcane for the non-techies among us, but I loved the way the Electronic Frontier Foundation (taking a much-deserved victory lap, I might add) described the importance of the ruling: "the FCC has banned ISPs from blocking or throttling their customers’ traffic based on content, applications or services—which means users, hackers, tinkerers, artists, and knowledge seekers can continue to innovate and experiment on the Internet, using any app or service they please, without having to get their ISP’s permission first."
That's exactly right - and it's a vital step in preserving not just our ability to endlessly stream llama videos, but to experiment with free access to the public Internet. Of course, the large cable and telecomm players were not happy with the ruling: they seek to meter and control access to the Internet based on business models (and, to be fair, their own costs) and they see it as an overreach by government into business. But public access to media has always been in the public business; the government has long guaranteed public access on cable television, as well as the broadcast spectrum, and telephony. The FCC was merely recognizing that public interest in the Internet parallels its interest in radio and television before.
My own interest in the ruling - and realistically, this is just a first step; the big companies and their backers in the Republican Party won't stop effort to throttle big bandwidth - lies in encouraging experimentation, particularly among social entrepreneurs.
As I wrote last year, it is no accident that the rise of social enterprises from the mid-90s to the present correlates almost perfectly with instant communications, access to vast knowledge, and the sharing of data and applications by many millions of people. Almost the second the Internet became a mainstream medium, a moment that can be nearly traced to the rise of America Online and the release of Netscape two decades ago, a bunch of do-gooders, techies, dreamers and social innovators took to its precincts with a will to use its low barrier to entry and open architecture to try and change some corner of society.
Thursday's ruling helps those dreamers and go-gooders - and in view, the rest of us as well.Sky Italia's Valentina Fass says Chelsea have held talks with Antonio Conte about becoming their new boss, but the deal has not been finalised Sky Italia's Valentina Fass says Chelsea have held talks with Antonio Conte about becoming their new boss, but the deal has not been finalised
Antonio Conte is the odds-on favourite to become the next Chelsea manager, following reports in Italy he has agreed a deal in principle to join the Blues in the summer.
Sky Sports News HQ understands Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo travelled to Italy on Tuesday and will be present at Juventus' Champions League last-16 tie against Bayern Munich, with Conte also due to attend.
SSN HQ are currently investigating the claim the Italy coach has agreed a two-year deal to become the permanent successor to Jose Mourinho.
Conte is currently priced 8/13 with Sky Bet to be Chelsea manager on the first day of next season.
Conte is the bookmakers' favourite to become the next Chelsea manager
His contract with Italy expires after the 2016 European Championship in the summer and he will be free to move to Stamford Bridge, with no compensation needed to be paid to the Italian Football Federation.
Sky Italia's Valentina Fass told SSN HQ that Conte had been linked with Chelsea for some time and a deal between the two was reported to be close to being agreed before Christmas.
Roman Abramovich (left) is looking to appoint a permanent successor to Jose Mourinho
However, she said nothing had been signed, adding: "We know that by March, Chelsea want to decide who their manager for next year will be - Conte seems to be ahead in the talks but nothing has been decided yet.
"There are still other contenders. [Diego] Simeone, even though it looks like he wants to stay at Atletico Madrid, is one of the names on the list still, also [Max] Allegri, Juventus manager, is on the list."
Former Chelsea manager Avram Grant has backed Conte for a move to the Premier League Former Chelsea manager Avram Grant has backed Conte for a move to the Premier League
If Conte does join Chelsea, he will become the 10th manager to work under owner Roman Abramovich since the Russian billionaire acquired the club from Ken Bates in 2004.
Guus Hiddink, who replaced Mourinho on an interim basis in December, has already stated his intention to retire from management at the end of the season, ruling himself out of taking the role permanently.But more importantly during Wednesday’s debate, Fiorina unleashed a scurrilous attack in her pitch to defund Planned Parenthood, saying of the attack videos released about the group:
“I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says, ‘We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.’ “
In fact, the footage of the fetus was “stock footage” that “was added to the video to dramatize its content,” according to PolitiFact, which rated Fiorina’s comments as “mostly false.” FactCheck.org also said: “We are aware of no video showing such a scene.”
As Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall put it Friday: “Fiorina has a habit of simply making things up.”
But in a way, the veracity of the attack is only one of the problems here. The other is that Fiorina would deny reproductive health services to women who have vastly fewer resources, or choices, than she does.
Adele M. Stan on Thursday captured Fiorina perfectly in a blistering assessment in The American Prospect.
“The evil genius of Fiorina,” Stan wrote, “is her uncanny ability to play the gender warrior within the GOP while promoting the party’s misogyny.” Stan continued: “But her feminism seems to begin and end with the fortunes of Fiorina herself, and seeing as she probably doesn’t rely on Planned Parenthood for her health care, she’s happy to deprive millions of women of that care by promoting outright lies about the organization, as in her false description of the video she referenced.”
This distancing herself from the realities of less fortunate women is not new for Fiorina. When she became C.E.O. of Hewlett-Packard in 1999, she made the preposterous claim that “there is not a glass ceiling… My gender is interesting but really not the subject of the story here.”The unexpected announcement that Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell will retire this September throws another important item onto the Liberal government’s already bloated reform agenda: what to do with the Supreme Court appointments process?
Appointments to Canada’s highest court have historically been conducted entirely behind-the-scenes, with the public’s only knowledge of an appointment coming when it is announced. Given the importance of the Court as a governing institution, especially in light of its policy-making power under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the opacity of the process is unacceptable in the modern era.
Reforms brought in under prime ministers Paul Martin and Stephen Harper effectively sought to add a post hoc transparency to the selection. In 2004, then-justice minister Irwin Cotler appeared before a committee of parliamentarians to explain his selection criteria. Then in 2006 the Harper government initiated the practice of having the appointee appear before a committee of MPs to answer questions about themselves, an innovation that was inconsistently applied to subsequent appointments. After the selection of Marc Nadon was overturned by the Court itself in 2014 (it turned out Nadon did not meet the eligibility requirements for judges from Quebec), prime minister Harper abandoned the reforms entirely.
On top of these efforts, Parliament was given more of a role in appointments by having the bipartisan committee of MPs narrow the prime minister’s list of seven nominees to a shortlist of three, from which the PM would then make the final selection. The superficiality of this process was superseded only by the detrimental effect it had on accountability: when questions about Nadon’s eligibility were raised in 2013, the committee members, regardless of party affiliation, refused to say who supported his inclusion on the shortlist, or even if the committee was unanimous. This lack of transparency allowed the government to point to the committee’s bipartisan composition when defending Nadon’s selection, in effect diluting any accountability for his failed appointment.
The public interviews of the appointees, when the government bothered with that part of the reform, suffered from terrible execution. Given mere days to prepare for the interview, and under guidelines that limited the types of questions asked, parliamentarians posed inquiries that ranged from the mundane to the vacuous. We got to watch as future Supreme Court justices were asked to name their personal heroes or invited to tell childhood anecdotes. Hardly an edifying exercise for members of the public who may have benefited from an opportunity to learn about how someone intended to do their job at one of the most powerful institutions in the country. When things did get interesting, it was only because an MP went entirely off-the-rails, as NDPer Joe Comartin did in 2011 when he repeatedly questioned Michael Moldaver about his lack of fluency in French, to the point that it could only be interpreted as an attempt to embarrass.
These problems, if addressed properly, can be rectified, and to do so I propose the following:
First, pick up on the 2004 innovation, only implemented once, of having the justice minister appear before the committee to explain and justify her selection.
Second, parliamentarians should be given weeks, not days, to prepare for the public interview. Allow MPs (and the media, and the public) the time to examine prospective justices’ records, whether that includes judgments from their time on lower courts, their academic writing, or public statements.
Third, do more to ensure MPs ask better questions. The public deserves to know how a future judge will approach the role, how they understand the Court’s relationship with Parliament and the government, how they understand rights and their limits, or conceptions of deference and the limits of the Court’s power, etc.
Fourth, eliminate restrictions on what MPs can ask. Judicial candidates tend to be intelligent, capable people. In some contexts, such as in relation to how they might decide potential future cases, they can simply refuse to answer a question.
Finally, and most significantly, make the appointee a nominee instead. No, I am not calling for a parliamentary confirmation vote, which risks turning the appointments process into a partisan circus and blurring lines of accountability. Instead, allow the prime minister to put forward the name of a nominee, with the understanding that the formal appointment will follow the public vetting process. If public vetting or the public interview turn up serious questions about an individual’s record or approach to his or her role on the Court, the prime minister should be free to select a different nominee.
Critics will complain that this might “politicize” appointments to the Court, but this complaint fails to recognize that Supreme Court appointments are inherently political; the fact that the process has been shrouded in secrecy does not mean it has somehow been apolitical historically. Pierre Trudeau, for example, actively sought reformist judges for the Court, and succeeded several times in making those types of appointments.
It matters who sits on the Court, not only from a merit-based perspective but also from a political one. Judges bring with them the baggage of life experience, including an ideological worldview, which, while constrained by legal rules and institutional norms, nonetheless makes a difference in how the complex, often moral-laden issues the Supreme Court routinely faces are ultimately resolved. Transparency and public vetting of the prime minister’s selection will serve to improve the public’s understanding of the Court’s work, including its political elements, something that has been ignored for far too long.
National Post
Twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane
Emmett Macfarlane is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. His book, Governing from the Bench: The Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Role, was published by UBC Press in 2013.In the past year the Dragonfly 2.0 cyber-espionage group has become "highly focused" on energy systems, the security firm Symantec said, and its hacking attempts accelerated in the first half of this year
In the past year the Dragonfly 2.0 cyber-espionage group has become "highly focused" on energy systems, the security firm Symantec said, and its hacking attempts accelerated in the first half of this year
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Washington (AFP)
A Russia-linked cyber-espionage group has hacked into the controls of electricity distribution networks in the US and Europe, raising the risk of malicious, remotely-caused blackouts, computer security firm Symantec said Wednesday.
Symantec said the group, dubbed Dragonfly 2.0, gained access to the operational systems in a number of energy operations in the United States, Turkey and Switzerland, "to the extent that the group now potentially has the ability to sabotage or gain control of these systems should it decide to do so."
Symantec did not link Dragonfly 2.0, which has been around for several years, to any specific country. But other cyber security analysts and the US government say Dragonfly, also dubbed Energetic Bear, has Russian roots and links to the Russian government.
It said Dragonfly 2.0 had been known to target Western infrastructure in recent years, attempting to access computer systems to install its own backdoor entryways through phishing ruses.
But in the past year it has become "highly focused" on energy systems, Symantec said, and its hacking attempts accelerated in the first half of this year.
"This is clearly an accomplished attack group," Symantec said.
"The Dragonfly group appears to be interested in both learning how energy facilities operate and also gaining access to operational systems themselves, to the extent that the group now potentially has the ability to sabotage or gain control of these systems should it decide to do so."
© 2017 AFPWhy the Hillary Clinton consensus is a threat to democracy—and the Left.
Trump is not the dirty water one should throw out to keep safe the healthy baby of U.S. democracy. He is the dirty baby who needs to be thrown out to make us believe that we got rid of the dirt.
Roger Ebert once said that a film is as good as its villain. Does this mean that the forthcoming U.S. elections will be good since the “bad guy” (Donald Trump) is almost an ideal villain? Yes, but in a very problematic sense. For the liberal majority, the 2016 elections represent a clear-cut choice: Trump is ridiculous, excessive and vulgar. He exploits our worst racist and sexist prejudices such that big-name Republicans are abandoning him in droves. If Trump remains the Republican candidate, we will get a truly “feel-good election.” In spite of all our problems and petty squabbles, when there is a real threat to our basic democratic values we come together, just like France did after the terrorist attacks.
But this comfortable democratic consensus should worry the Left. We should take a step back and turn the gaze on ourselves. What is the exact makeup of this all-embracing democratic unity? Everybody is there, from Wall Street bankers to Bernie Sanders supporters and veterans of the Occupy movement, from big business to trade unions, from army veterans to LGBT+ activists, from the ecologists horrified by Trump’s denial of global warming and the feminists delighted by the prospect of the first woman president to the “decent” Republican establishment figures terrified by Trump’s inconsistencies and irresponsible “demagogic” proposals. These very inconsistencies make his position unique.
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, observed in a personal e-mail to me:
After Orlando, he came out all warm and fuzzy about LGBT victims/people—in a manner that no other Republican would have dared. Also, it is common knowledge that he is not a “faithful” Christian and that he only says that he is for show—and by ‘common knowledge’ I mean that this is known by the … Christian sects that make up the U.S. fundamentalist front. Lastly, his position on abortion has for decades been a liberal one and it is, again, common knowledge, that he does not favour a repeal of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. In short, Trump has managed to change the cultural politics of the Republican Party for the first time since [Richard] Nixon. By adopting a crass, misogynist, racist language he has managed to release the Republican Party from its traditional reliance on the Fundamentalist, the homophobic and the anti-abortion ideological straitjacket. It is a remarkable contradiction that only a Hegelian can grasp!
His reference to Hegel is justified. Trump’s vulgar racist and misogynist style is what enabled him to undermine the Republican conservative-fundamentalist dogma. Trump is not simply the candidate of conservative fundamentalists. (He is perhaps an even greater threat to them than to “rational” moderate Republicans.) The paradox is, thus, that within the ideological space of the Republican Party, Trump was only able to undermine its fundamentalist core through racist and sexist populist vulgarities. This complexity, of course, disappears in the standard left-liberal demonization of Trump. Why? To see this, we should again turn our gaze towards the Hillary Clinton consensus.
The popular rage that gave birth to Trump also gave birth to Sanders. Both express widespread social and political discontent, but they do it in opposite ways—one engaging in rightist populism and the other opting for the leftist call for justice. And here’s the trick: The leftist call for justice tends to be combined with struggles for women’s and gay rights, for multiculturalism and against racism. The strategic aim of the Clinton consensus is clearly to dissociate all these struggles from the leftist call for justice, which is why the living symbol of this consensus is Tim Cook. Cook, the CEO of Apple, proudly signed a pro-LGBT letter to North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and can now easily forget about hundreds of thousands of Foxconn workers in China assembling Apple products in slave conditions. He made his big gesture of solidarity with the underprivileged by demanding the abolition of gender-segregated bathrooms.
If Cook is one living symbol of this consensus, Madeleine Albright, the first woman to be U.S. secretary of state, is another embodiment. On CBS’s 60 Minutes (May 12, 1996), Albright was asked about the Iraq War: “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?”
Albright calmly replied: “I think this is a very hard choice, but the price—we think the price is worth it.”
Let’s ignore most of the questions this reply raises (including the interesting shift from “I” to “we:” I think it’s a hard choice but we think the price is worth it) and focus on just one aspect: Can we imagine all the hell that would break out if the same answer were said by somebody like Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping or the Iranian president? Would they not be denounced immediately in all our headlines as cold and ruthless monsters? Campaigning for Clinton, Albright said: “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” (Meaning: women who vote for Sanders instead of Clinton.) Maybe we should amend this statement. There is a special place in hell for women—and men—who think half a million dead children is an affordable price for a military intervention that ruins a country, while wholeheartedly supporting women’s and gay rights at home.
Trump is not the dirty water one should throw out to keep safe the healthy baby of U.S. democracy. He is the dirty baby who needs to be thrown out to make us believe that we got rid of the dirt, i.e., in order to make us forget the dirt that remains, the dirt that lurks beneath the Hillary consensus. The message of this consensus to the Left is: You can get everything, we just want to keep the essentials, the unencumbered functioning of the global capital. With this frame, President Barack Obama’s “Yes, we can!” acquires a new meaning: Yes, we can concede to all your cultural demands, without endangering the global market economy—so there is no need for radical economic measures. Or, as University of Vermont professor Todd McGowan put it (in a private communication to me): “The consensus of ‘right-thinking people’ opposed to Trump is frightening. It is as if his excess licenses the real global capitalist consensus to emerge and to congratulate themselves on their openness.”
This is why WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is right in his crusade against Clinton, and the liberals who criticize him for attacking her, the only person who can save us from Trump, are wrong: The thing to attack and undermine now is precisely this democratic consensus against the villain.
And what about poor Bernie Sanders? Unfortunately, Trump hit the mark when he compared Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton to an Occupy partisan backing Goldman Sachs. Sanders should withdraw and remain silent in dignity so that his absence will weigh heavily over the Clinton celebrations, reminding us what is missing and, in this way, keeping the space open for more radical alternatives in the future.Victoria, BC - Frauds continue to have large impact on the citizens of Victoria and Esquimalt. March is Fraud Prevention Month, and the Victoria Police Department, alongside police departments, public service, commercial and government organizations across the country will be sharing information that can help fight frauds. We can’t do it alone, however. We need you to help us protect our communities. The best way you can help is by learning how you can protect yourself and those who love.
Over the month we’ll be working with partners in the community and the media to tell you what you need to know to “target harden” yourself and your loved ones. Each day you’ll see information posted on our Twitter and Facebook using the #FPM2017 tag about a type of fraud that’s prevalent in our communities. Each week you’ll see a “Fraud Friday” story with CTV’s Louise Hartland where we take an in-depth look at a fraud that has had an impact here. You’ll see an article in this month’s DVBA newsletter and in Victoria News talking focusing on frauds that impact business and our homes respectively.
“In 2015 and 2016, frauds took more from our communities than bank robberies did,” A/Chief Del Manak said. “While frauds often target our most vulnerable, they hurt all of us. Working together, we can help end their impacts in Victoria and Esquimalt.”
We’ll be inviting you to two “open-house” style Fraud Prevention talks, presented by our volunteer Reserve Constables. The first of these talks will be hosted at our 850 Caledonia Avenue Headquarters on Thursday, March 9th at 7:00 pm. You can RSVP here. A further talk will be hosted in Esquimalt during the week of March 20th – 24th. Further details and an invite to that meeting will be shared shortly.
For more information on fighting fraud please visit vicpd.ca/fraud or visit the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre at http://www.antifraudcentre.ca/"Second Variety" Author Philip K. Dick Country United States Language English Genre(s) Science Fiction Published in Space Science Fiction Publication type Periodical Publisher Space Publications Media type Print (Magazine) Publication date May 1953
"Second Variety" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in Space Science Fiction magazine, in May 1953. Set in a world where war between the Soviet Union and United Nations has reduced most of the world to a barren wasteland, the story concerns the discovery, by the few remaining soldiers left, that self-replicating robots originally built to assassinate Soviet agents have gained sentience and are now plotting against both sides. It is one of many stories by Dick to examine the implications of nuclear war, particularly after it has destroyed much or all of the planet.
The story was adapted into the movie Screamers in 1995.
The short story "Jon's World," written in 1954, serves as a sequel.
Plot summary [ edit ]
"Second Variety" occurs in the aftermath of an extensive nuclear war between the Soviet Union (sometimes referred to as Russia) and the United Nations. Early Soviet victories forced the North American government and production to flee to a Moon Base, leaving the majority of their troops behind. To counter the almost complete Soviet victory, U.N. technicians develop robots, nicknamed "claws" —the basic models are "a churning sphere of blades and metal" that ambush their unsuspecting victims "spinning, creeping, shaking themselves up suddenly from the gray ash and darting toward… [any warm body]." U.N. forces are protected from the claws by a special radiation-emitting wrist tab. Within six years, the sophisticated and independent claws have destroyed the Soviet forces, repairing and redesigning themselves in automated underground factories run without any human oversight.
The U.N. forces receive a message from the Soviets asking for a policy-level officer to go to them for a gravely urgent conference. The U.N. victory was costlier than they had expected. Major Joseph Hendricks is sent to negotiate with the Soviets. En route to the rendezvous, he meets a small boy named David who asks to accompany Hendricks. When they near the Soviet bunker, soldiers immediately kill the boy, revealing him to be an android. The claws' development program has evolved to develop sophisticated robots, indistinguishable from humans, designed to infiltrate and kill. The three Soviets met by Major Hendricks—soldiers Klaus, Rudi, and a young woman named Tasso—reveal that the entire Soviet army and command structure collapsed under the onslaught of the new robots - they are all that are left in the command center.
From salvaged internal metal identification plates, two varieties are identified: I-V, a wounded soldier, and III-V, David. II-V—the "second variety"—remains unknown. The different models are produced independently of each other in different factories. The Soviets also reveal that the U.N. protective tabs are ineffective against the new robots. Hendricks attempts to transmit a warning to his H.Q. bunker, but is unable to do so.
During the night, Klaus claims Rudi is the II-V and kills him, only for human organs to be revealed. The next morning, Hendricks and the two remaining Soviets return to the U.N. lines. When they reach the bunker, they discover it overrun: a crowd of David and Wounded Soldier robots attack, but Tasso destroys them with a very powerful hand grenade, stating that it was designed to destroy the robots. Hendricks and Tasso flee, leaving Klaus to the old-style claws. However, Klaus survives both the claws and the bomb blast only to be shot by Tasso, sending "gears and wheels" flying. Tasso tells Hendricks that Klaus must have been the II-V robot.
Hendricks, now suffering from a wounded arm and internal injuries, hopes to escape to the Moon Base. He and Tasso search for a hidden escape rocket, which is found to be a single-seat spacecraft. Hendricks attempts to leave, but Tasso convinces him to let her leave and send back help. In his injured state, he has no choice but to agree. Hendricks provides Tasso with the signal code needed to find the Moon Base.
Alone and armed with Tasso's pistol, Hendricks returns to Klaus' remains and discovers from the parts that the robot was not a II-V, but a IV-V.[1] A group of robots then attack Hendricks, including Davids, Wounded Soldiers, and several Tasso—the true II-V—models. Hendricks recognizes that he has doomed the Moon Base by sending a robot to them, and that he cannot withstand the onslaught of robots attacking him. Noticing the bombs carried by all the Tasso models, Hendricks' final |
These include the comparative safety and effectiveness of monotherapy with antipsychotics compared with combination therapy with mood-stabilizing medications, concurrent psychiatric medications other than mood stabilizers given as adjuncts to antipsychotics, mood-stabilizing medications compared with antipsychotics, and antipsychotic drugs alone versus in combination with nonpharmacologic interventions. These needs point to uncertainty about the use of specific intervention strategies for bipolar disorder among adolescents and young adults and suggest that future research in these areas would enhance patient-centered care for this vulnerable population. As evidenced by the summary of existing and ongoing studies, research addressing these evidence gaps is ongoing but additional comparative studies evaluating the effect of diverse treatment regimens on short- and long-term patient-centered outcomes are needed to adequately inform care.
Second, several research needs concerned specific outcomes of interest for antipsychotic medication use in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder. These include the comparative effects of antipsychotics on social, academic, and occupational functioning; defining the key patient- and family-centered outcomes for antipsychotic medication use; short- and long-term adverse effects of antipsychotic medication exposure; and the comparative effects of antipsychotics on core disease features immediately and in the long term. These needs point to uncertainty about appropriate metrics for antipsychotic use among adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder and how antipsychotic medications affect these metrics. Although several studies are exploring these outcomes of interest, studies assessing longer-term outcomes and adverse effects across available treatments remain scarce.
Finally, 2 research needs relate to how patient factors may affect the use of antipsychotic medications in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder. These include variation in antipsychotic medication safety and effectiveness depending on demographic differences and socioeconomic factors. These research needs point to uncertainty about how patient factors modulate the effect of antipsychotic medications in adolescents and young adults and suggest that future research in these areas would enhance patient-centered care for this population.
The Duke Evidence Synthesis Group was tasked with evaluating future research needs pertaining to the use of antipsychotic medications in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder, and the list of evidence gaps was compiled with this objective in mind. However, the prioritized list may not reflect the full range of possible future research needs relating to bipolar disorder in this population. For example, although we included a future research need relating to the effect of diagnostic uncertainty on therapeutic choices and the effectiveness and safety of antipsychotics in adolescents and young adults, a full exploration of the topic of diagnostic uncertainty was beyond the scope of this project. In addition, our group of stakeholders was relatively small, and another group might rank the identified future research needs differently. Furthermore, because a comprehensive systematic review has not been done for many of the identified evidence gaps, we cannot determine with certainty the degree to which prioritized future research needs have already been addressed. Finally, our study design recommendations consider only methodological issues. We recognize that real-world factors, such as the feasibility of conducting RCTs in young adult populations, may also affect the selection of study designs to further evaluate these gaps.
Treatment of bipolar disorder with antipsychotic medications among adolescents and young adults is increasing, but the evidence base supporting the patient-centered comparative effectiveness and safety of these medications has not kept pace. In order for patients, providers, and other stakeholders to make informed decisions, new patient-centered research is needed. On the basis of input from our stakeholder group, key research priorities pertaining to antipsychotic use in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder include the comparative effectiveness of treatment strategies, the effect of antipsychotics on specific outcomes, and the effect of patient characteristics on antipsychotic effectiveness. We hope that future research stimulated by this prioritized agenda will help address the identified gaps and improve patient outcomes.
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Am J Psychiatry 2009 166 795 804 PubMed CrossRef PubMed DelBello MP Hanseman D Adler CM Fleck DE Strakowski SM Twelve-month outcome of adolescents with bipolar disorder following first hospitalization for a manic or mixed episode. Am J Psychiatry 2007 164 582 90 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Birmaher B Longitudinal course of pediatric bipolar disorder [Editorial]. Am J Psychiatry 2007 164 537 9 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Geller B Tillman R Bolhofner K Zimerman B Child bipolar I disorder: prospective continuity with adult bipolar I disorder; characteristics of second and third episodes; predictors of 8-year outcome. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2008 65 1125 33 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Olfson M Blanco C Liu SM Wang S Correll CU National trends in the office-based treatment of children, adolescents, and adults with antipsychotics. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2012 69 1247 56 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Correll CU Sheridan EM DelBello MP Antipsychotic and mood stabilizer efficacy and tolerability in pediatric and adult patients with bipolar I mania: a comparative analysis of acute, randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Bipolar Disord 2010 12 116 41 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Pavuluri MN Henry DB Findling RL Parnes S Carbray JA Mohammed T et al Double-blind randomized trial of risperidone versus divalproex in pediatric bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disord 2010 12 593 605 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Geller B Luby JL Joshi P Wagner KD Emslie G Walkup JT et al A randomized controlled trial of risperidone, lithium, or divalproex sodium for initial treatment of bipolar I disorder, manic or mixed phase, in children and adolescents. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2012 69 515 28 PubMed CrossRef PubMed DelBello MP Kowatch RA Adler CM Stanford KE Welge JA Barzman DH et al A double-blind randomized pilot study comparing quetiapine and divalproex for adolescent mania. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2006 45 305 13 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Abou-Setta A, Mousavi S, Spooner C, Schouten J, Pasichnyk D, Armijo-Olivo S, et al. First-generation versus second-generation antipsychotics in adults: comparative effectiveness. Comparative effectiveness review no. 63. AHRQ publication no. 12-EHC054-EF. (Prepared by the University of Alberta Evidence-based Practice Center under contract 290-2007-10021.) Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2012. Accessed at First-generation versus second-generation antipsychotics in adults: comparative effectiveness. Comparative effectiveness review no. 63. AHRQ publication no. 12-EHC054-EF. (Prepared by the University of Alberta Evidence-based Practice Center under contract 290-2007-10021.) Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2012. Accessed at www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/ehc/products/146/1054/CER_63_Antipsychotics%20in%20Adults_08-20-121.pdf on 23 January 2014. Leibenluft E Severe mood dysregulation, irritability, and the diagnostic boundaries of bipolar disorder in youths. Am J Psychiatry 2011 168 129 42 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Axelson D Findling RL Fristad MA Kowatch RA Youngstrom EA Horwitz SM et al Examining the proposed disruptive mood dysregulation disorder diagnosis in children in the Longitudinal Assessment of Manic Symptoms study. J Clin Psychiatry 2012 73 1342 50 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Freedman R Lewis DA Michels R Pine DS Schultz SK Tamminga CA et al The initial field trials of DSM-5: new blooms and old thorns [Editorial]. Am J Psychiatry 2013 170 1 5 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Correll CU Antipsychotic use in children and adolescents: minimizing adverse effects to maximize outcomes. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2008 47 9 20 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Gierisch JM Myers ER Schmit KM Crowley MJ McCrory DC Chatterjee R et al Prioritization of research addressing management strategies for ductal carcinoma in situ. Ann Intern Med 2014 160 484 91 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Antipsychotic Medicines for Children and Teens: A Review of the Research for Parents and Caregivers. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2012. Accessed at Antipsychotic Medicines for Children and Teens: A Review of the Research for Parents and Caregivers. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2012. Accessed at http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/search-for-guides-reviews-and-reports/?pageaction=displayproduct&productID=1146 on 2 January 2014. Christian R, Saavedra L, Gaynes BN, Sheitman B, Wines RCM, Jonas DE, et al. Future research needs for first- and second-generation antipsychotics forchildren and young adults. Future research needs paper no. 13. (Prepared by the RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center under contract 290 2007 10056 I.) Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2012. Accessed at Future research needs for first- and second-generation antipsychotics forchildren and young adults. Future research needs paper no. 13. (Prepared by the RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center under contract 290 2007 10056 I.) Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2012. Accessed at www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/reports/final.cfm on 23 January 2014. Chang SM Carey TS Kato EU Guise JM Sanders GD Identifying research needs for improving health care. Ann Intern Med 2012 157 439 45 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Blader JC Carlson GA Increased rates of bipolar disorder diagnoses among U.S. child, adolescent, and adult inpatients, 1996–2004. Biol Psychiatry 2007 62 107 14 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Moreno C Laje G Blanco C Jiang H Schmidt AB Olfson M National trends in the outpatient diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder in youth. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2007 64 1032 9 PubMed CrossRef PubMed Ip S, Raman G, Concannon TW, Ratichek SJ, Yu W, Chang LKW, et al. Intravascular diagnostic procedures and imaging techniques versus angiography alone in coronary artery stenting: future research needs. Future research needs paper no. 25. AHRQ publication no. 13-EHC016-EF. (Prepared by Tufts Evidence-based Practice Center under contract 290-2007-10055-I.) Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2013. Accessed at Intravascular diagnostic procedures and imaging techniques versus angiography alone in coronary artery stenting: future research needs. Future research needs paper no. 25. AHRQ publication no. 13-EHC016-EF. (Prepared by Tufts Evidence-based Practice Center under contract 290-2007-10055-I.) Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; 2013. Accessed at www.effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/ehc/products/512/1413/coronary-artery-stenting-future-130604.pdf on 23 January 2014.Would you splurge £4,170 on a pair of designer headphones? Chanel's latest luxury accessory to hit stores this month
Chanel X Monster headphones'marry supreme aesthetics and audio'
Come in at a hefty price of £4,170, confirmed by Chanel today
Made their debut at the Chanel AW14'supermarket theme' show
Everyone knows that if you want to wear Chanel you've got to put your hand in your pocket.
Karl Largerfeld's latest offering for AW14 is luxury headphones and we do mean luxury.
The quilted leather accessory will be on every fashionista's wish list - but whether they can afford them is another matter altogether.
Chanel has confirmed to MailOnline that they will have a price tag of an eye-watering £4,170, Chanel confirmed with MailOnline today.
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Chanel are releasing their newest fashion accessory mid-September, a pair of £5,250 headphones
That's about the same as a small car, but the quality both inside and out is said to be exceptional.
Karl has collaborated with trendy tech firm Monster for the unique pairing of 'timeless aesthetics and supreme audio technology'.
With a heavy splash of Chanel's iconic style, these headphones feature the couture brand's signature quilting with a double C monogram and matching carry case.
While they debuted at the Chanel Autumn Winter 2014 catwalk show in Paris this March, their official release date has only just been announced.
And when we contacted Chanel to confirm, they said: 'These headphones are from the AW14/15 collection and cost £4,170. The collection is available from CHANEL boutiques in mid September.'
Chanel x Monster headphones debuted at the Chanel AW14 catwalk show in Paris this March
Metro's Tech Editor James Day comments:
'Audio brand Monster are no strangers to the outrageous, having recently teamed up with Lamborghini to release a limited edition €3.3 million Veneno sports car.
'The company used to make headphones for Beats by Dre before an acromonious split sent both companies in different directions. Monster has concetrated on high-profile collaborations with fashion and sporting brands, so set a of Chanel headphones doesn't come as a huge surprise.
'What does, however, is that price tag. While the sound is likely to be exceptional it's possibly nothing you wouldn't experience on a pair costing a tenth of the price. You are probably, as you might expect, paying for the exclusivity and the Chanel name.
'But they actually look pretty smooth, and given Monster has a penchant for the garish designs popular with Americans, Karl Largerfeld's has clearly had plenty of input here.'
Models perused Chanel-brand food at the show - such as haute Ketchup and eau de ChanelInadequate planning, a change in government, severe funding cutbacks to sports organizations and an apparent overestimation of the impact the Olympics can have on mass participation have all forced a rethinking of England’s Olympic legacy.
The latest plan, unveiled in November by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, omitted the one million target figure. It spoke instead of encouraging more people to take up sports through Places People Play, a program sponsored by the National Lottery.
“We haven’t yet dropped the target, but we’re looking at it fairly carefully,” Hugh Robertson, Britain’s minister for sport and the Olympics, said in a telephone interview.
What is needed is a more sensible way to define and measure sports and physical activity, Mr. Robertson and other sports experts said. Does walking to the bus stop count? If someone plays a pickup soccer match for 90 minutes, does that count as one sporting session or three?
Anecdotal evidence suggests that more people participate in sports than surveys reveal, Mr. Robertson said. But, he added, measuring participation involves a “slightly clunky mechanism.”
All Olympic bids are required to show how the Games will provide lasting benefits. Each city is allowed to devise a legacy plan. There are no specific penalties for failing to reach a target, but the fallout can undermine the reputation of a particular Winter or Summer Games and bring political opprobrium.
Some critics have accused Mr. Robertson of watering down London’s post-Olympic ambitions. He replied, “That’s emphatically what we’re not trying to do.”
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Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the British Olympic Association, said sports and government officials were determined to leave a meaningful legacy from the London Games and to transform plans “from rhetoric to reality.”
London is hardly the first host city to struggle with its Olympic legacy. In truth, international events like the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup leave a greater discernible impact on infrastructure than on sports. Roads, airports and rail systems are improved while a number of stadiums become white elephants and lingering sporting benefits remain indistinct.
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Six years after Albertville, France, hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics, the figure-skating arena and speed-skating oval there were fenced off and abandoned. The magnificent Olympic stadium showcased during the 2008 Beijing Games, known as the Bird’s Nest, was seldom being used a year and a half later.
In London, there has been heated debate about whether its $854 million Olympic Stadium should be demolished after 17 days’ use and replaced with a soccer stadium or downsized and left as an arena that could host both soccer and track and field. The second option prevailed Friday in a vote by the company in charge of the Games’ legacy.
Research on the Olympic Games stimulating mass participation in sports has not produced encouraging results. In 2007, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the British House of Commons concluded that “no host country has yet been able to demonstrate a direct benefit from the Olympic Games in the form of a lasting increase in participation.”
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A study of the 2000 Sydney Games showed that while seven Olympic sports experienced a slight increase afterward in Australia, nine showed a decline.
After the 2002 Commonwealth Games, held in Manchester, England, “there appears to have been no recorded impact on sports participation levels” in the country’s northwest, Fred Coalter, a professor of sports studies at the University of Stirling in Scotland, wrote before London won the 2012 Olympic bid.
The Olympics will leave a legacy of new and renovated stadiums, but they probably “will not result in a new wave of mass participation in sport,” according to the Center for Sport, Physical Education and Activity Research at Canterbury Christ Church University in England.
Physically active people may be enticed to become more active or to try a new sport, said Mike Weed, a professor of sport in society at Canterbury University. Those who were formerly active may be encouraged by the Olympics to renew their participation, he said. This is known as the demonstration effect.
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But what this phenomenon does not do, Dr. Weed said in a telephone interview and in a recent paper, “is have any effect whatsoever on those who have never participated in sport.”
The average person may feel a disconnect from elite athletes, he said, while the most sedentary might be put off by perceived pressure to lose weight and become more active. This seemed to be borne out in recent interviews conducted with weekend warriors in Manchester.
“The Olympics are up here and we’re down here,” said Asha Solanki, 30, who works in marketing and participates in martial arts. “It seems unachievable. How many people do you know who do the 400-meter hurdles?”
The latest legacy plan, Places People Play, is a £130 million ($210 million) effort to build, maintain and repair local sports facilities; train 40,000 volunteers to organize grass-roots sports; provide competitions for primary and secondary school students; and encourage 100,000 adults to raise money for charity and test themselves in multiple Olympic and Paralympic sports.
At the plan’s unveiling, Sebastian Coe, an Olympic gold medalist runner who is the London Olympics’ chief organizer, said it would “harness the inspirational power of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to promote sport across the country.”
But Tessa Jowell, the opposition minister for sport and the Olympics, said, “However they dress it up, the Olympic legacy promise that we made to this country’s young people is yet another promise that has been broken by the coalition government.”
The plan addresses supply but says little about how to increase the demand for participation in sports, Dr. Weed, the professor said. Mr. Robertson, the sports minister, said he thought a multifaceted grass-roots initiative could succeed.
“I wouldn’t for a moment underestimate the difficulty of what we’re trying to do,” Mr. Robertson said. “But that’s not a good reason not to do it. It was the promise we made, so we’re going to try.”Curbed Detroit and DetroitUrbex collaborated on an exploration of the Pontiac Silverdome, former home of the Lions, Pistons, and Wrestlemania III. Their photos of the ruined and abandoned stadium are depressing, but in way, there's also something serene about them.
The Silverdome stopped seeing regular usage after the Lions moved to Ford Field in 2002, and maintenance costs led the city of Pontiac to put it up for sale in 2009. The 80,000-seat stadium, which was completed in 1975 for $55.7 million (about $245 million in today's dollars), sold at auction for $583,000.
The new owner couldn't find anything to do with it; the Silverdome last hosted an event in 2011. In December of 2012, the iconic inflatable roof was permanently deflated—strong winds ripped it to shreds weeks later, and no one's bothered to fix it. The playing surface now sits on (and below) several feet of water. Nature reclaims everything, eventually.
To turn some sort of profit on the site, the owner is preparing to auction off everything that's not nailed down, including seats, signage, and fixtures. These photos are your last look at the Silverdome in anything resembling game shape.
Check out DetroitUrbex for the full photoset. Below are some of the highlights.
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[via Shutdown Corner]Israel’s ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that the country will present President-elect Donald Trump with “evidence” that the Obama administration orchestrated an anti-settlement resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Friday.
Ron Dermer told CNN that Israel is angry with the US over the resolution because it is “the only country where we have any expectation to actually stand with us at the United Nations.”
The US abstained from the vote, which passed 14-0.
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“It’s an old story that the United Nations gangs up against Israel. What is new is that the United States did not stand up and oppose that gang-up. And what is outrageous is that the United States was actually behind that gang-up,” Dermer said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qOyAdRy6LI
Confirming claims made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman a day earlier, Dermer said Israel has proof the White House drove the resolution, and will “present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels.”
“If they want to share it with the American people, they are welcome to do it,” he said, sidestepping a question on why Israel would not release the information itself.
Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Netanyahu’s spokesman David Keyes said Arab sources, among others, had informed Jerusalem of President Barack Obama’s alleged involvement in advancing the resolution.
“We have ironclad information, frankly, that the Obama administration really helped push this resolution and helped craft it, from sources internationally and sources in the Arab world,” Keyes told the US media outlet.
The White House has adamantly denied “cooking up” the resolution, rejecting accusations by Netanyahu to that effect.
“We did not draft this resolution; we did not introduce this resolution. We made this decision when it came up for a vote,” Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said on Friday. But because of its opposition to settlement activity and concern for what it could mean for the region, the US “could not in good conscience veto,” he added.
Dermer, in a subsequent interview with MSNBC Monday, called Rhodes a “master of fiction” — a harsh barb that seemed to evoke Rhodes’ past literary aspirations.
Netanyahu held a 40-minute meeting with US Ambassador Dan Shapiro on Sunday evening, having summoned the envoy to explain why the US abstained in the vote on Resolution 2334. He had earlier summoned the envoys of the 12 nations with representatives in Israel that voted for the resolution for a dressing-down at the Foreign Ministry.
Netanyahu on Monday defended the rebukes and the punitive measures he has taken against countries who proposed the resolution, saying that “Israel is a country with national pride and we will not turn the other cheek.
“There is continued importance for this sort of response, even if there are more attempts to damage us in the coming month,” he said, referring to the remaining three and a half weeks of Obama’s term.
But Netanyahu is now actively reaching out to the incoming Trump administration, which takes office on January 20, and to friends in Congress, in the hope of “deterring” what he sees as further potential Obama administration-led diplomatic action against Israel, a report by Channel 2 said Sunday. His aim is reportedly for the Trump team to make plain that his administration will “economically hurt” those countries that voted against Israel in the UN and that do so in the future.
Netanyahu’s fear is that Secretary of State John Kerry will set out principles or parameters for a Palestinian state in a speech that he has said he will deliver in the next few days on his Middle East vision. The prime minister fears that, in its final days, the Obama administration will seek to have a resolution enshrining those parameters adopted by the UN Security Council, the report said.The Marvel Cinematic Universe is all about the practical. Its heroes engineered their way into power suits, were made super thanks to a medical procedure or nuclear incident, traveled to Earth from a place that physicists can locate, or are rather adept at shooting arrows. It’s a team of scientists, engineers, soldiers and, inexplicably, an archer. It only made sense to add a doctor.
But half an hour into “Doctor Strange,” which comes out this weekend, all that grounding in science and engineering goes out the window in a kaleidoscopic acid trip through the cosmos. The fabric of reality is torn in a gorgeous and terrifying crash course in the mystical and magical. Your arrows will not help you here. There are legit wizards in the Marvel world now.
While superheroes like Strange get all the attention when culture writers talk about big franchises and splashy CGI blockbusters, Hollywood and audiences have for years had a second, maybe even stronger cinematic obsession: magic. And magic is making its way back to the big screen this month in a big way, not only with the introduction of sorcerers into the Marvel Cinematic Universe but also with “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” an extension of the Harry Potter franchise. It’s the first in a film series that will literally end with fighting Nazi wizards.
And it’s about time:
What you see above is a three-year rolling average of annual domestic box-office receipts, as reported by The Numbers database, for movies with the IMDb plot keywords “magic” and “superhero” since 2000. Ever since the Potter octology wrapped, there’s been a dearth of magical tentpoles in the movie world.
Until, that is, November 2016. You like magic? This month, you get magic. “Doctor Strange,” “Trolls,” “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and “Moana” are so lousy with enchantments that there’s a Sorcerer’s General Warning on the outside of the box. It almost makes you worried that Peter Jackson will pull a Beyonce and do a surprise midnight release of a Silmarillion movie. In the era of the superhero, magic is back like a White Walker infestation.
Movies have featured magic more or less as long as there have been movies. “Nosferatu,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “The Wizard of Oz” are all remembered as classics, and all of them involve some element of the magical or mystical. These days, films where characters perform actual magic — not just use sleight of hand to pull the rabbit out of the hat — fold these arcane powers into the plot in one of two ways: play it completely straight (There is a rabbit coming out of a hat because the person who did it is a freaking wizard and the hat is actually magic), like the Potter movies do, or pull an Arthur C. Clarke and gussy it up as technology so far advanced beyond contemporary understanding that it becomes indistinguishable from magic (There’s hyperphysics in that top hat). The latter technique is the one the latest MCU installment uses to sell Doctor Strange on the hocus pocus in his debut; when he’s not on board with the whole “sorcerer” deal on day one, he’s told that magic can be thought of as futzing with “the source code of the Universe.”
But all this lampshade-hanging is odd, given that as a medium, superhero films — the film industry’s most-fetishized genre these days — owe everything to magical literature. No disrespect to Stan Lee, but several of the origin stories and modus operandi of Marvel heroes — Hulk, Invisible Woman, the Asgardians, Namor — are pretty much ripped directly from a Gothic novel, a magical myth, or a supernatural legend.
And the early development of superheroes in general would have been impossible without magic. The comic production houses existed before guys with capes, and they had to be writing something. That something was stories about wizards and monsters and whatnot. “Spider-Man” first appeared on the page in 1962 in “Amazing Fantasy #15.” Well, #14 was about leprechauns, #9 involved genies granting wishes, #7 had witches and #2 involved Atlantis. The creative mind-set that enabled the creation of the D.C. and Marvel superhero universes was first honed in the world of magic, the supernatural, monsters and the unexplainable. You couldn’t write the legacy-defining story about a Spider-Man without first spending a year cranking out rejected “Twilight Zone” episodes and blatant ripoffs of Mary Shelley and Jules Verne.
So in some ways, “Doctor Strange” is the magic-superhero sibling rivalry coming full circle. And if “Fantastic Beasts” proves to be a hit, then 2016 could see the great rebounding of magic movies over superhero flicks. Indeed, while every country notoriously has their own idiosyncratic taste in movies — Germans love comedies, Spain is obsessed with horror — magic knows no boundaries, and until three years ago, it was crushing the capes internationally.
Granted, much of this has to do with the actions of a very special Hogwarts student — Hermione, the one whose intellect kept Harry Potter alive long enough to make eight international blockbuster hits. With Hermione off the big screen, and with some awful Hobbit movies marching through theaters, the magical genre has taken a serious hit. Until this very month.
Still, films about magic come with a fascinating liability. China limits the number of non-Chinese films that it allows into its theaters each year — the current cap is 34. China is the second-largest movie market on the globe. And Chinese censors hate magic.
Earlier this year, “Super Power Dare-To-Die Team,” released in the U.S. as “Ghostbusters,” was barred from release in the Chinese market because of its supernatural and occult content. “Crimson Peak” was similarly denied. “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” never stood a chance because of the number of ghosts involved. If it “promotes cults or superstition” in the eyes of the censors, you’re toast unless you recut.
Both “Doctor Strange” and “Fantastic Beasts” scored release dates, but competition for those 34 slots is fierce, so magical movies outside of the top tier could struggle. And while all of the Potter films have seen a Chinese release — even if they were sometimes delayed for political reasons — concern about being allowed into the Chinese market does help explain why Warner Bros. never called John Cleese to ask him to reprise his stint as the ghost Nearly Headless Nick.
So as the industry’s goals become more global and less about the U.S. and Canada, movies about magic may be at a slight disadvantage here. Unless, of course, the practitioners throw on a cape and a primary color scheme and call themselves superheroes.Liberal MP Irwin Cotler speaks during a press conference last November. Cotler introduced a bill on April 27, 2015 to restore hate speech provisions to the Canada Human Rights Act, which were repealed in 2013. (Matthew Little/Epoch Times)
Cotler Seeks to Restore Anti-Hate Speech Provisions in Human Rights Act
Liberal MP Irwin Cotler introduced a private member’s bill this week that would restore provisions against hate speech to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
He wants to partially undo a Conservative bill that repealed the hate speech provisions in Section 13 of the act that took effect in 2013—something he described in announcing his bill as “throwing out the baby with the proverbial bathwater.”
During debates in 2012 about repealing those provisions, Cotler argued that a better move would be to refine rather than eliminate the provisions.
His new bill aims to do that with measures to guard against frivolous suits or abuse of process and requires the consent of the Attorney General for a complaint to go forward. The bill would also allow for the awarding of costs while also expressly protecting freedom of expression.
“Freedom of expression is the lifeblood of democracy,” said Cotler, who was minister of justice under Paul Martin.
“However, hate speech is not simply a matter of offending sensibilities or being politically incorrect. It causes real and tangible harm, can assault the very values underlying free speech, can breach our international commitments, and can assault the principle of equality.”How can we explain the “occlusion of embodied power” and “lack of attention to race, gender, and sexuality” in the discipline of political science, a field “that claims power as a central analytical concept” (17)? In her new book, Embodied Power: Demystifying Disembodied Politics (Routledge, 2016), Mary Hawkesworth (Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University) brings intersectionality, feminist theory, and post- and de-colonial theory to bear on the mainstream study of politics. She argues for the need to move away from customary concepts of “power” and “the political” that mask state practices that construct various forms of hierarchy. These concepts and the methodologies and epistemologies they give rise to, she argues, lead the discipline unable to grapple with issues such as the carceral state or the violence of nation-building. At the same they cover over the ways that “racialization and gendering have been constitutive of knowledge production within the discipline” (17). In the interview, Hawkesworth discusses these conceptual practices of power as well as how intersectional attention to embodied power can reclaim the study of politics.
John McMahon is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Beloit College. He is a former Fellow at the Center for Global Ethics and Politics at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The Graduate Center, CUNY, which sponsors the podcast.Share
T-Mobile is getting into the business of selling its own branded smartphones. The first in its lineup is called Revvl, and it’s a cheap phone made by TCL-owned Alcatel.
Design
The Revvl has an earpiece at the top and bottom, an LED flash for illuminated selfie pictures, and rounded corners on all four sides. On the right are what appear to be a physical power button and a volume rocker, and it is completely black in color. The back of the phone is also black but comes in a metallic finish that’s similar to the shininess of the HTC U11.
From the front, it looks a little like an iPhone.
Specs and screen
The Revvl won’t break speed barriers anytime soon, but that’s not to say its hardware isn’t competitive.
T-Mobile’s “feature-packed” midrange phone has a 5.5-inch Full HD (1,280 × 720) IPS display, a 13-megapixel rear camera and a wide-angle 5-megapixel front camera, and 3,000mAh battery. There is a fingerprint sensor onboard, and a USB-C charging spot. The device also includes 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable to 128GB thanks to the MicroSD card slot.
In terms of software, it runs Android Nougat — the 2016 version of Google’s mobile operating system.
Price and availability
The Revvl is available in T-Mobile stores and on the carrier’s website. You can purchase the phone for $0 down and $5 a month with T-Mobile’s Jump! On Demand! service. Alongside the phone’s launch, the company introduced another program |
who was kidnapped and burned alive, baby Ali Dawabsheh who was burned with his parents in his home in Duma, and Hadeel Al-Hashlamoun who was shot at an army checkpoint in Hebron (al-Khalil).
In cross examination, Hardak asserted that Mendel’s interpretation of “shuhada” as victims must be wrong since the poet could hardly advise her readers to be murdered like them. Dr. Mendel explained that the poem’s call to “follow the caravan of martyrs” is not meant to be taken literally. The poem doesn’t ask readers to be killed and follow the martyr into their graves, but rather to commemorate the victims, to comfort the bereaved families, and to refuse to accept political solutions that deny Palestinian national and human rights.
Hardak Attempts to Tarnish Dr. Mendel’s Reputation
During the cross-examination, the aggressive prosecutor attacked Dr. Mendel’s credibility, citing two opinion articles he published in 2012 and 2014 which purportedly reveal a pro-Arab slant. She quoted the articles out of context and proceeded to attack his political views. The defense lawyers requested the judge to limit the examination to questions that directly relate to the trial and Mendel’s obvious expertise as a translator, but the judge rejected their objections and allowed the hostile counter interrogation to continue.
After almost five hours of exhausting attacks and rebuttals, the prosecutor switched strategies and presented Dr. Mendel with three videos from YouTube which ostensibly showed images of Palestinian acts of violence (the spectators in the court weren’t privy to the videos). Hardak demanded that he translate the videos to the court in order to “test” him. Mendel translated parts of the videos while the prosecutor insulted his skills and questioned his expertise. Since neither the prosecutor nor the judge speak or understand Arabic, it was difficult to see how this exercise could be designed to test the competency of the witness.
At a certain point, the prosecutor presented yet another video and asked Mendel to describe what he saw. He wearily answered that he saw yet another example of the unending violence on both sides. According to the prosecutor, Mendel thereby failed the test for not rushing to condemn Palestinian violence.
Eventually the true intention of the showing the videos became clear: the prosecutor wanted these highly prejudicial clips to be entered as evidence into the court record “through the back door” in order to impose an Israeli narrative of victimhood. Tatour’s lawyers objected to the submission of the videos, arguing that they are irrelevant to the case. The argument turned into a battle of insults and shouts, and eventually the judge postponed her decision until the next hearing.
March 28, 2017: Israeli Discrimination in the Spotlight
The defense team for Dareen Tatour has always argued that their client has been the victim of unjust discrimination at the hands of a rigged criminal justice system. From the outset of the trial, Tatour’s first lawyer Abed Fahoum contended that the Israeli criminal justice system investigates, indicts, and jails Arab citizens for incitement at a far higher rate than Jewish offenders. He had asked Judge Bambiliya to instruct the police and the state prosecutor to provide him with relevant statistical data so that he could substantiate his claim. The judge refused the request on the grounds that there was no evidence of discriminatory enforcement.
It turns out that this wasn’t true.
In June 2016, the Negev Coexistence Forum submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to receive data about this pressing legal issue. The applicants received a reply in August 2016, and two journalists John Brown and Noam Rotem wrote a detailed article (in Hebrew) on the police’s data and published it on a news site called Sikha Mekomit (Local Call).
The released data confirmed an unambiguous pattern of discrimination against Arabs. From the beginning of 2016 to the report’s release, 37 indictments were filed against Palestinian Arabs for incitement, as compared to zero for Jews. According to the Ministry of Justice, only three cases were filed against Jews for incitement in previous years. The lack of prosecution doesn’t mean that Jewish citizens weren’t involved in posting inciting hate speech on social media. According to the Berl Katznelson Foundation’s hate report, 175,000 inflammatory calls were recorded in 2016. A third of these were explicit threats including murder against Arabs, leftists, and asylum seekers.
The new attorneys for the defense Gaby Lasky and Nery Ramati found the FOIA police data. On March 28, they summoned Chief Inspector Yaniv Hami, the officer in charge of releasing it, to testify and submit the data to Judge Bambiliya. His testimony, however, turned out to be anti-climactic because all he managed to say was that, yes, he was the person who released the data. He couldn’t answer most questions, since the reports were produced by a statistician on behalf of the police, and he only mediated their transfer to the applicants. After more heated disagreement between the prosecution and the defense, the data was finally entered into the court record for further review.
The Prosecution Wins another Month of Detention for the Poet
At the end of the Inspector’s brief testimony, the defense rested its case, and it was expected that the timetable for the summaries and the verdict would be set, but the prosecutor stopped the proceedings and asked to summon a surprise witness: the very first attorney who advised Tatour on the morning of her arrest on October 11, 2015.
In the very early hours of that morning, Tatour was brought in for interrogation, but refused to answer questions before consulting a lawyer. Before her second interrogation, she was permitted to consult with attorney Hussam Maw’ed. The investigator charged her with many violations, most of which never appeared in the indictment that was later filed. At first, Tatour denied all the accusations. However in later interrogations, once the police presented Tatour with the materials they found on her computer and phone, she admitted publishing them and explained in detail her intent behind each publication.
When Tatour testified before the judge in November 2016, she was asked by the prosecutor why she had “lied” during the first interrogation. She explained that in her meeting with the lawyer Hussam Maw’ed he informed her of the serious nature of the charges and he advised her to deny everything. At this stage it was not clear to the police or to Tatour what the charges even were.
The prosecutor demanded that that attorney Hussam Maw’ed be brought as a witness in order to refute Tatour’s testimony regarding his legal advice. The defense objected sharply to summoning a lawyer to testify against his former client, explaining that this would constitute a serious breach of attorney-client privilege. Despite the reasonable objection, Judge Bambiliya approved the prosecutor’s request to summon the witness, refused to limit his testimony, and set a special session for April 27 at 12:00 noon. All this is unlikely to change the result of the trial, which is about the content of Tatour’s publications, but it prolonged the trial and added yet another month to her house detention.
Tactical Maneuver to Slant the Record
Just as it seemed that the hearing was ending, the prosecutor Alina Hardak reminded everybody that she still wanted to submit the three videos that were shown to the defense witness, Dr. Yoni Mendel, during cross-examination on March 19. What she brought as evidence was a sheet of paper with three links to the YouTube videos and a DVD disc with a text file containing the links to allow the judge to play the YouTube videos.
In one video, a Palestinian man announces his intention to carry out an attack in Tel Aviv and to be a shahid. The second video is called “the lovers of the stabbings” and erroneously displays the picture of Hadeel al-Hashlamoun, who is mentioned in Tatour’s poem, among the pictures of perpetrators of attacks (Amnesty International has called the murder of Hadeel an extra-judicial killing). The third video shows scenes of stone throwing and more violence, including a car trying to run over pedestrians. These are the videos that were used to “test” the translating ability and the bias of Dr. Mendel.
Defense attorney Ramati fiercely objected to submitting the video links on three primary grounds. First of all, he explained, whoever uploaded the films could alter their content at any time. Second, the videos were not neutral material for testing Dr. Mendel’s translation abilities; and third, the prosecution’s insistence on submitting videos could only be construed as an attempt to introduce new, unrelated content that would bias the court against the defendant, bypassing all the due procedures for presenting evidence in a criminal trial.
The prosecutor insisted on the importance of the court watching the videos yet again in order to understand the context of Dr. Mendel’s testimony. The judge agreed to this, and the discussion and debate over the videos and their content was debated for a long time. Then the issue of whether or not a person can edit the content of a Youtube video without changing the link ensued, and even the spectators in the court got involved in the discussion.
Ultimately the judge decided that, since she can’t decide the factual question of whether it is possible to edit videos after they are posted on YouTube, she will not accept the links at this stage. It was the first small victory in the Sisyphean struggle of the defense in an outrageous trial in which the prosecution has already crossed too many red lines to count. And yet, no doubt, there will be a few more red lines to be crossed before a verdict is reached this summer.
Some of this report was based on articles previously published in Hebrew by Yoav Haifawi (here and here) and Ofra Yeshua-Lyth (in HaOketz)
Allies of Dareen Tatour have set up a fundraising page for the legal defense fund for Dareen Tatour.Although the courtroom will hear from 11 black or biracial men and a Hispanic woman about their experiences of being stopped repeatedly by the police, the class-action lawsuit — Floyd v. City of New York — claims to represent “hundreds of thousands if not millions of people” who experienced “suspicionless and race-based stops” by the city’s police officers.
The lead plaintiff, David Floyd, a medical student in the Bronx, was stopped twice, according to the suit. The first time was in April 2007, as he walked on the sidewalk; the following year, he said, he was stopped while standing outside his home, helping a neighbor try to get back inside an apartment after becoming locked out. (Mr. Floyd had retrieved a number of keys from his godmother, who owned the house, and was trying them one by one.) The police approached Mr. Floyd and the neighbor and detained them on suspicion of burglary, ordering Mr. Floyd against a wall and searching his pockets.
The trial’s outcome will be decided by a federal judge, Shira A. Scheindlin, who is currently hearing two related stop-and-frisk lawsuits. One of the suits already resulted in a lengthy hearing held late last year, which included testimony by both police officials and Bronx residents who had been stopped.
But that suit deals with only a small number of stops at private residential buildings in the Bronx, whose landlords had authorized the police to patrol there. In that case, Judge Scheindlin has issued a preliminary ruling that many of the stops at issue were unconstitutional, a ruling that would seem troublesome for the city in the Floyd case.
The third lawsuit, still a long way from trial, concerns stops in public housing projects.
But the Floyd suit, which was filed in 2008, challenges the largest number of stops — several million in recent years — and embodies the stop-and-frisk debate most closely. The trial centers on whether street stops in the city have soared because, as the plaintiffs claim, the Police Department has increasingly ignored constitutional limits on its authority to detain people when they investigate behavior that they deem suspicious.As I work towards completing my own game, I’ve been thinking a lot about finishing projects in general. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of talented developers out there that have trouble finishing games. Truthfully, I’ve left a long trail of unfinished games in my wake… I think everyone has. Not every project is going to pan out, for whatever reason. But if you find yourself consistently backing out of game projects that have a lot of potential, it could be worth taking a step back and examining why this happens.
We’ve all had that feeling about at least one game, comic book, movie, etc., that comes out: “Gee, I could do better than this! This is overrated.” But it’s important to take a step back and realize that, hey, they put in the time to finish a project and I haven’t. That’s at least one thing they might be better than me at, and it’s probably why they have the recognition I don’t! If you treat finishing like a skill, rather than simply a step in the process, you can acknowledge not only that it’s something you can get better at, but also what habits and thought processes get in your way.
I don’t believe that there’s a right way to make games. It’s a creative endeavor, so there are no hard and fast rules that can’t be broken at some point. But as a game developer who has discussed this problem with other game developers, I feel like there are some mental traps that we all fall into at some point, especially when we’re starting out. Being aware of these traps is a great first step towards finishing something. (Between you and me, codifying these ideas is partly my way of staying on top of them, too!)
So without further ado, here is a list of 15 tips for finishing a game:
1. CHOOSE AN IDEA WITH POTENTIAL
I’ve found that there are three types of games that pique my interest: games I want to make, games I want to have made, and games I’m good at making.
Games I want to make are games where the process itself seems really fun. Maybe the mechanic seems really fun to experiment with, or maybe there’s a character I really want to animate.
Games I want to have made are games where I’m more interested in the result than in getting there. Maybe it’s a “no-limits” concept (“OMG, GTA meets Final Fantasy meets Starcraft meets…”) or just a neat idea that’s not necessarily any fun to implement.
Games I’m good at making are games that are suited to my personality and which I have experience in making. Perhaps there’s a certain genre that you naturally gravitate towards and which you understand the rhythm and flow of very well.
In my opinion, the ideas with the most potential (to be finished, at least) fall into all three categories and also satisfy the requirement “I have the time and resources to actually make this”.
2. ACTUALLY START THE DAMN GAME
Writing your idea down is not starting the damn game. Writing a design document is not starting the damn game. Assembling a team is not starting the damn game. Even doing graphics or music is not starting the damn game. It’s easy to confuse “preparing to start the damn game” with “starting the damn game”. Just remember: a damn game can be played, and if you have not created something that can be played, it’s not a damn game!
So dammit, even creating a game engine is not necessarily starting the damn game. Which brings me to the next tip…
3. DON’T ROLL YOUR OWN TECH IF YOU DON’T HAVE TO
There are pros and cons to writing your own engine. But ask yourself, do you really have to? Is what you want to do impossible to do with what’s already out there or would you be reinventing the wheel? Of course, if you write your own engine you can make it just perfect the way you like it. But be honest, how often do you ever get past the engine to the game itself? Do you find yourself making game engines more often than you do games?
I made the original version of Spelunky in Game Maker, and it’s that “finished” game that eventually gave me the opportunity to work on an Xbox 360 version. So don’t ever feel that game-making software or other simplified tools are somehow illegitimate. The important thing is the game.
Link: The Independent Gaming Forums Technical Forums
4. PROTOTYPE
This goes with #2: prototype first with whatever you have available. Sometimes you find out right off the bat that it’s a bad idea. Sometimes you stumble upon an even BETTER idea. Either way, I usually find it difficult to figure out what I want to commit to until I actually start making something. So make something!
5. MAKE SURE THE CORE MECHANICS ARE FUN
Find core mechanics that are just fun to play around with. It should be fun to execute the most basic interactions, because that’s what players will be doing the most when they play your game. Ultimately, you want this core to drive your development. This will make it a lot easier for you later on when you have to cut out parts of the game (#13) - you’ll always have this core to fall back to.
It’s possible, while prototyping, that you discover a mechanic that’s MORE fun than what you originally thought the core mechanic was - consider making that the new core mechanic!
6. CHOOSE GOOD PARTNERS (OR WORK ALONE AS LONG AS YOU CAN)
Finding a good game-making partner is like dating in a lot of ways. You may think that all that matters is skill: “Oh cool, I’m a programmer, and this guy’s an artist… let’s DO THIS!” But no, there are other things to consider, like personality, experience, timing, and mutual interest. Like a romantic relationship, you don’t want to be in a position where either you or the other person is far less dedicated. Test each other out a bit with some smaller projects, because it can really be devastating when a key person drops out after months or years of development.
Another great thing about having finished projects is that your partners will know what you’re capable of and will feel more comfortable working with you. It’s hard to convince anyone experienced to work with you on an idea alone, considering how few ideas actually see the light of day (and how hard it is to see the value in some ideas until they’ve been executed). Good partners will want to see your finished games. So finish them!
Alternatively, find free graphics and music to use online, at least as placeholders (at The Independent Gaming Source we had a competition in which a lot of free art and music was created). Use ASCII if you have to. As an artist, I know I’d much rather contribute to a project that is already done but just missing art. And if you need a coder… consider learning to code yourself (if I can do it, you can, too!) or picking up some game-making software (see #3).
7. GRIND IS NORMAL - FACTOR IT INTO YOUR PLAN
A lot of game-making is tedious and downright unfun. It’s not play, it’s work (and this is why you should choke out ANYONE when they joke about you “playing games all day”). At some point you’ll suddenly realize that there’s all this stuff you never thought about when you were planning your project and prototyping - stuff like menus, screen transitions, saving and loading, etc. “Shoot! I was imagining this amazing world I was going to create, or this fun mechanic I was going to experiment with… I didn’t think I’d be spending weeks making functional menus that don’t look like crap!" Or, you know, there’s stuff that’s fun in small doses, like animating characters, that becomes nightmarish when you realize you’ve set yourself up for 100 different characters.
Once you go through it a couple of times, you’ll realize how important it is to scale your project so that you don’t spend too much time in this inevitable quagmire ("too much time” being however long it takes before you quit). You’ll also realize that a lot of this boring stuff is what makes the game feel complete! A nice title screen, for example, does wonders to make a game feel legitimate.
8. USE AWARDS, COMPETITIONS, AND OTHER EVENTS AS REAL DEADLINES
When Alec and I were working on Aquaria, the Independent Games Festival submission deadline forced us to make hard decisions about the direction we were taking and it also forced us to look at our schedule more realistically. Had we not had that deadline, I’m not entirely certain we would have finished! Competitions are great to participate in because the deadlines are very real and because the rewards (recognition, awards, possibly money) are very real. Also, they can give you a way to connect with a community of like-minded people.
Links: Independent Games Festival, Ludum Dare
9. PUSH FORWARD
Feeling stuck? Push forward. Start working on the next level, the next enemy, the next whatever. Not only is it helpful for motivational purposes, but you want to get a sense for how your whole game will play out. Just like writing - you don’t want to go through it sentence by sentence, making sure every sentence is perfect before you move on. Get an outline down.
10. TAKE CARE OF YOUR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH
It can be surprisingly hard to take care of yourself when you’re focused on finishing a game. But honestly, you’re only doing your game-making a disservice by not sleeping, exercising, or eating right. At best, you’re preventing yourself from working at your full potential and making it more likely that you’ll quit. Having some doubt about your project is perfectly natural, but getting depression or falling into illness is not. It’s amazing how much you can not want to work on your dream project when your mind and body feels like crap!
11. STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR STARTING OVER
“My code’s a mess. And I’ve learned so much already. If I started over I could do it a lot better and faster, and then the rest of the game will go a lot faster, too!”
STOP. NO. This is true at some point during every game’s development. Your code will always be a mess. You will have learned a lot. It will never be perfect. And if you start all over, you’ll find yourself in the exact same situation when you get to this point again. It’s a terrible trap to think like this.
Here’s a joke: a man spends his entire life working on a game engine so perfect that all he has to do is press one button and the perfect game will come out of it. Actually, it’s not much of a joke, because the punchline is that he never finishes it! No such engine or game exists.
If bad organization is really slowing you down, go back and do some surgery on it so that you feel better. If it works but it’s a bit hacky, then be brave and press on!
12. SAVE IT FOR THE NEXT GAME
So partway through development you have this great new idea that’s going to blow everyone’s mind, but you’ll have to redo your whole game to implement it? Save it for the next game! Right? This won’t be the last game you ever make, hopefully. Save it for the next one… but finish this one first!
13. CUT. IT. OUT.
Oh shit, you’re way behind schedule. You have all these ideas but they’ll colonize Mars before you have a chance to implement half of them. Oh woe is you… BUT WAIT!
Well, that’s great, actually! Because now you’re forced to decide what is really important to your game, and what you could cut. The fact is, if we all had unlimited resources and unlimited time, we’d all make the same crappy, meandering everything game and there’d be no reason to play at all. It’s our limited resources and time that forces us to make tight games that feel like they have a purpose.
If you’ve been building upon some core concepts that are provably fun, just keep cutting until you get to the very edge of that core. Everything else is probably just fluff you could do without. Or worse, it’s fluff that’s preventing people from seeing the best parts of your game.
14. IF YOU DO QUIT, SCALE DOWN, NOT UP
Okay, sometimes it is time to call it quits. Maybe there’s just no way you’ll ever finish, and what you have is too big a mess to cut anything out. Maybe the rest of your team has quit already. My hope in writing this list is to help people avoid this possibility, but hey, maybe you’re just coming off of such a project. And sometimes… shit just happens.
If there’s no salvaging it, at least make sure that you scale down your next project. It’s easy to set your sights higher and higher, even as your projects become less and less finished. “My SKILLS are improving! I’m learning from my failure,” is a common excuse. But I think this is why it’s important to treat finishing as a skill, too.
So go back down, down, down, down to a point where you may even find it somewhat beneath you. For example, instead of jumping from your 4x space sim to your 4x space sim IN 3D, try making a great game that focuses on one small element of space sims. And if you can’t finish that, try something more like Asteroids. It’s very possible that it’ll still end up being a bigger struggle than you thought (and/or more fun to make than you thought)!
15. THE LAST 10 PERCENT
They say the last 10 percent is really 90 percent, and there is truth to this. It’s the details that end up taking a long time. Sure, maybe you coded a competent combat system in a week… but making it great and making it complex (and bug-free)… these things can take months. The honest truth is that you’ll probably do a “final lap” sprint many times before you get to the real final lap.
If this sounds discouraging, it shouldn’t. While the last 10 percent is harrowing, I’ve also found that is an enormously satisfying time in the development. Because more often than not, stuff really does seem to “just come together” at the end if you’ve been spending your time properly, and turning a jumble of mish-mashed ideas and content into sweet gaming manna is a magical feeling.
It’s all about the details.
AND FINALLY… RELEASE!
Holy crap, you released a game! Congratulations, you just leveled up, big time. Benefits include: increased confidence, a reputation for being able to complete projects, and an understanding of the entire process of game creation! The best part, though, is that you have a nice little game that I can play and enjoy! And I do like playing games, almost as much as I enjoy making them.
No more standing on the sidelines, friend: YOU ARE A GAME DEVELOPER.Get the biggest Rangers 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
FORMER Brentford keeper Richard Lee persuaded Duncan Bannatyne to front him £150,000 for baseball caps when he appeared on Dragons’ Den.
And the former England Under-21 starlet will raise his hat to Rangers if they appoint Mark Warburton because they will have a boss to transform their club and challenge Celtic within two seasons.
Lee has worked with Warburton for more than a decade, first at Watford when the Ibrox target started as a youth coach after quitting his job as a city trader to follow his passion for football.
The 32-year-old rates him even higher than former Hornets bosses Brendan Rodgers and Malky Mackay and insists Warburton’s background in the cut throat world of finance, working with HSBC, has given him all the skills he needs to survive at the highest level.
Lee has offered an insight into the modern methods of Warburton, which almost paid off when he led the Bees to the brink of the Premier League last season, only to lose to Middlesbrough in the play-offs.
It was a remarkable campaign for the club, who had won promotion 12 months earlier and been tipped for a return to the third tier.
Lee said: “We massively over-achieved last season given the fact our wage bill was one of the smallest in the Championship.
(Image: TMS)
“There is a misconception only ex-players are capable of managing footballers and inspiring them.
“The bottom line is Mark had a harder job in the city, a more difficult environment than football, dealing with silly money on a daily basis.
“He was trading in seven-figure sums every 24 hours, working with a bigger team than a football squad, with people who were earning more money and had bigger egos.
“He has taken his business acumen and built it into football.
“I’m not quite sure he was The Wolf of Wall Street but the lessons and disciplines learned as a trader stood him in good stead as his attention to detail is amazing. Mark arrived at the Brentford training ground every morning at 5.30am, three hours before everyone else, and his planning was meticulous.
“The growth of Brentford these last two years has been tremendous. As players, we were used to turning up at 10am and heading straight out to training.
“Now? The first hour is spent giving blood and urine samples and answering questionnaires to ensure we’re living right and our energy levels are optimised.
“Our gym has grown to three times its size and we’ve even added a Pilates studio.
(Image: Action Images)
“The football we’ve played in the last two years has been superb.
“I’ve never been asked to kick it long once. He prefers to build an attacking style from the back and the fans loved it. They sang his name constantly in our last two games of the season. They’re devastated he has gone.
“Mark favours a 4-3-3, which drops to a 4-5-1 when we’re asked to defend. He’s keen on lines of passes, triangles all over the pitch, shots from distance, crosses from wingers and getting players into pockets where they can spread it wide.
“In one game against Blackpool we had 47 shots alone.
“Mark is massively into analysis. We were favourites for relegation yet he provided us with stats at the beginning of the season to prove we’d be in the top six.
“He is all about development, picking up hungry young players and helping them improve.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to work with Brendan and Malky at Watford. Mark is on a par, if not better, than both.”
Lee, who retired injured at the end of the season after a brief loan spell at Fulham, still kicks himself for missing a trip to the trading floor at HSBC that Warburton organised for some players and backroom staff last year.
But he doesn’t need business tips after he persuaded Bannatyne to invest six figures in his Dr Cap business, which continues to thrive, along with his coffee retail start-up Organo Gold.
He said: “Duncan offered £150,000 for a stake in Dr Cap but the investment fell through after the Dragons’ Den show. It didn’t happen but the business is still alive and kicking.”
The fact Warburton is doing likewise in the fevered environment of football after years in the financial markets convinces Lee his former gaffer would have no issues handling Glasgow’s goldfish bowl.
He added: “You see so many managers crumble but not Mark. He realises it’s football, just a game. Rangers are a big step up from Brentford but they would be the perfect match.
“Rangers are a massive club and it’s a shame what has happened to them in recent years but they’ll soon be on the verge of greatness again if Mark gets the job.
“It would be easy to throw silly money at big-name players but that would only take the club back to the place from which they have only recently emerged.
“Mark’s work is focused on working with hungry young players, building a system from the bottom up throughout the club that develops quality at youth level with a modern approach and a structured training regime.
“Within a couple of years, he would get Rangers back to the top of the Premiership.”
Check our gallery of runners and riders for the Rangers job:It's been ages since I actually did some artwork that was actually for fun. I've been meaning to create some JoJo fan art for ages, so I'm glad I finally got around to it. There are so many more fan arts I want to work on!
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, for those that don't know, is a manga and animated series. After watching the anime I was hooked and wish I knew better Japanese so I could read the Manga, which hasn't been translated into English. Series 3 of the manga, which the anime is based in is about a guy named Jotaro who has the power to summon a guardian spirit call a'stand' to help battle enemies. He joins up with a team of allies who are searching for the evil stand user, Dio. To put an end to his world conquest and bad-doings. The fighting in JoJo is very tactical- each users stands are very unique and sometimes a little weird, but it's these unconventional aspects which make it such a kick-ass series.
My picture illustrates Jotaro and his stand 'Star Platinum' behind. These were originally 2 pictures, but have been overlayed in PhotoShop. The picture perhaps isn't very dynamic, but I was more concerned getting the style right. I have been striving to find the perfect comic art style. I wanted to try a kind of hybrid between my favourite comic artists, Hirohiko Araki (Jojo artist) and Joe Madureria (of the Battle Chasers fame). I was pleased with the result and hope I can continue more works in this style, maybe to one day nail down what I consider 'the ultimate style'! I hope to colour this one day also. I'll have to add it to the list of uncoloured work I have for now, as I will no-doubt be busy with work stuff for the next few months.World's Largest Basket
Newark, Ohio
Space aliens, bending their eye stalks Earthward, often mistake Newark, Ohio, as the center of all world power. After all, it is in this modest city that humankind has erected the grandest monument to the highest pinnacle of achievement by an advanced consumer culture -- the hand-woven gift basket. This monument is, in fact, the world's largest basket. It was built as the seven-story corporate headquarters of the Longaberger Basket Company.
There are many other contenders for over-the-top Monuments of Non-Essentiality in America -- the World of Coca-Cola and Precious Moments Chapel come to mind -- but they're not as intimidating when viewed from orbit.
The basket is a replica -- 160 times larger -- of Longaberger's Medium Market Basket. It's 192 feet long and 126 feet wide at the bottom, spreading to 208 feet long and 142 feet wide at the roofline. It is a magnificent sight.
Dave Longaberger, who founded the company, was the business visionary who not only tapped into the demand for hand-woven party baskets, but who dreamed up the idea of running his growing organization from inside of one. Most of his employees, less farsighted than their leader, didn't take Dave's notion seriously when the plan was announced. Perhaps they believed that the house-sized basket in Dresden -- Longaberger's old HQ -- pushed the absolute physical limits of basket-building science.
Many were still astounded when they moved into the Brobdingnagian picnic packer in Newark -- their new Home Office -- on December 17, 1997. It had cost Longaberger $30 million to build.
We'd like to think that job satisfaction was higher than normal at Longaberger's. After all, no matter how menial your daily labors or how incompetent your boss, you still worked in a giant basket.
The party basket craze eventually peaked, and by 2016 the basket building had been vacated and put on the market. It was sold to a local developer in late 2017.
The entire region around Newark is remains basket-happy, thanks to the Longabergers. The World's Largest Apple Basket -- over 29 feet tall -- stands at the Longaberger Homestead in Frazeysburg. It was hand-woven from hardwood maple in 1999. It's become an even better photo op since it was augmented with giant fake apples.
In nearby Dresden, on Main St. and 5th, you'll find the old HQ still standing, a house-sized picnic basket -- 23-ft. tall and 48-ft. long. This huge basket was the first architectural creation of the Longaberger juggernaut. To get there you'll probably cross Dave Longaberger Avenue.
The Big Easter Basket up in Lorain -- on the shore of Lake Erie on West Erie Avenue -- is not a Longaberger creation, and it is a tad amateurish when compared to the other big baskets. Still, at 9 ft. high and 10 ft. wide, it suggests that big baskets have something to do with the soul of Ohio, not just the market-savviness of the Longaberger Basket Company. [Note: Giant eggs are placed in the Lorain basket, but only between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.]Smile! The Emoji Movie is Coming in August 2017! :)
Just when you thought there were no good ideas left in Hollywood Sony Pictures has just confirmed a title and release date for its new animated feature film based on those cheeky little Emojis.
Emojimovie: Express Yourself will be released in August 2017 and will see our frequently used and favourite smileys come to life on the big screen from the Sony animation studios that brought us the likes of The Smurfs and Hotel Transylvania. The film will be directed by Anthony Leondis who has had previous involvement with Disney on sequels to The Lion King and Lilo and Stitch.
Rather than infringe on icons already in existence on Android and Apple iOS devices as well as social networking sites, Sony is said to be making its own range of Emoji to base the movie around instead that resemble the ones we know and love.
Despite only having a title and rough idea of a release date there is no official synopsis and no footage of Emojimovie available at present but it’s thought the film will follow a Toy Story style formula whereby the messaging icons will come to life while their smartphone owners aren’t looking – thus leading to amusing adventures and silly antics and, of course, the potential for Sony to bank big on more marketable characters. Who doesn’t want to have their own plush poop?
Along with the Emojimovie, Sony Pictures announced it will be developing a new animated Spider-Man movie based on the Miles Morales version of the web-slinger and there will also be a new Ghostbusters animated series going into production which will be set in the same canon as the upcoming female-led reboot movie.
Tags: animation, Emoji, emojimovie |
six years of war has turned Syria into a patchwork of areas, some controlled by Assad, some by rebel groups and others by Kurdish militia or Islamic State militants.
Previous discussion of safe zones in Syria has focused on rebel-held areas in the northwest stretching from Idlib province to the Euphrates river. Areas in the southwest at the border with Jordan have also been seen as a possibility.
But the complications have grown since the Syrian opposition first called for safe zones, including the deployment of Russia’s air force to Syria.
Defending a safe zone from attack by the Syrian government or its Russian and Iranian-backed militia allies would inevitably lead to an escalation, which is one of the reasons Obama had avoided this path in the first place, Sayigh said.
Another big challenge would be how to police the area to maintain its neutral status as a safe zone, he added.
DO SAFE ZONES WORK?
While much of Trump’s Syria policy remains unclear, Syrian Kurds, who have generally avoided conflict with Assad, look set to remain central to U.S. strategy.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia controls swathes of northeast Syria, where conflict with the government is rare and the U.S. air force mounts regular air strikes against IS targets.
Syrian Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria alarms Turkey, which fears it could increase separatist sentiment among its Kurdish minority. Kurdish groups already govern northern Iraq, where the establishment of a no-fly zone in 1991 helped them on their way to autonomy from Baghdad.
The YPG has links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a designated terrorist groups in Turkey.
Growing Kurdish influence in northern Syria largely explains why Turkey launched a major incursion into Syria last year, helping insurgents from the Free Syrian Army drive both Islamic State and Kurdish militia away from the border.
The operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield” has created what Turkish officials call a safe zone that is 100 km (62 miles) long. This week, a new Turkish-trained Syrian police force deployed in the town of Jarablus in that strip of territory.
Turkey, which hosts 2.8 million Syrian refugees, has long advocated safe zones in Syria.
But underlining the caution with which foreign governments are viewing Trump’s comments, Turkey said it was waiting to see the outcome of a “study” requested by Trump.
Aid agencies in the region are concerned.
Karl Schembri, Regional Media Adviser in the Middle East for the Norwegian Refugee Council, said that from the group’s experience, “we know that militarily enforced ‘safe zones’ rarely work and can actually put civilians at more risk”.Anne Arundel County police officer Michael Flaig is pictured in this undated handout photo courtesy of the Baltimore Police Department. REUTERS/Baltimore Police Department/Handout
(Reuters) - An off-duty Maryland police officer charged with biting a man’s testicles during a fight is no longer working for the department, a spokeswoman said on Monday.
Police officer Michael Flaig, 31, of Anne Arundel County, left the department for unspecified reasons on Sept. 25, spokeswoman Jacklyn Davis said, adding that it was a personnel issue.
Flaig was arrested on May 5 after he allegedly bit a man on his testicles during a fight outside a Baltimore bar, according to court records. Flaig said the victim made unwanted advances on his female roommate.
Flaig was charged with misdemeanor second-degree assault, public intoxication and endangering the victim’s safety, according to police.
He is serving one year of probation after being convicted of public intoxication and endangering the safety of another person.Nickelodeon has issued a press release announcing the renewal of TMNT for a third 26 episode season (the series is still currently airing it’s first season) as well as announcing a number of new animated and live action shows it will be adding to it’s lineup. Continue on after the jump to check out the full press release with info on all of these shows.
Immediately below you can check out the full press release regarding the renewal of TMNT, as well as the names and info on all of the new series that will be joining Nickelodeon.
NICKELODEON DELIVERS DIVERSE ANIMATION AND LIVE-ACTION SLATES WITH 10 BRAND-NEW ORIGINAL SERIES
Network Greenlights New Animated Series Breadwinners
and Live-Action Series The Haunted Hathaways and The Thundermans
NEW YORK – Feb. 26, 2013 – Nickelodeon, the number-one entertainment brand for kids, will add 10 brand-new original series to its animation and live-action rosters for the 2013-2014 season. The network will galvanize its animation line-up with new content including Breadwinners, Sanjay & Craig, Rabbids and Monsters vs. Aliens, in addition to a third season pick up of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Five new live-action series, The Haunted Hathaways, Sam & Cat, The Thundermans, Awesomeness (working title) and Nick Studio 10, along with the just-launched Wendell & Vinnie, will round out the new programming roster.
“The engaging stories and entertaining characters found in these 10 funny and vibrant original animation and live-action series are wonderful additions to Nickelodeon’s lineup for the next generation of kids,” said Russell Hicks, President, Content Development and Production. “An investment in great creator-driven content in both short and long-form is part of our commitment to bringing humor to kids on multiple platforms.”
Details of Nickelodeon’s new animation and live-action slates include:
ANIMATION:
Breadwinners – Created by Gary “Doodles” DiRaffaele (MAD, Metalocyalpse), who was discovered from Nick’s 2012 Animated Shorts Program, and Steve Borst (Teen Titans Go!, MAD), Breadwinners follows two booty-shaking ducks as they operate a bread delivery service out of their awesome, jet-fueled rocket van. The series was picked up for 20 full-length episodes.
Nickelodeon has renewed its Animated Shorts Program, as a further commitment to produce hit animated content for kids. Last year, more than 600 pitches were collected during Nickelodeon’s inaugural program. From the pitches, 12 were created and five are in series development. All 12 shorts will air on the network, or appear on www.nick.com or on Nickelodeon’s new app, which launched Feb. 21.
Sanjay & Craig–The 20-episode series tells the story of two best friends — one of whom is a snake — and the true adventures of being a kid. Voice actors include: Maulik Pancholy (30 Rock) as Sanjay; Chris Hardwick (Nerdist, Back at the Barnyard) as Craig; Tony Hale (Arrested Development) as Mr. Noodman; Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks) as Megan; Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory) as Vijay and Grey DeLisle (Fairly Odd Parents) as Darlene.
Sanjay & Craig is created and co-executive produced by Jim Dirschberger, Jay Howell (character design for Bob’s Burgers) and Andreas Trolf, and executive produced by Nickelodeon alumni Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi (The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Alvin and the Chipmunks).
Rabbids–This series brings to television the hysterical physical comedy that is the hallmark in Ubisoft’s wildly successful Rabbids video games. Irreverent, unpredictable and silly, the Rabbids are a mysterious breed of rabbit-like creatures that explore, and often wreak havoc, in the human world. Everything is a source of wonder and amusement, and these indestructible and uncontrollable creatures have absolutely no respect for the social rules that govern society. For them, there are no laws, no rules of the road. It’s all about having fun and saying “Bwaaaaaah!” Nickelodeon has secured global broadcast rights for 26 new half-hour CG episodes of Rabbids, which will be produced by Ubisoft.
Monsters vs. Aliens–Inspired by DreamWorks Animation’s 2009 blockbuster feature film ($383 million worldwide gross), this new series follows the further adventures of the beloved monsters- B.O.B., the gelatinous blob without a brain; Link, the prehistoric fish-man; Dr. Cockroach, the half-man/half-insect mad scientist; and Susan (aka Ginormica), the incredible growing woman-as they learn to adapt to a new world filled with bizarre aliens. This series, which is greenlit for 26 episodes, marks the third partnership between Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles–The hit series has been renewed for a third season with 26-episodes. The half-hour CG-animated action-comedy, which was 2012’s number-one new animated program with boys 2-11 across all TV, will continue to showcase the camaraderie of the four mutant brothers as they use their ninjutsu skills to battle the supernatural evil forces that threaten not only New York City, but the entire world. Season two is currently in production at the Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is executive produced by Ciro Nieli and Peter Hastings.
For the 2013-14 season, the network will also roll out new episodes of returning hit animated series, including season two of The Legend of Korra, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Winx Club, T.U.F.F. Puppy, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and Robot and Monster.
LIVE ACTION:
The Haunted Hathaways–Life in The Big Easy gets a little more complicated and way more spirited when the Hathaway siblings (Amber Montana, Breanna Yde) and their mom (Ginifer King) move into a house already occupied by a dad (Chico Benymon) and his sons (Curtis Harris, Benjamin “Lil P-Nut” Flores Jr.) who happen to be ghosts. Created by veteran comedy writer-producer Robert Peacock (Reba, The Jeff Foxworthy Show), The Haunted Hathaways is executive produced by Boyce Bugliari & Jamie McLaughlin (Bucket & Skinner’s Epic Adventures). The series will begin production on 20 episodes this spring.
Wendell & Vinnie–A brand-new, live-action family comedy featuring Jerry Trainor (iCarly) in his first starring and producing role, this series follows 30-year-old Vinnie Bassett (Trainor) living the life of a carefree bachelor, when he suddenly becomes the legal guardian of his precocious, wise-beyond-his-years nephew, Wendell (Buddy Handleson, Shake It Up) forming a hysterical odd-couple family dynamic. Nicole Sullivan (Rita Rocks, MadTV) also stars as Vinnie’s older unlucky-in-love sister, Wilma, with Haley Strode (Gangster Squad) as Vinnie’s newly divorced neighbor and love interest, Taryn. Wendell & Vinnie, which has received has received a 20 episode order. The series airs regularly on Saturdays at 8p.m. (ET/PT).
Sam & Cat–In this comedic spin-off from award-winning creator and executive producer Dan Schneider (iCarly, Victorious, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101), Sam & Cat stars Jennette McCurdy (iCarly’s Sam Puckett) and Ariana Grande (Victorious’ Cat Valentine) reprising their roles from their respective hit shows. The series features the pair as unlikely roommates and best friends who become teen entrepreneurs by starting their own after-school babysitting business. Sam & Cat is currently in production on 20 episodes in Los Angeles and will premiere this fall.
The Thundermans–The Thundermans are a typical suburban family who happen to have astounding superpowers. At the center of the action are the 14-year-old Thunderman twins, Max (Jack Griffo) and Phoebe (Kira Kosarin), who share the same bathroom, the same school and the same annoying younger siblings. Their only difference? Phoebe is a super student with a super sunny disposition who super looks forward to being a superhero someday, and Max aspires to become a super villain. The 13-episode series will commence production this spring and is written by longtime Nickelodeon producer Jed Spingarn, who most recently served as co-executive producer of the hit series Big Time Rush and prior to that, produced on The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Johnny Bravo.
Nick Studio 10–This live, daily afternoon daypart features four friends who make and share outrageously funny content in real time. Beginning this spring, content created on the show will also migrate from on-air to the recently launched Nick App, and content from the app will also be featured on the series.
Awesomeness (working title)–Nickelodeon is partnering with Brian Robbins (Smallville, One Tree Hill, Coach Carter) to co-develop a new half-hour sketch comedy show that features a mix of new and existing content from the extremely popular online site AwesomenessTV.
Nickelodeon will also premiere more new episodes of its hit live-action series, including Big Time Rush, Marvin Marvin and See Dad Run.Virginia state legislators have filed a motion with the Virginia Supreme Court asking for an order requiring Gov. Terry McAuliffe to “show cause” why he should not be held in contempt for violating the court’s July 22 order that vacated McAuliffe’s executive orders restoring the voting rights of 206,000 felons.
The court ruled that the governor’s clemency and pardon power could only be exercised on an individual, case-by-case basis and that the voter registrations of felons who had registered as a result of McAuliffe’s orders had to be canceled.
Being held in contempt by a court can occur if a party to a lawsuit deliberately disobeys a prior order of the court. A governor being held in contempt by a state supreme court for such behavior is rare and would be a history-making event in Virginia.
McAuliffe’s Persistence to Let Felons Vote
This motion for contempt follows McAuliffe’s Aug. 22 press conference in which he announced that he had again restored the voting rights of 13,000 felons who had registered to vote after he issued three blanket restoration orders earlier in the summer. His press announcement said that “individual restoration orders were printed with the Governor’s signature.”
How much of an individualized review could be given by McAuliffe to these 13,000 felons in the four weeks between the Supreme Court’s July 22 decision and his press conference on Aug. 22 was certainly in question. And that is what the contempt motion focuses on—the lack of any real individualized review of these felons’ cases. In fact, the motion cites a spokesman for the governor who said that the only review of the record would be to confirm completion of the felon’s sentence and any supervised release.
As the legislators say, the governor is certainly entitled to disagree with the state’s constitution or the court’s interpretation of it, but he cannot set himself above the law.
The motion points out that McAuliffe “denounced” the Virginia Supreme Court’s order, “vowing to accomplish precisely the same result simply by issuing individual restoration orders for precisely the same class of approximately 206,000 felons, again without any regard for their individual circumstances and without any specific request by individuals seeking such relief.” Thus, McAuliffe “reads this Court’s decision as permitting him to suspend the Constitution’s general rule disenfranchising felons so long as he does so with 206,000 restoration orders rather than three. He is wrong.”
According to the motion, the court did not reduce the relevant provisions of the Virginia Constitution “to a printing requirement.” The protections of Virginia’s Constitution “do not depend upon how many reams of paper and autopen machines the Governor deploys to work his will.” As the legislators say, there “is no substantive difference between the Governor’s current actions and his three executive orders … that the court invalidated.” This is an open declaration by McAuliffe of “his resolve to evade the Court’s order.”
The motion uses McAuliffe’s own words against him, citing McAuliffe’s proclamation that “the Virginia Supreme Court has placed Virginia as an outlier in the struggle for civil and human rights” and that he “cannot accept” the court’s ruling. That kind of contemptuous, unfair criticism of the court is certainly not the smartest thing that a party to a lawsuit can do.
McAuliffe’s Lack of Respect for Virginia Government
It also demonstrates a level of disrespect and lack of understanding of Virginia’s constitutional provisions and governmental structure that is inappropriate and unseemly in the executive officer of the state.
McAuliffe added to that, as the legislators point out, when he showed his “disdain” for the court and claimed that the court acted not in accordance with the Constitution but because of “the way things have always been done in the Old Dominion.”
He even suggested, according to the motion, “that the Court’s ruling was comparable to requiring children to attend segregated schools, assigning seats on buses on the basis of race, prohibiting interracial marriage, and imposing a poll tax.” McAuliffe expressed his determination to act notwithstanding the court’s order because he would “not stand down and allow discriminatory state laws to destroy the lives and families and destabilize our communities.”
As the legislators say, the governor is certainly entitled to disagree with the state’s constitution or the court’s interpretation of it, but he cannot set himself above the law. They cite an old Virginia case in which the state Supreme Court said that a government official cannot “go his own way because he deems the law’s requirements to be unwise or its restraint vexatious. In such manner does a government of laws become a government of men.”
What’s Next for McAuliffe
The motion asks for an order from the Virginia Supreme Court that would require the governor to show cause why he “should not be held in contempt.” In the alternative, the court should enter an order enforcing its prior judgment and prohibiting the registration of the felons “whose rights were purportedly restored by the orders issued, without application from the felon.” At a “bare minimum,” the court should authorize the legislators to “conduct discovery to determine in detail the purpose, scope, and effect” of McAuliffe’s conduct in response to the court’s July 22 order.
I’ve been a lawyer for a long time and I can’t ever remember seeing a motion filed to hold a governor in contempt. It is going to be very interesting to see whether McAuliffe finally tempers his public statements as a result of this motion or whether he continues to criticize and defy the state’s highest court.
One thing’s for sure—I would not want to be the state assistant attorney general who has to show up before the Virginia Supreme Court to explain the inflammatory and offensive statements made by the governor about the court and to defend his defiance of the court’s prior order.June 2008
Phil Bridge is a Product Design student at Sheffield Hallam University, and a bike enthusiast.
The 21-year-old who's originally from Stockport created a mode of cheap and ecological transport out of cardboard for his final year project.
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When researching bikes, he found that one of the obstacles which stopped people from getting a bike was the price; a bike is stolen in England every 71 seconds on average and they're often seen as too valuable to buy and then leave in the street to get damaged or stolen.
"The lightweight quality of the cardboard, combined with its low cost, means it's possible to create a bargain bike that's also less susceptible to thieves," said Phil. "At the moment, low-cost bikes are usually very heavy which can also put people off."
Phil Bridge's cardboard bike The bike isn't made from any old cardboard though. After playing with various sorts, including corrugated cardboard, Phil tried hexacomb board which is used for industrial purposes and has a hexagon structure inside which makes it very strong - and means it won't go soggy in the rain.
"It's inherently waterproof at the point of manufacture. In some instances this cardboard has been used outdoors - in housing or advertising hoardings.
"The frame is made from two sheets of cardboard put together into a triangulation which creates much of the strength."
Bargain bike
Phil reckons that the bike could go on sale for as little as £15 and is hoping that his work will be taken on by a company who can see the bike's potential as green marketing gimmick.
"It's inherently waterproof at the point of manufacture. In some instances this cardboard has been used outdoors - in housing or advertising hoardings." Phil Bridge "You can get a whole bike out of one sheet of cardboard, including the frame and the wheels. The sheets are about £3 if you buy them in bulk. So to sell, I've priced it as £15 for the whole bike - including additional components."
Depending on how much use the bike gets, Phil says it's designed to last about six months of constant (daily) use - although not if you're going mountain biking or on the Tour de France with it!...
"It wasn't designed to be a performance bike so no, it doesn't go better or faster than a normal tubular framed bike. But it is suitable for everyday use - just cycling quite slowly in the street not for racing!"
Each year Sheffield Hallam University holds an exhibition of final year students' work. For more information, visit the link on the right of the page.This is a smart move that preempts attacks by Christie's team on any contradictions or ambiguities in their investigative findings:
Senate and Assembly Democrats set aside a brewing power struggle and agreed Tuesday to create a joint committee to investigate the lane closures at the foot of the George Washington Bridge in September.
Lawmakers in the two chambers were criticized last week for failing to work together when they formed two investigative panels, each with subpoena power and each to hire its own special counsel.
The new joint committee will retain the special counsel hired by the Assembly committee, Reid Schar, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The Senate committee had not named a special counsel.
Democratic leaders hailed the new committee as “efficient” and “unified.” But Republican leaders, who have argued the bridge investigation is becoming increasingly partisan, said they are concerned about the makeup of the panel.
“I’m glad that the majority party realized there needs to be a joint committee. But to be truly bipartisan, it should have a more equitable member mix,” said Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean Jr., R-Union.
Each chamber must revote to give the new committee subpoena power. Resolutions creating the two separate committees last week passed unanimously. It’s unclear whether the new panel will receive the same support.
In recent days, as Governor Christie intensified his defense against the lane closure allegations, several legislative Republicans called on Assemblyman John Wisniewski to step down from leading the Assembly’s investigation, questioning his impartiality.
Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, will be co-chairman of the new panel, along with state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck.[+]Enlarge Reps.Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.) (left) and John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) (right), cochairs of the newly formed Congressional Chemistry Caucus, met with Thomas M. Connelly Jr. (middle), CEO of the American Chemical Society, and other supporters during the caucus’ launch on April 27. Credit: Peter Cutts
Capitol Hill now has its own chemistry club—the Congressional Chemistry Caucus.
Members of the Congressional Chemistry Caucus Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.)
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.)
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.)
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)
Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.)
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.)
Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.)
Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.)
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.)
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.)
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.)
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.)
Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.)
Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.)
Kicked off on April 27, the new organization joins the ranks of more than 400 other Capitol Hill caucuses—groups created by members of Congress who support common legislative goals.
The chemistry caucus, chaired by Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.), is intended “to educate members of Congress and the public about the benefits of chemistry in today’s society and the importance of sound science in public policy,” according to a statement from Moolenaar.
Moolenaar, who once worked as a chemist for Dow Chemical, says, “All of us are excited by the opportunity to make chemistry accessible, to inspire the next generation of people going into STEM education.”
The new group, initially consisting of 14 legislators, both Democrats and Republicans, will work to grow its membership this year before introducing legislation, says Anthony Pitagno, director of advocacy for the American Chemical Society (ACS). The society worked with two industry groups—the American Chemistry Council and National Association of Chemical Distributors—and with Moolenaar and Lipinski to establish the caucus.SOCHI, Russia -- The United States will be without Paul Martin, one of its top shutdown defensemen, for Friday's semifinal game against Canada, USA Hockey announced.
The U.S. will have to shuffle its defensemen against Canada with Paul Martin out of the lineup. Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
He had been mostly playing with his Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Brooks Orpik.
Martin has a hand injury, suffered during the quarterfinal game against the Czech Republic, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports, citing sources. Martin, who is currently wearing a splint and may eventually need a cast, will be re-evaluated in Pittsburgh, according to the paper.
Martin practiced with the team on Thursday. His place in the lineup will be taken by Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Justin Faulk, who has not played in the Americans' first four games.
John Carlson of the Washington Capitals will play with Orpik, while Faulk will be the team's seventh defenseman.
A win over Canada would send the U.S. into the gold-medal game on Sunday against Sweden, a 2-1 semifinal winner over Finland. The losers of the two semifinal games will play for the bronze Saturday night.Image caption Some think dingoes (background) helped hurry the demise of the thylacine (foreground)
The extinct Australian carnivore known as a thylacine was an ambush predator that could not outrun its prey over long distances, a new analysis shows.
The thylacine has been variously described as a "marsupial wolf" or a "Tasmanian tiger".
This study suggests the latter term might be more appropriate; the animal's hunting strategy was more like that of a big cat than that of a wolf.
Details appear in Biology Letters journal.
Thylacines once roamed mainland Australia, but their numbers declined as humans settled the continent from around 40,000 years ago and as the dingo was introduced around 4,000 years ago.
Eventually, they were confined to the island of Tasmania, which was dingo-free. The species was eventually wiped out during a large-scale eradication effort in the 19th Century and 20th centuries.
Killing tactic
The thylacine was very much a marsupial, and therefore only a distant genetic relative of dogs and cats. But the latest paper deals with the ecological niche it occupied in Australia.
By studying the bones of the thylacine, scientists from Brown University in the US were able to establish that the thylacine was a solitary, ambush-style predator - much like a cat.
Image caption Thylacines died out in the early part of the 20th Century.
"Although there is no doubt that the thylacine diet was similar to that of living wolves, we find no compelling evidence that they hunted similarly," said lead author Borja Figueirido, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown, in Providence, Rhode Island.
The researchers compared the thylacine's skeleton with those of dog-like and cat-like species, such as pumas, jackals and wolves, as well as Tasmanian devils - the largest carnivorous marsupials living today.
They found that the thylacine would have been able to rotate its arm so that the palm faced upwards, like a cat.
This increased amount of arm and paw movement would have helped the "Tasmanian tiger" subdue its prey after an ambush.
'Unique mix'
Dingoes and wolves have a more restricted range of arm-hand movement. Their hands are - to a greater degree - fixed in the palm-down position, reflecting their strategy of hunting by pursuit and in packs, rather than by surprise.
However, this is not a hard-and-fast rule. Some cats, like cheetahs, use speed to catch their quarry, while some dog-like species, such as foxes, rely on ambush to catch their prey.
Christine Janis, professor of biology at Brown and a co-author on the paper, said the thylacine's hunting tactics appear to be a unique mix. "I don't think there's anything like it around today," she said. "It's sort of like a cat-like fox."
While some experts believe the introduction of the dingo played a key role in the thylacine's disappearance from mainland Australia, some of the researchers in the latest study are more cautious.
The animals appear to have been similar in several respects - such as their diets - but probably hunted in different ways.
According to Professor Janis, the dingoes may have been "more like the final straw".
The last captive thylacine - known as Benjamin - died in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania, in September 1936.Your daily round up of trade union news from around the world. Our trade union video of the day is from Warehouse Workers United, and the struggle that workers in Chino, California have undertaken to improve safety conditions. French unions have warned …
Your daily round up of trade union news from around the world.
Our trade union video of the day is from Warehouse Workers United, and the struggle that workers in Chino, California have undertaken to improve safety conditions.
French unions have warned President Francois Hollande of tens of thousands of impending job cuts at a number of large companies, including Peugeot, Citroën and General Motors. The CGT confederation warned Hollande that he needed to keep his electoral promise to save jobs.
In the UK, the RMT union has won an agreement with London Underground over service during the Olympic period. The Olympics will see an additional three million journeys a day, increasing the work load and pressure on transport workers, who will receive bonuses of up to £1,000. Also in the UK, the dispute over a suspended Unite health and safety rep at Ratcliffe on Soar power station in on going, with 800 workers joining a walk out in solidarity
The Estonian Confederation of Trade Unions welcomed its newest affiliate when the journalists’ union EAL.joined the confederation, bringing reporting and the creative industries under the union banner.
In the Southern African country of Swaziland – an absolute monarchy with a long standing democracy campaign – transport workers have embarked on an 11 day strike, despite the minister of labour ruling that it was illegal.
In Guatemala, the ITUC joined local unions to protest against the unfair dismissal of 200 municipal workers, while in Honduras, teachers went on strike for back pay.
In Sri Lanka, the private sector Inter Company Employees’ Union lodged a complaint of bribery and corruption after the Employees Provident Fund lost billions of rupees on the stock exchange.
In New Haven, Connecticut, USA – home of the prestigious Yale University – members of UniteHere Local 227 have won recognition from Omni Hotel. The workers are covered by a collective agreement for the first time, and say that industrial relations with the company have improved through the bargaining process. The agreement significantly raises wages and has human rights provisions protecting migrant and other vulnerable workers. Congratulations!
Also in the US, Mixed Marshal Arts fighters have begun to organise themselves against unscrupulous casinos and fight organisers, starting a Fighters’ Association in the first step towards unionising. They have been supported by Culinary Workers Local 226 who organise many of the fight venues.
– Have we missed something important? Do you have labour news you want to share? Please get in touch with us.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial LicenseLooking around the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh in Dublin on Monday evening, Mirza Al-Sayegh cast his mind back two decades with obvious satisfaction.
The vice-president of the Al Maktoum Foundation, he was in expansive mood at the centre’s 20th-anniversary celebrations, attended by Muslims and non-Muslims.
The genesis of the centre came in 1990, eight years after Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum of the United Arab Emirates had established his family’s first stud farm at Maynooth.
“We [and others] sat together to talk about establishing such a place. Authorities in Dublin and Maynooth were so co-operative and so helpful, leaving no stone unturned in making this place a reality, ” he said.
Back then, Ireland’s Muslim population was small. The 1991 census put it at just 3,875 people. Today, Minister of State David Stanton said, “the real figure is likely to be in the region of 55,000 to 70,000”.
The Clonskeagh centre was opened by then president Mary Robinson in November 1996 – the event attracted particular coverage because Yussuf Islam, formerly known as singer Cat Stevens, came.
Recalling a later visit by President Mary McAleese, Mirza Al-Sayegh said she had become curious about “ a big frame written in Arabic” as she was given a tour of the building. The frame told the story of a Christian king who, he explained, “1,425 years ago protected and gave sanctuary to a delegation sent from Mecca by the Prophet.
“I said to her, ‘After 1,425 years you come here to protect our Muslim community in this area. You see history repeats itself.’ As a token of appreciation we gave that frame to her to be taken home,” he recalled.
Flourished
Thanking the Government and authorities, universities, other churches, charities, the al-Maktoums and the UAE embassy and other diplomatic missions, he said: “I believe that without you all this centre would not have flourished.”
In his words, Sheikh Hussein Halawa emphasisesd the Muslim community’s roots in Ireland: “We are part of this dear country. We live on its land under its sky.
“Despite the fact that we have diverse religions and various cultures, we belong to one country. We share our joy, we share our pain and we work together for a better Ireland,” he said.
Ireland has few of the tensions experienced by other European countries with their Muslim communities. US officials, quoted by Wikileaks in 2011, described the Muslims at Clonskeagh as “moderate”.
The close ties that exist were illustrated on Monday. Gifts were presented to Mr Stanton, Assistant Garda Commissioner Jack Nolan, Garda liaison officer Sgt Dave McInerney, and the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.
Politicians were present in numbers, too, including Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal Damien English, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, and Green party leader Eamon Ryan.
Funded by the al-Maktoums, the 5,000sq m centre, one of the largest in Europe, cost £5 million to build in 1996 and contains a main mosque that holds more than 1,700 people and two smaller prayer halls.
In addition, it has a Muslim national school, a sports hall, a library, an exhibition hall, an information centre, offices, a women’s education and social centre, a shop, a restaurant, eight apartments and a mortuary.
Designed by architects Michael Collins & Associates, it won a Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland award in 1997. Set on 3.5 acres, it was Ireland’s second purpose-built mosque, after one built in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, in 1987.
School
Clonskeagh is the busiest Islamic centre in Ireland, with a staff of about 20. Each day, 1,200 people come for prayers; 850 children attend its Quranic school and there are 250 in the primary school.
Its iman is Sheikh Hussein Halawa, who came to Ireland from Egypt in 1996. His son Ibrahim is still held in jail, untried, in Egypt, more than three years after he was arrested there.
Imam Halawa is chairman of the Irish Council of Imams, which was set up in 2006 to represent the Muslim voice in Ireland, frequently meeting with politicians and other church leaders.
Imam Halawa is also the Muslim cleric invited to take part in most State occasions whether it be the inauguration of presidents, national days of commemoration or other State gatherings.
He is also secretary general of the Dublin-based European Council for Fatwa and Research, which considered the future of Muslims in Europe when it gathered in Istanbul last year.
Its president, Egyptian-born Yusuf al-Qaradawi is, it is claimed, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Firmly traditional in his beliefs, he has been banned from entering Britain, France and the US. He has visited Ireland many times.
It was suggested by US officials in WikiLeaks correspondence from 2006, released in 2011, that Imam Halawa himself was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but this has been denied.
His daughter Somaia Halawa has said there were no overt links between her family and the Muslim Brotherhood but, she said, she had friends who were members. Her family was “not political in that way”, she said.
However Soha Gendi, Egyptian ambassador to Ireland, is adamant that “the whole family is part of the Muslim Brotherhood, whether they deny it or not”. Whatever the truth, the issue is central to his son’s incarceration.
The Muslim Brotherhood was outlawed in Egypt until the so-called Arab Spring of 2011 and the removal of the prime minister, Hosni Mubarak. It was outlawed again by the current Egyptian regime in September 2013.
Another of Clonskeagh’s best-known figures, Dr Alo Selim, who is also of Egyptian origin, is also suspected of being part of the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the same Wikileaks documents.
Abortion
In January 2013, he presented the Muslim position on abortion at Oireachtas Committee hearings in debates on the then Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill.
“In the unlikely event when a group of competent trustworthy physicians confirm that the continuity of pregnancy jeopardises the mother’s life, abortion could be conducted as the last and only alternative |
Sword (Secret Rare)
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BLLR-EN025 Destiny HERO – Dusktopia (Secret Rare)
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BLLR-EN044 Minerva, the Exalted Lightsworn (Secret Rare)
BLLR-EN051 Mermail Abyssteus (Secret Rare)
BLLR-EN052 Denko Sekka (Secret Rare)
BLLR-EN055 Sage with Eyes of Blue (Secret Rare)
BLLR-EN060 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier (Secret Rare)
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BLLR-EN007 D/D/D Super Doom King Bright Armageddon* (Ultra Rare)
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BLLR-EN012 Abyss Actor – Curtain Raiser (Ultra Rare)
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BLLR-EN014 Radiraptor – Rudder Strix (Ultra Rare)
BLLR-EN015 Raidraptor – Final Fortress Falcon (Ultra Rare)
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BLLR-EN024 Destiny HERO – Dreamer (Ultra Rare)
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BLLR-EN078 Anti-Spell Fragrance (Ultra Rare)
BLLR-EN079 Different Dimension Ground (Ultra Rare)
Source0 Herbal supplement is killing people in Georgia, medical examiner says
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - The state chief medical examiner says the herbal supplement kratom is killing people in Georgia.
Kratom is a controversial tree leaf that has opiate-like effects for those who consume it.
It is sold legally in stores and some people use it to treat depression, anxiety or chronic pain.
Dr. Jonathan Eisenstat, the GBI's chief state medical examiner, said kratom contributed to five deaths in 2016 and 11 deaths so far in 2017.
He said kratom isn't just showing up at convenience stores, supermarkets and other places where it's sold over the counter, it's now showing up in lab tests done for autopsies.
Eisenstat said of the kratom-related deaths in 2017, kratom was the sole drug that caused the death in two cases. It was found with one or more drugs in the rest of the deaths. He said in the five 2016 deaths, it was the sole drug in one case.
"In November of 2016, we added that to our list of possible drugs in our toxicology screens," Eisenstat said.
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"Does that mean there could have been deaths that went unnoticed before that?" Channel 2's Mark Winne asked.
"That's correct," Eisenstat said.
Channel 2's Berndt Petersen spoke to a woman with a history of back problems who said kratom is the only thing that could treat the pain.
"It doesn't have a high feeling. It does have a mood enhancer. It makes you want to get up and do," she said.
Eisenstat said kratom is not an opioid, but acts on the same receptors in the brain.
Winne asked GBI officials if kratom is becoming a problem.
"They've been saying kratom has become a big problem for them because as they're trying to get people off opioids, which as you know is a huge problem, people are now turning to kratom as an alternative," GBI spokeswoman Nelly Miles said.
She said the GBI answers lots of questions from lawmakers about kratom, but right now it is legal under Georgia law.
© 2019 Cox Media Group.Home Daily News This law school sent the most grads into…
Law Schools
This law school sent the most grads into full-time, long-term legal jobs
The University of Chicago Law School. Jannis Tobias Werner / Shutterstock.com
The University of Chicago Law School sent nearly 91 percent of its 2015 graduates to full-time, long-term legal jobs, earning it a No. 1 spot on a list of the top schools for such employment.
The National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports on its findings, which are based on ABA employment data. Its list was based on the percentage of 2015 law grads employed in full-time, long-term jobs that require bar passage and were not funded by the schools.
The top 10 are:
1) University of Chicago Law School (90.82 percent)
2) University of Pennsylvania Law School (89.84 percent)
3) Cornell Law School (89.62 percent)
4) Duke Law School (88.94 percent)
5) New York University School of Law (87.42 percent)
6) Columbia Law School (87.17 percent)
7) Harvard Law School (85.91 percent)
8) University of California at Berkeley School of Law (85.25 percent)
9) Stanford Law School (85.13 percent)
10) University of Michigan Law School (85.03 percent)
Yale Law School was No. 14, but it was No. 1 on a list of law schools that sent the most grads to federal clerkships. It was followed by Stanford Law School, Harvard Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law and the University of Chicago Law School.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Southwestern Law School topped a list of the law schools with the highest percentage of 2015 graduates who were seeking jobs but had not found employment 10 months after graduation. It was followed by Florida Coastal School of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, Liberty University School of Law and the Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “These law schools top rankings that focus on quality legal jobs”Let’s give Bertha the credit she (and all of the humans involved) deserve while they are taking a break since December 21, a well deserved break.
This time last year, Bertha was in her repair vault. After running into a bit of a bother with a pipe that necessitated digging down to the digging machine, the tunneler was finally ready to go. Her troubles made national news. People dreamed up schemes for what to put in the tunnel if the project was abandoned.
Getting started again wasn’t easy. Problems with a barge, and then a troubling sinkhole provided more fodder for people making fun of the project. Stop work orders and suspensions weren’t so funny. Overruns exceeding $200M definitely weren’t and aren’t funny.
Now, Bertha is past the deepest point, has completed over 70% of the digging, and has less than 2,500 feet to go before reaching the exit pit near Seattle Center. In 2016, she traveled over a mile, 5,700 feet. She’s still down there, 160 feet beneath Third Avenue. She’s been tunneling through the remains of Denny Hill, the land created when Seattle leveled a hill is now getting a hole cored through it. (Feel sorry for that tortured dirt.)
With 6,787 of 9,270 feet complete, the end is near, but not assumed or trivialized. It’s tough work in a tough environment. If all goes well, she’ll complete the tunneling in 2017 and we’ll get to drive through it in 2019.
The next time you contemplate a long commute, consider Bertha’s: from Pioneer Square in July 2013 to Seattle Center in 2017 (hopefully). Let’s see, that would be 6.5 feet per day and just about 0.00005 miles per hour. Talk about patience. Congratulations on that, too.
For updates, check out WSDOT’s page, or follow @BerthaDigsSR99 on Twitter.Human remains have been found near the site where body parts from a slain Renton nurse were discovered last Saturday in Seattle’s Central District, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Human remains have been found near the site where body parts from a slain Renton nurse were discovered last week in Seattle’s Central District, according to Seattle police.
It wasn’t immediately known whether the remains found Friday morning were those of Ingrid Lyne, a 40-year-old registered nurse who was killed last week. Earlier, parts of her body had been found in a recycle bin a few blocks away.
However, police said the remains are likely connected to Lyne’s homicide. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office will make the determination.
A trash collector found the remains around 9:45 a.m. Friday while collecting waste along 20th Avenue, according to Assistant Chief Robert Merner. The block of 20th, between East Union and East Marion streets, was cordoned off with crime-scene tape while police investigated.
Police set up a tent directly behind one garbage truck.
Officers with rubber gloves sifted through recycling and trash bins lining the curb. Police also went door to door asking residents if they have surveillance cameras that may have captured footage of the street.
Merner said police plan to search garbage trucks that service the area for additional remains. He said the search would be conducted at a “secure location.”
Lyne’s partial remains were found in an emptied recycle bin on April 9 near 21st Avenue and East Pine Street. The King County Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday confirmed they were those of Lyne, who died as the result of homicidal violence.
The remains included a head, arm, leg and foot.
Merner said police searched the area in the following days but did not find additional remains.
John Robert Charlton, 37, has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with Lyne’s death.
Charlton told police he and Lyne had met online and had been dating about a month, according to court documents. Charlton said they went to the Mariners game on April 8 and then to a bar where he got drunk, then back to Lyne’s home in the Renton Highlands.
He told police he doesn’t recall what happened after that.
Charlton said he awoke last Saturday on a sidewalk in downtown Seattle, which is where detectives later found Lyne’s 2015 Toyota Highlander.
Evidence found by police indicate that Lyne was likely killed and dismembered in the bathtub of her Renton home. Detectives found a saw in the bathroom and blood and flesh in the drains during a search Monday night, the court documents say.
Charlton was convicted of felony theft in Montana in 2009; felony attempted aggravated robbery in Utah in 2006, and negligent driving in Washington state in 1998. He had a misdemeanor assault conviction in King County in 1997 and a 2009 misdemeanor battery case in Idaho, according to records.
In 2006, Charlton’s father and mother filed a petition for a protection order against their son in Thurston County after he appeared at their home angry, apparently intoxicated and “tried continuously to provoke a fight.”
His father wrote in court documents that Charlton “removed a movie from the shelf called ‘Hannibal,’ set it in front of my wife, and told her she should watch this and ‘beware.’ ” The 2001 movie, starring Sir Anthony Hopkins as a cannibalistic serial killer, is a sequel to the film “Silence of the Lambs.”
The petition was eventually dropped, however.
Lyne was the mother of three young daughters, ages 12, 10 and 7, and a nurse at Swedish Medical Center. A gofundme.com page has been created for her daughters.
Terrence Jackson was trying to reach his uncle’s home Friday morning when he was blocked by the crime-scene tape. He said after body parts were found two blocks away last week he checked his garbage and recycling bins, but found nothing.
He said the discovery of more remains was upsetting.
“This is sad. This lady was a mom. She deserves to rest in peace,” he said.
Misty Speck, who has lived on 20th Avenue for 21 years, wonders why police didn’t ask residents in the area to search the garbage and recycling bins last Saturday.
“They obviously can’t search them all. They might have found this earlier,” Speck said.Inside a small, suburban industrial building in Walled Lake, scientists in white lab coats look at marijuana under microscopes, noting every instance of mold or mites before sending the samples to be tested for potency and quality.
For five years, Iron Laboratories LLC has been filling a niche in Michigan's medical marijuana industry: Testing products for impurities and ensuring that the level of THC, the active chemical in marijuana, matches what is advertised, even though Michigan doesn't require such testing.
That's about to change. By December 2017, new licensing regulations will make safety testing mandatory, which is likely to ramp up competition. Gov. Rick Snyder's administration is expected to hire a vendor to run a statewide marijuana tracking system. And the regulations will add certainty for companies that have been operating in legal gray areas.
"I'm in a good position. I can show the state three years' worth of test results (to say): 'I deserve a license,' " said Howard Lutz, Iron Laboratories' CEO.
The gradual march in the U.S. toward legalization of marijuana represents a new opportunity for entrepreneurs like Lutz looking to start companies in a market that could top $7 billion this year, according to some national estimates. A new layer of business is forming in Michigan and across the country to support the growers and dispensaries long thought of as its central players. Tech firms, science labs, business consultants and attorneys are opening their doors to the industry — medicinal or recreational, depending on the state — without, in some cases, ever handling the drug.
Michigan is one of 25 states, along with Washington, D.C., and the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and Guam, to decriminalize marijuana use for medical reasons, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. California was the first state to allow medicinal uses of the drug through a voter-approved initiative in 1996.
Voters in just four states — Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska — and Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational use of small amounts of marijuana for adults. The issue will be on the ballot in at least five states next month, including Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada.
Still, eventual legalization in Michigan is not guaranteed. Though the issue has made it onto the ballot in at least five states next month — though not in Michigan — cannabis entrepreneurship remains a high-risk, high-reward gamble that public opinion will continue to move toward legalization. And while sentiment seems to be shifting, operating during a time of transition is complex.
Several states said they want to professionalize an industry that otherwise would be underground. People with experience in software development and biochemistry who could work in any number of fields are choosing to work in cannabis, despite difficulty in securing financing from traditional lenders and the risk inherent in operating on the edge of legality.
Companies like Iron Laboratories say their forays into the industry are in anticipation of stricter state regulation and, eventually, full legalization, which they consider the next wave of social change — one they hope to capitalize on.
"I'm not some flag-waving, free-the-weed marijuana proponent," said Lutz, who co-founded the company in 2011 after an earlier career in his family's newspaper distribution business. "I think that there's legitimacy in what we do, and I think there's legitimate opportunities here."
Some law firms are creating cannabis practice areas to advise their industry clients on such issues as intellectual property related to branding and labeling, tax law, business formation and zoning rules. Lawyers also help navigate the fuzzy line between federal prohibition and state decriminalization.
For instance, said Doug Mains, a Lansing-based attorney in Dykema Gossett PLLC's cannabis group, can a company get a trademark on a logo that uses an image of a marijuana leaf? How does an attorney advise a client on compliance with state law when that same attorney knows the advice also violates federal law?
The U.S. Department of Justice in 2014 issued guidance meant to deter some prosecution under the federal Controlled Substances Act — which bans marijuana on the basis that it has "no currently accepted medical use" — in states that have decriminalized use, but the Obama administration has stopped short of relaxing its classification of marijuana as an illegal drug with no acceptable medical use.
Marijuana businesses need the same types of legal services as non-cannabis companies, Mains said, but the legal dichotomy means "everything's a little bit more complicated."Martin Wolf writes sympathetically about Richard Koo’s latest; let me be a bit less sympathetic.
As Wolf notes, Koo had a big and important idea: he realized that Irving Fisher’s notion of debt deflation can explain persistent economic weakness even without literal deflation. As long as some part of the private sector has, for whatever reason, taken on levels of debt that now look excessive, the efforts of debtors to pay off their debts can act as a persistent drag on aggregate demand — one that is hard to counter with monetary policy, because many players in the economy can’t or won’t spend more no matter how cheap money becomes. Koo argues further that deficit spending can play a useful role in a balance sheet recession, not just by providing a temporary boost, but by providing a favorable environment for debtors to deleverage, setting the stage for durable recovery.
This is a very useful insight, and one that many of us have taken on board, fully acknowledging Koo’s contribution.
But Koo hasn’t just argued for the usefulness of fiscal stimulus in balance-sheet recessions; he has engaged in a relentless jihad against any attempt to use monetary policy, either as a supplement to fiscal policy or as the best you can do if fiscal policy is paralyzed by politics. And it’s very hard to see why.
Let’s be clear: antipathy to monetary policy does not, in any way, emerge naturally from a balance-sheet approach. Yes, it’s going to be hard for the central bank to gain traction, because excessively indebted firms or households can’t spend even if borrowing is cheap; but there have to be some players who aren’t excessively indebted — if there are debtors, there must be creditors — so there should be some margin on which monetary policy can act. Anyway, at worst monetary expansion will be irrelevant. And to the extent that central banks can raise inflation and/or fight deflation, this is an especially valuable thing if you’re in a balance-sheet slump — which was Fisher’s original point.
I’m not making these arguments casually: I’ve worked fairly hard to understand the implications of balance-sheet models, and they always come up supportive of QE and other forms of unconventional monetary policy.
So whence comes Koo’s bitter antipathy? Frankly, I can’t see any explanation other than not-invented-here syndrome; Koo’s original analysis — which we all admire, and for which we all give him credit — made the case for a fiscal solution, and he not only rejects any alternative but insists that it would be a terrible thing for reasons unclear. And it’s really too bad, because he’s hurting his own credibility.Britain's adoption of Sweden's "free school" model has been called into question after one of Sweden's largest private sector school operators announced it would shut down, leaving hundreds of students stranded.
JB Education, whose schools educate around 10,000 Swedish pupils, said on Thursday that it would sell 19 of its high schools and close down the remaining four.
The decision, which follows four school closures announced by the company in February, came as the Danish private equity group Axcel, which bought the chain in 2008, decided it could no longer continue to cover the company's losses.
"I'm devastated that the company I've managed for a short time won't survive," said JB Education's chief executive, Anders Hultin. "It's extremely regrettable that it will affect the students."
Ibrahim Baylan, the education spokesman for Sweden's opposition Social Democratic party, said the closures should come as a warning to the UK not to slavishly adopt the Swedish model, where private companies can set up profit-making free schools, paid for by the state but with little government oversight.
"Before you do something like this you have to really, really think about how you set up the system," he said. "The system here is not working as it's supposed to work. Nobody could foresee that so many private equity companies would be in our school system as we have today."
Two Swedish school companies, Kunskapsskolan and Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES), have already taken over the management of schools in the UK, albeit on a non-profit basis. Like JB Education, both are owned by private equity companies. Kunskapsskolan's non-profit UK arm, Learning Schools Trust, operates schools in Suffolk, Northamptonshire and two in Richmond, south-west London. IES is often cited as an inspiration for the Conservative push for free schools, with the education secretary, Michael Gove, visiting IES's schools in Sweden. Through a trust named Sabres, IES has operated a free school in Breckland, Suffolk, since 2012.
Critics of the involvement of profit-making companies such as IES fear that their presence is a precursor to allowing corporations to operate state-funded free schools and academies directly.
Gove has said he is open-minded about allowing profit-making companies to run free schools in the future, and the Conservatives are expected to include a proposal to allow them to do so in their 2015 election manifesto.
Andrea Martinson, 37, a social studies teacher at JB Åkersberga, one of the schools due to be closed down, said she now felt there was something wrong with Sweden's for-profit system.
"It makes you sad that the system's not working as it was intended to, since the money issue is so important," she said. "I think it's OK to make a profit, but don't spend the money. That's the problem: they haven't been saving their money for the bad years."
Pontus Ringstedt-Axberg, 18, who is training to be a chef at the school, said students and teachers had been sad and depressed at the meeting held on Friday morning to inform students, although he said he was happy that he was being transferred to another, much larger, school which shares the same building.
"I think it sucks, because my teachers are the best teachers in the world, so I'm really sad about it," he said. "I think they did it in a bad way. I heard about it on the internet."TLDR
Using Minecraft and Mods, virtual representations of the real world can be built to train autonomous agents to navigate and perform tasks in this virtual environment. These virtual models can then be used by physical agents such as Boston Dynamics bots to implement the tasks and instructions learned using the virtual models. Ultimately this makes it reasonable to think of a time where we can design and have our house built in a short time span by autonomous artificial agents.
Minecraft
Minecraft is so hard to describe. Is it a game or is it an educational tool? At first I didn’t get it. I watched younger siblings play this game endlessly always finding ways to improve their worlds. Eventually it was bought by Microsoft and since then it has left the core experience relatively untouched. Instead of shelving it away, Microsoft has expanded across more platforms and loaded it with tons of new features such as an education edition and cross-platform play. In Minecraft I have seen individuals build houses, cities, and even rudimentary models of circuits using Redstone. Furthermore, because the project is programmable, individuals can build modifications also known as Mods to extend the default capabilities.
Dynamic Mapping
A virtual world is great, but what about the real world? Can we model the real world? A few months ago I came across a project by the New York Public Library which generated topographically accurate Minecraft maps using historical map scans and Python scripts. Although the accuracy of historical maps may be questionable, we can only hope that mapping practices have advanced significantly since then and can provide more details and data. Regardless, this project demonstrates that it is possible to model the real world in a virtual environment given the appropriate data.
Project Malmo
Aside from having the obvious benefit of having a relatively accurate virtual model of the real world, there is the additional benefit of having a starting point for training autonomous agents to navigate this environment. To aid in this endeavor, Project Malmo is an adequate tool. Released to the public in 2015 by Microsoft Research, Project Malmo is a platform for artificial intelligence experimentation and research built on top of Minecraft. The project is cross-platform and agents can be built in Python, Lua, C#, C++ or Java.
While the benefits of Project Malmo aside from the pedagogical exercise may not be clearly evident, this project is extremely valuable. The cost not only in terms of price but also time to build physical autonomous bots can be high. If for some reason they were to break or malfunction during field tests it can be costly. Therefore a more effective solution might be to simulate the navigation and mobility of these physical autonomous agents in a real world scenario using virtual environments.
Manual Labor
Once trained, we just need to find or build the physical agents that will carry out the work and instructions based on training performed in the virtual environments. There have been recent demonstrations of agents that may be able of handling such tasks. One of those is Boston Dynamics. For some time, Boston Dynamics has been creating anthropomorphic and zoomorphic robots that perform amazing feats. It can only be assumed that given a model that has been trained in a real-world environment, these physical agents can perform a task like building a home.
The thought of a bot building a house is not too abstract. On March of 2017 several reports suggested that a home in Russia was built in under 24 hours using 3-D printing technologies. While the house had a predefined layout and the robotic arm that built it was limited in its mobility, such capabilities could be expanded with the aid of a trained model being executed by sophisticated physical autonomous agents such as those built by Boston Dynamics.
Sources
4K Minecraft
Historical Minecraft
Project Malmo
Boston Dynamics
House Built in 24 HoursA cruel April Fools' joke it was not.
Tiger Woods, the 4-time Masters champion and holder of 14 Major titles, will miss the 2014 edition following surgery on a pinched nerve.
The announcement was made on Woods' official website, noting the injury had been bothering the golfer for several months.
"After attempting to get ready for the Masters, and failing to make the necessary progress, I decided, in consultation with my doctors, to have this procedure done," Woods said through his website. He will begin intensive rehabilitation and soft-tissue treatment within the next week. He could begin practicing within a month.
Sad to say I'm missing the Masters. Thanks to the fans for so many kind wishes. http://t.co/Ofbre9VHEL — Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) April 1, 2014
Woods has suffered numerous injuries over the years, some of which have kept him out of tournaments altogether. He once famously came from behind to win the 2008 U.S. Open -- two days later, Woods underwent knee surgery that kept him out for the rest of the year.
Related: Quicken Loans Wins Big In Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge
Woods has failed to win a Major title since his 2009 infidelity scandal, but the sport of golf -- not just Tiger Woods -- has also suffered in his absences. According to Nielsen, television ratings have at times dropped dramatically when Woods is either not playing in a PGA Tournament or when not in contention on a tournament's final day.
ESPN, along with Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) subsidiaries Golf Channel and NBC are three of the most prominent broadcasters of golf. Commercials for the Masters, considered the highest prize in the sport's profession, begin airing as early as February for the April tournament. Some have even held conspiracy theories that CBS (NYSE: CBS) bent the rules to let Woods continuing playing in 2013.
Nike (NYSE: NKE) could also suffer, as well. Woods is one of the most recognizable athletes -- and brands -- in the world. His identity is as tied to the Nike brand as anything else, from his clothing apparel to golf balls.Incoming Hurricane Irma is menacing Florida, USA, prompting mandatory evacuations – and threatening to ruin Elon Musk's week too.
On Wednesday, SpaceX is due to deliver the US Air Force's secretive X-37B pocket space shuttle into orbit, using a Falcon 9 rocket blasting off from Cape Canaveral in the usually Sunshine State. The X-37B is usually launched by SpaceX's bitter rival the United Launch Alliance, but the Musketeers have convinced the US Department of Defense to let them try it.
"The many firsts on this mission make the upcoming [orbital test vehicle] launch a milestone for the program," said Randy Walden, the director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, before the weekend. "It is our goal to continue advancing the X-37B [orbital test vehicle] so it can more fully support the growing space community."
This is the fifth mission for the X-37B: the last one kept the space plane aloft for nearly two years. As ever, the Department of Defense isn't saying what the shuttle's payload is other than that it's carrying "small satellite ride shares and will demonstrate greater opportunities for rapid space access and on-orbit testing of emerging space technologies."
With a catastrophic category-five hurricane bearing down on the US coast and the rocket's launchpad, though, it's now highly unlikely the scheduled takeoff will go ahead on the date planned, unless the storm either slows, weakens, or diverts its course. Even so it'll be chucking out swathes of cloud and rain, both of which can disrupt launches.
It's a pain for SpaceX because not only has it stolen one of the ULA's prime plums, but the Falcon was also going to be used to launch the X-37B into a higher inclination orbit than was managed in the past, when it was lifted using a smaller Atlas V rocket.
If the hurricane does track into Florida, SpaceX and NASA could have bigger problems on its hands. Cape Canaveral is basically built on a large sandbar and the high winds and tidal surges a mega-storm produces could damage the facility.
Since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, all new buildings at the location have been built to withstand wind speeds of up to 130mph. However, Irma is, right now, producing winds in excess of 180mph and may pick up more strength before it hits the coast.
In such conditions the space center goes into lockdown. Non-essential staff are evacuated and a core team of volunteers stays on site until the storm is past, safe in the launch bunkers. For safety reasons they aren't allowed out in wind speeds higher than 58mph, but they can still be on site for immediate repairs and cleanup. ®Welcome
This is the hub of the Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011, a place where you can track your favourite team, see what the rest of the field is up to and track progress as the solar vehicles travel 3021 kilometres from Darwin in the North of Australia, to Adelaide in the South.
The maps show tracker locations as they're reported, which sometimes means that there is a delay between where the tracker last reported a vehicle and where the actual location on the road is. Australia is a huge country and there is limited mobile phone coverage along the route, so our trackers use satellites to communicate back to base. Sometimes a mountain, a tree or a person is in the way and the signal doesn't get through immediately.
For current information, you should keep an eye on the BLOG and Facebook pages which will show updates as they come to hand.The Obama administration is instituting a variety of far-reaching policies to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change. Are any of these capable of making a difference? Simple arithmetic suggests not. Given this reality, we would be wise to consider strategies that complement and may be more effective than mitigation—namely, adaptation.
According to the Paris-based International Energy Agency, in 2012 the world emitted a little over 31 gigatons of carbon dioxide. China was the No. 1 emitter, accounting for more than one-fourth of the carbon produced. The U.S. was second, emitting about one-sixth.
China and India, among other developing countries, argue that they should be allowed to increase carbon emissions. They're still developing and require higher rates of economic growth. Moreover, they aren't responsible for previous emissions, and on a per capita basis U.S. emissions are much higher.
These arguments have merit but must be measured against the reality of carbon growth. Consider China: Its carbon emissions increased by an average 8.6% a year between 2002 and 2012. Were China to continue at this pace for 27 years until it reaches today's U.S. GDP per capita, it would emit 99 gigatons of carbon in 2041 alone, or three times the world's current emissions.
This scenario is too pessimistic. As countries develop, they become more efficient in energy use. But even if China tapered its emissions growth from 8.6% to zero over the same 27 years, it would still emit as much carbon in 2041 as the entire world does today. And that's not including emissions growth from India, Africa and South America.
Is there any hope of limiting carbon emissions to 30-50 gigatons in 2030, as many climatologists have called for, with substantial reductions thereafter? Some countries, notably Denmark and Sweden, have significantly reduced emissions. Can the U.S. do the same?
Feel-good actions won't make a dent. For example, it is fashionable to favor locally grown produce in part to reduce the carbon from transport. But transport from producer to retailer is a trivial part—less than 5%—of energy used |
unnecessary, saying it “does not contribute anything to the Jewish and democratic identity of the State of Israel, which is well-enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and other basic laws.Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Graham is exploring an emergency aid package to fund the Kurds. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
The United States’ most reliable allies on the ground in the fight against the Islamic State are desperate for cash, and a pair of Republican senators are trying to find a way to quickly get it to them.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations’ subcommittee on Foreign Operations, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) are exploring an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to get money to the Kurds, who haven’t been able to pay their fighters in months, and have been making a desperate plea to the United States for direct economic assistance.
“I’m trying to find a way to get money to the Kurds,” Graham said Thursday.
But others are worried that any effort to help the Kurds directly could create a much more problematic backlash from Baghdad — despite the Kurdish Peshmerga forces’ vital role in taking back territory from ISIS.
[Inside the Kurdish fighting forces: the U.S. proxy ground troops in the war against ISIS]
“In all of these things, one has to make a decision: are you doing something that’s helping the cause, or are you doing something that’s increasing the likelihood of Iraq breaking apart,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
Corker said Graham and McCain had not yet approached him about an aid package, but noted that Kurdish representatives he met with in Washington last month were “lobbying heavily” for financial assistance.
“It’s the same issue I had with arming the Kurds some time ago,” Corker added. “When you begin doing that, you have to take into account you could be encouraging the breaking apart of the country.”
Presently, any assistance the United States sends to the Kurds goes through Baghdad. Various measures to arm the Kurds directly have been pending in Congress, but the administration’s policy has been to send all weapons through Baghdad, where they are stored in warehouses and then transferred to the Kurdish region in the north of Iraq.
Baghdad is also responsible for giving the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) 17 percent of the national budget, which depends in large part on oil revenues.
But the Kurds say those payments haven’t been coming for several months. And even though the KRG recently started exporting oil directly to global markets — over the protestations of the Iraqi government that such moves were illegal — the price of oil has tanked so dramatically that they cannot make up the shortfall.
In an interview with the Associated Press last month, Kurdish foreign minister Falah Mustafa Bakir said it would cost about $2 billion a year to continue to pay salaries to the Kurdish fighters. He was asking the Pentagon for help.
The low price of oil is one of the reasons Graham is pursuing an economic aid package, he said. But while he didn’t specify just how much money he wants to send to the Kurds, Graham doubted that it would be as much as $2 billion.
Graham and McCain are two of the more hawkish members of Congress when it comes to the fight against the Islamic State, calling for everything from thousands of U.S. ground troops to more resources for the Kurdish fighters. Both have called for arming the Kurds directly — an effort that has failed to pass Congress, as many members are concerned about the implications of circumventing Baghdad.
But McCain suggested that sending money to the Kurds wouldn’t be a tough sell.
“Emergency appropriations — you can pass an appropriations bill,” McCain added. “After the Israelis used up Iron Dome? Lindsey Graham and I went to the floor, $150 million, unanimous consent.”
The Kurds, despite their close relationship with the United States in the fight against ISIS, do not have as historically strong a relationship with Congress as Israel. Regardless, Graham and McCain want to get a measure together to help them quickly.
“They want direct aid. They want money right now, they need money to pay their military,” McCain said, suggesting it would not be difficult to get such a measure through Congress.Year(s) Title Character(s) Classification Notes Country
January 7, 2010 – September 30, 2011 Baka and Test Toshimitsu Kubo Gay Kubo has a crush on the main character Akihisa Yoshii. Japan
Miharu Shimizu Lesbian Miharu is in love with Minami Shimada, but Minami tries to avoid her.
January 8, 2010 – March 26, 2016 Durarara!! Mairu Orihara
Kururi Orihara Bisexual Mairu and Kururi, the sisters of the series' antagonist Izaya Orihara, are openly bisexual characters. Japan
January 9, 2010 – June 28, 2011 The Qwaser of Stigmata Ekaterina "Katja" Kurae
Hana Katsuragi Lesbian Hana is Katja's sex slave and BDSM submissive. Hana also serves as her reserve of "Soma", breast milk with magical properties, which Katja routinely drinks. Japan
Mutsumi Sendou Bisexual Mutsumi is the lover of Tasuku Fujiomi. He is the only man Mutsumi is attracted to and she is often annoyed by his tendency to be a womanizer. However, Mutsumi is attracted to girls too. She openly flirts with Mafuyu in front of Sasha. She also kidnaps and rapes Mafuyu, and in the process discovers that Mafuyu holds the power known as "Sword of Maria".[110][111]
Eva-Q
Eva-R Bisexual Eva-Q and Eva-R seek to be sex and BDSM slaves. They are seen harassing three people, of both genders, asking them to be their master or mistress: a female police officer, the class president Fumika Mitarai and Alexander "Sasha" Nikolaevich Hell. Eva-Q and Eva-R also kiss each other.[112]
BMO Genderqueer BMO is neither male nor female.[118] In the show both the pronoun "he" and the term "m'lady" have been used in reference to BMO. While BMO is an object used for recreation by Finn and Jake, it is still considered a close friend and treated as an equal by the two.[118] BMO speaks English with a Korean accent.[119]
April 6, 2010 – September 28, 2010 Rainbow: Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin Gisuke Sasaki Gay A perverted pedophilic doctor at the Shonan Special Disciplinary School who abuses his position to sexually molest boys. Japan
April 11, 2010 – September 19, 2010 The Betrayal Knows My Name Yuki Giou (Sakurai) and Zess (Luka Corosszeira) Gay, Bisexual Yuki's previous incarnation was a woman named Yuki and Yuki and Luka were lovers. In the present, Yuki and Luka are highly protective of each other and are implied to be in love with each other. Japan
June 27, 2010 – March 25, 2012 Mary Shelley's Frankenhole Sanguinaire Polidori Gay Polidori is openly gay and the partner of Victor. United States
August 16, 2010 – May 11, 2012 Kuttsukiboshi Kiiko Kawakami
Aaya Saitō Lesbian, Bisexual Kiiko is in love with Aaya, but didn't have the courage to tell her in the beginning. Aaya likes to perform experiments with Kiiko's powers, but in reality she is in love with her. She usually takes the lead when it comes to activities and has an outgoing personality. Aaya's older brother, Kōta Saitō had a terminal disease and manipulated Aaya into having sex with him before going in for his operation where he died. Japan
October 1, 2010 – December 24, 2010 Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Garterbelt Gay He is a priest with an interest in young males, Brief in particular. Japan
October 2, 2010 – December 18, 2010 MM! Tatsukichi Hayama Genderqueer He enjoys cross-dressing (which induces his female alter-ego "Tatsumi Antoinette XVI" to appear). He is troubled at the start when Taro, who does not know of Tatsukichi's hobby, becomes infatuated with his female alter ego. While cross-dressing, his alter-ego has a superiority complex, and repeatedly argues with Isurugi (sometimes over Taro's affection), as well as verbally attacking Mio's breast size repeatedly. Japan
Yumi Mamiya Bisexual She hates Taro and loves Tatsukichi, but does not know that Tatsukichi is a cross-dresser. In certain scenes in the anime, it is implied that she has lesbian tendencies when groping and fondling Arashiko and Mio.
October 4, 2010 – September 8, 2014 Squid Girl Sanae Nagatsuki Lesbian She develops an obsessive crush on Squid Girl, often trying to get intimate with her at every opportunity and getting attacked in the process. She keeps a vast collection of Squid Girl photographs and memorabilia. She develops inhuman reflexes for taking Squid Girl's photos, and also a masochistic streak from Squid Girl's violent responses to her advances. She's also a classmate of Eiko, and the two of them attend the same school together. Due to her obsession with Squid Girl, her Dog, Alex often tries to gain her attention, through various means, and will often bite Squid Girl, in anger, despite Squid Girl's own irritation with Sanae's obsession. Japan
October 7, 2010 – December 23, 2010 Togainu no Chi Akira, Keisuke, Rin, Shiki, Nano, Motomi Gay As the anime is based on a BL video game where the main character Akira can hook up with Keisuke, Rin, Shiki, Nano and Motomi, it is safe to say these characters also hold feelings for Akira in the anime. Japan
Arbitro and Kau Gay Arbitro is the head of a narcotics company and has a horrific hobby of experimenting on and modifying the bodies of handsome young men. Kau is his favorite "pet", who exhibits love towards Arbitro in what appears to be a form of Stockholm Syndrome.
October 15, 2010 – December 31, 2010 Princess Jellyfish Kuranosuke Koibuchi Genderqueer He is the son of a rich political family and loves to cross-dress. Japan
November 26, 2010 – present Young Justice Multiple characters LGBTQ According to series creator Greg Weisman, the show included LGBT characters during its first two seasons.[120][121] United States
December 18, 2010 – February 15, 2012 Yuri Seijin Naoko-san Naoko-san Lesbian Naoko-san is an alien who comes from the Planet Yuri and takes the place of Misuzu's sister. She appears to have a thing for little girls. She also seeks to conquer the world by 'yurifying' it.[126] In the manga, her depiction as a "yurian" is in reality a metaphor for "lesbian".[127] Japan
Hii-chan Lesbian The best friend of Misuzu and later Naoko-san, who wears glasses. She appears to have a deranged crush on Misuzu.
January 9, 2011 – March 27, 2011 I Don't Like You at All, Big Brother!! Rin Yatagai Lesbian Ran's older twin sister. Although she initially appears to help Nao stop Ran's crazy plans, it is later revealed that she is a lesbian who has become interested in Nao's lips as well as seems to have a harem of girls after her attention. In the end, she accidentally kisses Iroha and takes a liking to her instead.[128][129] Japan
January 9, 2011 – present Bob's Burgers Marshmallow Trans woman Marshmallow is a transgender sex worker.[130] United States
Marbles Trans woman Marbles is a transgender sex worker.[131]
Glitter Trans woman Glitter is a transgender sex worker who is said to be going under gender reassignment because she mentions the town being full of "Doctors who refuse to cut off your penis".[131]
Cha-Cha Trans woman Cha-Cha is a transgender sex worker.[131]
Dalton Crespin Gay He had a boyfriend whom he broke up with prior to the episode "The Bleakening" who is now boyfriends with another one of his ex-boyfriends.[132]
January 13, 2011 – March 31, 2011 Wandering Son Shuichi Nitori Lesbian Trans Woman Shuichi Nitori expresses a desire to become a woman since childhood and shows lesbian interest in two girls: Yoshino Takatsuki and later Anna Suehiro. Japan
Yoshino Takatsuki Genderqueer, Lesbian Yoshino Takatsuki initially has gender dysphoria but grows out of it after becoming a model. She likes dressing as a boy and even enjoyed being hit on by an older woman. She later develops feelings for Shuichi but it occurs years after she gets over her crush on her.
Anna Suehiro Bisexual She develops feelings for Shuichi as a boy, but later declares that she does not mind if she is "considered a lesbian" if Shuichi comes out as a transgender woman.
Makoto Ariga Straight Trans woman Makoto expresses a desire to be a woman primarily due to her love of men and even dreams of entering into a relationship with a cool adult man.
Hiroyuki Yoshi Straight Trans woman Hiroyuki is a trans woman who lives with her boyfriend Shiina and runs a gay bar.
March 22, 2011 – December 23, 2011 Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi Ritsu Onodera and Masamune Takano Bisexual, Gay Ritsu and Masamune dated in their high school years but due to a misunderstanding broke up on bad terms, causing Ritsu to state he would never fall in love again. He dated other women in the past to forget but he later meets Masamune once more when he becomes an editor for shoujo manga, working under him. The two eventually and slowly rebuild their relationship. Masamune has shown no interest in women. Japan
Shouta Kisa and Kou Yukina Gay, Bisexual Shouta Kisa has a bad habit of falling for good looking men and falls for Kou, but is scared to pursue a relationship as he feels love doesn't really exist. Kou dated women in the past but later falls in love with Shouta and the two develop a strong romantic relationship.
Yoshiyuki Hatori and Chiaki Yoshino Bisexual, Gay Yoshiyuki has been friends with Chiaki for a long time and the two eventually start dating. Hatori had a previous girlfriend in the past.
Takafumi Yokozawa and Zen Kirishima Bisexual Takafumi claims to have liked women in the past, but fell in love with Masamune Takano who did not reciprocate his feelings. He later enters a relationship with Zen Kirishima, who was once happily married until his wife tragically passed.
Yuu Yanase Gay He is in love with Chiaki Yoshino
Ryuichiro Isaka and Kaoru Asahina Gay The two are in love with each other.
April 3, 2011 – September 18, 2011 Tiger & Bunny Nathan Seymour / Fire Emblem Genderqueer, Gay Nathan is a highly effeminate homosexual man who identifies as gender queer though also at times prefers to be identified as a woman, often spending more time with the female heroes while flirting with the male heroes. In the past, they tried to present themselves femininely but was harshly criticized and while no longer presented as femininely, they still hold a strong romantic infatuation towards men (something that led to their bullying as a child) Japan
April 5, 2011 – June 27, 2011 Battle Girls: Time Paradox Akechi Mitsuhide Lesbian Nobunaga's humble aide, who is often bemused at her acceptance of Hideyoshi's odd behavior and is secretly infatuated with Nobunaga. To this end, she is prepared to do whatever it takes to "make Nobunaga happy", which is why she is willing to acquire the Crimson Armor set on her feudal lord's behalf. Sub-consequently, she is also jealous, at times, with Hide's interactions with Nobunaga. Japan
April 6, 2011 – November 11, 2014 Steins;Gate Ruka Urishibara Trans woman Ruka is a trans girl. She states that she has always felt trapped in the wrong body.[133] Rintaro, the protagonist, is initially shocked to learn that Ruka is a "guy", because he thinks she has great feminine grace and beauty.[134] Ruka is in love with Rintaro, but feels ashamed of it due to being a "guy".[135] In the series, some characters are able to send "D-Mails", text messages that arrive in the past via time travel.[136] Ruka successfully changes the past, causing herself to be born as a cis girl. This is accomplished by sending a D-Mail to her mother and persuading her to change her diet when she was pregnant with Ruka.[133] Usually, Rintaro seems to be the only person who keeps his memory intact after D-Mails cause changes like this,[136] however the cis girl Ruka eventually remembers that she used to be a "guy" as well.[135] At some point, in an attempt to save the life of their friend Mayuri, Rintaro urges all his friends to undo their D-Mails,[137] which includes asking the cis girl Ruka to go back to being a "guy" by sending another D-Mail to her mother in the past. Ruka obliges, on the condition that he goes on a date with her while she is still a cis girl, which he accepts. Afterwards, Ruka reverses the change as promised.[135] Japan
April 15, 2011 – December 22, 2015 Aria the Scarlet Ammo Shino Sasaki Lesbian She first met Akari at a food stand where they share a leaf pie. She has since developed an obsessive crush on Akari to the point that she is willing to resort to violence in order to make Akari break off her amica relationship with Aria who she is extremely jealous of. She is also known to stalk Akari and take candid pictures of her changing or in a swimsuit. Japan
July 5, 2011 – present YuruYuri Chinatsu Yoshikawa Lesbian Although the work is rather ambiguous about the orientation of main girls, Chinatsu is the one who has a confirmed crush on another girl. Japan
Ayano Sugiura Lesbian Ayano is in love with Kyouko but is often not too honest with her feelings for her, always referring to her by her full name and treating her with acts of hostility, despite not wanting do so on purpose.
Chitose Ikeda Lesbian Chitose and her twin sister, Chizuru have various yuri fantasies whenever they take their glasses off, with Chitose almost always pairing Kyōko together with Ayano, which often leads to near-fatal nosebleeds while Chizuru pairs Ayano with Chitose and drools instead of having nosebleeds. Whenever Chitose gets drunk (or eats chocolate in the anime), she goes on a kissing rampage.
Chizuru Ikeda
Akane Akaza Lesbian Akari's older sister. She is secretly infatuated with Akari, with her room almost completely covered in photos of her, often doing various perverted things with her belongings when she is not around and reading lots of doujins about sisterly incest.
Tomoko Yoshikawa Lesbian Chinatsu's older sister. She's a friend of Akane and has strong feelings for her.
Nadeshiko Ohmuro Lesbian Sakurako's older sister who is eighteen years old. She is in a romantic relationship with one of her friends, though it has not yet been revealed who.
July 7, 2011 – September 15, 2011 No. 6 Shion
Nezumi Gay The anime has a few instances of their romantic feelings for each other. In episodes 7 and 11 they kissed. The creator also confirmed that they're in love with each other. Japan
July 10, 2011 – September 25, 2011 R-15 Ran Musen Lesbian Ran is shown to be only interested in girls and hates Taketo, but this changes after Taketo helps rescue Fukune from Beni Botan. She then befriends Taketo soon after. Japan
July 12, 2011 – January 4, 2012 Manyū Hiken-chō Kaede Lesbian Kaede is the loyal underling and best friend of Chifusa Manyū. Kaede routinely attempts to play with Chifusa's breasts[138][139][140] or otherwise touch her without warning — for example, Kaede hugs Chifusa against her will[139] and at other point Kaede is seen licking Chifusa's ear.[141] This often annoys Chifusa. As a running gag, some bystander usually witnesses such a scene and says to himself that the two girls must be a lesbian couple. In "Chifusa Defects", Chifusa asks Kaede if she is lesbian, but goes away without waiting for an answer.[138] In "The First Breast Slice", Kaede persuades Chifusa to cuddle with her in bed to keep Chifusa warm.[142] In "Bud of Love", Kaede encourages Chifusa to grope her breasts.[143] Kaede keeps records of Chifusa's bosom size, which keeps constantly growing because of the Breast Flow technique.[142] In some DVD extras, it is shown that Kaede stalks Chifusa in private moments.[144] Japan
Oiso Lesbian Oiso is the owner of a seafood restaurant. She hires Chifusa and Kaede after they eat there but are unable to pay the bill. She hits on Chifusa in two separate opportunities. In both times, she gropes Chifusa's bosom while flirting, making Chifusa uncomfortable and prompting Kaede to stop her.[145]
October 1, 2011 – September 29, 2012 Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere Naito Margot Malga Naruze Lesbian Naito and Malga are lovers which makes the two lesbian witches in open rebellion against the Catholic Church.[146] Japan
October 2, 2011 – June 14, 2015 China, IL Crystal Peppers Trans woman Crystal is a transgender woman. It was implied she only had top surgery, as she had testicles up until "Coming Out of the Casket", when they're amputated by Steve and placed in a glass jar on his bookcase. United States
October 9, 2011 – December 25, 2011 Ben-To Ume Shiraume Lesbian She is obsessed with Hana and usually beats Yō up out of jealousy, despite also being prone to flirt with other girls like Ayame. Japan
October 10, 2011 – April 16, 2012 Future Diary Aru Akise Gay Aru has feelings for Yuki. Japan
Mao Nonosaka Lesbian Mao is in love with her best friend Hinata and is possessive of her.
October 27, 2011 – December 29, 2011 Good Vibes Voneeta Teets Bisexual The sex-ed teacher at Del Toro High. She is a bisexual who weighs 400 pounds and gets around in a motorized scooter, but she is immensely proud of her body and is insatiably horny. United States
October 30, 2011 – December 18, 2011 Allen Gregory Richard De Longpre Gay, Bisexual Richard and Jeremy are the fathers of the title character. Jeremy is a former social worker who had a loving wife and family, although this changed after Richard became one of his clients. Richard was attracted to Jeremy to the point where he started stalking him and his family until Jeremy finally agreed to be his husband. It is said that Jeremy is actually heterosexual but left his wife and children for Richard, who offered him an easy, no-maintenance life as his trophy husband. United States
Jeremy De Longpre
January 6, 2012 – present Symphogear Cagliostro Trans woman She used to be a man who was a swindler known for his endless lies, before being granted a perfect body by Saint-Germain. Cagliostro has since sworn to never lie about her feelings. Japan
Prelati Trans woman She also used to be a man who indulged in luxury and pleasure, before being granted a perfect body by Saint-Germain, following his defeat at her hands. Prelati has since sworn to become an earnest researcher, but sometimes lets her preference for fun get in the way of her work.
January 8, 2012 – June 30, 2012 Bodacious Space Pirates Jenny Dolittle and Lynn Lambretta Lesbian The two are president and vice president of the Space Yacht Club along with being lesbian lovers. Japan
January 8, 2012 – March 27, 2012 Brave 10 Kamanosuke Yuri Genderqueer Their exact gender is unknown but on occasion is referenced as male. Nonetheless, they develop a romantic interest in Saizo. Japan
January 12, 2012 – March 29, 2012 Inu x Boku SS Nobara Yukinokōji Lesbian She holds a primary sexual interest in young cute girls. Japan
January 23, 2012 – June 26, 2013 Gokujyo Asuka Utsunomiya Lesbian Asuka appears to be romantically interested in the main protagonist, Aya Akabane. Furthermore, in the OVA, Asuka makes some moves on Ai Nanasato whilst the others sleep. Japan
Ai Nanasato Lesbian Ai Nanasato gives in to the desires of Asuka as she makes some moves on her in the OVA. At the very end, she says to Asuka that it would be best if they don't tell anyone of what happened that night to which Asuka replies, "What happened last night?"
Madoka Oowada Lesbian She is a wildly perverted girl who has various fantasies and constant nosebleeds. This is mostly aimed at Aya.
March 23, 2012 – present Doc McStuffins Thea
Edie Lesbian The title character, Dottie "Doc" McStuffins, routinely interacts with toys, dolls, and stuffed animals that have come to life. In episode "The Emergency Plan" (August 5, 2017), two dolls form a lesbian married couple and are parents of two doll children. This was the first same-sex couple featured in a Disney Junior pre-school series.[147][148] United States
April 4, 2012 – June 27, 2012 Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine Lieutenant Oscar Gay Oscar is an androgynous male who is Zenigata's assistant and has romantic feelings for him. Japan
April 10, 2012 – December 26, 2012 Jormungand Sofia Velmer/Valmet Lesbian She is a lesbian with a crush on Koko Hekmatyar. Japan
Kya Lesbian Kya is Aang's daughter who appears in The Legend of Korra. Her sexuality is not mentioned in the animated series, but in the sequel graphic novel The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars, she is shown to be lesbian and gives advice to Korra and Asami about coming out.[153]
June 15, 2012 – February 15, 2016 Gravity Falls Sheriff Blubs
Deputy Durland Gay In the series finale, the two men publicly express their love for each other.[154][155][156] United States
July 6, 2012 – September 21, 2012 Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero Chikage Izumi Lesbian She is a friendly, tomboyish girl with short brown hair and amber eyes. She becomes friends with Miu immediately. She is also a lesbian, and shamelessly admits it, though she develops a slight "liking" for Akatsuki.[157] Japan
September 25, 2012 – April 14, 2015 Brickleberry Connie Cunaman Lesbian Connie admits she is a lesbian and it is revealed to the viewers that her strength is dubbed by her as "lesbian strength". She is obsessed with Ethel and was turned away by her Evangelical parents for being a homosexual. On a side note, when Connie gets excited, her vagina makes growling noises similar to that of a stomach, requiring her to talk it down like a wild animal. United States
October 1, 2012 – December 20, 2016 Kamisama Kiss Otohiko Gay Otohiko is a feminine wind god who prefers men and has a strong crush on Ookuninushi, the God of Wealth, who doesn't reciprocate as he strictly prefers women. Japan
October 3, 2012 – March 27, 2013 From the New World Saki Watanabe Bisexual She loved Shun for a long time but dates Maria and later marries Satoru. Japan
Maria Akizuki Bisexual She falls in love with and begins to date Saki but later enters a duty pact with and marries Mamoru Itō.
Satoru Asahina Bisexual Satoru dated Shun for a while but the two later broke up and he began to date another boy for a time, but that relationship also failed. He later falls in love with and marries Saki.
Shun Aonuma Bisexual He dated Satoru Asahina for a time but was in love with Saki since childhood. However, he stayed away from Saki for fear of his growing uncontrollable power.
October 12, 2012 – present Psycho-Pass Shion Karanomori
Yayoi Kunizuka Bisexual, Lesbian Shion and Yayoi are in an open sexual relationship, while Shion openly declares her bisexuality and polyamory at the end of the first season.. Japan
November 8, 2012 – present Bravest Warriors Plum Bisexual She seems to have a crush on Chris as seen in Gas Powered Stick when she flirts and kisses him, but that could've been a ruse in order to remove the peach pit that gave Chris X-ray vision. Furthermore, on numerous occasions in the series, she has identified as bisexual. United States, Canada
January 5, 2013 – September 29, 2013 Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East Genpachi Inukai Bisexual Genpachi initially held deep feelings for his late fiancée Nui who died but learns she committed suicide because she slept with another man, believing Genpachi died during a war and upon learning he survived, committed suicide out of guilt. Genpachi later falls in love with Shino Inuzuka. Japan
Ao Gay Ao is Sosuke's dark half who has Sosuke's memories of his life and is in love and obsessed with Shino Inuzuka.
January 5, 2013 – February 1, 2014 Dofus: The Treasures of Kerubim Simone
Julie Lesbian Julie shows attraction towards Simone the minute she sees her.[158] Simone is seen going on dates with Julie in various episodes of the show. France
April 7, 2013 – May 27, 2015 Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet Lukkage Bisexual She has two female sex slaves who also serve as her co-pilots for her mecha. Later she develops a romantic interest in Pinion, especially with his hair down. Japan
April 7, 2013 – present Attack on Titan Ymir
Krista Lenz Lesbian The official website mentions Ymir is in love with Historia (Krista)[159] Also at the series panel for Animagic 2014, producer George Wada confirmed that Ymir and Krista are a couple[160] Japan
Reiner Braun Bisexual In episode 29, it is revealed Reiner "had no interest in women" while suggesting Ymir's shared homosexuality. But despite that, Reiner has shown some interest in Krista. Asking her to marry him on multiple occasions in his mind.
April 9, 2013 – February 22, 2017 Yuyushiki Kei Okano Lesbian She is quite fond of Chiho and is later shown to have a crush on her. This leads to her being often cold towards Yui for allegedly taking Chiho away from her. Kei's other friend, Fumi is aware of her fondness and interest for Chiho and often teases her about it. Japan
April 12, 2013 – December 26, 2013 Valvrave the Liberator Akira Renbokoji Lesbian She is shown to have romantic feelings for Shoko. Japan
July 6, 2013 – March 3, 2017 Kin-iro Mosaic Aya Komichi Lesbian She is rather bashful towards Yoko, often not being honest with her feelings. She frequently misinterprets situations between herself and Yoko, responding indignantly and blushing, mostly because of not being able to admit her love to Yoko. Japan
July 12, 2013 – September 26, 2015 Gatchaman Crowds O.D. Genderqueer They are a flamboyant alien with no specific gender. Japan
Berg Katze Genderqueer An androgynous alien shapeshifter with no specified gender.
July 13, 2013 – September 21, 2016 Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya Kuro / Chloe von Einzbern Bisexual Kuro's existence is later revealed to be another side of Illya that was previously sealed away so that Illya could live an ordinary life. In order to maintain existence, she must obtain mana from others by kissing them. After the "power struggle" in the Einzbern house, she is considered the "little sister" of Illya. Chloe is almost openly bisexual who has affection for guys like Shirou and any girl she will met, especially Illya. Due to this, she often becomes the main source of yuri fanservice in the manga and the show. Japan
July 18, 2013 – present RWBY Ilia Amitola Lesbian Ilia confessed that she has held onto romantic feelings for her former-current-best friend Blake Belladonna. Miles Luna, one of the show runners, confirmed her sexuality in a 2018 Reddit AMA.[161] United States
August 1, 2013 – November 3, 2015 The Awesomes Zip Danger / "Frantic" Gay Frantic is forcibly outed under media pressure in S2E5, "The Awesomes' Awesome Show". He later falls for Christopher, a member of villain team The Gay Mafia. United States
Tomboy Lesbian Originally presenting as Gadget Gal's nemesis, she is outed in S1E3, "Baby Got Backstory", as using the feud to cope with her own romantic feelings for her.
Steven Gay Steven is a member of villain team The Gay Mafia, and makes his debut in S3E8, "The Gayfather".
Christopher Gay Christopher makes his debut appearance as member of villain team The Gay Mafia in S3E8, "The Gayfather". He falls for Frantic immediately upon meeting him, and sabotages his team's efforts as a result.
The Gayfather Gay The Gayfather is the leader of villain team The Gay Mafia, and makes his debut in S3E8, "The Gayfather".
October 5, 2013 – March 28, 2015 Log Horizon Kurinon Lesbian Kurinon is a girl who joined the West Wid Brigade due to its overly large female population and is a proud lesbian. Japan
October 6, 2013 – December 22, 2013 Walkure Romanze: Shōjo Kishi Monogatari Akane Ryūzōji Lesbian She has a great fondness and love interest for Celia, so much so that even saying her name causes her to lose focus. Japan
October 10, 2013 – March 27, 2014 Samurai Flamenco Masayoshi Hazama and Hidenori Gotō Bisexual Masayoshi and Hidenori start out as close friends and Hidenori himself has a girlfriend he texts frequently. It is later revealed his girlfriend has long since died and Hidenori had been texting himself. Masayoshi later confesses his love to Hidenori, and while Hidenori never clearly accepts or rejects him, there are some fan books that suggests he reciprocates. Japan
Mari Maya and Moe Morita Bisexual, Lesbian Mari Maya has a fetish for men in uniforms. She also has an inferiority complex towards Moe but the two later reconcile by kissing each other.
November 4, 2013 – present Steven Universe Pearl Lesbian, genderqueer In "We Need to Talk", it is very apparent that Pearl, a female-presenting non-binary gem, is attracted to another gem named Rose Quartz, her now-deceased leader.[162] Her feelings are later confirmed romantic in nature and reciprocated by Rose.[163] In "Last One Out of Beach City", Pearl is attracted to a female human. United States
Ruby
Sapphire Lesbian, genderqueer Two sexless but feminine-presenting members of the Crystal Gems who have a romantic relationship with each other, and stay permanently fused to form Garnet.[164] Also the co-executive producer, Ian Jones-Quartey, has confirmed that, according to human standards and terminology, calling Ruby a non-binary, feminine-presenting lesbian would be "a fair assessment".[165] On July 6, 2018, the episode "Reunited" aired, on which Ruby and Sapphire got married, kissed, and fused into Garnet.
Rose Quartz Pansexual, genderqueer The Crystal Gems describe her to Steven as loving and seeing beauty in all forms of life, and flashback episodes show the development of her relationship with Greg from infatuation into love and understanding. She also prior to this, had a relationship with Pearl while fighting.
Stevonnie |
Colbert's father, James, and his brothers Paul and Peter, who died in a plane crash when the comedian was 10 OWN
His elder siblings were all out of the house by then, either in school or living their lives, so it was just Colbert and his mother at home in the years following. His mother relocated them to downtown Charleston.
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Stephen Colbert's family OWN
That “bomb” made Colbert aimless and rebellious early in life. According to the article, he “barely graduated from high school.” His sophomore year of college, he transferred from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia to study drama at Northwestern University. As he grew older and came to terms with the tragedy, he began to use it as a source of inspiration.
The comedian said he trained himself to “steer toward fear rather than away from it,” and part of learning to come to terms with the tragedy he’d experienced in his life was what made him the joyful performer he is today.
“I’m not angry. I’m not,” he said. “I’m mystified, I’ll tell you that. But I’m not angry.”
“I learned to love it,” he continued. “So that’s why. Maybe, I don’t know. That might be why you don’t see me as someone angry and working out my demons onstage. It’s that I love the thing that I most wish had not happened.”
Colbert spoke of the strength his mother Lorna showed in the face of grief.
“By her example I am not bitter. By her example,” he said. “She was not. Broken, yes. Bitter, no. It was a very healthy reciprocal acceptance of suffering. Which does not mean to be defeated by suffering. Acceptance is not defeat. Acceptance is just awareness.”
“‘What punishments of God are not gifts?'” Colbert told the magazine, quoting J. R. R. Tolkien, his eyes filled with tears. “So it would be ungrateful not to take everything with gratitude. It doesn’t mean you want it. I can hold both of those ideas in my head.”
According to Colbert, that acceptance didn’t come until he was 35: “It stopped me dead. I went, ‘Oh, I’m grateful. Oh, I feel terrible.’ I felt so guilty to be grateful. But I knew it was true.”
“It’s not the same thing as wanting it to have happened,” he continued. “But you can’t change everything about the world. You certainly can’t change things that have already happened.”
Colbert and his wife of 22 years, Evelyn McGee-Colbert, have three children together: Madeline, 19, Peter, 16, and John, 13. The comedian is set to take over The Late Show from previous host David Letterman; The Late Show with Stephen Colbert premieres Sept. 8 on CBS.The Germany icon feels the Bundesliga champions will go into the game as underdogs, whereas Matthias Sammer expects an even tie
Bayern Munich honorary president Franz Beckenbauer believes his side are the underdogs in the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona.
The Bundesliga champions impressed on Tuesday with a 6-1 win over Porto in the second leg of their quarter-final tie, ensuring a 7-4 aggregate triumph.
Yet the Bayern legend is even more impressed by the Catalans, who saw off Paris Saint-Germain with ease in the quarter-finals.
"Barcelona are the favourites for me," Beckenbauer told reporters. "It's not that Bayern do not stand a chance, but they are not the favourites."
Sporting director Matthias Sammer, on the other hand, thinks it will prove to be an even tie where both sides have as much chance as each other to make it to the final in Berlin.
"I am really looking forward to it. I think it's a 50-50 tie," he said. "Both sides have an attack that's among the best in the world. Barcelona have some superb players, but so do Bayern.
"It's all about focusing on our own strengths. Guardiola's return to Camp Nou? Coaches are always the centre of attention, but they are not the ones taking to the pitch.
"There is nothing better in football than big games like this."Getty Images
Google today asked the U.S. government to lift a legal gag order and let it clear up speculation and erroneous reports about what information it's forced to turn over to the feds.
In an open letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller asking for "transparency," the Mountain View, Calif.-based company is effectively applying an unusual amount of public pressure to the Obama administration. President Obama has claimed to have "the most transparent administration in history," though critics have argued otherwise.
Google, Apple, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, and other Internet companies were left reeling after a pair of articles last Thursday alleged that they provided the National Security Agency with "direct access" to their servers. By late Friday, however, CNET reported that was not true, and the Washington Post backtracked from its original story on PRISM. In an editorial today, the paper said the process met legal "standards" and was subject to "judicial review."
But for Silicon Valley companies that rely on user trust -- and are trying to usher in a future where more data is stored in the cloud -- even lingering misgivings over privacy are worth eliminating.
Today's letter, signed by David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, asks for the right to disclose information about how many orders the company receives under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and how broad they are. It says:
Google has worked tremendously hard over the past 15 years to earn our users' trust. For example, we offer encryption across our services; we have hired some of the best security engineers in the world; and we have consistently pushed back on overly broad government requests for our users' data. We have always made clear that we comply with valid legal requests. And last week, the director of national intelligence acknowledged that service providers have received Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests. Assertions in the press that our compliance with these requests gives the U.S. government unfettered access to our users' data are simply untrue. However, government nondisclosure obligations regarding the number of FISA national security requests that Google receives, as well as the number of accounts covered by those requests, fuel that speculation. We therefore ask you to help make it possible for Google to publish in our Transparency Report aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures -- in terms of both the number we receive and their scope. Google's numbers would clearly show that our compliance with these requests falls far short of the claims being made. Google has nothing to hide. Google appreciates that you authorized the recent disclosure of general numbers for national security letters. There have been no adverse consequences arising from their publication, and in fact more companies are receiving your approval to do so as a result of Google's initiative. Transparency here will likewise serve the public interest without harming national security.
The Justice Department and the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNET.
Google already releases many statistics about government surveillance as part of its transparency report, including, as of March, information on secret National Security Letters sent by the FBI. But a source familiar with the situation said the company has not secured permission to disclose information about secret court orders.
James Clapper, the head of national intelligence, confirmed last week that the Internet companies were receiving legal orders sent to them "pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."
After the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court limited a Bush-era warrantless surveillance program's scope, Congress enacted the FISA Amendments Act, which established a new procedure for foreign surveillance.
That Section 702 procedure works like this: The Justice Department must demonstrate that its surveillance will not intentionally target anyone present in the United States or any American who's overseas. And the surveillance process must comply with the Fourth Amendment.
Section 702 also requires that the government obtain the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's approval of "targeting" and "minimization" procedures, and that the court review the agencies' certification describing how proposed surveillance techniques will comply with the law. Judges must consider whether the targeting procedures are "reasonably designed" to exclude Americans and purely domestic surveillance.
A former government official who is intimately familiar with this process of data acquisition and spoke on condition of anonymity told CNET last week that the government delivers an order to obtain account details about someone who's specifically identified as a non-U.S. individual, with a specific finding that they're involved in an activity related to international terrorism. Both the contents of communications and metadata, such as information about who's talking to whom, can be requested.
Amnesty International and journalists launched a legal challenge to Section 702 (which is sometimes called 1881a, for its location in the law books). They argued their confidential communications with foreign correspondents would be intercepted under Section 702 in violation of the Fourth Amendment. But in February 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected their challenge by a 5-4 vote, with Justice Samuel Alito writing that their allegations were too "speculative" and the Section 702 process is subject to ongoing "oversight" and "review."Gamers Nexus has a timely video interview with Pantheon’s Brad McQuaid that might allay the fears of those watching the development of his old-school MMO.
“The main thing we want to bring back is a social game, a cooperative game, where players need each other, […] have time to make real friendships, [and] can really call the game a home,” McQuaid tells the interviewer, acknowledging the challenge of mixing newer gamers who are interested in co-op PvE play (but unaccustomed to it) and older gamers who miss old-school play but lack time for excesses.
“A lot of the needless repetition, too much grinding, sitting there for hours working on your factions… and we’re trying to keep the sessions shorter,” he explains. “We’re targeting around a two-hour session so that a person can still log on with his friends, play a couple of hours, and have a sense of accomplishment. […] And it doesn’t have to be a six-, eight-, ten-hour crazy session because it’s just not really compatible with people’s lives anymore. […] If we can bring back that magic without the tedium or the excessive time or the excessive grind, I think that’s the way to go.”An exclusive Auckland school will undergo a restorative justice process over two boys who had their throats cut during a school production of Sweeney Todd.
Photo: RNZ / Carla Penman
Two 16-year-old St Kentigern College students were hospitalised in April last year, with one suffering a serious wound, after performing in the stage musical about a barber who slits his clients' throats.
But the school will not be prosecuted.
The college said last year an actual cut-throat razor blade had been used as a prop, but that it was covered in duct tape and foam.
Now, a WorkSafe investigation has found the school board failed to ensure the health and safety of the students was not put at risk.
The school admitted full responsibility in a statement by its trust board to media and the community this evening.
Instead of prosecution, the school would take part in a WorkSafe process known as an enforceable undertaking.
As part of it, the school had to accept full responsibility, agree to meet with the victims and their families as part of the restorative justice process, pay reparation, and improve the wider health and safety of the school.
The deputy chairperson of the trust board said they felt "deep regret" over the incident.
"The trust board sincerely apologises for the fact that the accident happened and for the harm caused to all those families involved," the statement said.
"Saint Kentigern accepts that it should have done more to acknowledge the seriousness of what happened immediately after the accident."
If the school did not carry out all its obligations under the WorkSafe process, it could still be prosecuted for the original incident.For what I expected to be a very "busy" story with too many things going on for me to enjoy, I was more than pleased with David's style of writing. I have read numerous stories where there are so many characters and subplots that the only thing I got out of the story was a headache. That is not the case here. There is a lot going on in this story, but it was written so well I had no problems following the subplots, the various characters in locations all over the world, and I could put it down for a couple days and pick it right back up without needing to skim through the last few pages to remind myself what was going on with whom.
The timing of this story could not have been better planned as it deals with the wars between Israel and those who seek to destroy her. It gives very detailed information on the various religions and what lengths they could possibly go to in order to support their beliefs. Ebola and Anthrax are the weapons of choice here.
There are two more stories to this trilogy, and as I always try to not give spoilers (unless if I did not like the story) I will have to be brief here as well. What I can tell you is that if you enjoy suspense, mystery, science, and true facts mixed with a fictional story, you need to read this book! If you enjoy James Patterson, Stephen King, science fiction, and facts, this is the book for you!
I am so excited to read the next two books in this trilogy.Update: This article was updated shortly after posting with battery-life results.
The HP Chromebook 11 could have been just another low-cost container for Google’s browser-based OS. But Google stepped in to make it special—and maybe even spare it the mockery of PC snobs who can’t wrap their heads around the Chromebook concept.
Realistically, you can’t expect much from any sub-$300 machine, and most Chromebooks reside in this underwhelming hardware space. Nonetheless, Google’s 2012 partnership with Samsung on the Chromebook 3 proved that a manufacturer could do a good job with low-level components, and then Google itself pulled out all the stops a few months later with the launch of the gorgeous Chromebook Pixel. If nothing else, the Pixel, replete with a beautiful touchscreen and elegant industrial design, sparked a heated (and slightly bizarre) debate about whether the Chrome ecosystem deserved a machine so high-end.
And now we have HP’s Chromebook 11, a laptop that attempts to add some industrial design finesse to the low end of the Chromebook space.
Not new, but better designed
The Chromebook 11 offers none of the premium specs and design of the Pixel, and in terms of raw performance it’s not even better than Samsung’s Chromebook 3. Nevertheless, it shows that Google is committed to setting standards for Chrome hardware, and that it can deliver a high-quality experience at both premium and everyday prices.
Purely as a machine, the Chromebook 11 breaks no new ground. It uses an Exynos 5250 ARM processor, and has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard SSD storage. In our lab tests, its browser-based benchmark performance was competitive with the Samsung Chromebook 3, running neck-and-neck in Sunspider (with a score of 662.4ms), and just a wee bit behind in Peacekeeper (with a score of 1121).
Google also throws in 100GB of Google Drive cloud storage for two years (make sure you have a plan for when the deadline hits). Even better, you get 12 free sessions of GoGo Inflight Internet for those cross-country airplane trips.
The microUSB, USB 2.0, and headphone/speaker jacks are the only interruptions to the Chromebook 11’s smooth, white sides.
The notebook’s spare profile lacks speaker and ventilation grilles. All you’ll find are two USB 2.0 ports (which left me wistful for USB 3.0), a headphone jack, and a micro USB port for the AC adapter. The system also comes with 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Somewhat tinny audio emanates from the keyboard area, which commendably lacks any shrunken or squished keys to interfere with your typing like the Acer C710 Chromebook might. The travel on the keys is a little short for my taste, and I dislike the hard-plastic buttons. Still, no other low-end Chromebook I’ve tried has been any better in this regard (and oftentimes Chromebook keyboards are noticeably worse).
A pretty line of color enhances the look of the full-size keyboard. Its keys are hard plastic and have a somewhat short travel.
I like the smooth plastic clickpad better on the Chromebook 11 better than the nubby touchpad on the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook, which launched earlier this year. However, the responsiveness of this touchpad varied dramatically from perfect (during one-finger cursor navigation) to frustratingly inconsistent (during two-finger scrolling).
The 11.6-inch IPS display has a resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels and a wide, 176-degree viewing angle. At a little more than 10 inches wide and about 5.75 inches tall, the screen is more letterbox-shaped than rectangular, which keeps the Chromebook 11 compact but restricts what you can see in long documents and Web pages. As for video, I streamed the HD version of Pacific Rim on the display, and noticed occasional hiccups and blurry video compression, but nothing unexpected from a low-end machine.
Google says the laptop’s 30Wh battery will last six hours. In our tests, it lasted significantly less time, just 4 hours and 7 minutes.
A more colorful experience
Even the workhorse rubber feet on the bottom of the Chromebook 11 earn a dash of color.
Relative to other entry-level Chromebooks, the $280 Chromebook 11 has a much more distinctive design. It’s extremely compact and light, weighing just 2.3 pounds and measuring a mere half-inch thick. It comes in shiny white with blue, red, yellow, or green color accents. The colors are bright, but are used sparingly around the periphery of the keyboard and on the bottom of chassis. Given this attention to detail, I was surprised that the bezel around the display wasn’t colored, but rather a generic charcoal on all models.
Of course, caring about laptop colors is completely superficial, and has nothing to do with performance and usability. And yet it matters. Think of the cheap-chic product lines that bring high-end designer names to stores like Target and H&M. These are products that even struggling students can buy with excitement rather than resignation.
If you’re not into obsessive cleaning, the piano-black Chromebook 11 might be the better bet, if not nearly as special-looking.
The Chromebook 11 also comes in a shiny “piano black.” This version looks boring and safe next to its flamboyant cousin, but it doesn’t run the risk of looking schmutzy all the time. Granted, I haven’t spent enough time with the white Chromebook 11 for it to get truly dirty, but within just a few days of use, it was visibly collecting lint.
Even though the HP Chromebook 11 is completely different from the high-end Pixel, it gets the same rating because it achieves the same mission. It advances Google's Chrome OS platform not with what it does, but how it does it. It exudes style and even a bit of unapologetic Chromebook pride. HP says the Chromebook 11 will ship on October 16. I expect that the white ones will sell better, and a canny retailer will bundle a microfiber cleaning cloth with each one.The Ñetas threatened to kill those who vote for Sanders
According to lawyer Manny Suarez, they made deals "with politicians in exchange for benefits that they do not deserve and even financial contributions".
by Irizarry Femmy Alvarez
04/06/2016 | 5:09 pm
The Puerto Rican Bernie Sanders Committee will present tomorrow a complaint to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Washington, after reporting that has reliable information that the Los Ñetas (Inmate Rights Association) gang demanded that the inmates vote for the Democratic frontrunner for the White House, Hillary Clinton, and not his rival Sanders.
Lawyer Manny Suarez told Primera Hora that are also requesting the intervention of the Department of Justice to join the investigation, after learning "that the criminal Los Ñeta organization instructed all its followers in prisons that they had to vote for Hillary Clinton."
Inmates had the right to vote early yesterday.
Suarez, even though he indicated that this was not their problem, also reported that the prison gang "instructed that (the prisoners) had to vote for the [PR local] New Progressive Party and no one could vote for the [PR local] Popular Democratic Party."
When asked by this newspaper, the lawyer said that he corroborated these confidential reports with appropriate law enforcement agents and recalled that he, as a former prosecutor has good friends in the system and knows how things move in prisons.
Referring to los Ñeta, he argued that "this is the organization that just two months ago was charged with organized crime in prisons in Puerto Rico and now those people who are in federal prison... are still in communication -through mobile phones- with Loa Ñetas in state prisons and continue giving instructions. "
On May 11, the head of the federal prosecutors on the island, Rosa Emilia Rodriguez announced that 50 arrest warrants were issued against members of Los Ñeta who were charged with violation of the RICO Act, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, cocaine and marijuana, and murder.
"The Ñetas that do not vote for Hillary do so at risk of the death penalty, because that's how they work, and the federal charges they pressed just two months ago is proof that this is how it works in prisons in Puerto Rico, " argued the lawyer.
He said Los Ñeta "do business with politicians in exchange for benefits that are not theirs and even financial contributions, because much money runs in prisons and somehow that money has to come out, and it comes out with politicians who are also lawyers."
Another allegation that Suarez presented as part of the request for injuction is that last Thursday "is surprisingly there were early voting presidential primary elections held for the Puerto Rico Police without telling us."
"We will file a legal appeal in the Federal Court requesting the annulment of all those ballots. We were never told ahead of time about them and each of these ballots is void because it doesn't have our signature. In addition to that, there are other government officials who also voted in advance and I understand they are the ones who will be on duty on Sunday, "he said.
But it doesn't stop there. It was also alleged in the legal action that today the State Election Commission (CEE) "have not given us certifications" for officials [poll workers] who must be present in the voting.
Typically an official from each of the parties is submitted. But the rules (law) specifically states that what each party may have is an observer. So now, the CEE claims the law "does not allow official poll workers but merely observers," he alleged.
An official is one who can participate, vote, challenge and protest, but as an observer one can not do anything, just observe.
"If that [poll worker] certification is not given we will not trust anyone, and I'd we have to do it, we will request the cancellation of the entire Democratic primary in Federal court. And if that costs a pretty penny to the CEE, well, they can start begging on street corners, "he said.
Similarly, the lawyer said there was a problem with the booths. "The vote is not secret and we are also fighting for them to give us indelible ink, because we are not allowed to identify if people voted more than once."
He argued that the excuse they give is that there is no money. "But there was a disbursement for presidential primaries and I want to know where that money is. But there are no booths for secret ballot and no indelible ink is an invitation to massive fraud. "
Meanwhile, Ernesto Curiel, deputy electoral commissioner for the Bernie Sanders Campaign in Puerto Rico, said that for example, on Thursday in Bayamón prison (302) "25 inmates appeared to vote in the Democratic primary; of those 25 inmates inmates who voted in open ballot (in prisons there were no electronic counting machines)... and see if the [Los Ñeta] instruction was clear, that of those 25, 22 were for Hillarry and 3 Sanders."
He clarified that those three votes by Sanders could be "part of the agreement and for cover, so they said, not everyone (can vote for Hillary) because then you will be obvious."
Curiel said that when you compare the voting profile of prisons against the general population "and see a completely different behavior, I have to conclude that something happened."
Meanwhile, Suarez reported that Kenneth McClintock, a member of the Democratic National Committee in Puerto Rico, yesterday, at 8:30 am, announced through a tweet that the inmates were voting for Hillary.
"We still were opening polls in prisons" and he was already making that announcement, he said.
The lawyer warned all those who are "in that fraud that these are not local elections, they are Presidential elections. This is a Federal offense and I put on notice to all those people who are on that fraud that we will not have mercy, and they should not forget that Bernie Sanders remains a senator and from that position can do much to ensure that what is happening here, this fraud... that the persons involved be punished. "
Finally, Suarez said he had reached an agreement with the representative of the PNP in the Absentee Vote Administrative Board (JAVA), Vilma Rosado, to deliver a list of observers who would work in the election, but then she did not want to follow up on that agreement. Although Rosado said that she had sent the list with the names of the observers to the Bernie Sanders Puerto Rican Committee, Suarez said he could confirm that this was not correct.
He argued that after several efforts, they managed to have observers at the early voting inmate polls.
"We managed to avoid the sabotage strategy. But we could have had our observers yesterday that we need to go to court, "he said.
Reply · Report PostSuddenly seventh from third, Spurs fans are feeling the rapidity of the Premier League calendar as one point from three games has seen Tottenham dumped out of the top bracket and below Sean Dyche’s Burnley.
In a season that has seen Spurs finish comfortably top of a Champions League group which included the champions Real Madrid and former finalists Borussia Dortmund, Mauricio Pochettino’s team now find themselves in the unusual position of having to fight for a place in the top four of the Premier League.
What’s gone wrong? Nathan Clark offers some solutions and suggests that Spurs fans shouldn’t be worrying quite yet.
A creeping injury crisis
While Spurs did end the summer with the fullest squad they’ve had since before the existence of the Premier League, it has immediately been put to the test by a slowly creeping injury crisis.
Toby Alderweireld, regarded globally for his quality, had not been having his best season prior to injury and, while his absence alone is not the end of the world, it has meant Eric Dier dropping from midfield into defence.
This, in combination with Victor Wanyama’s absence, has left Spurs without a proper defensive midfielder. That hasn’t been such an issue in the games Tottenham have spent playing on the break, mainly in Europe, but it has been limiting in the matches they’ve expected to control.
Harry Winks, while an impressive playmaker, doesn’t have the physicality to be Pochettino’s counter-pressing enforcer and silky dribbler Mousa Dembele is ill-suited to staying deep and spraying passes.
Danny Rose has been back from injury for a few weeks but can’t truly be called fit for as long as he’s still squishy around the edges. External factors may well be affecting his form too, while summer signing Serge Aurier is taking his time to settle and complete a game without incidences of defensive mishap.
This leaves Ben Davies and Keiran Trippier as first-choice full-backs. These aren’t players without strengths but their limited pace has made it difficult for Tottenham to stretch opposition defences out wide to open up space in the middle.
Much needed rest
Erik Lamela came on to assist Harry Kane against Leicester but had been missing for the previous 13 months. He will now offer Eriksen the opportunity to be rested.
That’s rest much needed: the creative Dane has been run into the ground already this season with fatigue clearly affecting his recent performances.
lol, just lol. https://t.co/k0jqQzG1k5 — Jake. (@YedIin) November 29, 2017 The same can be said for Harry Kane, whose deputy Fernando Llorente has been found wanting. Perhaps Spurs should have stuck with Vincent Janssen for a second year? All these fitness issues in conjunction have seen Mousa Sissoko play 660 League minutes this season. These are the kind of minutes you’d expect to be given to a professional footballer which, as we can see from his inability to control the ball with his first touch, Sissoko is not. Unlucky Spurs There are, then, a lot of compounding issues as to why Spurs have dropped points recently. But the performances themselves haven’t been so bad. Tottenham are still creating a boatload of chances and, while seeing those chances go unfinished is frustrating, it would be a much more worrying sign of things long-term if they weren’t being created at all. That Spurs have been unlucky shows up clearly in the Expected Goals (xG) figures from their most recent games. Stratabet data has Spurs racking up a combined 5.84 xG from chances over the last two games in which time Tottenham have only found the back of the net twice. What this indicates is that, given the quality of the chances created, you might have expected Spurs to have scored closer to six goals. Whether that is bad luck, bad finishing or some other intangible, it’s unlikely to last. Looking forward Pochettino’s Tottenham sides have a tendency to start slow before firing on all cylinders from December onwards. Spurs were in a not dissimilar place points wise this time last season (without an injury crisis and playing at White Hart Lane) and went on to finish not just in second place but in a historically significant second place. Winning the league is out of reach but this was already the case from the outset of the season with the enormous sums of money spent by the Manchester Clubs in the summer. Given the underlying factors this season, though, a top-four finish remains more than feasible. It may well feel right this moment like the season is falling apart for Spurs fans but everything remains on track for a very successful season. Do you think Spurs fans should be panicking? Let us know in the comments section below
Want to share your opinion? Why not Write For Us?The 2013 San Diego Chargers season was the franchise's 44th season in the National Football League (NFL), the 54th overall, and the 1st under head coach Mike McCoy. The Chargers finished the regular season with a record of 9–7, improving on their 7–9 record from 2012. Also, they qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2009. The Chargers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in the Wild Card round by a score of 27–10, but lost to the Denver Broncos in the Divisional round by a score of 24–17. This was the Chargers' final playoff appearance in San Diego. They did not play in the postseason again until 2018, after relocating to Los Angeles.
The new head coach, Mike McCoy, along with offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt, completed the Chargers' first winning season since 2010. Only two offensive coaches returned from 2012 in an overhauled coaching staff, and a revamped offensive system had quarterback Philip Rivers release the ball earlier and taking what opposing defenses conceded. Rivers was sacked 30 times, compared to 49 the previous year, and threw for 4,479 yards and 32 touchdowns while tying a career-high with a 105.5 passer rating. San Diego's rushing attack improved from the prior season's 1,461 yards and 3.6 yards per carry—tied for the second worst in the league—to 1,965 yards and a 4-yard average.[2] Although they were speculated to have a poor, disappointing season, and getting off to a shaky start, the Chargers finished in the top eight of the overall standings. Rivers was named NFL Comeback Player of the Year, and Keenan Allen broke out into the national scene as a rookie sensation, breaking multiple wide receiver rookie records. Whisenhunt left at the conclusion of the season to become the head coach of the Titans.
Signings [ edit ]
Pos. Player Contract RB Ronnie Brown 1 year, $1 million
Departures [ edit ]
2013 draft class [ edit ]
Staff [ edit ]
Final roster [ edit ]
Schedule [ edit ]
Preseason [ edit ]
Regular season [ edit ]
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.
Postseason [ edit ]
Game summaries [ edit ]
Regular season [ edit ]
Week 1: vs. Houston Texans [ edit ]
With the loss, the Chargers started their season 0-1.
Week 2: at Philadelphia Eagles [ edit ]
Week 3: at Tennessee Titans [ edit ]
Week 4: vs. Dallas Cowboys [ edit ]
Week 5: at Oakland Raiders [ edit ]
This game was moved to an 8:35 p.m. PDT kickoff, and from CBS to NFL Network as a "special edition" of Thursday Night Football, as extended time was required to convert the field back from its baseball configuration due to an Oakland Athletics American League Division Series game the previous night.[3]
Week 6: vs. Indianapolis Colts [ edit ]
Week 7: at Jacksonville Jaguars [ edit ]
Week 9: at Washington Redskins [ edit ]
Week 10: vs. Denver Broncos [ edit ]
Week 11: at Miami Dolphins [ edit ]
Week 12: at Kansas City Chiefs [ edit ]
Week 13: vs. Cincinnati Bengals [ edit ]
Week 14: vs. New York Giants [ edit ]
Week 15: at Denver Broncos [ edit ]
Week 16: vs. Oakland Raiders [ edit ]
Week 17: vs. Kansas City Chiefs [ edit ]
Kansas City missed a field goal as with a few seconds left to send the game into overtime, where Nick Novak kicked the game winner. With the win, the Chargers finished the 2013 season with a record of 9–7 and clinched the second wild card spot, becoming the 6th seed entering the playoffs.
Postseason [ edit ]
AFC Wild Card Playoff Game: at #3 Cincinnati Bengals [ edit ]
With the Chargers defeating the Bengals, 27-10, they advanced to the AFC Divisional Playoff Game.
AFC Divisional Playoff Game: at #1 Denver Broncos [ edit ]
With the Chargers falling to the Broncos, the Chargers finish the season 10-8, the 1st double digit winning season since 2009 and 1st playoff victory since 2008.
Standings [ edit ]
Division [ edit ]
AFC West W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK (1) Denver Broncos 13 3 0.813 5–1 9–3 606 399 W2 (5) Kansas City Chiefs 11 5 0.688 2–4 7–5 430 305 L2 (6) San Diego Chargers 9 7 0.563 4–2 6–6 396 348 W4 Oakland Raiders 4 12 0.250 1–5 4–8 322 453 L6
Conference [ edit ]
a b The Chargers traded their second round (No. 45 overall) and fourth round (No. 110 overall) selections to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for the Cardinals' second round selection (No. 38 overall).Twitter A screen shot of Indian Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Milind Deora's Twitter handle.
Indian Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Milind Deora was quick to use Twitter yesterday to defend the government amid claims it is stomping on Internet freedoms.
Unfortunately, Mr. Deora’s own Twitter handle (@milinddeora) was not working on Friday. Users trying to click on the account got this message: “Sorry, that user is suspended.”
Theories for the suspension abounded on Twitter on Friday. The most popular was that India's government had meant to ask Twitter to block impostor account @milindeora but a fastidious 'babu' corrected the spelling, getting the real Mr. Deora blocked instead.
Kuldeep Dhatwalia, a spokesman for the Home Ministry, said he had no knowledge of the matter. Mr. Deora could not immediately be reached for comment.
Whether the victim of a bona fide suspension – either by Twitter or the government – or due to some technical reason, the unavailability of the service is an embarrassment for Mr. Deora.
Twitter A screenshot of fake Milind Deora.
On Thursday, as Twitter was alight with users criticizing the Indian government’s move to ban Websites and Twitter users, Mr. Deora had made this promise:
“Let me clarify on Twitter there is absolutely no intent of the government to curb freedom of social media platforms.”
His tweet attracted a lot of criticism as people called it a “lie” while one Twitter user said “words and actions don’t match.”
The Indian government’s moves have sparked a backlash, with hashtags like #GoIBlocks and #Emergency2012 trending on the social-networking site.
Some of the notable Twitter handles that were blocked include journalists such as Kanchan Gupta and Shiv Aroor, as well as content posted by media companies like FirstPost.com and Al Jazeera. The government had earlier blocked around 250 Web pages.
Raveendran/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Milind Deora at The Presidential Palace in New Delhi, July 12, 2011.
The government defends its move by saying that the blocked Web pages and Twitter handles were inciting communal hatred amid violence between Muslims and northeasterners in the state of Assam. Critics say the government is using national security as a pretext to crack down on political opposition.
In a column titled “India’s Net nannies run amok”, Salil Tripathi acknowledges the government likely had “good intentions” in wanting to restore normalcy in Assam and other cities of India. Northeasterners have fled a number of large Indian cities in recent weeks, fearing reprisals from Muslim radicals. However, Mr. Tripathi added, “response to vandalism and violence cannot be blocking communications, curbing speech, and banning websites.”
Others were less restrained in their criticism.
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur tweeted: “In a Nation driven 2 d edge by a divisive democratic system, violence can b |
in court.
It is considered blasphemous to insult the prophet. Blasphemy can be punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
Malaysian authorities did not say where Mr Kashgari flew to Kuala Lumpur from. He allegedly fled his country after the Saudi king ordered his arrest, said Twitter users.
His Twitter account appears to have been deleted.
Muslim-majority Malaysia does not have a formal extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia.
However, an official who did not wish to be named told the AFP news agency that Mr Kashgari could be extradited under other bilateral security agreements.
It was reported earlier that Interpol had sought the journalist's arrest, but a spokesman denied Interpol's involvement in the case.The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga erred in finding a student guilty of sexual misconduct based on his inability to prove he had obtained verbal consent from a woman who described her own memory of their encounter as clouded by intoxication, a state judge has ruled.
The state-court judge held that Steven R. Angle, the campus’s chancellor, had rendered an "arbitrary and capricious" decision last December in ordering the expulsion of Corey Mock, a senior.
In demanding that Mr. Mock prove he had obtained verbal consent in advance of sexual intercourse, Mr. Angle held the student to an untenable standard, partly because the campus’s code of conduct defines as consent not just verbal messages but "acts that are unmistakable in their meaning," according to the judge, Carol L. McCoy of the chancery court in Nashville.
In addition, the judge held, Mr. Angle violated Mr. Mock’s due-process rights by interpreting the university’s code of conduct, which requires initiators of sexual activity to obtain consent, as establishing a judicial requirement that students accused of sexual misconduct prove that they had obtained consent in order to clear themselves.
That interpretation of the conduct code, the judge said in her ruling, "erroneously shifted the burden of proof onto Mr. Mock, when the ultimate burden of proving sexual assault remained on the charging party," the university.
"Absent the tape recording of a verbal consent or other independent means to demonstrate that consent was given, the ability of the accused to prove the complaining party’s consent strains credibility and is illusory," the judge wrote.
Widespread Attention
Students that colleges find guilty of sexual assault generally face long odds in legal challenges to such proceedings. But the new Tennessee decision joins another recent state-court ruling, in California, as evidence that they have at least some prospect of success.
In that other ruling, handed down last month, a state judge ruled that the University of California at San Diego had denied a fair hearing to a student disciplined for sexual assault by refusing to let him confront the student who had accused him.
In a time of heated national debate over how colleges handle sexual-assault charges, the Chattanooga case has attracted exceptionally widespread attention. That is partly because Molly Morris, the Chattanooga student who had accused Mr. Mock of raping her, went public with her story in a December article in the online publication Vice Sports.
The article quoted her as complaining that the campus’s administration had altered key details of her complaint to favor Mr. Mock and to essentially blame her for what had happened. She had ceased attending classes at Chattanooga and filed a Title IX sexual-discrimination complaint with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights over the university’s handling of her case.
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On the other side, C.D. Mock, Corey’s father, began in December to publish a combative blog providing Corey’s side of the story and arguing that colleges trample the rights of students facing such charges. (The elder Mr. Mock was head wrestling coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when he began publishing his blog, but he was fired from that position in June.)
Blurred Accounts
As summarized in the judge’s decision, the university’s disciplinary proceedings involved sorting through conflicting accounts offered by Mr. Mock and his accuser regarding what happened between them during and after a party in March 2014.
Ms. Morris recalled drinking alcohol, but not enough to explain how intoxicated and sick she became. She later expressed suspicion that she had been drugged, but was unable to offer any proof, and failed to convince a campus hearing officer that she had been too intoxicated to give consent for sexual activity. She said she recalled being sexually penetrated in a violent manner, but could not remember whether she had given verbal consent. Mr. Mock said she had not given verbal consent but had consented through nonverbal actions.
In an initial decision, rendered in August 2014, the campus hearing officer dismissed the charges against Mr. Mock, concluding that the administration had not offered a preponderance of evidence showing that Ms. Morris had been incapable of consenting to sex, and that Mr. Mock had been aware of her incapacitation.
Ms. Morris then met with Mr. Angle and persuaded the university to petition the hearing officer to reconsider, which led the officer to issue a second decision that found Mr. Mock guilty of sexual misconduct. That verdict cleared the way for his expulsion. Mr. Mock’s lawyers accused the chancellor of having pushed the hearing officer to apply a more rigorous "yes means yes" standard of consent in reconsidering the case.
Last week’s state-court ruling reinstated the hearing officer’s first decision, which had cleared Mr. Mock, and reversed Mr. Angle’s decision to expel him.
High-Profile Case
Last January the Chattanooga campus’s administration announced changes in its sexual-misconduct policy, offering a more-detailed definition of consent that still allows it to be communicated nonverbally. That same month the state judge handling Mr. Mock’s case provoked outrage on the campus by ordering the university to reinstate him for his final semester of classes, pending his appeal of his expulsion. He was not allowed, however, to continue receiving a scholarship or to return to the wrestling team, where he had been nationally ranked.
In a separate order issued last week, the judge ordered the university to award Mr. Mock his degree on Saturday, at the scheduled end of his summer-term classes. Her order gave the university leeway to revoke Mr. Mock’s degree if her decision in his favor is reversed on appeal.
Speaking on his son’s behalf, C.D. Mock said that "we are right now cautiously elated" with the judge’s decision. He added, however, that his son "has had his career taken from him" because he could not remain on the wrestling team as a senior. Corey Mock "has wanted to be a wrestling coach since he was a little boy," his father said.
Peter Schmidt writes about affirmative action, academic labor, and issues related to academic freedom. Contact him at peter.schmidt@chronicle.com.Supt. Marvin Marcos President Rodrigo Duterte. Reuters
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said he will shoot any person who offers him drug money amid criticism over his order to reinstate a police official accused of protecting drug lords.
Duterte earlier drew flak for reinstating Supt. Marvin Marcos, chief of the Philippine National Police – Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Region 8, on the same day he was sacked by the Philippine National Police chief over his alleged drug connections.
The President said he ordered Marcos reinstated because he wants to study the case further.
“Inimpose ko ang order ko kay Bato, that’s my discretion. I have control of the police and army. There was nothing wrong with it, but I was just trying to figure out something there,” he said.
“I have to study more. There was nothing to it. Huwag kayong matakot, I don’t receive drug money. Susmaryosep… Bigyan mo ako ng pera babarilin kita dyan sa harap ko.”
Supt. Marvin Marcos
Dela Rosa earlier confirmed he ordered the administrative relief of Marcos last October 15 because he wanted to investigate Marcos amid reports that he was receiving drug payola. Duterte's order, however, allowed Marcos to walk free.
Two weeks later, Marcos led a team in the November 5 predawn raid of Baybay sub-provincial jail in Leyte, which led to the killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr.
Self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa, son of the slain mayor, has claimed he gave P3 million to Marcos for the campaign war chest of Marcos's wife who was a vice mayoral bet in Pastrana town.
Members of the police PNP-CIDG in Region 8 earlier told the Senate that there was a shootout between them and the mayor.
The NBI, however, said that based on the evidence and testimonies of witnesses, "it is patently clear that the acts of the CIDG 8 operatives showed a community of purpose or an implied conspiracy."
Despite the NBI’s findings, President Rodrigo Duterte said he still supports the embattled cops and said they will not go to prison.Last year Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old U.S.-born citizen, found a strange device attached to his car. When he posted a photo of it online, the FBI showed up at his home two days later. They wanted their GPS tracking device back. The FBI had been tracking Afifi’s movement for months without his knowing about it. Moreover, the agency did so without a warrant and apparently based on the flimsy rationale that his friend wrote a blog they felt was questionable. This type of warrantless tracking seems to be an increasingly common government practice.
Following this incident, as well as revelations about how much location information Apple and Google are storing about their customers, there has been a significant public outcry over the privacy of location information. Congress has held a number of hearings on the topic and today Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced companion bills in the Senate and House, respectively, to protect location privacy. The bills not only require law enforcement to get a warrant based on probable cause before accessing location information, but also regulate the use of this information by businesses. With location tracking cases popping up all over the country, this would provide a strong and clear national standard for law enforcement.
Disclosing location information can be particularly harmful to victims of stalking and domestic violence. It can reveal individual movements for months or years, including things like medical information (visits to a therapist or an abortion clinic), First Amendment-protected activity (attendance at a church or political protest), or personal habits (visits to a gun range or bar). It can also be just plain embarrassing – maybe you were at a bar when you said you were at church. Requiring a warrant will not deny the police information they need, it just mandates judicial review to ensure that authorities have a good reason to access such sensitive information.
This is already the law in Oregon, where the state’s Supreme Court held that tracking is the equivalent of a search as defined by the state constitution and therefore requires a warrant. The court said GPS tracking was a violation of an individual’s right to privacy and, unlike simply viewing a vehicle tracking device, it significantly limits freedom from scrutiny.
As technology has advanced, law enforcement has been quick to adopt new surveillance tools, but our privacy laws have not kept pace. We applaud Sen. Wyden and Rep. Chaffetz for bills that work towards bringing them in line. Please go here to ask your Members of Congress to co-sponsor this important piece of legislation.
Learn more about surveillance: Sign up for breaking news alerts, follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.Groupon currently has a fantastic deal for a gold Costco Membership. While the price of $60 cannot be reduced with discounts you receive some amazing extras effectively halving the price.
$20 Cash card
Free Paper Towels Create-a-Size 12/160 ct ($15.69 value) VitaRain Zero Flavored Water 24/20 oz bottles ($9.99 value) Food Court Whole Pizza ($9.95 value)
$25 off an order of $250 on Costco.com
$75 Costco Cash Card toward Costco Travel
Most people would agree that their paper towels are among the best so I’d consider that a solid $15 discount. The rest are at the very least great bonuses. If they are things you’d buy anyway then you can consider this a free membership or even a moneymaker.
In order to qualify, you cannot have had a membership card since April 1, 2017. I called them to see if there was any flexibility to which they responded, no. ( My membership ended April 30)
More Groupon Deals
If you’re a student, be sure to check out our detailed post on how to receive 25% off all local deals (except this one :). We also go over some other methods to save money everyday activities.
Deals ATX
If you like saving money be sure to subscribe to our Newsletter at the bottom of the page and like us on Facebook. Comment below about some of the innovative ways you’ve saved money or submit a deal here.There he goes again.
Rep. Louie Gohmert is back in the news after a liberal watchdog group dug up a conference call in which the Tyler Republican connected gay marriage to bestiality. Somehow, Gohmert managed to do that while talking about guns.
Right Wing Watch, a self-proclaimed watchdog on the “right-wing agenda,” reported today on comments the congressman made in early February during a conference call for the organization Tea Party Unity.
The discussion turned to gun violence and the threat of gun control, when Gohmert recalled negotiations with Democrats and their attempt to reason that limiting the number of rounds in a magazine is a small aspect that both parties could reach an agreement on.
Gohmert continued:
“Well, once you make it ten, then why would you draw the line at ten? What’s wrong with nine? Or eleven? And the problem is once you draw that limit; it’s kind of like marriage when you say it’s not a man and a woman any more, then why not have three men and one woman, or four women and one man, or why not, somebody has a love for an animal?
There is no clear place to draw the line once you eliminate the traditional marriage and it’s the same once you start putting limits on what guns can be used, then it’s just really easy to have laws that make them all illegal.”
This isn’t the first time Gohmert drew this conclusion on LGBT issues. Gohmert previously disapproved of the Matthew Shepherd Hate Crimes Bill, saying it would legalize bestiality, necrophilia and pedophilia. He made the comments during a debate on repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.”
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum also has linked gay marriage to bestiality, although he later denied making those comments.The Church of England's ruling body has voted overwhelming in favour of welcoming transgender people.
The General Synod backed a motion which said there was a need for transgender people to be "welcomed and affirmed in their parish church" as part of the "long and often complex process" of transition.
Bishops voted 30 to two in favour, while 127 lay members voted for and 48 against, and clergy backed the motion 127 to 28.
The motion called on the House of Bishops "to consider providing some nationally commended liturgical materials which may be used in parish churches and chaplaincies to provide a pastoral response to the need of transgender people to be affirmed following their long, distressing, and often complex process of transition".
Rev Chris Newlands' motion also called for the church to provide guidance to help clergy provide services for transgender people to mark their transition.
Opening the debate, Rev Newlands, of the Blackburn Diocesan Synod, said: "I hope that we can make a powerful statement to say that we believe that trans people are cherished and loved by God, who created them, and is present through all the twists and turns of their lives."
The Bishop of Worcester, Dr John Inge, said: "Our response needs to be loving and open and welcoming and the passing of this motion would be a very important factor in that."
Synod rejected an amendment proposed by Dr Nick Land of the Diocese of York, which asked for the Church to determine the theological arguments before any liturgy, or customs, are adopted.
The vote came after bishops overwhelmingly backed a motion calling for a ban on "unethical" conversion therapy for gay Christians.(Erika P. Rodriguez for The Washington Post)
Donald Trump’s candidacy has divided the GOP, with a growing number of establishment Republicans refusing to go along for the ride.
How did this happen? Nearly everyone is trying to figure that out, with prominent explanations focused on the racial animus, economic anxieties and cultural alienation motivating Trump’s core supporters.
But a full accounting of Trump’s rise needs historical context. And it was a long-brewing conflict between establishment Republicans and party activists — eventually won by the activists — that laid the groundwork for the current foment within the GOP.
I became aware of this development in 2006, when I was doing elections research in several Rust Belt cities, the kinds of places Trump has identified as left behind by the American economy. Despite having won two presidential contests in a row, local Republicans were engaged in a war with themselves, a fight that was dividing members of the business community from a group of insurgent activists.
Shortly after the 2006 midterms, for instance, the Republican Party chairman in one city — a businessman and self-avowed moderate — resigned after claiming that “Christian Nazis” had taken over the party. Many in the city’s GOP establishment agreed.
“This guy, he called them religious Nazis. … He got that one right!” the heir of a large local business and formerly generous GOP donor told me. “The GOP has repositioned itself to a fault. [Those] of us in the middle don’t know what to do; [we’re] so disgusted.”
In each city I examined, relations between establishment Republicans and party activists were strained, devolving occasionally into open conflict. I met one activist in a downtown cafe popular with business people — in retrospect, a poor choice of a locale.
“I am definitely an activist,” she said, lowering her voice and leaning in. “But a lot of the people sitting in this room are just donors — [they] will never make phone calls and knock on doors. When you staff an office, you are going to staff it with activists, [who] will say, ‘Why should all the tickets [to political events] go to these Country Club Republicans?’”
Other academics have noticed similar rifts within the GOP. Historically, Republican Party leaders shared the political views of their community’s Republican voters, but in the 1970s, party leaders started growing more partisan, especially on hot-button issues. Most explanations of this trend focus on heightened controversy around abortion, guns or changes in party nominating procedures (the latter making it easier for activists to exercise control over their party’s agenda).
My research showed that the collapse of traditional business associations was a turning point in the party’s shift. To better appreciate this, consider what a grass-roots Republican Party looked like 40 years ago.
Factories, meatpacking plants and other large industries dominated urban economies. These companies’ owners joined business associations such as the Chamber of Commerce, which were central to civic and municipal initiatives and doubled — sometimes literally — as Republican Party headquarters. Although such business communities were especially developed in the industrialized Northeast and Midwest, scholars have identified similarly robust business associations in U.S. cities elsewhere.
The business establishment ran the GOP as a business party: against regulation, taxes and unions but mum on hot-button political issues. For instance, a 1976 survey of a Rotary Club in one city I examined found that 90 percent of Rotarians were committed Republicans, but most expressed ambivalence about abortion. Virtually none wanted it to become an important political issue.
Nothing resembling this kind of business establishment remains today. A key reason is the corporate mergers of the 1980s, during which outside corporations acquired local industries and liquidated them or managed them as subsidiaries. The local packing plant became a Tyson or Hormel plant; the former owner retired and quietly left town.
Those business leaders who remained adopted a new, community-focused approach that aimed at building partnerships with public officials and civic leaders, even Democrats, to encourage development in their cities. Those who excelled at this new imperative derided their predecessors’ political style. “The chamber … used to be terrible, total boys’ club, not big consensus builders,” a business leader who participated frequently in such partnerships told me. “ ‘I’m a Democrat and you are a Republican; I’m a conservative and you are a liberal.’ Unless everyone is working together, you can’t get anywhere anyway!”
As business leaders deepened their involvement in economic development, they withdrew from day-to-day GOP politics. It was this withdrawal that allowed successive waves of movement conservatives to wield increasing influence. First there were Christian conservatives, later libertarians, then tea party activists.
To be sure, conflict between Trump and mainstream Republicans is fueled by a variety of factors, including his appeals to racial prejudice. But this conflict is also the consequence of a long-term structural transformation of the GOP. The Republican Party of today has come under the increasing influence of ideological insurgents, a consequence of the withdrawal of local business leaders who once formed the core of the party.
Where the Republican Party will go from here likely depends on both the outcome of the November election and how the party responds to Trump’s victory or defeat. But reconstituting the GOP into a business-centric party once again may face significant obstacles. The traditional business leaders I encountered lamented their diminished capacities and inability to wield any civic influence, much less reassert control over the Republican Party. “Forty years ago, there were 50 people I could call on [to join a community initiative],” one told me. “Now, I don’t know who to call on.”
Josh Pacewicz is assistant professor of sociology and urban studies at Brown University. He is the author of “Partisans and Partners: The Politics of the Post-Keynesian Society,” which will be published in October.Supersuckers frontman Eddie Spaghetti is facing the fight of his life, and the band's fans have his back.
As the Supersuckers website explains, Eddie recently received the scary news that he's been diagnosed with stage 3 oropharynx cancer, and he's facing surgery and radiation treatments that have sidelined him indefinitely on the eve of a planned European tour.
In advance of his first surgery, the band has started a fundraiser that will, in the words of manager Jim Bullotta, "help us fly the middle finger" at the disease. "Any and all donations are supremely appreciated," Bullotta urges. "Fans and friends are encouraged to help offset the expenses of Eddie's treatment and loss of income of having to be off the road by supporting the'Eddie Spaghetti Cancer Fight Fund'with their generosity and support."
As of this writing, the drive has generated more than $13,000, which aids not only Eddie's family's bottom line, but bolsters their emotional well-being. As his wife, Jessika Daly, explains in a heartfelt note at the band's site, they're all still reeling from the news.
"It is true what they say, that it takes a village. We would be in a dark, dark place without 'our village' but thankfully, we are not," she writes. "My best friend has cancer and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it. There’s no amount of money that would rid him of this horrible disease so many suffer from. There is no one I can call to make things better but the support that we already have felt from everyone knocks us off our feet."
To learn more about the Eddie Spaghetti Cancer Fight Fund — and to donate to the cause — visit this link.
See 2015’s Biggest Rock News StoriesNickelodeon is taking its first foray into subscription video streaming, though it's not the far-reaching service we expected.
Instead, the new “Noggin” service will be aimed strictly at preschoolers, with ad-free shows like Blue’s Clues, Little Bear, and Kai-lan. It'll also include music videos, educational videos, games, and activities.
The service will launch on March 5 for $5.99 per month, and will only be available on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Nick says it's talking to TV providers about offering the service as a “premium compliment” for subscribers, but there's no word on bringing the service to smart TVs or streaming set-top boxes.
Nickelodeon is no stranger to streaming video. The network already offers free episodes of its shows through the Nick and Nick Jr. apps for iOS and Android. Cable and satellite subscribers can also unlock even more full episodes by logging into the app.
Last month, the network said it was looking to add a subscription service focused on mobile devices. It seemed that Nick might be looking to break away bundled TV subscriptions, joining several other networks that want to appeal to people without cable. But if anything, Noggin represents only baby steps in that direction.
Why this matters: Cord-cutting implications aside, Noggin could be seen as a competitor to services like Amazon's FreeTime and the Kids section of Netflix. It'll also have to reckon with YouTube's new Kids app, which doesn't have any subscription costs but does include advertising. This is all great news for parents, who will have more options and control over what their children are watching.
This story, "Nickelodeon's 'Noggin' streaming service is just for preschoolers" was originally published by PCWorld.BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – During his Louisiana State University (LSU) lecture titled “Fat-Shaming Works”, Breitbart Tech Editor Milo Yiannopoulos had a few words for Black Lives Matter protesters, saying they should be worried about their community’s obesity rate, rather than rioting against police.
In full Marilyn Monroe-inspired drag, Yiannopoulos spoke directly to the Black Lives Matter movement, saying the organization is not the least bit concerned about the obesity rate among black Americans.
“For any Black Lives Matter activists who have snuck their way in, blacks have the highest obesity rates in America at 47.8 percent,” Yiannopoulos said. “If you combine obese and overweight, it can reach to 76 percent.”
“If Black Lives Matter cared about black people, in addition to their fact-free musings about police officers, they would be organizing aerobics classes, not protesting the police,” Yiannopoulos. “If Black Lives Matter cared about black lives, they’d be fire-bombing McDonald’s, not their local neighborhoods.”
On the night of bloody, anti-police violence in North Carolina, Yiannopoulos’ told LSU students and fans of the dangers coming from the pro-obesity “body positivity movement”.
Yiannopoulos specifically gave the lecture to the Louisiana crowd, as the state was recently named the country’s fattest state, with an adult obesity rate of 36 percent, according to data from the State of Obesity.
As the crowd cheered at being declared the fattest state in the country, Yiannopoulos joked, saying “Do not congratulate yourselves or you’re going to find the next hour and half very tiresome,” as the crowd laughed.
“It’s gotten so bad that Houston is no longer the fattest city in America,” Yiannopoulos said. “You have now taken the crown.”
“Fat-shaming works,” Yiannopoulos said. “Now the Left tells you it doesn’t work and I’m going to explain to you why. All these magazines you read they say ‘Fat-shaming doesn’t work. Body positivity! Body confidence!’ you know, ‘Sweetheart, you can look how you want, your self-esteem is not determined by a man,’ all this kind of garbage.”
Yiannopoulos pressed on, saying social pressures was one of the most common reasons individuals decide to “live healthier lifestyles” and lose weight.
“For those of you that are at a healthy weight, you’re going to foot the bill for the ‘body positivity’ generation,” Yiannopoulos said. “For those of you that are obese, you will get sick and die sooner because you are being taught that fat is fine.”
Beforehand, Yiannopoulos had been planning on greeting protesters, but quickly realized there were none to greet.
LSU’s Students for Trump representative Remy Garofalo said she was surprised that there were no protesters, considering a coalition of gender studies and minority student organizations had met weeks in advance to plan their “response” to Yiannopoulos, as Breitbart Texas reported.
What Breitbart Texas assumed were protesters, a group of students who had words like “BLM” and “fat slut” written in permanent ink across their bodies, turned out to be aloof students who were not even aware of Yiannopoulos’ speech.
Meanwhile, Yiannopoulos garnered one his largest crowds yet at the LSU campus, with more than 1,000 attendees, many clad in GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump hats and shirts.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.“Mom, can a Catholic be gay?”
My 9-year-old asks weird questions all the time, but this one was a career best for her.
Lucy said that a friend from her Catholic school claimed Catholic people simply couldn’t BE gay. She wanted to know if that was true. I told her I wasn’t sure, but I thought that might not be the case.
“Why,” she asked. “Do YOU know any gay Catholics?”
As a matter of fact, I DO.
I met Frank when I lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was one of my favorite friends because he was sweet and buoyant and he threw the most fabulous parties at his ranch-style home. The first thing you noticed about Frank’s house were the crucifixes, which were EVERYWHERE. He also had pictures of Jesus, framed poems about Faith, AND a shrine to the Virgin Mary in his backyard. See, Frank was a devout Catholic but he was also gay. I asked him what he thought of this conundrum and Frank said, “I love God so much, I can’t imagine He wouldn’t love me back. In my heart, I know He does.”
Knowing Frank’s kindness and generosity the way I do, I’d have to agree with him.
Frank asked me to look after his home and dog once while he went on vacation. He left the keys with me and our mutual friend Stephanie, who agreed to stay at the house with me. Steph and I went out for beers our first night of housesitting, and were joined by Frank’s sister, Mercedes. I was playing pool with Mercedes’ boyfriend when he said, “Man, I can’t BELIEVE you’re staying in Frank’s house tonight!” Mercedes shushed him furiously and I had an awful sinking feeling. You know, the one you have when you realize everyone BUT YOU knows something and they’re trying to keep it from you? That feeling.
Apparently even Stephanie knew because she rolled her eyes and said, “Great. Thanks Mike.”
There was much begging and pleading on my part, and another round of beers before I got the truth. MAN, was it a doozy.
Frank had gotten his house for a lower-than-expected price because it had been empty for a long time. The people who lived there beforehand were apparently murdered in their sleep, by their own son. He then buried them in the backyard. I can’t remember what happened to the son after that. I’m pretty sure Mercedes told me, but I was so blindsided by the news, I failed to catch the second half. I called BS, of course, and insisted they were messing with me, but they all just looked at their shoes and sipped their beers.
“Wait a minute…WHERE did he shoot them?”
“In their bedroom, while they were sleeping.”
Yes, the murders had taken place in the same room I’d be sleeping that night. Or NOT SLEEPING is more like it.
Stephanie fell straight to sleep while I stared at the ceiling all night long. The horrible scenario, which I still insisted was a joke, played out in my head over and over again. I informed Stephanie the next morning that she’d have to find someone else to stay with her the next night. She wasn’t happy about it, but Steph stayed in that house alone the following night which is still incredible to me.
Frank found out about the disclosure and called me while he was still on vacation. He apologized and said that he never really wanted anyone to know about his home’s history. Yes, it was ALL true.
I asked Frank how he could comfortably live in a place where something horrible had taken place and he said this:
“Julie, I loved that house the second I walked into it. There had been so much sadness there, but that little house deserved to be happy. I wanted to fill it with all the joy and love I possibly could to erase those horrible things, so I did. That’s why I built the shrine in the backyard.”
Yes, Frank built the Virgin Mary shrine in the exact spot the parents had been buried.
I shit you not.
Frank’s plan worked. His home was filled with laughter and love and there wasn’t a single sad corner in the whole place. There were no traces of the horrors that had lived there before, and the little house had Frank to thank for that.
So no Lucy, I don’t know for sure what the rules are about being Gay and being Catholic. I do, however KNOW that there’s one corner of this world that’s a far better place, all thanks to one Gay Catholic.Guest Post By Sol Orwell of Examine.com
For those that haven’t seen Examine.com, you’re missing out. They’ve built up a solid reputation on presenting evidence-based information on nutrition and supplementation. I get a ton of questions about nutrition, so I asked if they would do a series of posts on nutrition. Maybe even tackle some myths.
Here’s the first one – on meal frequency.
Meal Frequency?
A common claim is that eating more meals a day causes an increase in metabolism?
Another claim is that because your metabolism keeps spiking, you burn more fat, which helps with fat loss.
What’s the evidence?
A few trials have been done, keeping the diet the same, and only manipulating the timing and size of meals.
A few trials have been conducted assessing the above claims, keeping the composition of the diet steady and only manipulating the timing and size of the meals
No differences exist in weight or fat loss 1
No differences exist in the metabolic rate 2
No differences exist in fat oxidation rates3,4
What else should I know?
Usually, the more times you eat, the more calories you can pack in
An increase in meal frequency can cause you to feel hungrier 5
A decrease in meal frequency causes you to feel less hungry 6
If not told how to eat, most people prefer fewer meals7
Summing it Up
Meal frequency is nothing more than personal taste. Some people love three square meals a day. Some people love one giant meal a day. And some people love to nibble throughout. Meal frequency is irrelevant, and its effects on metabolism are irrelevant. Your metabolism does increase when you eat food – so the more food you eat, the longer it stays elevated.
Admittedly, if you are trying to pack on mass, more meals may make it easier to eat a ton of calories, but the effect would be the same if you ate all of those calories in two meals.
Eat however many meals you find most comfortable with.
***
Click HERE to check out Sol’s Supplement Goals Reference Guide, the cheat sheet to better health, a better body and a better life.Most home furnishings are made for flat surfaces, not for those uncomfortable edge conditions we call either ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ corners. The following designs do more than just address such conditions, they thrive on these traditionally-problematic challenges.
Kitchens are somewhat notorious when it comes to corners – cupboards bumping into another is one thing, but you also often lose the extra space contained in the corner itself. Not so with these crafty corner drawers that slide out at a 45-degree angle – designs by Blum and Heritage.
Floor lamps are another classic challenge- they are often rounded, and occupy more space in the corner than they could possible need. One solution is the Pop-Up corner light from WellWell, packed flat in an envelope with a cord, and folded out by the recipient to form a triangular, rectangular or round shape suited to 90-degree or even slightly-more-unusual angles.
For storage considerations, pipe shelves like the ones shown above have been popping up for sale on Etsy for a while now – these are generally oriented toward inside corners, but could just as easily wrap out and around as well. And, of course, you can buy something already-made or go the do-it-yourself route instead.
But inside corners are only half of the equation – what about outside corners, where two walls meet as they push out into the room? This corner shelf by Martina Carpelan fills both functions with elegant simplicity – it can be flipped to wrap around an outside corner, or to tuck into an inside one.In the midst of the flurry of contract extensions handed out by the Houston Texans on Thursday, the last was the biggest and most anticipated contract extension completed. DeAndre Hopkins (WR) and Houston Texans completed a 5 year extension worth approximately $81,000,000 in new money. Let’s break this down as well as compare it to the other top wide receiver contracts.
Contract Summary
Paper Value: 6 year deal worth $88,915,000.
Total APY: $14.82 million
Guaranteed at Signing: $36.5 million
2017 base salary ($8.0m), 2017 roster bonus ($8.5m), 2018 base salary ($12.5m), signing bonus ($7.5m)
Total Vesting Guarantees: $49 million
Guaranteed money at signing ($36.5m) + 2019 base salary ($12.5m) which becomes fully guaranteed on March 18, 2018.
3 Year Cash Flow: $49 million
4 Year Cash Flow: $61.5 million
New Money: $81.0 million
New Money APY: $16.2 million
Salary Cap Percentage Breakdown (estimates on 2018-2020)
Year Cap Charge Cap Percentage 2017 $18.0 10.9% 2018 $14.0 7.8% 2019 $14.0 7.3% 2020 $14.0 6.8%
The contract is essentially a three year contract with team options starting in 2020 when the guaranteed money runs out. By design in 2020 is when the dead money drops significantly. The Texans continue their use of the “hybrid” contract model; utilizing a small signing bonus with a year 1 (or year 2) roster bonus with guaranteed salary to limit the dead money on the back end of the contract. This is a very strong offer for Hopkins given he is not an unrestricted free agent. There has been some discussion if Hopkins should be paid like a Top 5 wide receiver based on his 2016 production. Hopkins will need to get back to his 2015 form to prove this contract was worth it. The Texans were able to take advantage of their |
in brown paper, which I thought was a really cute touch even though I was just going to rip it open anyway. Merry Christmas, me.
I do have to admit, I was a bit confused by the sample jars. They’re about twice as tall as 5 gram eyeshadow jars, and they don’t seem to be used for any other products in her shop. They were pretty big for the product inside. As well, I did have a few application issues because my house is really cold and a few of the balms hardened up a lot. I have a feeling that they would work a lot better from a tube directly on my lips, but in the pot, they weren’t warmed up by my mouth-heat at all. They didn’t play well with brushes in their frozen state, so all the application was done by finger.
I noticed that all the balms were a tad more moisturizing than a normal lipstick. If you are a person with really dry lips, I don’t know if they would do it for you, but they worked well for me. They were all unflavoured and unscented (or so subtle that I didn’t notice.)
B.S. is the black one. Of course I got the black one. It comes off pretty opaque- the picture on my lips is actually after a few hours and a drink, so it had kind of faded down to a deep charcoal gray. It’s a pretty good everyday black that doesn’t require too much maintenance.
Coconut is a perfect milk chocolate brown on me. I found it to be the easiest to spread when it was cold in my room, possibly because it’s actually Nutella. I don’t know if it’s technically flattering on me (it’s very 90s) but it would look really lovely on darker-skinned people.
I was surprised by Lychee. Normally when I go for brick red colours, they’re a lot darker. I really liked Lychee on my face, though. It comes off as a warm sort of terra cotta on me. It wouldn’t swatch properly when I was doing the arm swatch, but it looks super neat once it warms up.
Mulberry was my surprise balm. It’s a slightly mauvish pink- it didn’t swatch very well, but again, that’s probably because my cold bathroom isn’t quite Miami temperature-wise. I can see this working well for people who want to look like they have normal lip colours. I’m not really in love with it, but it’s certainly not bad.
The owner of Kae Q recently made a post about how she thought the purple balms, including Passionfruit, were a bit too sheer and she wanted to reformulate them, so by the time you read this, this bit could be invalid. That said. Passionfruit was about as sheer as I expected it to be, since it’s a tinted balm and whatnot. It was a bit prone to turning into a line around the outside of my lips, and it was the most high-maintenance of the balms, but, again, it was exactly what I expected.
I also got Seaweed to fulfill the wacky coloured lipstick part of this review. It’s a shiny metallic emerald green. It is a tad bit sheer, which kind of shows since it’s green, but two layers is pretty much completely opaque. In the photo, I had been wearing it through a bacon and mimosa brunch, and you can see it didn’t wear too badly at all.
Overall, I really like these balms. While a few of them were a bit sheer for me, I think that will be solved when I get full-sizes and use my lip heat to melt them. In retrospect, I really wish I had gotten the LE blue one, since I do find the formula pretty good.
AdvertisementsPoison control centers around the country received 3,470 calls about bath salts from January through June, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, up from 303 in all of 2010.
“Some of these folks aren’t right for a long time,” said Karen E. Simone, director of the Northern New England Poison Center. “If you gave me a list of drugs that I wouldn’t want to touch, this would be at the top.”
At least 28 states have banned bath salts, which are typically sold for $25 to $50 per 50-milligram packet at convenience stores and head shops under names like Aura, Ivory Wave, Loco-Motion and Vanilla Sky. Most of the bans are in the South and the Midwest, where the drugs have grown quickly in popularity. But states like Maine, New Jersey and New York have also outlawed them after seeing evidence that their use was spreading.
The cases are jarring and similar to those involving PCP in the 1970s. Some of the recent incidents include a man in Indiana who climbed a roadside flagpole and jumped into traffic, a man in Pennsylvania who broke into a monastery and stabbed a priest, and a woman in West Virginia who scratched herself “to pieces” over several days because she thought there was something under her skin.
“She looked like she had been dragged through a briar bush for several miles,” said Dr. Owen M. Lander, an emergency room doctor at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.
Bath salts contain manmade chemicals like mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV, also known as substituted cathinones. Both drugs are related to khat, an organic stimulant found in Arab and East African countries that is illegal in the United States.
They are similar to so-called synthetic marijuana, which has also caused a surge in medical emergencies and been banned in a number of states. In March, the Drug Enforcement Administration used emergency powers to temporarily ban five chemicals used in synthetic marijuana, which is sold in the same types of shops as bath salts.
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Shortly afterward, Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania, asked the agency to enact a similar ban on the chemicals in bath salts. It has not done so, although Gary Boggs, a special agent at D.E.A. headquarters in Washington, said the agency had started looking into whether to make MDPV and mephedrone controlled Schedule I drugs like heroin and ecstasy.
Mr. Casey said in a recent interview that he was frustrated by the lack of a temporary ban. “There has to be some authority that is not being exercised,” he said. “I’m not fully convinced they can’t take action in a way that’s commensurate with the action taken at the state level.”
Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, introduced federal legislation in February to classify bath salts as controlled Schedule I substances, but it remains in committee. Meanwhile, the drugs remain widely available on the Internet, and experts say the state bans can be thwarted by chemists who need change only one molecule in salts to make them legal again.
And while some states with bans have seen fewer episodes involving bath salts, others where they remain fully legal, like Arizona, are starting to see a surge of cases.
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Dr. Frank LoVecchio, an emergency room doctor at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, said he had to administer general anesthesia in recent weeks to bath salt users so agitated that they did not respond to large doses of sedatives.
Dr. Justin Strittmatter, an emergency room doctor at the Gulf Coast Medical Center in Panama City, Fla., said he had treated one man whose temperature had shot up to 107.5 degrees after snorting bath salts. “You could fry an egg on his forehead,” Dr. Strittmatter said.
Other doctors described dangerously elevated blood pressure and heart rates and people so agitated that their muscles started to break down, releasing chemicals that led to kidney failure.
Mark Ryan, the director of the Louisiana Poison Center, said some doctors had turned to powerful antipsychotics to calm users after sedatives failed. “If you take the worst attributes of meth, coke, PCP, LSD and ecstasy and put them together,” he said, “that’s what we’re seeing sometimes.”
Dr. Ryan added, “Some people who used it back in November or December, their family members say they’re still experiencing noticeable paranoid tendencies that they did not have prior.”
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Before hitting this country, bath salts swept Britain, which banned them in April 2010. Experts say much of the supply is coming from China and India, where chemical manufacturers have less government oversight.
They are labeled “not for human consumption,” which helps them skirt the federal Analog Act, under which any substance “substantially similar” to a banned drug is deemed illegal if it is intended for consumption.
Last month, the drug agency made its first arrests involving bath salts under the Analog Act through a special task force in New York. Undercover agents bought bath salts from stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn, where clerks discussed how to ingest them and boasted that they would not show up on a drug test.
“We were sending out a message that if you’re going to sell these bath salts, it’s a violation and we will be looking at you,” said John P. Gilbride, special agent in charge of the New York field division of the D.E.A.
The authorities in Alton, Ill., are looking at the Analog Act as they prepare to file criminal charges in the death of a woman who overdosed on bath salts bought at a liquor store in April.
“We think we can prove that these folks were selling it across the counter for the purposes of humans getting high,” said Chief David Hayes of the Alton police.
Chief Hayes and other law enforcement officials said they had been shocked by how quickly bath salts turned into a major problem. “I have never seen a drug that took off as fast as this one,” Chief Hayes said. Others said some people on the drugs could not be subdued with pepper spray or even Tasers.
Chief Joseph H. Murton of the Pottsville police said the number of bath salt cases had dropped significantly since the city banned the drugs last month. But before the ban, he said, the episodes were overwhelming the police and two local hospitals.
“We had two instances in particular where they were acting out in a very violent manner and they were Tasered and it had no effect,” he said. “One was only a small female, but it took four officers to hold her down, along with two orderlies. That’s how out of control she was.”When you think of the famous studios responsible for producing some of the most popular kung fu classics, some names that will likely spring to mind are Golden Harvest, Shaw Brothers, and Cathay, to name but a few. One name that certainly wouldn’t be near the top of anyone’s list, or even on it at all for that matter, is American cable channel HBO. However at the end of 2016, the networks Asian channel, suitably titled HBO Asia, announced they’d be airing a pair of new, exclusively made for HBO, kung fu movies. Both would focus on famous characters from Chinese history, ones that should need no introduction for fans of kung fu cinema. Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying tells a tale of Wong Fei-Hung’s father, and his battles to rid China of opium, while Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So, tells the origin story of the legendary Drunken Master.
While neither tales are likely to break any new ground when it comes to kung fu movie storytelling, the decision for HBO Asia to make these movies at all most definitely is a ground breaking one. Naturally, the biggest question of all is – why? It’s no secret that China’s burgeoning middle class has boomed over the last 10 years, and with it, going to the cinema has come to be one of the countries favourite past times (often regardless of the movie in questions quality). In 2015 alone, China saw 22 new cinema screens opening daily. Daily! While the US continues to wrestle with rampant piracy of new movies, the willingness of Chinese audiences to visit the cinema, combined with a potential box office from a population of over 1 billion, has seen the Hollywood studios keen to ensure their productions have China-appeal.
However as much of a no-brainer as it is, making a movie that can be shown in China isn’t quite as simple as it sounds, with production companies using an increasing number of workarounds to ensure distribution. The most obvious one – China’s quota for foreign productions which can be shown, has largely been circumnavigated by Hollywood making its movies as Chinese co-productions. Throw in some China-specific content, and you’re good to be screened. Now you know why China saved the day in The Martian, and the reason behind the jaunt to Hong Kong in Transformers: Age of Extinction. Remember at the beginning of Looper how Joseph Gordon-Levitt is determined to move to Paris, but then the script simply drops it and has him re-locate to Shanghai instead? That’s because the productions Hollywood budget didn’t stretch to a shoot in France, so the Chinese co-producer stepped in and offered to pay for location shooting in Shanghai. A few script adjustments later, and China saves the day.
Then you have the culturally (or more specifically, politically) sensitive issues to be mindful of. There were mass accusations of white-washing, when the Tibetan mystic from the Doctor Strange comics was changed to a Celtic woman (played by Tilda Swinton), for the movie. But really, look closer, and it’s easy to see that there was no way a production with a main character that’s both Tibetan, and a practitioner of the supernatural, would be shown on Chinese shores. With that much box office at stake, again, the decision to change things was a no-brainer. However, with a president that’s implemented a renewed push to make the Communist Party relevant again, Hollywood’s rush to please China could be about to come undone. In 2016 alone, in addition to the existing bans on such themes as the supernatural, now time travel, one-night stands, and even cleavage have been given the chop from being shown. Had Looper been made now, I guess there’d be no Chinese producers to step in.
In August of the same year, the national media regulator warned local news programs not to “express overt admiration for Western lifestyles”, and authorities have been actively discouraging broadcasters from adopting imported TV formats, such as The Voice of China. Throw in the governments closing down of both Walt Disney Co.’s movie streaming service and Apple’s, and it seems that the noose is tightening on Hollywood’s attempts to drink from China’s cash coated well. This background of course, makes it all the more interesting for HBO Asia to dip its toes into Chinese waters at such a time. While this may be the first time for the channel to deal specifically with the Chinese market, it’s not the first time they’ve dabbled in the Asian market, with their 2012 production Dead Mine aiming to capitalise on appealing to a pan-Asian demographic.
The movie, which starred Japanese actress Miki Mizuno, well known for her roles in the likes of the Hard Revenge Milly series and Sono Sion’s Guilty of Romance, and a fresh from starring in The Raid: Redemption Joe Taslim, was a complete bomb. Shot in English, the Indonesian productions attempt to throw Japanese, Indonesian, and Western actors together, for a tale of undead Samurai warriors in an abandoned Japanese bunker from World War II, simply didn’t mesh together. Undeterred however, HBO continued on with the Australia-Singapore co-produced TV series Serangoon Road, a 1960’s noir detective series set in Singapore and starring Joan Chen. Again, the series was shot entirely in English, and again, it bombed.
After a double-whammy of flops, HBO Asia Chief Executive Jonathan Spink readily acknowledged that, co-productions made with the intent of pleasing two completely different markets, simply don’t work. So it was time for a change of tactics, if it wasn’t possible to gain viewership by appealing to several different countries with one product, what country was capable of providing a high level of viewership as a single entity? Of course, the answer was simple – China. While HBO Asia is not widely heard of in China, let alone available (it’s mostly limited to high end hotels), the network revealed an ace up its sleeve by partnering with the China Movie Channel, which is, most significantly, a division of state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). What that means for the average Chinese TV viewer is that they don’t need HBO Asia, as CCTV will handle local distribution, while HBO Asia can concentrate on marketing both movies across the rest of Asia.
The greater advantage for HBO Asia is that, by partnering with a state-run TV channel, anything they make has essentially already been given the stamp of approval for being shown before the cameras even start rolling. It’s a smart move for both HBO Asia and CCTV, and not the first time the pair have worked together. In the past CCTV has licensed and aired HBO TV movies, such as The Gathering Storm, however this is the first time that they’ve come together to co-produce content. With CCTV’s domestic audience of more than 1 billion, and HBO Asia’s presence across Asia, their partnership has the potential to be a powerful one. For HBO Asia specifically, the fact that CCTV is a state-run entity puts them in a strong position to stay on the good side of the Chinese authorities, and position themselves as distributors of Chinese culture to the world.
The impact of Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Tei-Ying and Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So has already exceeded the expectations of both HBO Asia and CCTV. Speaking in August 2016, senior vice president of new business at HBO Asia, Beibei Fan, had stated there were no plans to show the movies outside of HBO Asia, indicating that the Chinese audience figures alone were enough to justify making them. However as of January 2017, both became available in the US via iTunes and the usual platforms, thanks mainly to a small but dedicated western fan base of kung fu movies who had gotten wind of the productions, and began increasingly asking how they could be seen. Ironically, most of the interest from western shores focused on the involvement of veteran choreographer Corey Yuen, the director of the likes of Ninja in the Dragon’s Den and Yes, Madam! However Yuen’s involvement was only limited to that of executive producer.
Of course like any good marketing department knows, that didn’t stop the promotional posters made for a US audience plastering on top of them – ‘Executive Producer Corey Yuen (X-Men, Lethal Weapon 4 and The Expendables)’ – in a bid to draw in more viewers. Indeed the choice of movies from Yuen’s extensive filmography are indicative of just that, with HBO clearly aiming to draw in not only kung fu fans, but also more casual viewers with references to big budget Hollywood action movies and superhero flicks. Amusingly, it is perhaps the first time a production has referenced Lethal Weapon 4 as a selling point since the 2001 Billy Zane vehicle Invincible, which was, ironically, also a TV movie. Fifteen years prior, the long forgotten cash-in on The Matrix came with the proud tagline of – ‘Executive Produced by Mel Gibson And Jet Li’ – which, if I’m not mistaken, is not even grammatically correct.
The actual man in the director’s chair for both productions is Guo Jian-Yong, a former stuntman and action director in his own right. Yuen and Jian-Yong are well acquainted, with Jian-Yong playing a part in Yuen’s Mahjong Dragon as far back as 1997, as well as action directing on Yuen’s post-millennium efforts such as So Close and DOA: Dead or Alive. Jian-Yong seems well aware of his role as the man responsible for ensuring the movies deliver, with plans already announced that if they’re well received, HBO and CCTV would consider making further instalments. Beibei Fan explained that the approach for both productions was to look at them “almost like pilots”, with Spink further elaborating that the plan is not to be another US studio or network trying to fit into China, but rather the goal “is about taking great content out of China.”
Jian-Yong echoes Spink’s words in particular, explaining that “We have the endorsement of the HBO brand, but it has to be authentic Chinese if it’s going to work, it can’t be half-Western and half-Chinese or audiences will be confused.” True to his word, Jian-Yong has filled both movies with genuine martial artists and stunt performers, with likely the most recognizable face for most kung fu fans coming in the form of Chen Zhi-Hui. The only actor to be given prominent roles in both movies, Zhi-Hui can be recognized for his roles in the likes of Fearless, Ip Man, and Rise of the Legend, usually playing authoritative older figures or masters. This should come as good news to kung fu fans, as while most genres would frown upon made for TV fare, the kung fu genre has had as much action unfold on the small screen as it has the big, with the likes of channels such as TVB producing a large number of martial arts themed serials.
With both productions weighing in at a lean 90 minutes, I decided to watched them back to back, which after the flip of a coin saw Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So being viewed first, and Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying second. It’s the latter movie that caught my attention the most though, as while the plot of ridding China of opium has been covered countless times before, Wong Fei-Hung’s father Wong Kei-Ying has had surprisingly few screen appearances as a main character. Usually taking a back seat to his sons adventures, Kei-Ying has been notably played by Kong Yeung (Challenge of the Masters), Lam Kau (Drunken Master), Ti Lung (Drunken Master 2), and even Adam Cheng (Drunken Master 3). However as far as headlining a movie, the only time that springs to mind is when Donnie Yen stepped into his shoes for Yuen Woo-Ping’s 1993 classic Iron Monkey.
This time around, he’s played by newcomer Sun Hao-Ran. Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying is, as expected, far from ground-breaking, however what it does do is deliver a solid little kung fu movie, regardless of if it’ll likely be forgotten soon after watching. Hao-Ran is a capable lead, and in much the same way as when Jet Li played Wong Fei-Hung in the Once Upon a Time in China series, all he’s really called upon to do is to act suitably stoic and upstanding. What counts is that he does it well, and clearly has the moves to back it up. It’s easy to recall Fan’s words of how the productions should be treated as pilots when watching, however Jian-Yong looks to have made the most of the limited budget he was given to work with.
While the fights come frequently, there’s also a surprisingly high level of violence on display, including a decapitated arm, and a throat being cut with a Chang Cheh level of blood splatter. These, and several other instances of bloodletting, play their part to ensure proceedings never feel too much like, well, a HBO TV movie. Jian-Yong also seems to be a fan of old school kung fu movies himself, with the villains Peking opera mask an obvious nod to The Five Venoms, and the revelation that an old master has stitched a secret kung fu manual under his skin (and the subsequent gory procedure to remove it) recalling a similar scene in Shaolin: The Blood Mission.
The fights themselves are well paced, and flow at a nice speed with no signs of undercranking, although purists will no doubt bawk at some of the wire assisted moves. The finale in particular sees inspiration being drawn from Fearless, as Hao-ran has to face off against a Muay Thai fighter, a fencer, and the villain himself. What makes the fights work so well is what’s at stake, with Hao-ran’s acquaintance, aunt, and son (Wong Fei-Hung himself, who does nothing but whine incessantly for the whole movie) all captured by the villains. During the round with the Muay Thai fighter, for each of Hao-ran’s limbs that touches the ground, the corresponding limb of his tied up acquaintance is broken. During the round with the fencer, for every part of Hao-ran’s clothing that gets sliced, the corresponding piece is ripped off from his aunt, resulting in a kind of bizarre game of strip kung fu.
The setup results in a welcome sense of immediacy, and perhaps thanks to the grittier and more bloody version of Wong Fei-Hung that was recently presented in 2014’s Rise of the Legend, the fights finish on a suitably brutal note. It surprises me that I actually enjoyed Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying more than I did Rise of the Legend, despite, in terms of production values at least, Roy Chow’s movie being superior in every way. In an attempt to make Wong Fei-Hung relevant for a modern audience though, for me Rise of the Legend sacrificed too much of what makes Wong Fei-Hung the enduring character that he is, and perhaps more specifically, what he stands for. Here there’s a balance, with Wong Kei-Ying still being the impeccably upright character we know Wong Fei-Hung will become, but when it comes to facing off against the bad guys, he also knows when it’s time to show no mercy.
It’s interesting then, that the elements that make Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying work, are somehow almost entirely absent from Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So. As a movie, it seems to be aware of how easily it could stand in the shadow of 2010’s True Legend, however does nothing to differentiate itself from such inevitable comparisons. The titular character of Beggar So, a character played by everyone from Simon Yuen to Donnie Yen to Vincent Zhao, here has his shoes (or should that be bottle of wine?) filled by another newcomer in the form of Jun Cao. However Jian-Yong seems to struggle to do anything beyond creating a simpler, less ambitious, retelling of Beggar So’s origins, compared to what audiences have already seen in True Legend.
The long hair and spinning on your back breakdancing move are both present and accounted for, however instead of battling Gordon Liu and Jay Chou on a mountain in an alcohol fuelled dream, Cao has an outer-body experience (after being hit by lightning), and drunkenly staggers around with CGI water drops. It all seems very derivative of what we’ve seen before, only on a smaller budget and with more pedestrian direction. Short of simply writing off Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So as a poor man’s version of True Legend, the production also has plenty of its own issues to contend with. While the TV format sees a much less devastating event than his family’s death lead to Cao’s inebriated state, the aftermath, and lack of any interesting supporting characters, sees a disproportionate amount of the run time dedicated to watching him wallow in his own misery.
This is likely due more to the script and direction than Cao’s performance, who at times resembles the spitting image of a Story of Ricky era Fan Siu-Wong, however that doesn’t make it any more tolerable to sit through. The training sequences also feel like a miss, as despite being surrounded by several props, apart from a brief scene of balancing on bamboo poles, Cao’s entire regime seems to consist of staggering around in an open space performing drunken boxing. Training scenes are a grand tradition in any old school kung fu movie, and allow the action directors to get creative regardless of how little the budget they’re working with is. So to see none of the props in plain sight get utilised, in favour of endless scenes of drunken forms, seems like a missed opportunity.
While Cao does eventually get to use his drunken boxing skills against an evil eunuch, it all comes a little too late, and ultimately feels underwhelming. The fight scenes in Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying may not be a significant improvement, however they come at frequent intervals, which allows proceedings to maintain a steady pace and keep the viewers interest. That sense of pacing isn’t there with Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So, with far too much time spent with a character, who most will already be family with, feeling sorry for himself, and not enough on the business of people beating each other up.
The contrast in both movies, despite them being unmistakably made for TV, is a noticeable one – with Master of the Shadowless Kick: Wong Kei-Ying being an example of how to keep a TV movie interesting, despite an unremarkable story and archetypal characters, and Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So suffering all the pit falls that one would expect from such a production. For western audiences in particular, it’s difficult to imagine coughing up the money for both features if Master of the Drunken Fist: Beggar So is the one chosen to be watched first. Back over in Asia however, as Beibei Fan pointed out, the viewers in China alone, who can watch them for free, are more than enough to justify the cost of making them, so the western market is really just an afterthought.
Most likely HBO Asia’s decision to appeal specifically to the Chinese market is something we’ll be seeing more and more of in future. When Jackie Chan picked up his honorary Oscar in November 2016, he recalled that when he first went to Hollywood to make Battlecreek Brawl, nobody cared for his opinions or wanted to listen to his ideas. But he went on to explain that “Today, they ask me what Chinese people like to see. They need to consider every aspect of China because China has gotten strong, and China’s film industry has gotten strong.” While not everyone may agree, it’s arguably true, and if that means that HBO get to make more kung fu movies on a higher budget and with more time to film, then it’s definitely not a bad thing. Maybe a few years from now we’ll have Master of the Chain Punch: Ip Man and Master of the Iron Skin Technique: Fong Sai-Yuk.
Time will tell, but until then, it’ll be interesting to see if other networks decide to follow the same route of abandoning appeal-to-all co-productions, and instead choose to focus specifically on the Chinese audience. Netflix already abandoned its attempts to launch in China at the end of 2016, due to the government regulations over foreign digital content simply being too strict to overcome, so it seems like a very real possibility. However not every filmmaker is as enthusiastic about working under such restrictive conditions, a sentiment reflected in comments made by Troma Entertainment President Lloyd Kaufman, during a panel discussion held during the Chinese American Film Festival last year. “How are you going to learn from American producers if we have to conform to a system controlled by bureaucrats from the top down?” said Kaufman, indicating that we’re likely not going to get a Chinese version of The Toxic Avenger anytime soon.
Whatever the future may hold, HBO will be remembered as the first network to boldly branch out into Chinese territories, and there are certainly far worse ways to do so than with a couple of kung fu movies. Jian-Yong himself seems to understand the universal appeal of the genre, insisting that he wanted all of the action and stunts to be performed by the actors with no CGI or special effects, adding that “audiences across all cultures can appreciate that.” Indeed, I doubt there’ll be many people reading this article who’d disagree.
Updates: Making good on their promise to produce more kung fu, it’s been reported that the vice president of the China Movie Channel, Zhang Ling, has confirmed they’ll be making 2 more movies with HBO.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter shortly before the China Night Party took place as part of the Cannes Film Festival, Ling had this to say – “We were very pleased with how our first collaboration turned out, so we are very happy to be partnering with HBO on two more high-quality TV movies that celebrate Chinese culture and history.” While no further details were provided, based on Beibei Fan’s comments from 2016, expectations are that once again each movie will be a stand-alone story of a martial arts hero from Chinese history.
As we hear more, we’ll be sure to keep you updated!Tweet Update: February 25th, 2019
record points previous 1. Gonzaga (31) 27-2 775 1 West Coast 2. Wofford 24-4 739 2 Southern 3. Buffalo 24-3 718 3 Mid-American 4. Belmont 23-4 670 4 Ohio Valley 5. Murray State 23-4 624 5 Ohio Valley 6. UC Irvine 23-5 583 6 Big West 7. New Mexico State 24-4 560 7 Western Athletic 8. UNC Greensboro 24-5 515 12 Southern 9. South Dakota State 23-7 494 15 Summit 10. Hofstra 23-6 478 8 Colonial 11. Lipscomb 21-6 472 9 Atlantic Sun 12. Furman 22-6 419 11 Southern 13. Liberty 23-6 417 10 Atlantic Sun 14. Montana 20-6 345 18 Big Sky 15. Vermont 22-6 316 13 America East 16. ETSU 22-8 289 14 Southern 17. Yale 18-5 270 16 Ivy League 18. Sam Houston State 19-9 232 25 Southland 19. Saint Mary's 19-10 189 NR West Coast 20. Texas State 22-6 187 19 Sun Belt 21. Toledo 21-6 164 17 Mid-American 22. Northeastern 19-10 125 NR Colonial 23. Stony Brook 22-6 96 20 America East 24. Bowling Green 19-8 82 22 Mid-American 25. San Francisco 21-7 71 21 West Coast
OTHERS RECEIVING VOTES: Jacksonville State 49, Wright State 39, BYU 25, Charleston 20, Kent State 20, Austin Peay 18, Georgia Southern 15, Northern Kentucky 15, Drake 14, Radford 10, Omaha 8, Georgia State 7, Utah Valley State 6, Grand Canyon 3, Harvard 3, UC Santa Barbara 3, Abilene Christian 2, Loyola Chicago 2, UMBC 1, Norfolk State 1.
VOTING PANEL: Casey Alexander (Lipscomb), Randy Bennett (St. Mary's), Will Brown (Albany), Chris Casey (Niagara), Jon Coffman (Fort Wayne), Jim Engles (Columbia), Michael Fly (FGCU), James Fox (Appalachian State), Derrin Hansen Omaha), Tavaras Hardy (Loyola MD), Steve Hawkins (Western Michigan), Jason Hooten (Sam Houston State), Donte' Jackson (Grambling), James Jones (Yale), Mike Jones (Radford), Robert Jones (Norfolk State), Greg Kampe (Oakland), Danny Kaspar (Texas State), Brian Katz (Sacramento State), Tod Kowalczyk (Toledo), Greg Lansing (Indiana State), Jim Les (UC Davis), Dan Majerle (Grand Canyon), Bob Marlin (Louisiana), Rob O'Driscoll (Drexel), Ryan Odom (UMBC), Kyle Perry (UNC Asheville), Damon Stoudamire (Pacific), Jay Spoonhour (Eastern Illinois), Willis Wilson (Texas A&M Corpus Christi), Mike Young (Wofford).
* Wofford head coach Mike Young is the chairman of the Top 25 voting panel for the 2018-19 season.
NOTE: The Mid-Major Poll is made up of teams from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast, Western Athletic.
The CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 is now in its 20th season of existence.
SPOTLIGHT
OFF BOUNCE
MM MINUTE view more view moreDavid J. Phillip/Associated Press Andre Johnson left Texans practice on a cart Tuesday after dislocating his left index finger during a drill.
Everyone would agree that the quarterback is the most important player on an NFL team. They certainly get paid like it. As such, the majority of NFL teams would be in big trouble if their starting quarterback went down with an injury.
But which non-quarterbacks are the most valuable to their teams? As the entire city of Houston holds its collective breath awaiting word on the severity of Andre Johnson's dislocated finger, here are several players teams can least afford to lose:
Master of the scheme: Troy Polamalu, S, Steelers
Take a look at the mighty Steelers defense when Polamalu isn't on the field or even when he isn't 100 percent. It's not the same. The opposing QB doesn't have to locate Polamalu's replacement the same way he does Polamalu. Quarterbacks, offensive linemen, running backs and receivers all have to figure out just what Polamalu is up to on every play.
The super leader: Ray Lewis, LB, Ravens
Not everyone can play defense for the Ravens. Lewis sets the standard, and everyone else follows. He may have lost a step, but he still leads by example and preparation. There is simply no one in the NFL who commands a huddle like Lewis.
Protection setter: DeMarcus Ware, OLB, Cowboys
He's called an outside linebacker, but every quarterback and left tackle thinks of him as the ultimate pass rusher. As one QB said, "We would love to see him drop into coverage more often, but we treat him as a premier rusher every play of every game we play against him." At no time do teams ignore him or leave their tackle alone to handle the rush.
Running machines: Adrian Peterson, RB, Vikings; Chris |
the president a lot of money.” Skeptical reporters asked the White House to prove it.
“For 2016, the president can release his taxes,” NBC News's Hallie Jackson said. “Why won't he do that and put all of these questions away, back up what you're saying, prove that what you're saying is correct?”
“As we've said many, many times before, the president's taxes are still under audit,” Sanders replied. “And until that is completed, then we wouldn't move forward on putting his taxes out.”
President Trump's 2016 tax return is already under audit? Really? He just filed in October.
“Is it possible for the IRS to open an audit of a tax return as soon as it's been filed?” former IRS official Marcus S. Owens asked rhetorically when I spoke with him on Wednesday. “Two months, really, in tax time, is essentially the same as when it was filed. It takes about that long for the return to work its way through the service center and actually be available for a revenue agent.”
An audit within two months would be awfully fast — but not impossible, said Owens, who directed the IRS's Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division before becoming a partner at Loeb & Loeb in Washington.
“I guess the least likely possibility is that Trump is under a sort of permanent audit,” Owens said. “Mega corporations — ExxonMobil and organizations of that magnitude — are essentially under a constant level of IRS audit activity... I don't think Trump's enterprise is like that at all. It's big, it's complex, but I think there's a certain level of consistency, I would guess, in his filings. It's not the same as dealing with a really heavy-duty economic engine.”
Another possibility, which Owens considers more likely, is the IRS flagged something while auditing one of Trump's previous filings and decided in advance of his 2016 filing that it would review the new document as soon as it arrived, to determine whether Trump continues to employ whatever tax strategy the IRS might be scrutinizing.
“They want to make sure that as the case, or cases, move through IRS appeals, if they ever come out in favor of the revenue agent — that is that Trump owes more tax than he paid — the IRS is going to want to get every year in which that same sort of scenario appears,” Owens said. “The first years that were under audit, then everything moving forward. I think that's what's going on here.”
“Now,” Owens added, “none of this, in any way, precludes Trump making his returns public. The problem with making them public, if you are someone in the business Trump is in, is you're immediately going to have a whole battalion of tax lawyers and accountants who are not representing Donald Trump looking over those same documents and starting to shoot holes in the reporting Trump does. Trump's real danger here, from a practical standpoint, is suddenly the IRS lawyers and accountants are going to have a lot of backup — and a lot of backup that is aggressive and antagonistic toward Trump.”
Trump's reason for not releasing tax returns has shifted over time. He has cited audits as a reason, as Sanders did Tuesday. He has set conditions for releasing the returns, such as Hillary Clinton releasing emails deleted from her private server. He has claimed, as he did in January, “the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters.”
The most candid explanation — the one that matches Owens's — came from Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, who told the Pittbsurgh Tribune-Review last year his father does not want to release his returns “because he's got a 12,000-page tax return that would create... financial auditors out of every person in the country.”
The president's 2016 tax return could be under audit already, but that alone is not a reason to keep the document out of view. A more plausible reason is Trump has determined it is better to endure questions about his lack of disclosure than to allow the public to pick through his filings.Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are regarded as promising therapeutic agents to treat addiction. The current study aimed to examine the effects of huperzine A, a cholinesterase inhibitor, on behavioral sensitization induced by repeated morphine administration and relapse induced by contextual conditioning. The present study also assessed whether the state-dependency hypothesis may explain the results. Adult rats were divided into four groups (n=8) and intraperitoneally injected with 0.2, 0.3 or 0.4 mg/kg huperzine A or saline (1 ml/kg, control), for 5 days. The effect of repeated huperzine A administration alone on locomotor activity was assessed. For the experiments that analyzed the development of morphine-induced sensitization, 40 rats were divided into five groups (n=8): Saline+Saline, Saline+Morphine, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 mg/kg huperzine A+Morphine. Following a withdrawal period of 7 days, all animals were administered saline or morphine, as appropriate. To test the state-dependency hypothesis, the rats in the Saline+Morphine group were injected with saline and morphine, while the other three groups were administered different doses of huperzine A and morphine. To examine the effect of huperzine A on the expression of morphine-induced sensitization, the rats in huperzine A+Morphine groups were injected with appropriate concentrations of huperzine A, and morphine. The current results indicated that the administration of huperzine A alone did not affect locomotor activity, while higher doses of huperzine A inhibited the addictive behavior induced by morphine at the development phase. Additionally, huperzine A administration during the expression phase of morphine sensitization did not inhibit the relapse induced by administration of saline. Furthermore, 0.4 mg/kg huperzine A inhibited the expression of morphine-induced behavioral sensitization. Therefore, the results of the current study do not support the state-dependency hypothesis.US seeks to reassure Turkey that Kurdish troops will not be in a position to take over Sunni Arab city in Syria
Arab forces will lead the fight to recapture Raqqa from Islamic State, the US has said, as it seeks to soothe Turkish concerns that Kurdish troops could take over the predominantly Sunni Arab city in Syria.
Ankara, which wants to prioritise the removal of the US-backed Kurdish YPG forces from northern Syria, has reiterated its hostility towards the involvement of Kurds in the Syrian Democratic Forces, the coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters that has been on the offensive in the area.
Turkey views the YPG (Kurdish People’s Defence Units) as an arm of the PKK, which has been waging a decades-long insurgency in the south-east of Turkey. It wants to ensure that the YPG cannot knit Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria into a de facto state that could strengthen the PKK.
In an effort to manage the deepening conflict between its two warring allies, and reassure the Turks, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, said he did not think the YPG would be involved in the direct capture of the town, but only in its isolation, a process that he said may take months.
He also suggested Turkish views would be taken into account before any final assault, which in any case is not likely to occur for many months.
“The coalition and Turkey will work together on the long-term plan for seizing, holding and governing Raqqa,” Dunford said.
The SDF has been on the offensive in the area since late Saturday, aiming to initially isolate and encircle Raqqa, which has been under Isis control since 2014. The US-led coalition has said it will provide air support, signalling at the minimum that the US wants to put simultaneous pressure on the extremists in Raqqa and in their other urban stronghold of Mosul, in Iraq.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joseph Dunford, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Photograph: Cliff Owen/AP
“The SDF is making sure the IS forces that are in Mosul cannot reinforce the IS forces in Raqqa, and that the force in Raqqa cannot conduct external operations into Turkey, into Europe and into the United States,” Dunford said.
He added: “We always knew the SDF wasn’t the solution for holding and governing Raqqa. What we are working on right now is to find the right mix of forces for the operation.”
The right mix is for local tribes and other people from the vicinity of Raqqa to spearhead the operation and remain to hold and govern the city once it is taken from Isis, Dunford said.
“[The operation needs] a predominantly Arab and Sunni Arab force,” he said. “And there are forces like that. There is the moderate Syrian opposition, the vetted Syrian forces and the Free Syrian Army forces, and there is some initial outreach to forces in Raqqa proper.”
He was speaking after meeting his opposite numbers in the Turkish military in Ankara, at which he promised to be completely transparent with the Turks about the Raqqa operation by embedding Turks in the planning operation.
Turkey’s deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmuş, said on Monday the Turkish priority was to limit Kurdish advances in Syria.
Using non-Arab elements to drive Isis out of Raqqa would not contribute to peace in the region, he said. He argued that Sunnis in Raqqa, regardless of their dislike of Isis, would not welcome a Kurdish liberation force.
Kurtumuluş also added that “legitimacy cannot be obtained through a terror organisation brandishing arms” and that the “United States will sooner or later see this reality”.
The Raqqa operation is in part designed to reduce Isis options as Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces join others in trying to storm Isis-held towns north-east of Mosul.
The Iraqi operation, involving a 100,000-strong alliance of troops, security forces, peshmerga and Shia fighters backed by US-led airstrikes, has made inroads to the south of Mosul and entered the city from the east. Progress inside the city will be dependent on the quality of intelligence the Iraqi forces gather from the local population, so the army is moving slowly.
US-led airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq – interactive Read more
In Bashiqa, about 10 miles north of Mosul, the first waves of a 2,000-strong peshmerga force entered the town on foot and in armoured vehicles or Humvees.
Isis fighters have sought to slow the offensive on their Mosul stronghold with waves of suicide car bomb attacks, burning of oil heads and artillery shells containing mustard gas.
To the south of Mosul, security forces said they had recaptured and secured the town of Hammam al-Alil from Isis fighters, who they said had kept thousands of residents as human shields as well as marching many others alongside retreating militants towards Mosul as cover from airstrikes.“Never darken my door again” was the standard Victorian parting shot to a person you wanted to be rid of. (It was adjusted in one of Bridget Jones’s diaries to: “Never darken my towels again.”)
In case it slipped your attention”perhaps because you haven’t been reading my output assiduously enough“there has for six or seven years been a movement afoot to darken the door of the liberal commercial-democratic order ushered in by the Enlightenment.
It calls itself the Dark Enlightenment. “Endarkenment” would have been crisper, but Roger Scruton has already adopted that term for a somewhat different purpose. The Dark Enlightenment is, so far, a critical movement, with no particular intent to endarken individuals. They just want us to be aware that the Enlightenment had a dark side and that the modes of thought and society that it steered us toward might lead ultimately to a dark place, an antithesis.
At least I think that’s what they want. The most-spoken-of among the Dark Enlightenmenteers”Nick Land and Mencius Moldbug“are prone to earnest philosophizing: the kind of stuff of which, for me, a little goes a long way.
“Good grief! I can hear the distant stomp of jackboots already!”
And I guess I should drop the third-person pronoun in talking about the movement. A few months ago the blogger Scharlach (German for “scarlet”) drew up a very handy diagram of the movement, with participants grouped according to their major themes. At 11 o’clock on the diagram, grouped with Secular Traditionalists, is me. (Or possibly “…am I.” Please don’t email in to tell me.)
So Derb-wise, the Dark Enlightenment is not a “they,” it’s a “we,” although as a chronic non-joiner, I’m probably going to have trouble being consistent about that.
Well, mainstream British journalists have noticed the Dark Enlightenment. On January 20th a chap named Jamie Bartlett (Jamie? Isn’t that a girl’s name?) blogged a flesh-creeper piece titled “Meet The Dark Enlightenment: sophisticated neo-fascism that’s spreading fast on the net.” Good grief! I can hear the distant stomp of jackboots already!
What’s it all about, Jamie, this Dark Enlightenment?
Well, they”sorry, we“are fed up with democracy. And:
The neo-fascist bit lies in the view that races aren’t equal (they obsess over IQ testing and pseudoscience that they claim proves racial differences, like the Ku Klux Klan) and that women are primarily suited for domestic servitude.
I didn’t know that races obsess over IQ testing, etc., but let that pass.
Having got your flesh creeping, Jamie (really? Jamie?) closes with soothing reassurance: “I’ll be keeping an eye on them, and report back here with any interesting developments as they happen.” Thank you, Jamie! Who knows what pit of horror our society might fall into without brave souls like you, ever vigilant!
Who is this Jamie person? The indispensable hbd* chick tells us. Jamie…
Ah.
Two days later, while your flesh was still creeping, a different bloke, name of Tim Stanley, followed up with more reassurance. Nothing to be too frightened of, he murmured emolliently: “The ‘neo-fascist’ Dark Enlightenment is more sad than scary.”
Phew! So those weren’t jackboots I was hearing, only the compulsive thumping of neurotic fingers on worn keyboards in some loser’s dad’s garage. We won’t be needing those Moroccan visas after all, Honey.
Not that Tim thinks Jamie is altogether mistaken.
Pay to Play - Put your money where your mouth is and subscribe for an ad-free experience and to join the world famous Takimag comment board.President Rodrigo Duterte and Secretary Ginal Lopez. Composite
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday stressed anew that he fully supports Environment Secretary Gina Lopez following the latter’s decision to suspend and close operations of several mines.
“I’ve read on newspapers that Secretary Ginal Lopez cancelled about 7 of big mining firms in the country. I support her and there was never a time that I called her to slow down a little bit,” Duterte said.
"She is passionate not about the mining laws but the little men on the land, tilling.”
Lopez said Thursday she was suspending and closing operations of several mines following an industry-wide crackdown on violators of safety standards.
Of the 41 mines audited, only 13 passed while 21 are for closure, six for suspension, and one was deferred.
The operation of Filminera Resources Corporation in Masbate was deferred.
As of posting, Lopez said she was suspending the environment certificates of the following mining operations:
- OceanaGold Phils in Nueva Vizcaya;
- Lepanto Consolidated Mining in Benguet;
- CitiNickel Mines and Development Corporation in Narra, Palawan;
- Berong Nickel Corp. in Quezon, Palawan, and Ore Asia Mining;
- Development Corporation in Dona Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan; and
- Strong Built Mining Development Corporation.
Lopez has also ordered four mining operations in Zambales closed, citing their negative effect on watersheds. They are as follows:
- BenguetCorp Nickel Mines Inc.,
- Eramen Minerals Inc.,
- Zambales Diversified Metals Corporation, and
- LNL Archipelago Mining Corp.
Three mining operations in Homonhon Island in Samar are also ordered closed:
- Mt Sinai Mining Exploration and Development Corp.,
- Emir Minerals Corp., and
- Techiron Mineral Resources Inc.
The following mines in Dinagat Islands were ordered closed:
- Aam-Phil Natural Resources Exploration and Development Corporation,
- Krominco Inc.,
- SinoSteel Philippines H.Y. Mining Corporation,
- Oriental Synergy Mining Corporation,
- Wellex Mining Corporation,
- Libijo Mining Corporation, and
- Oriental Vision Mining Philippines Corp.
In Surigao del Norte, the closure of these mines was also ordered:
- ADNAMA Mining Resources Corporation,
- Claver Mineral Development Corp.,
- Platinum Development Corp.,
- CTP Construction and Mining Corp.,
- Carrascal Nickel Corporation,
- Marcventures Mining and Development Corporation, and
- Hinatuan Mining Corporation.
Lopez, an environment campaigner before she assumed a government post, has also opposed plans by US network Nickelodeon to build a theme park in Palawan if it will destroy corals in the area.
She also investigated an ash alleged spill in Bataan province that caused people living near a San Miguel Corp. power plant and a Petron Corp. oil refinery to fall ill.Getty Images
Cam Newton is playing the best football of his career right now.
The Panthers won their third straight game on Monday night, and Newton was outstanding, throwing for 221 yards and two touchdowns and running for 50 yards and another touchdown. During this three-game winning streak, Newton has completed 58 of 74 passes for 667 yards, with six touchdowns and no interceptions, plus 106 yards and two touchdowns rushing without losing a fumble. When Newton can produce like that and avoid turnovers, the Panthers are going to be a tough team to beat.
But Newton said after the game that he doesn’t think he’s doing anything beyond playing within a good team.
“I feel as if my production is off a lot of people’s production as well,” Newton said. “If you want to solely say I’m playing great, it also means a lot of other guys are playing great. This is not a one-man show. I understand that, and I will not have that type of attitude.”
Newton is emerging not only as one of the NFL’s most talented young players, which he has been since he stepped onto the field in Week One of his rookie year, but as a leader of a good football team.Story highlights Obama said last month that "anti-American" rhetoric in Russia has increased
Putin says his job isn't to please the U.S., nor is Obama's job to please Russia
Putin accuses Kerry of lying; the State Department calls the remark "preposterous"
A U.S. diplomat says Russia is holding the U.N. security council hostage on Syria
The Cold War is over, though given the increasingly heated exchanges of late, it's hard to tell.
For decades, Moscow and Washington went at it -- diplomatically, militarily, economically, you name it -- until the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union changed the equation. Yet anyone following officials biting back-and-forth in recent days on what to do in Syria could reasonably surmise the two world powers are at it again.
What this means for what unfolds in Syria, for relations between the two nations, and for world politics generally remains to be seen. Yet a look back at comments since Vladimir Putin returned for a second stint as Russia's president, and particularly as the barbs have grown testy over the past few weeks, suggests the two sides have grown even further apart.
'I don't have a bad personal relationship with Putin'
President Barack Obama said as much in August, referring to his relationship with Russia's powerful leader.
At the same time, he acknowledged, "anti-American" rhetoric has ramped up since Putin returned to the presidency in May 2012. And, Obama added, he'd had "mixed success" trying to get "Putin to think forward, as opposed to backwards" on some issues.
JUST WATCHED Obama, Putin together for 17 seconds Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Obama, Putin together for 17 seconds 01:44
JUST WATCHED Lawmakers face resistance on Syria Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Lawmakers face resistance on Syria 02:15
JUST WATCHED Russia behind Syria's chemical weapons? Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Russia behind Syria's chemical weapons? 06:17
JUST WATCHED Putin says he could back strike on Syria Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Putin says he could back strike on Syria 03:09
Things appeared to go differently when Dmitry Medvedev was president. (At that time, Putin had become prime minister after serving his first eight years as president.) Medvedev and Obama scored significant agreements on arms control and letting NATO troops get to Afghanistan through Russia.
Yet the atmosphere changed noticeably after Putin, a former KGB operative, resumed the top position in Russia's government. There were diplomatic flare-ups on everything from espionage to human rights to the adoption of Russian children.
One point of strain has, in many ways, the potential to have the biggest global impact: what to do about a civil war in Syria that has left more than 100,000 dead and 2 million refugees, especially given allegations from both sides about chemical weapons use.
'Obama hasn't been elected... to be pleasant to Russia'
Putin made this comment earlier this week, before Obama and other leaders arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the G20 summit.
His point, it seemed, was that the chief goal of neither he nor Obama is to ingratiate themselves to each other or please each others' citizens. Both men were elected to serve their own populaces, and if they end up throwing some elbows along the way -- well, that's how things go.
Not that the two can't make nice. Obama said their conversations are often candid and "very productive." And when they met Thursday before reporters in St. Petersburg, the two men smiled as they chatted and shook hands.
But none of that changes the fact that on the big issue of the day -- Syria -- the two are far apart.
Moscow and Washington have been at odds since 2011, when the Damascus government first cracked down on protesters. Since then, the dispute has spiraled into a full-fledged civil war pitting Syrian government forces (who, at times, have lost control over large tracts of territory) against an opposition fighting force that ranges from moderates to Islamist extremists.
Sure, both Russia -- a longtime ally of Syria and its president, Bashar al-Assad -- and the United States have been part of international efforts to forge cease-fires or a political solution. But all such attempts have failed.
'My credibility isn't on the line -- the international community's credibility is'
The issue of chemical weapons has raised the stakes, and the tensions.
In April, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel accused al-Assad's government of being behind small-scale, but still deadly use of the nerve agent sarin. The French foreign minister made similar accusations in June.
An August 21 attack just outside Damascus put the matter front-and-center on the world stage. Within days, U.S. officials -- including Secretary of State John Kerry, who said Sunday that blood and hair samples from the scene "tested positive for signatures of sarin" gas -- blamed al-Assad's forces for an attack they estimated had killed more than 1,400 people, many of them children.
Putin and other Russian officials, however, have been skeptical of such claims from the United States, Britain and France. Russia's president said Wednesday it would be "absurd" for al-Assad -- whose government has firmly denied using chemical weapons and accused "terrorists," its blanket term for rebel fighters, of doing so -- to wage such an attack when he's gaining an upper hand.
(In fact, that same day, Russia's foreign ministry announced that its experts determined a "homemade" device that Syria's army does not possess was used in a chemical attack in March. The projectile, the ministry stated, was similar to those used in northern Syria by Bashaar Al-Nasr, an Islamist brigade that is part of the opposition Syria Liberation Front.)
Yet despite fierce resistance -- even reliable U.S. ally Britain won't join in any military intervention, following a vote by Parliament -- Obama has pressed on. Calling the Syrian attack a "challenge to the world," the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner has said action is necessary to enforce international chemical weapons bans.
His comment on "the international community's credibility" on Wednesday, while standing alongside Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, reflects his argument that the unfolding debate is not about whether he should live up to his 2012 comment that use of chemical weapons in Syria crosses a "red line" that must be responded to militarily.
Rather, he contended, the entire world -- not just the United States -- has an obligation to respond.
Not mentioned, but perhaps implied, is what world power more than any other has blocked international efforts to punish al-Assad's government: Russia.
'He is lying, and (he) knows he is lying'
Obama hasn't been making the case for military action alone. Kerry has been a key part of that effort not just in diplomatic circles, but also while testifying this week before Congress.
But Putin is not convinced.
The Russian president, in fact, appeared publicly perturbed by at least part of Kerry's arguments. On Wednesday, he said the top U.S. diplomat's answer to Congress regarding the presence of an al Qaeda-linked group in the Syrian opposition "is not nice."
"It was unpleasant for me to see it, because we communicate with them based on the assumption that they are decent people," Putin said of U.S. authorities. "(Kerry) knows he is lying. It's sad."
Diplomatic disagreements are part of the territory, especially when you have countries doing what they can to further their interests. But calling another country's official a liar is something else, and as a result it struck a chord in Washington.
'Such a preposterous comment'
"Sec. Kerry is, as you all know, a decorated combat veteran," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday, referring to Kerry's military service in the Vietnam War while responding to a question about Putin's remark. "He's had... more than words aimed at him.
"So he's not losing sleep after such a preposterous comment that was based on an inaccurate quote and was completely mischaracterized."
Some could see that public response from the State Department as a shot across the bow of Putin, the man who -- given his nation's geopolitical prominence and close ties with Syria -- might be seen as key to forging a long-sought diplomatic solution. It and Putin's comment hardly suggests there's much trust between the United States and Russia on Syria or whatever else.
Speaking Thursday to CNN, Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov didn't say that the United States is fabricating evidence or lying, adding that he appreciates "our cooperation with American partners." And, Peskov said, he believes Russia and the United States both want peace in Syria.
"But we disagree with the (idea) that somebody in the world is trying to impose their will on another country to change the regime or government," Peskov said. "It's contrary to the international law."
'Russia continues to hold the council hostage'
Yet, some U.S. officials argue, Russia has been partly responsible for preventing international efforts to do something to halt the Syria bloodshed.
Moscow repeatedly has exercised its veto power on the U.N. Security Council to block resolutions on the crisis, many of which would have targeted its longtime ally.
Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday, "The system has protected the prerogatives of Russia." Even after what she called "the world's largest chemical weapons attack in a quarter century," the United Nations hasn't been able to act swiftly because of Russia.
"Russia continues to hold the council hostage and shirk its international responsibilities, including as a part to the Chemical Weapons Convention," the U.S ambassador said.
Putin did say this week that he "doesn't exclude" OK'ing a U.N. measure authorizing military action if irrefutable proof is presented showing al-Assad's forces were behind the August 21 attack. Yet he didn't give any indication that he had high expectations of seeing such evidence anytime soon.
'There is no military solution'
Those are the words spoken Thursday night to G20 leaders, including Putin and Obama, by the head of the United Nations.
In prepared remarks posted on the U.N. website, and which Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency said he delivered, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon alluded to U.N. efforts collecting and analyzing samples from the site of the recent attack. He also spoke of the dire situation, generally, in Syria and surrounding countries that have taken on its refugees and, in some instances, been affected by spillover violence.
"It is imperative to end this war," Ban said.
Providing weapons to one side or the other isn't the answer, he argued. While not commenting specifically on Obama's call for a military strike, Ban did say the best way to resolve this issue was by talking, not fighting: "There is no military solution."
His answer as to what that solution might be involves, once again, tapping joint U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to help "intensify our efforts towards a return to the negotiating table."
What Ban didn't say was what has changed since Brahimi and, before him, envoy Kofi Annan failed to forge a ceasefire and ultimate negotiated political deal.
Still, it seems unlikely that one development in recent days -- the acerbic spat between Russia and the United States, likely the two biggest key players to any peace deal -- will help bring the Syrian crisis any closer to a peaceful end.Another ominous warning of imminent economic turmoil
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
February 4, 2014
Former Harvard Professor of Economics Terry Burnham fears starting a “run” on Bank of America after he made public his decision to withdraw $1 million dollars from his checking account as a protest against Janet Yellen beginning her term as Federal Reserve head this month.
In an article for PBS entitled Is your money safe at the bank? An economist says ‘no’ and withdraws his, Burnham, an ardent critic of the Fed, writes, “Why do I risk starting a run on Bank of America by withdrawing my money and presuming that many fellow depositors will read this and rush to withdraw too? Because they pay me zero interest. Thus, even an infinitesimal chance Bank of America will not repay me in full, whenever I ask, switches the cost-benefit conclusion from stay to flee.”
Burnham explains that Bank of America may be “unwilling or unable” to return his money should one of a number of different circumstances arise, such as depositors demanding their money back en masse, or if the investments on which 90% of depositors’ money Bank of America has loaned out to cover go bust.
In addition, Burnham points out that the FDIC, which guarantees to insure deposits up to $250,000, only has about $41 billion in reserve against $6 trillion in insured deposits.
The Harvard economist pins the blame of economic uncertainty on government intervention, and specifically Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve for pursuing absurd quantitative easing policies which will “unravel in the U.S. as it has every other time it has been tried from Weimar Germany to Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.”
Burnham’s words are sure to send another ominous chill through markets already beset with paranoia following a drop of 1000 points on the Dow Jones since its height in December. Global markets are also getting crushed with the Nikkei falling over 4% yesterday and European markets also suffering drastic downturns.
A recent spate of banker suicides has stoked fears that a major financial crash could be just around the corner, one indication of which could be banks like HSBC imposing capital controls on customers attempting to withdraw larger sums of money. Last week, Russian lender ‘My Bank’ also temporarily banned all cash withdrawals.
As Mac Slavo highlights, Grady Means, economist and advisor to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, predicted that the 4th of March 2014 would be the date on which the economic collapse accelerated, followed by, “A run on the bank (that) will start suddenly, build quickly and snowball.”
“The doomsday clock will ring then because the U.S. economy may fully crash around that date, which will, in turn, bring down all world economies and all hope of any recovery for the foreseeable future — certainly over the course of most of our lifetimes,” wrote Means in a 2012 Washington Times editorial.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
This article was posted: Tuesday, February 4, 2014 at 7:14 am
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Comment on this articleWilson's Woes
Our level of cognitive certainty and emotional investment in the supremacy of the Wilson cannot help but lead to unpleasant shock after Sunday's first quarter. The secondary response is, "Russell? What's wrong? Was it something I did?"
"No plan of battle outlasts first contact with the enemy." That's a bit of wisdom I picked up reading The Wheel of Time, which no doubt can be attributed to some great military philosopher who will remain uncredited due to my laziness. Seattle is a run-first team. Seattle is the run-first team. Our opponents know this, Darrell Bevell knows that they know this, our opponents know that Bevell knows that they know this, ad nauseum until someone slips Iocaine powder into the 49ers Gatorade.
So for the second week in a row, Bevell came out with a more balanced set of play calls and a willingness to pass on first down. Wise and unpredictable.
Problem is, the 49ers were defending the pass. I couldn't see the all-22, but the commentators noted that San Francisco was committed to playing with 2-deep safeties on almost every down. Combine that with an all-pro linebacking corps playing off the line and you've got an uphill battle to complete passes. In the first half, Wilson threw at least 3 short- to mid-range passes into the proverbial tight window, none of which were completed. These are neither high-percentage plays nor bad decisions. They are passes that avoid the sack and take the best chance given.
But if we're so good on offense, even a top-notch defense like San Francisco should have been exposed to the rushing attack if they overplayed the pass, right? Y'all can just smell the spreadsheet coming, so here it is:
Wilson Pass Lynch/Turbin Run 1st Quarter plays 7 6 yards 0 41 average 0 6.83 2nd Quarter plays 4 12 yards 48 42 average 12 3.5 First Half plays 11 18 yards 48 83 average 4.36 4.61
The passing game was still weaker than it should have been. But we can attribute a chunk of that to defensive priorities and a lag time before Bevell and company adapted to take what the 49ers were giving.
Celebrate Sidney
We're all excited about Golden Tate and Doug Baldwin. Some of us our excited about dumping Sidney Rice's salary next year. But none of that has any bearing on the quality of Rice's play, for which I see no evidence of any drop-off.
With about 2 minutes to play in the 2nd quarter, Sidney caught a 13-yard pass and was absolutely clobbered by Eric Reid. Rice held on, stood up, faced away from the defender, and gave the ball a little spin. Unfortunately, Reid suffered a concussion on the play. Seeing him lying on the ground, motionless and wounded, the refs allowed their emotional response to override proper application of the rules and they flagged Rice for taunting. I really hope the Seahawks submit this one to the league for review. It turns out not to have made a difference in the game result, but Rice deserves vindication.
As for the point of spinning the ball, which many have questioned: The point is, we aren't the New England Patriots. This team plays with emotion and confidence, and the two are synergestically related. A demand that Rice stop spinning the ball is purely reactionary to a single bad call. Do we want Pete Carroll to crack down on first-down gestures, post-sack chest-thumpings, sideline dances with the cheerleaders, and spiking the ball after a touchdown? Any of these could be mis-timed, misinterpreted, or poorly executed so as to draw a flag.
It should be noted that Carroll made a point before the game of stressing emotional control and not committing dead ball fouls. San Francisco was flagged once for unsportsmanlike conduct and twice for unnecessary roughness (and I'm not even counting the facemask, because that was a lack of physical control rather than emotional control). Other than the misbegotten flag on Rice, Seattle had none of these. All of our penalties were purely mechanical. There's a good balance point between control and enthusiasm, and it's being achieved.
Curmodgeony Colin
As long as we're cutting guys some slack, how about forgiving Kaepernick for running off the field without a handshake? A reliable inside source tells me that this had absolutely nothing to do with sportsmanship, good or bad. Truth is, Kaepernick was fleeing because he was afraid that Cliff Avril was going to sneak up behind him and strip off an eyebrow.
The Fast and the Fewer-ous
After week one, Seattle was tied for the fewest scrimmage plays among all teams with 107, twelve fewer than average (can you guess who we were tied with? The Panthers. Duh). After week two, the Seahawks have only gotten better in the gettin'-it-done stat line. Among all teams who've played two games, Seattle's 232 scrimmage plays are the fewest, beating the league average (262) by thirty.
It looks even better on defense, where fatigue is generally considered more of a concern. The Seattle defense has played 101 downs, ten fewer than the next-most-rested defense (New Orleans at 111) and thirty fewer than the league average.
At this rate, the league-average defense will have played 1050 snaps by the end of the regular season, or 65.6 per game. Seattle will have played 808 defensive snaps by that time, the equivalent of just 12.3 games for an average |
domestic grosses in America, which grew only 5.9% last year, and makes China the world’s second largest film market. More than half of the $2.7 billion came from foreign films, with three IMAX movies topping the popularity roster—an indication that the increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers desire not simply more entertainment, but more world-class products.
Yet don’t assume that just means easy money for foreign film producers. China’s business and political landscape is never easy to navigate, especially in the closely guarded and heavily censored film industry. Even for a China veteran like Gelfond, who has made regular visits to China since 1998, it is a “monumental challenge” to grasp how quickly, and in what ways, the landscape is evolving. “A lot of the old structures and old regulations are being replaced by new ones,” Gelfond pointed out, “you have different constituencies with different views. He described his China experience as a stock market graph that "goes up over time overall,” but is “a little bit like a roller coaster ride.”
“You just have to be very patient,” Gelfond said.A young girl between the ages of 5 and 6 found herself caught in the door of her school bus after attempting to exit after school. The bus driver was unaware that her back pack became stuck in the doors and proceeded to drive at least 100 feet before a concerned motorist sped up alongside the bus in his Camaro and gained the attention of the bus driver. The bus promptly stopped and released the girl from the door while paramedics and police arrived to check her over.
According to Wave 3, the bus was part of the Jefferson County School’s fleet and was taking children home from Wikerson Elementary at approximately 4 p.m. on Friday. When the young girl, whose name has not been released due to her young age, exited the bus, her back pack became stuck in the doors as they closed. The bus driver was unaware that the young girl became lodged in the doors and continued onward to the next stop.
Metro shared that the young girl was dragged at least 100 feet, but individuals who witnessed the ordeal state that the bus drove at least the length of a football field while dragging the young girl alongside.
A man in a Camaro noticed the young girl being dragged by the school bus and sped up to gain the bus driver’s attention by honking his horn. The driver realized something was wrong and promptly stopped the bus.
According to police spokesperson Dwight Mitchell, the young girl appeared to only have received road rash from the incident, but was taken to Kosair Children’s Hospital to be checked over. A neighbor was on the scene and verified that the girl was in good condition.
“She was talking and, at the end, she wanted to see her mommy. I am thankful, very thankful [that she wasn’t more badly hurt].”
A resident, Tom Carman, caught the incident on his CCTV system. He could not believe what he was seeing and thought the worst.
“I just couldn’t believe he [dragged] her from the corner down to here without knowing. I couldn’t believe it – bouncing all the way down the street. It was bad.”
An investigation is currently underway to see if the bus driver is at fault for the incident. The young girl is lucky that her backpack was lodged tightly in the door. If it had come loose, she could have been dragged underneath the bus and suffered much worse injuries, including death.
[Photo Courtesy: Metro U.K.]" " Graffiti on the side of this building says "Eat Acid." Acid is another name for LSD Nathan Griffith/Getty Images
"Turn on, tune in, drop out." That timeless phrase is part of our collective consciousness thanks to writer and psychologist (and noted drug experimenter) Timothy Leary, who gained worldwide fame during the counterculture years of the 1960s. His words were – and still are – often strongly associated with a substance called lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD.
LSD, a powerful psychedelic drug, is often called acid, blotter, California sunshine, dots, Electric Kool-Aid and countless other colorful nicknames, and it's been sold on the streets since the tumultuous years of the early 1960s. And as Leary's words imply, it's a drug that has a fascinating (and sometimes, terrifying) effect on human biology, creating sort of chemically-derived spiritual exploration that shifts mental and emotional perspectives...for better or for worse.
Unlike a lot of drugs, which may require smoking or injecting, LSD is easy to take orally -- it's colorless, odorless and tasteless -- and ingesting just a tiny amount (25 micrograms, or 0.000025 grams, less than the weight of two salt grains) is enough to feel the effects. It's also easy to conceal, since today's doses are usually found on tiny squares of absorbent paper called "blotters" [source: Erowid].
LSD is difficult to detect, because of the small amount ingested and the fact that it's quickly metabolized by the body. Acid is cheap compared to other drugs. A single dose usually costs no more than$10, and if you're at the right music festival at 2 o'clock in the morning, well, you may find the stuff passed around by jovial partiers for free [source: LSD Abuse Help].
The same things about LSD that would make it popular also make it scary, and we've been warned about its many dangers at one time or another. For example, you may have been told that LSD can "fry" or put holes in your brain, or make you go insane and do dangerous things [source: Brodwin].
Supposedly people have leapt from buildings or overpasses while tripping or have drowned because they thought that they could walk on water. Then, there are the people who consume acid and then think that they've personally transformed into a sandwich...and someone is trying to eat them. In fact, many of the things we've been told about LSD's effects, are myths or exaggerations created to frighten impressionable teenagers [source: Weiss].
The truth is, although LSD has been around for more than 60 years and been taken by thousands upon thousands of people, most people don't really know all that much about it. Although this colorful substance will forever be associated with hippies and the 1960s counterculture movement, LSD was actually first synthesized by researchers attempting to create new medicines. So, let's set aside the hallucinogenic media hype and urban legends, cut through the haze of patchouli incense, and start with LSD's beginnings -- at a lab in Switzerland.By Michelle Roberts
BBC News health reporter in Copenhagen
Tell tale brain activity in a fake orgasm
Researchers found that when a woman is faking, a part of the brain under conscious control lights up, while real orgasms occur subconsciously.
The University of Groningen scans also showed important differences between the male and female orgasm.
In women, turning off fear and anxiety is key, while men need to know they will be physically stimulated.
Professor Gert Holstege and colleagues asked 13 heterosexual couples aged 19-49 to take part in an experiment.
Women can imitate orgasm quite well
Professor Gert Holstege
One half of the couple was asked to lie down, with their head inside a scanner, while their partner stimulated them manually to achieve orgasm.
To aid the mood, the room lighting was dimmed and all noise distractions shut out.
The couples then switched positions and the experiment was repeated.
Cold feet
One thing that they found was putting the couples off the task was literally cold feet.
Genuine orgasm: less brain actvity
When they gave the couples socks to wear, about 80% of the couples were able to achieve orgasm compared with 50% previously in this staged environment.
The women were also asked to fake an orgasm so that these scan results could be compared with those taken during genuine orgasms. There were obvious differences.
Professor Holstege said: "Women can imitate orgasm quite well."
But with genuine orgasm, he said: "What we see is an extreme deactivation of large portions of the brain and especially the emotional parts involved with fear.
"If you look at the women who faked orgasm intentionally you see the motor cortex - the conscious part of the brain - is activated.
"This means the movements that we make in [real] orgasm are not conscious.
"And if you are fearful, it is very hard to have sex. It's very hard to let go."
He said this was useful for men to know.
"When you want to make love to a woman, you must give her the feeling of being protected."
In comparison, the scan results suggested that for men knowing that they would be physically stimulated was important because areas of the brain involved in interpreting touch were highly activated during the experiment.Whether you call it "emergent gameplay," "emergent narrative," or simply "emergence," the idea of undirected and even unforeseen events happening in a video game has always been something of a holy grail for a certain flavour of designer. The idea behind this ideal is that your game, almost always something of a sandbox in its nature, has all the ingredients required to constantly cook up original, spontaneous and unplanned events. It can endlessly recombine its many elements to produce new surprises and new situations.
The player doesn't know what will happen next, where the next challenge or threat will come from, perhaps finding that an element overlooked or insignificant in one game is absolutely critical during the next. Things should develop organically, but should always make sense. You can't have emergence without coherence.
But what if it wasn't just the events in your game that were unpredictable, but its development? What if you didn't know exactly how it was going to grow next, where its design might take you? That's how RimWorld designer Tynan Sylvester sees his work, as he develops his ever more complex sci-fi colony simulator. And, he adds, it's a far better practice than others he has seen.
"I've seen a lot of tragic game development processes where someone has a game that they're committed to, they keep working on it and working on it, but it's just not very engaging," he explains, over a Skype call. "To me, the diagnosis is almost always the same. They're not necessarily doing bad work, but it's wrapped around something that just doesn't spark."
We've all had our digital children sleeping in an unfinished house at some point.
While RimWorld is a game of many, many moving parts, with its distinct and individual colonists, resources, objects and crafting, Sylvester says that it grew from one such "spark." He began its development by distilling down to a seed of an idea that he has been slowly growing since.
"Part of my design philosophy is really trying to find the the essential core," he says. "I think you can reduce most things out of a game and come down to something that's really compelling, just at the centre of it. One collection of mechanics or one single mechanic. I wanted to do that first and then build up around it. I think that core is really what makes the difference between a good game and a bad game."
It's difficult now to imagine a distilled RimWorld. It's dense with ideas and, should you still be unsatisfied, there's an impressive collection of mods that add even more to the game. Beginning with a handful of stranded, would-be colonists, each of whom has their own skills and personality traits (anything from optimist to cannibal to nudist), the game constantly introduces random challenges. These can be anything from raider or pirate attacks to disease or lost refugees. It's more than enough for a tiny team of marooned humans to handle, particularly when they're already struggling with day-to-day survival, mining for resources, scavenging for supplies and hunting for dinner.
As you might expect, Sylvester cites Dwarf Fortress as a muse, placing RimWorld amongst the many other games inspired by this complex and still-growing subterranean simulation. Much like Dwarf Fortress, Rimworld is also growing feature by feature, that growth careful and deliberate. It's a story we're very familiar with by now, one of a successful Kickstarter campaign, of being Greenlit on Steam and of several years of slow, gradual development at the hands of a single person.
Is there fire? Of course there's fire. There's always fire in games like these.
"I quit Irrational Games in early 2012," Sylvester says. "Through that summer, I worked on my book [Designing Games], then I started working on game prototypes. I guess that's when you can say I started on RimWorld. I began with a series of prototypes, just looking for a game concept. I think I went through five or six of those and it coalesced into a colony simulator around February 2013. About three or four months later it actually became functional. I knew that because I had three or four friends test it. I thought it'd just be a twenty minute thing, but I couldn't get them to stop playing. It was like 1am before they went home."
Also, much like Dwarf Fortress, RimWorld is largely the work of just one person, though Sylvester says he's "slowly learning to delegate" and has help with some of the art and sound. Nevertheless, he's an advocate for working solo, because it's both less complicated and more liberating.
"There's a lot of efficiencies when you work by yourself," he says. "You know what you're doing and you can go from task to task. People talk of teamwork, but there's tremendous benefits to working solitaire. You don't have to spend any time communicating. I got into this to make games, not to manage some big team."
Nor is Sylvester in any hurry. Not only is he able to take his game where he wants, when he wants and how he wants. Doubtless, there are some project managers who would be tearing their hair out to hear this, but he doesn't know quite what's next and he's not rushing to find out. He's happy to experiment with new ideas to see what works and, if that means discarding a few, or a lot, that's just fine.
How complex would you like your colonists to be? Want some fear of prosthetics? You got it.
Final Fantasy 15 guide and walkthrough How to tackle the open-world's many quests and activities
"I really believe that it's a bad idea for a game developer to try to plan something months or years into the future," is his philosophy. "An advantage for indie devs is you don't have these marketing plans with thousands of people working on them. Your advantage is that you can be nimble and I play that to the hilt. I basically don't tell anyone what's coming up because usually I'm wrong. Usually something gets implemented, you play around with it and it doesn't work the way that you predict. And usually, when something great happens in game design, it's not some spark of genius that someone saw ahead of time. It's an opportunity that came up and that was grabbed."
This means Sylvester isn't so much hesitant to say exactly how RimWorld will develop, more that he just doesn't know. "I'm not promising anything in particular. I hate to promise specifics," he tells me. "That said, I do have a giant Google Doc with hundreds of ideas, from game systems to characters, plants, weapons." Some of these may make it in. Others may be tried and discarded. Sylvester is happy to let RimWorld grow organically, much like its many own emergent events, and doesn't mind making things up as he goes along. Nor does he have a timeframe for when the game will be finished, or even a picture of what that finished game looks like.
Does it matter? Not particularly. Sylvester is certainly happy working the way that he does, while RimWorld's growing audience are never short of tales to tell courtesy of that emergence they so love. RimWorld is already a fascinating and complex game, only made even more curious by nobody quite knowing where it will go next.Winnipeg Jets defenseman Jacob Trouba has requested a trade and will not attend training camp, his agent Kurt Overhardt announced Saturday.
Trouba, 22, is a restricted free agent, and Overhardt states both he and the Jets have been working on a trade for months.
“Our client, Jacob Trouba, will not be attending the Winnipeg Jets NHL training camp. Since May, we have been working with the Jets management in an effort to facilitate a trade of Jacob’s rights. Both parties continue to work on this matter," Overhardt said in a statement.
"There has been no negotiation regarding the terms of a contract between our client and the Jets over the course of the last several months. The situation is not about money; it is solely about our client having the opportunity to realize his potential as a right-shot NHL defenseman."
Trouba, who represented Team North America at the World Cup of Hockey, said he never desired his situation to come to to this.
Trouba: "I didn't want it to get to this point. To not play is not what I want. This has nothing to do with money...it never has." — Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) September 24, 2016
The Jets drafted Trouba ninth overall in the 2012 draft. He has 72 points in 211 career games, averaging over 22 minutes per game over three seasons.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sammie Olovvson, who was stabbed in the attack, said he thought he would die
Three foreign tourists have been stabbed by two suspected Islamic State militants who stormed into a hotel in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
The attackers, armed with knives, were shot by police at the Bella Vista hotel after they attacked two Austrian guests and a Swede, officials say.
One assailant was killed and the other injured, officials say.
The attackers were aiming to kidnap tourists, officials told the BBC. Reports say they raised the IS flag.
Security forces are still searching for possible further attackers.
Officials earlier reported that both the attackers had been killed.
The BBC's Sally Nabil in Cairo says Hurghada remains on high alert with all roads in and out closed off.
Image copyright EPA Image caption The Bella Vista Hotel is popular with foreign tourists
Egypt is battling Islamist militants based in the nearby Sinai peninsula, including an Islamic State affiliate.
That group said it downed a Russian plane which crashed in October 2015, with the loss of 224 lives.
A spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said they were "urgently investigating" the reports from Hurghada.
He did not know whether any Britons might be affected.
Analysis: Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent
Sadly for Egypt, this is only the latest incident in a growing list of sporadic terrorist attacks carried out by jihadist fanatics, aimed at harming the government and driving away much-needed foreign investment and tourism.
The most potent threat emanates from the Egyptian affiliate of the so-called Islamic State, based in the northern Sinai Peninsula across the Red Sea from where Friday's hotel attack took place.
But ever since bombers attacked the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in 2005, the authorities have gone to great lengths to secure the country's Red Sea resorts.
Until last October's downing of a Russian passenger plane - which Russia and Britain believe was caused by a bomb - the coastal resorts had remained largely free from terrorism for years.
Egypt was able to deal swiftly and effectively with this latest attack in Hurghada, but the authorities will want to establish where it was launched from and what further precautions they now need to take.
An attack on a bus at a hotel near the Giza pyramids on Thursday was claimed by IS, which said it was targeting "a tourist bus carrying Jews".
Egyptian officials said no-one was hurt in the attack, near Cairo. Arab Israeli tourists were staying at the hotel, reports said.
After the loss of the Russian plane in October, the UK and other European countries halted flights to Sharm el-Sheikh, citing security fears.
Russia also stopped all flights to Egypt.
The departures board on Hurghada airport's website shows foreign tourists travelling to the resort this week have come from Turkey, Germany, Sweden and the UK.Gov. Paul LePage has asked President Donald Trump to reverse an executive order by the Obama administration that created the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and return the land to private ownership.
In a two-page letter dated Feb. 14, the Republican governor asks Trump to enact the reversal “before economic damage occurs and traditional recreational pursuits are diminished.” The Bangor Daily News obtained a copy of the letter Wednesday, and it was verified by LePage spokesman Peter Steele. Steele declined to comment further.
Calling President Barack Obama’s executive order creating the monument “a grave injustice … to the people and our forest economy,” LePage attached a letter from April 22, 2016, detailing his objections to the order.
It is unclear whether a president can undo an executive order creating a monument. Several attorneys general dating back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s have issued opinions that presidents lack the authority to abolish national monuments, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
If a return to private ownership is not feasible, LePage said, “I believe the land should be managed by the state of Maine to ensure it can benefit all Maine people and accommodate the region’s economic and regional needs.”
Lucas St. Clair, a leading proponent of the monument, said that the $40 million in endowments and fundraisers his family promised in support of the monument would vanish if the park’s management was transferred from the National Park Service. His mother, Burt’s Bee entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby, has worked to establish a national park in the North Woods since at least 2011.
“They would be losing a $40 million endowment,” St. Clair said. “I would do what I could to keep [reversal of the monument designation] from happening. I would work with the thousands of people who support this. But if it did [get rescinded], the investment would go away and the contractual law [that established the monument] with the federal government would be in jeopardy.
“It is a terrible, terrible idea,” St. Clair added.
Monument opponents were noncommittal or refused to comment on LePage’s letter.
Read LePage’s full letter.
When asked whether he supported LePage’s letter, U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican and monument opponent, spoke only of his desire to help his district’s economy.
“My No. 1 priority in Congress is creating and protecting jobs in Maine. I want to do everything possible and help foster every opportunity for this to happen. I will be reviewing next steps in helping elevate economic growth in the Katahdin region and look forward to working with all groups and parties to ensure that the priorities and best interests of the local communities are put first, always,” Poliquin wrote in a statement.
Rep. Stephen Stanley, D-Medway, who was an early opponent of the creation of a national monument in Maine but said after its designation that the state should make the best of it, said early Wednesday afternoon that he had not heard about LePage’s letter to Trump.
“My reaction is that this is all in the federal government’s hands now, and as far as I know there is nothing we can do,” Stanley said. “The governor can make his recommendations, but our hands are tied. I think the governor is doing what the people want.”
Stanley said he’s concerned there is too much activity in motion to scuttle the project now.
“The only concern I have now is when it became a monument, people started investing money in the area,” Stanley said. “What do we do with all these people who are investing on projects right now? … Whether it was right or wrong, that’s irrelevant. The fact of the matter is that it did happen and we’re living in a different scenario than we were six months ago.”
The biggest development planned so far is probably a $5 million outdoor education facility that millionaire philanthropist Gilbert Butler, founder of the Butler Conservation Fund, hopes to open next fall. It is expected to use outdoor trails that will run to within a half mile of the national monument. Butler’s interest in the area predates the monument by about five years, but the monument’s presence adds to the area’s allure, his representatives said last month when the project was announced.
Speaking for himself, Millinocket Town Council member Jesse Dumais, a monument supporter, said he felt that reopening the divisive controversy over the monument would be unproductive.
Millinocket Town Council Chairman Michael Madore, a monument opponent, declined to comment.
Maine Snowmobile Association Executive Director Bob Meyers, one of the leading voices against the monument, declined to comment.
St. Clair and other monument supporters said they heard, anecdotally, that real estate values in the Katahdin region are rising and that businesses are hiring. Monument backer Dan Corcoran, owner of North Woods Real Estate of Millinocket, wrote an OpEd for the BDN o n Jan. 2 stating how “more than a dozen home sales” occurred in the Millinocket area in September 2016, a month after the president’s executive order, while “there were almost no home sales” in the same month a year earlier.
Turning control of monument land to Baxter State Park would restrict residents’ access to the land for hunting and snowmobiling, St. Clair said, while hunting and snowmobiling are allowed on monument land. The monument’s park service ownership has “ensured traditional access,” not denied it, he said.
The Baxter State Park Authority has expressed concern about its other park service neighbor, the Appalachian Trail. In order to preserve its wilderness as much as possible, Baxter strives to limit access to about 75,000 visitors annually, while the park service seeks to constantly increase its number of visitors.
Jensen Bissell, director of Baxter State Park, released a three-page open letter in September outlining his apprehension that monument visitors will cross the shared boundary with the park and imperil areas left largely untouched since Theodore Roosevelt visited them in 1879.
The Quimby family donated 87,563 acres for the monument to the federal government on Aug. 23. Obama created the monument the next day. Counting the cost of the land, a $20 million endowment and an additional $20 million in fundraising Quimby has promised, the gift is worth $100 million, according to the National Park Foundation.
A national park managed by the park service was long a dream of Quimby’s. Quimby’s quest to federally protect the North Woods took root more than a decade ago, when she began buying land near Baxter in 2001. Quimby announced for the first time publicly in 2011 some of the details of her dream — that she intended to donate about 70,000 family-owned acres east of Baxter as a national park.
Reactions to the governor’s letter on Wednesday were predictably negative from monument supporters. Katahdin Area Chamber of Commerce President Gail Fanjoy said she felt that LePage’s letter is “an insult and a disgrace.”
“This governor has never ever reached out to the chamber of commerce to understand our views. He has never acknowledged that the monument has already had a positive impact on our region,” Fanjoy said.
Millinocket gift shop owner and former Town Council member Anita Mueller said, “This monument has already started to deliver economic benefits to businesses in the Katahdin region. Houses are selling again. People have hope.
“The governor has never even come here to talk to some of the business owners who are seeing increases in business because of the monument. His letter is completely irresponsible and a slap in the face to the people of the Katahdin region,” Mueller added.
Patten Board of Selectmen Chairman Richard Schmidt III, a monument supporter, described it as “unfortunate that our governor does not practice what he preaches in the form of jobs.”
“This monument has and will continue to create and sustain jobs while bringing economic prosperity to a region that desperately needs it,” Schmidt said. “LePage is doing everything he can to prevent these opportunities from happening but the days of one industry carrying this region are over. The value that the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument has started to bring to the Katahdin region is irrefutable, and the fact that it is still being contested is outrageous.”
Traffic drawn to the monument lands in 2016 drew a mixed response. Monument opponents decried the traffic counts as miniscule and representative of the lack of interest in what they called a collection of nondescript lands whose greatest asset is the view of Baxter. Supporters said they found the numbers promising, given the lack of road signs on Interstate 95 or the monument not yet being included much in park service advertising.
According to the last traffic count at the monument on Nov. 14, it drew 1,762 vehicles for the year, including 1,215 after Obama issued the executive order creating the monument in August, park service officials said. The yearly vehicle count exceeded the individual 2010 census estimates of the populations of East Millinocket, 1,723 people; Medway, 1,349; Patten, 1,017; Sherman, 848; and Mount Chase, 201 people.
The largest town in the Katahdin region, Millinocket, had a population of 4,506 residents, according to the 2010 census.
The vehicle count applies only to Loop Road traffic within the monument, not to hikers or vehicles that access the lands from the road to Baxter or logging roads. The loop road was closed for the winter to cars on Nov. 14, but snowmobiles and cross-country skiers can access the monument from other entrances, officials said.
Quimby and St. Clair said they supported the park service management of the monument because national parks and other park service holdings enjoy a worldwide reputation for excellence.
In 2016, park attendance nationwide shot up to an all-time high of 325 million visitors, compared to a record-breaking 307 million visitors in 2015.
Acadia National Park had an estimated 3.3 million visitors in 2016, the highest since 1989. That estimate represents a 17.5 percent increase over the 2.81 million visits the park is estimated to have received in 2015.
Monument proponents say the monument would have a positive impact on the Katahdin region if it drew just 1 percent of the annual traffic Acadia gets, which would be 28,100 visitors.
BDN writers Christopher Cousins, Michael Shepherd and Bill Trotter contributed to this report.Image copyright AP Image caption Andy Murray's mother Judy played on the island court he tweeted about
Tennis star Andy Murray and an islands council have exchanged tweets about what some have dubbed as Scotland's most remote tennis court.
Responding to a tweet from a fan about Bunabhainneadar tennis court on Harris, Murray asked if the place was real.
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar messaged the former Wimbledon champion to say that it was an actual place and that he should ask his mother Judy.
She visited the Western Isles tennis court last year.
The comhairle confirmed the tweet had been sent to the tennis player.
Image copyright Eileen Henderson/Geograph Image caption Bunabhainneadar tennis court on Harris
The fan's tweet to Murray suggested the Harris tennis court - which has a spectacular backdrop of hills and loch - could be a feature of the ATP World Tour.
Her message included a photograph of the court.
Image copyright Twiiter Image caption The comhairle's tweet to Andy Murray
Murray will face Philipp Kohlschreiber at the Madrid Open later on Wednesday - just two days after beating him in the Munich Open final.
Murray won his 32nd ATP title - and first on clay - with a gripping three-set victory over the German on Monday.
The British number one is also building up to the French Open later this month.255,000 households will be affected by the reduced overall benefit cap containing at least 800,000 children and at least double the DWP estimate of a mere 126,000 households with 330,000 children, which is bad enough in and of itself.
Here I say why and again unlike the DWP I say so in detail using hard numerical fact.
How can my estimate of the households affected by the benefit cap just for the regions at 197,000 be 71,000 higher than the DWP estimate for the regions AND London?
I set out some very detailed analysis which gave a figure of 197,000 or so households just for the regions and the DWP estimate for all of GB to include London are just 126,000 households. My figure of 197,000 or so was very detailed and evidence-based and I still maintain is a cautious or low figure just for the regions alone on which Jules Birch commented that it was too
Joe Halewood has used the DWP housing benefit statistics to come up with an even higher estimate. He puts the numbers at 198,000 households and 654,000 children – and that is just outside London and using pretty conservative assumptions about the number of households that will be exempt them from the cap.
This huge variation has played on my mind and frankly annoyed the hell out of me. I know the DWP is incompetent and I know they have a political imperative to estimate as few as possible given the reduced caps will see children evicted and made homeless.
DWP estimates are notoriously inept. The 670,000 for the bedroom tax sees 464,000 affected and the benefit cap would affect 56,000 at £500 pw they said yet it averaged 25,700 in the last year and the latest actual figure is just 23,097.
I remind everyone of the last time I said the DWP figures were wildly wrong which was the pre 1996 issue in the bedroom tax from late 2013 early 2014 which saw IDS, Freud and the DWP obstinately stating it would be between 3,000 and 5,000 households at most. I said it would be 40,000 and ten times the DWP average estimate and was proven right.
I could easily rest on my laurels and past performance of proving DWP incompetence (and political chicanery) over their misguided welfare reforms policies. Yet I have this necessity to prove I am right anyway (!) and especially when the consequence is the horrors of seeing three-quarters of a million children made homeless. That alone demands this benefit cap policy is properly considered and the frankly half-arsed DWP impact assessment is seen for the fiction it is.
One of us is wrong, and it is not me and I am pretty confident that I know where the DWP has gone wrong as the only methodology that can arrive at their 126,000 household estimate is a patently false one.
It appears that DWP has done the calculations for London and then extrapolated the current percentage to the rest of the country to arrive at a projected figure of 126,000. Yet London has already reached a tipping point with the £500 per week cap as the majority of household types that can be affected by the cap are already affected by it in the capital: Whereas as I demonstrate below my home city of Liverpool will see TWELVE more household types affected by the cap reduction than are affected now with the current £500 pw cap.
This is typical of all the regions which will see so many more household types affected than currently and why the vast majority (78%) of all affected by the benefit cap will be OUTSIDE London!
Explaining the DWP error
The latest figures for February 2015 show 23,097 households affected at the £500 cap and of these, 46% are in London and 54% in the rest of the country (GB) combined.
If the DWP project that 57,389 London households will be affected then following that (flawed) logic it would mean that 68,811 households – the other 54% will be affected in the regions giving a 126,000 total.
This is the only method I can see for the DWP estimate yet this is fundamentally flawed.
The rest of GB is subject to a £20,000 cap which is one factor yet the biggest factor is that the reduction in the caps will radically alter the current percentage and will see the current London percentage fall to about 22% of the total number of households affected from the current 46% as London has already reached this tipping point.
The current £500 cap sees just over 2 households affected in the regions for every 2 households affected in London. Yet the reduced caps will see 11 households affected in the regions for every 2 London households affected.
This also means the national total of affected households is my 197,000 plus the DWP London estimate of 57,389 and becomes 255,000 households affected and double the DWP 126,000 total estimate which has been arrived at using the current percentage split which is a fundamental error by DWP.
One way to explain this is to look at the household types who will be affected in a 3 bed property at a social rent level.
The overall picture above reveals that the reduced cap in London will only begin to affect the 1 Parent 3 Child household type and if on ESA whereas in the South East and especially Surrey, Hertfordshire, Berkshire and other high rent areas the new £20k cap will affect the 1 Parent 2 Child household if on ESA and all larger household types above this.
South East e.g. Windsor – the 1P2C-E household receives £254.04 per week in ESA, Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit. The £20k cap and £384.62 pw cap means the maximum housing benefit they can receive is £130.58 pw and a 3 bed social rent property in Windsor has a typical £145 per week level. The 1P2C-E household thus loses £15 or so per week – and all larger household sizes have a higher cut and rent shortfall and will be affected by the £20k cap
Islington – the same 1P2C-E household receives the same £254.04 pw yet the cap is £442.31 pw and means they can receive up to £188.27 pw in housing benefit and a 3 bed social rent property is £145 per week there as in Windsor yet is not affected
The next larger household in the 2P2C-E receives £295.79 pw and can receive up to £146.52 in housing benefit which also covers the £145 pw rent in Islington and again is not affected by the cap. The next larger household is the 1P3C-J household who receives £292.19 per week and can receive £150.12 pw in housing benefit and is also not affected in Islington
Yet the next larger household in the 1P3C-E household receiving £321.24 leaving just £121.07 as the maximum housing benefit and £24 pw less than the £145 pw 3 bed social rent level in Islington.
So we see at a social rent Windsor and many other places in the |
Russia while others think that a full-scale invasion would result in a long, drawn-out conflict. Analysts also noted that there are political issues in Ukraine that could affect the likelihood of major fighting.
Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer says that a large-scale invasion of Ukraine would be a losing proposition for Russia.
“Compared to the situation in Ukraine, the Chechen war would look like a picnic. There are 40 million Ukrainians, compared to just one million Chechens, and now they have someone to unite against,” Felgenhauer said.
Felgenhauer added that in his opinion, the West will introduce economic sanctions against Russia in the event that Russian troops move into Ukraine.
The opinion of Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, is at odds with that of Felgenhauer. In Pukhov’s assessment, Ukrainian troops would be unable to put up armed resistance to the Russian army and would also not be inclined to do so.
“The Ukrainian army, which was formed in 1992 on the ruins of the Soviet Union, had huge numbers and best weapons and hardware, but over the past 22 years it has degenerated. Morale has been steadily falling, the best weapons were sold abroad, for example, to Georgia, so now the country’s army is no longer a serious force to be reckoned with,” Pukhov said.
“The last two nails in the coffin of the Ukrainian army as a combat force were the Russian military reform that started in 2008 and last year’s transition to a fully professional army in Ukraine. In the former case, the Ukrainians saw that while their degradation continued, Russia had begun to make large-scale investment in defense and the very attitude to the army there had changed. In the latter, instead of conscripts the Ukrainian army is now made up of contract servicemen. So now military units in Crimea are manned not by conscripts from Lviv but by local guys, who have no intention of fighting with Russians,” Pukhov said.
He added that over the past 20 years, the Russian army had taken part in several armed conflicts, which has kept them battle-ready, while Ukrainian troops haven’t been involved in any.
Igor Korotchenko, the editor-in-chief of the magazine National Defense, said that even if they are ordered to defend Ukraine against a Russian invasion, Ukrainian army and law-enforcement agencies do not have to follow any orders of the new Ukrainian authorities.
“Those people in Kiev who are already making loud statements are themselves illegitimate since, no matter how one feels about Yanukovych, he is still the lawfully elected president,” Korotchenko said. “That is why the orders that [Interim President] Olexander Turchynov may issue to the troops are unlawful and therefore the Ukrainian army does not have to follow them and should remain in barracks. The same applies to other security and law-enforcement structures.”
Korotchenko added that the decision by Russia’s Federation Council’s decision to authorize use of troops did not mean a military invasion of Ukraine. “Nobody is going to occupy Ukraine,” Korotchenko said. “Clearly, in this case we are talking about a peacekeeping operation in order to prevent a full-blown civil war.”
He also called for caution when reading media reports of Russian military action in Ukraine, as the members of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet are already in the country under a long-standing agreement and so far no other Russian military units have been sighted in Ukraine. “An information war is being waged against Russia and all reports should be treated with caution. The fact remains that Putin has been granted a lawful right to send troops to Ukraine. Let’s wait for some official steps from the Defense Ministry. As regards a possible military operation, I think it will be only in Crimea, although I do not rule out a broader involvement either. Everything will depend on how the situation will develop,” he said.
Korotchenko agreed with Pukhov that the Ukrainian army was currently not in a state of combat readiness. “The Ukrainian armed forces are currently unable to conduct combat operations. Almost all units, perhaps with the exception of special-purpose units and paratroopers, are simply not capable of undertaking any active operations. They sat in the barracks when Yanukovych was being deposed, while in the west of the country they even allowed opposition supporters to get hold of arms. That is why I would not consider the Ukrainian army as a military force,” Korotchenko said.
Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Center for Military Forecasting, Anatoly Tsyganok, is convinced that things may not go as far as real military clashes. “We have released a trial balloon. Now one needs to watch what NATO and China will do. We are interested in cooperation with China, which is not very well disposed towards the revolutionary authorities in Ukraine,” Tsyganok said. He also compared the latest developments to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. “Over 45 years ago, I took part in the events in Czechoslovakia. We spent three months in columns: June, July and August. A similar situation may happen now,” Tsyganok said.
First published in Russian in Gazeta.ru.
All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.The law has just not caught up to technology: A Manhattan judge ruled this week that a man who shared naked photos of his girlfriend on Twitter — and sent them to her sister and her boss via email — did not technically do anything illegal. “This case appears to the first in which a New York court has considered criminal charges stemming from what has come to be known as ‘revenge porn,’” wrote Criminal Court Judge Steven Statsinger in his decision. “The Court concludes that defendant’s conduct, while reprehensible, does not violate any of the criminal statutes under which he is charged.”
The Daily News has a breakdown, touching on each of the three misdemeanor charges faced by 29-year-old Ian Barber — aggravated harassment, dissemination of unlawful surveillance, and public display of offensive sexual material:
Harassment entails sending communications to the victim, which Barber didn’t do; unlawful surveillance requires that the images be obtained illegally, which wasn’t alleged; and nudity alone does not equal offensive sexual material, a count that also requires public display, which doesn’t include a subscription service like Twitter, the judge found.
While the law says “public display” would include “any window, showcase, newsstand, display rack, wall, door, billboard, display board, viewing screen, moving picture screen, marquee or similar place, in such manner that the display is easily visible from or in any: public street, sidewalk or thoroughfare; transportation facility,” Twitter doesn’t count because you must “follow” someone to be likely to encounter their messages, according to the decision, which can be read in full here:
The terms of the statute clearly do not encompass either posting an image on Twitter - a subscriber-based social networking service - or sending images to a small number of private individuals, who might not even look at the email or open the attachments. Both of these are private acts.
As for the harassment:
In this case, however, the Information contains no factual allegation supporting the inference that the defendant had any communication at all with Ms. Batch. It does not even allege that she received a Tweet from him containing the pictures, only that she saw that defendant had posted them on his Twitter account and saw that he had emailed them to her employer and sister.
And yet, as the court states in a footnote, revenge porn is on the rise: “This phenomenon has become common enough to have its own Wikipedia page, which defines the conduct as ‘sexually explicit media that is publicly shared online without the consent of the pictured individual.’ That is precisely what is alleged in this case.”
Only two states, New Jersey and California, currently have laws directly addressing revenge porn, an issue covered in-depth by Maureen O’Connor at the Cut last year. “The only way that we’re going to get real change is if there’s a serious criminal statute on the books,” said a legal expert working with the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which grew out of the group End Revenge Porn. This case shows there’s a lot of work left to be done.UFC fighter Fabricio Werdum has been charged after allegedly hitting fellow fighter Colby Covington “with a boomerang” after a fight broke out between them in central Sydney.
A video shows the ugly incident between Brazilian heavyweight great Werdum and the 29-year-old American welterweight Covington.
Last month he berated Brazil as a “dump” full of “filthy animals” following a victory in Sao Paulo.
The fight happened about 1.30pm yesterday outside a hotel on George Street, Sydney.
Police said the fight escalated when Werdum allegedly threw a bag containing the boomerang at Covington which hit him in the neck.
@FabricioWerdum attacks @ColbyCovMMA with a boomerang outside the hotel for UFC Sydney! 😵 pic.twitter.com/MCadJmCaXu — Dan Hangman Hooker (@danthehangman) November 16, 2017
The video was posted online by Covington who was yelling: “Look at this clown. You’re a f***ing clown Fabricio Werdum. What’s up? You just punched me in the face.
“F*** Brazil. F*** Fabricio Werdum. Little b**** ass. F*** Brazil. Bunch of filthy animals. And they wonder why they get talked to like that because they’re a bunch of animals.
“How f***ing funny dude. Dude punched me in the face.”
Werdum gave an inteview with Brazil’s UOL and said Covington was the instigator of the incident.
“This guy is really cocky,” Werdum was quoted saying.
“I went down with my master (Rafael Cordeiro) to get a haircut and shave my beard.
“We were at the lobby, and I’ve never seen this guy before.
“When I walked past him, he looked at me and said ‘filthy Brazilians’.
“I looked at him and said ‘hey.’ I hit his phone and asked ‘what did you say?’
“I don’t know why he insists in talking about Brazilians. I don’t get it. He wants media, wants to copy Conor McGregor.
“He looks ridiculous the way he does it. I couldn’t believe when he said that.
“We started to argue and he continue to scream that Brazilians were animals.”
The fighters are in Sydney ahead of Sunday’s Fight Night event.
Police said Werdum was charged with common assault and expected to appear at Downing Centre Local Court on December 13.
Neither fighter required medical treatment following the fight.Code:
[B][U]CHANGELOG[/U][/B] [U] 1.1.1 3/9[/U] somewhat fixed keyboard, again ported to sapphire 1.1.0 ported to cyanogenmod 6.0.0 [U]1.1 1/9[/U] updated for sapphire 1.0 somewhat fixed keyboard edited battery icons to better fit with perecentages [U]1.0 1/8[/U] new font ([URL="http://www.dafont.com/comfortaa.font"]comfortaa[/URL]) a bunch of visual fixes removed bootanimation only Launcher2 is themed i cant even remember in my state of mind right now. ill tell you later [U]1.0pre 15/6[/U] many framework-res changes many contacts changes cleaned up the files (this is pre 1.0. i wanted everyone who is interested to give this a shot and let me know of any bugs i might have missed. if everything is good ill port to other colours as well as FRFxx) [U]beta7 5/6[/U] now hosted on [url=http://code.google.com/p/droptheme]Google Code[/url] blue only!! development on colours will stop untill blue 1.0 is out. which should be soon. a few days? music buttons coloured menu icons recoloured notification icon colour patch lockscreen endslider edited battery precentage patch eri.xml edited bootanimation (credits to [url=http://www.droidforums.net/forum/members/pkdesigns.html]pkdesigns[/url]) all patches now included in main DropTheme.zip optimized OJIF [U]beta6 29/5[/U] ported to all colours (again thank you [URL="http://www.droidforums.net/forum/members/raidzero.html"]raidzero[/URL] for showing me how) a hand full of framework-res theming, its almost complete forgot to optimize.png's [U]beta5.1 28/5[/U] ported to green & red (thanks to [URL="http://www.droidforums.net/forum/members/raidzero.html"]raidzero[/URL] for showing me how) updated camera organized MM.xml [U]beta5 27/5[/U] themed ADWLauncher themed Beautiful Widgets updated Contacts updated framework-res (checkboxs/radiobuttons/other) fixed HelixLauncher drawer selector fixed Market app title bar reverted some changes back to beta3. i didnt like how it looked OJIF [U]beta4 26/5[/U] updated dialer/contacts (small bug with contacts tab) updated: market, status icons, launcher/2/pro/helix fixed widgets: calendar, genie, googlesearch, youtube themed lockscreen sorry no ADW opt_png all.png's (thanks [URL="http://www.droidforums.net/forum/xeudoxus/"]xeudoxus[/URL] for [URL="http://www.droidforums.net/forum/xeudoxus/47283-release-xultimate.html"]MMOptimizer[/URL]) as always, OJIF 99 file modifications overall [U]beta3 25/5[/U] CyanogenMod 5.0.7 version lots of landscape fixies. thank you.9 you piece of junk themed alarmclock themed camera themed contacts themed launcher themed launcher2 themed launcherpro themed market other junk i forgot [U]beta2 24/5[/U] themed keyboard changed lockscreen slider fixed various buttons themed selector bars themed popups youtube widget updated rethemed download status icon other junk i forgotThe antiviral was manufactured in GM tobacco with a view to using the same technique to slash the cost of other life-saving drugs in the developing world
An antiviral drug synthesised by genetically modified plants is being tested on a small number of women in the UK to establish its safety, bringing closer the possibility of cheap modern medicines for the developing world.
The drug's developers hope it can be used to prevent HIV infection, but the real breakthrough is that the research demonstrates it is possible for similar molecules – known as monoclonal antibodies – to be produced relatively cheaply in plants to the high standards needed for their use in humans.
The human trial has been approved by the UK licensing body, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and is taking place in Guildford at the clinical research centre of the University of Surrey.
Pharma-Planta is a project launched seven years ago with the objective of using GM plants to slash the cost of drugs that are hard to produce. The scientists' aim is to increase the availability of these modern medicines – which are often highly effective – in the poorest countries of the world.
Access to medicines in the developing world is extremely limited. The World Health Organization estimates that 23 million infants worldwide do not get adequate basic immunisation and 1.7 million children under five die from vaccine-preventable diseases.
"The driver was to produce these medicines economically and at a level that would satisfy global demand," said Professor Julian Ma from St George's University, London, who is the joint co-ordinator of the European Union-funded project.
Many medicines are synthesised at great expense in fermentation vats containing bacteria or mammalian cells. By contrast Pharma-Planta produced the anti-HIV monoclonal antibody in GM tobacco plants grown in soil in greenhouses in Germany. After 45 days, they were harvested, their leaves were shredded and "highly purified antibodies" were extracted.
The researchers say there is little risk of such GM plants spreading or contaminating other crops because they are contained and would not be grown on anything like an agricultural scale.
Ma said it was "a red letter day" when they received the go-ahead from the drugs regulator. "The approval from the MHRA for us to proceed with human trials is an acknowledgement that monoclonal antibodies can be made in plants to the same quality as those made using existing conventional production systems. That is something many people did not believe could be achieved," he said.
Eleven healthy women have volunteered to take part in the trial and two of them have been given the antibody so far, with a third woman having been given a placebo. The trial is designed only to demonstrate the safety of the antibody, called P2G12, at different dosages. Much bigger trials in women at risk of contracting HIV would be necessary to test whether it could prevent infection.
If it does prove effective, the drug would probably have to be used in combination with other monoclonal antibodies to minimise the chance that the virus developed resistance, as it easily does to antivirals.
The process is between 10 and 100 times cheaper than conventional production systems, said Professor Rainer Fischer of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology in Aachen, Germany, where the plants were grown.
The most useful monoclonal antibodies, such as the anti-cancer drug Herceptin, are still covered by patents owned by major pharmaceutical companies, but once these expire the new technique could offer a way to make cheap versions available in poor countries."The Man Who Sold the World" is a song written and performed by David Bowie. It is the title track of his third album, with the same name, which was released in the US in November 1970 and in the UK in April 1971. The song has been covered by a number of other artists, notably by Lulu, who had a UK No. 3 hit with her version in 1974, and Nirvana, whose 1993 performance of the song for the television program MTV Unplugged introduced it to a new audience.
The song was reworked by Bowie, featuring atmospheric synths, a new bassline, techno-style drums and a notably darker mood, for performances in concerts from 1995 to 1997, including the 1995 MTV Europe Music Awards. Bowie later returned to playing the original version in the 2000s.
Inspiration and explanation [ edit ]
The persona in the song has an encounter with a kind of doppelgänger, as suggested in the second chorus where "I never lost control" is replaced with "We never lost control".[1] Beyond this, the episode is unexplained: as James E. Perone wrote,
Bowie encounters the title character, but it is not clear just what the phrase means, or exactly who this man is. … The main thing that the song does is to paint – however elusively – the title character as another example of the societal outcasts who populate the album.[2]
In common with a number of tracks on the album, the song's themes have been compared to the horror-fantasy works of H. P. Lovecraft.[3] The lyrics are also cited as reflecting Bowie's concerns with splintered or multiple personalities, and are believed to have been partially inspired by the poem "Antigonish" by William Hughes Mearns:[4]
“ Last night I saw upon the stair
A little man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
Oh, how I wish he'd go away... ”
In the BBC Radio 1 special programme "ChangesNowBowie", broadcast on 8 January 1997, Bowie was interviewed by Mary Anne Hobbs and was asked about the song. He commented: "I guess I wrote it because there was a part of myself that I was looking for. Maybe now that I feel more comfortable with the way that I live my life and my mental state (laughs) and my spiritual state whatever, maybe I feel there's some kind of unity now. That song for me always exemplified kind of how you feel when you're young, when you know that there's a piece of yourself that you haven't really put together yet. You have this great searching, this great need to find out who you really are."[5]
Other releases by Bowie [ edit ]
Bowie personnel [ edit ]
Lulu version [ edit ]
The song was covered by the Scottish singer Lulu in 1974, who, according to biographer David Buckley, performed it in "a sleazy, almost Berlin cabaret style".[6] Lulu would recall Bowie inviting her to a concert he gave after which he met her in his hotel room saying: "I want to make an MF of a record with you [because] you're a great singer." Lulu – "I didn't think it would happen but [Bowie] followed up two days later. He was übercool at the time and I just wanted to be led by him. I loved everything he did. I didn't think 'The Man Who Sold the World' was the greatest song for my voice, but it was such a strong song in itself. I had no idea what it was about. In the studio Bowie kept telling me to smoke more cigarettes, to give my voice a certain quality."[7] Bowie produced the Lulu recording of "The Man Who Sold the World" with Mick Ronson during the July 1973 Pin Ups sessions and also contributed guitar, saxophone and backing vocals. The remainder of the band included Ronson on guitar, Trevor Bolder on bass, Mike Garson on piano, and Aynsley Dunbar on drums.[8]
Lulu's "The Man Who Sold the World" was released as a single on 11 January 1974 having been introduced by Lulu on the TOTP broadcast of 10 January 1974: the track only made its Top 50 debut (at #27) on the chart dated 26 January 1974 following a reprise performance by Lulu on TOTP two days earlier on 24 January 1974, with a third TOTP performance by Lulu on 7 February 1974 broadcast facilitating a boost from No. 13 to No. 5 on the chart dated 9 February 1974. In her TOTP performances in support of "The Man Who Sold the World" Lulu has been characterized as "dressed and sounding exactly like a diminutive Bowie".[9] Lulu performed the song in the second-season finale of French and Saunders.
Lulu's chart positions [ edit ]
Lulu Personnel [ edit ]
Midge Ure version [ edit ]
Midge Ure covered this song in a 1982 studio release, which appeared on the Party Party Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (released 3 December 1982) and promotional 7" single (backed with "Band Of Gold" by Modern Romance). The track was subsequently re-recorded/re-mixed and released as a B-side to Midge Ure's If I Was 12" single (released 13 September 1985). This later version is featured as the title song of the 2015 video game Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Richard Barone version [ edit ]
The song was covered by American singer Richard Barone in 1987 on his proto-chamber pop album, Cool Blue Halo. Using cello, acoustic guitar and symphonic percussion in a live setting.
Nirvana version [ edit ]
In his journals, Kurt Cobain of the American grunge band Nirvana ranked the album The Man Who Sold the World at number 45 in his top 50 favourite albums.[13] A live rendition of the song was recorded by the band in 1993 during their MTV Unplugged appearance, and it was released on their MTV Unplugged in New York album the following year. The song was also released as a promotional single for the album,[14] and received considerable airplay on alternative rock radio stations. It was also thrown into heavy rotation on music video stations such as MTV, peaking at number 3 on MTV's most played videos on 18 February 1995.[15] Nirvana regularly covered the song during live sets after their memorable acoustic performance up until lead singer Cobain's death in 1994. In 2002, the song was re-released on Nirvana's self-titled "best of" compilation.
Bowie said of Nirvana's cover: "I was simply blown away when I found that Kurt Cobain liked my work, and have always wanted to talk to him about his reasons for covering 'The Man Who Sold the World' and that "it was a good straight forward rendition and sounded somehow very honest. It would have been nice to have worked with him, but just talking with him would have been real cool".[16] Bowie called Nirvana's cover "heartfelt", noting that "until this [cover], it hadn't occurred to me that I was part of America's musical landscape. I always felt my weight in Europe, but not [in the US]."[17] In the wake of its release, Bowie bemoaned the fact that when he performed the number himself he would encounter "kids that come up afterwards and say, 'It's cool you're doing a Nirvana song.' And I think, 'Fuck you, you little tosser!'"[18] [check quotation syntax]
On 14 February 2016, surviving Nirvana band members Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl and Pat Smear teamed up with contemporary Beck to perform "The Man Who Sold the World" at a pre-Grammy Awards party, in tribute to Bowie, who had died the month prior, with Beck performing the vocals.[19] In 2017, to mark what would have been Kurt Cobain's 50th birthday, the Phonographic Performance Limited released a list of the top twenty most played Nirvana songs on the TV and radio in the UK in which "The Man Who Sold the World" was ranked at number six.[20]
A louder electric guitar cover appears on the bands 'Live and Loud' set list.
Nirvana's charts [ edit ]
Weekly charts [ edit ]
Chart (2013) Position France (SNEP)[32] 149
Year-end charts [ edit ]
Chart (1995) Peak
position US Top Rock Tracks (Radio & Records)[33] 66
Nirvana personnel [ edit ]
Five Years (1969–1973) [ edit ]
The song appears on the compilation album Five Years (1969–1973). "Metrobolist" was the album's original title, planned for release by Bowie as a gatefold presentation, with hand drawn title accompanying cartoon-style drawings front and back, opening up to display a double sleeve photo-spread inside. But the only substantial evidence "Metrobolist" was ever proposed as a Mercury record company product are labels with the title "Metrobolist" printed on surviving tape boxes.[34]
Other cover versions [ edit ]Elizabeth Warren Slams Comcast, Wants More Antitrust Enforcement You can add Senator (and possible VP contender) Elizabeth Warren to the list of people who don't really like the nation's biggest cable provider. Warren this week took sharp aim at Comcast in a speech calling for beefed up antitrust enforcement of anti-competitive behavior of giant conglomerates like Comcast NBC Universal. Her comments, given at a forum on entrenched monopolies, focused predominately on how mergers and acquisitions aren't really good for anybody other than giant companies like Comcast (she also singled out Google and Apple).
"Last year was Comcast’s best year in nearly a decade," the Massachusetts Democrat said in prepared remarks for her speech (pdf). "But while big telecom giants have been consuming each other, consumers have been left out in the cold — facing little or no choice in service providers and paying through the nose for cable and internet service." "Strong executive leadership could revive antitrust enforcement in this country and begin, once again, to fight back against dominant market power and overwhelming political power," Warren said in the Capitol Visitor Center. "But we need something else too — and that’s a revival of the movement that created the antitrust laws in the first place." And while the FCC has recently let a number of high-profile deals (like Charter's acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House, or Altice's acquisition of Cablevision and Suddenlink), the Senator was quick to highlight that the conditions attached to the deals often don't mean much. "The other problem with relying on conditions to offset the impact of bad mergers is that regulators who didn’t have the political chops to block the deal in the first place are very unlikely to force the companies to break up after the fact, even if the companies blow off the conditions," Warren said. "Even when companies meet conditions, like selling off some assets, they sometimes just turn around and buy back the same assets they originally sold off," she added. As we've noted previously, conditions attached to many mergers are often just volunteered by the companies themselves. Even in those instances (as with Comcast's acquisition of NBC), the companies often laugh off the conditions. Other times, telecom operators make promises to regulators that have no basis in reality, like AT&T's fiber deployment pledges tied to its recent DirecTV acquisition. If you're a regular reader, you're also pretty familiar by now with how most of the promises given before a merger tend to never actually materialize. Altice's acquisition of Suddenlink, for example, is already resulting in a loss of jobs and a shuttering of Cable's "Freewheel" Wi-Fi calling service. Charter's acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House has already resulted in a freeze of broadband upgrades (for now) and the shuttering of Time Warner Cable's home security service.
News Jump Tuesday Morning Links Monday Morning Links TGI Friday Morning Links Thursday Morning Links Wednesday Morning Links Tuesday Morning Links Friday Morning Links Thursday Morning Links - Valentines Edition Wednesday Morning Links Tuesday Morning Links ---------------------- this week last week most discussed
Most recommended from 105 comments
Zenit
The system is the solution
Premium Member
join:2012-05-07
Purcellville, VA ·Comcast XFINITY
·Verizon DSL
20 recommendations Zenit Premium Member Silly Elizabeth Elizabeth Warren is now a Hillary disciple. Hillary is literally "Comcast for President" - she is 100% in Comcast's pocket. It is a FACT that Comcast has donated large sums of money into her campaign.
She is right about the regional monopoly problem, and how antitrust has been under-used in recent years. Yet she becomes buddy-buddy with someone whom is 100% establishment. Explain to me how she makes any sense, when her actions contradict themselves.
Politicians everyone. All talk, zero action, unless the action means getting political dollars from some big conglomerate. They all talk a great game.
DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey ·Comcast XFINITY
18 recommendations DaveDude Member break it up Comcast should be broken up.
1. East Coast and west coast.
2. NBC Universal must become separate unit.
3. Must have a wire line competitor (att/ googlle, etc) in its Territory.
Also
They should not charge for customer service issues. Cablecards should be free, and not - chargable.
tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA 5 recommendations tshirt Premium Member Positioning for first term AG but she's more valuable in the senate, perhaps even Majority Leader, at some point.
as the GOP death spiral begins to flatten out
P Ness
You'Ve Forgotten 9-11 Already
Premium Member
join:2001-08-29
way way out 4 recommendations P Ness Premium Member The real problem is collusion in the market place. Secret wink wink, we won't compete against you, and you won't compete against us. tegelad
join:2002-09-18
Whitesboro, TX 4 recommendations tegelad Member Instead of divestiture... lets take a play from the financial playbook All the primary providers cable and wireline should be left alone as is; however, they should be forced to expand to cover all user markets and not be allowed to cherry pick. Only once there are three unique broadband providers that offer FCC regulated speed, uncapped, and without poor QoS in each area, will they be able to cherry pick. If they want to do it via 5G, sure, but realize that they need to offer the equivalent access three (3) UHD streams concurrently running to each household without degradation (think in line with ABC, CBS, NBC... or Ford, Chyrsler, GM)... and if there are "caps" based on usage, it should be equivalent to running at FCC mandated minimums for 24x7 for one of those UHD streams... Conversely, they should also treat it like gas mileage per gallon.... only when the entire zipcode average bandwidth is about 25Mbps could they say they are compliant
It could be handled in the same way it is in Europe with the wireless carriers. If you buy a license you are required to cover 99.99% of all and mass and people, and not in some wierd I can get to one person in a zipcode.
My point is... they are too big to fail, and should be forced to cover the people in the country in a similar way. mxyztplk
join:2003-07-24
San Jose, CA 3 recommendations mxyztplk Member Princess Leans-Left-With-A-Fist vs. the Blob Certainly, unresponsive oligopolies, such as Comcast, are very hateful indeed.
On the other hand, demagogues within government who usually wind up wasting our money while harming our economy and depriving us of our liberties are very hateful as well.
Which is more hateful? Decisions, decisions...
HaloFans
join:2006-12-18 2 recommendations HaloFans Member Conflict of Interests Login to Comcast, and you are sometimes greeted with this picture in the background.T-Mobile has turned to "Breaking Bad" star Aaron Paul to promote its Binge On program, which lets some of the wireless carrier's customers stream video from services like Netflix, Hulu and HBO without sapping their wireless data plans.
"When [T-Mobile's agency Publicis Seattle] was crafting the commercial, they came up with this idea of what if there was a binge watchers anonymous organization," Peter DeLuca, senior VP-brand and advertising at T-Mobile, said in an interview with Ad Age following the announcement event in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He declined to say how much the brand is spending on the campaign.
In two 30-second TV spots, Mr. Paul leads a self-help meeting for binge watchers that gets derailed by T-Mobile's Binge On program, which that rolls out Sunday. The first of the ads will premiere Wednesday night during ABC's "Modern Family."
In addition to the TV ads, T-Mobile has produced two digital videos starring Mr. Paul that extend the commercials' storyline. "When you see the spot on air, you don't want to see the same spot when you go to digital," Mr. DeLuca said. "We wanted to develop the story even more fully."
One of the videos will spotlight a character who likes to binge-watch HBO's "Girls," and the other will focus on a character that confuses his own life with the lives of the characters he watches on TV.
T-Mobile will post the videos to bingewatchersanonymous.org, which also offers to let people create Bingewatchers Anonymous cards, as well as Facebook and YouTube. The company hopes Bingewatchers Anonymous cards will build into a meme, much the way a promotion this summer for "Straight Outta Compton" did.
It will use mobile ad company Kargo to run the spots as mobile video takeovers around the web, Mr. DeLuca said. In addition to the TV and digital video ads, T-Mobile will be running search ads as well as digital billboards in New York City.
Binge On lets customers of certain T-Mobile wireless plans watch videos from 24 digital video services free of charge, data-wise, at what T-Mobile execs described as "DVD-quality" 480p resolution.
The participating video services at the start include Netflix, Hulu, HBO, ESPN, Showtime and Dish Network's internet TV service Sling TV. The carrier will also stream video from its rivals' digital video services, Verizon's Go90 and AT&T's DirecTV, for free. Two of the biggest digital video platforms, YouTube and Facebook, are not yet involved in the program.
During a Q&A session with reporters, T-Mobile Chief Operating Officer Mike Sievert said technical hurdles have so far precluded those services from joining but that the program is open to any that can meet those requirements.
That stance might be as much about appeasing regulators as customers. The Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet rules prohibit internet service providers from blocking, slowing down or getting paid to improve the distribution of content to people accessing the internet through their networks.
T-Mobile appears to be steering clear of violating these rules by not receiving any money from the video services participating in its program and making the program free of charge and optional to its customers. At least that's the case T-Mobile's execs are making, while some argue otherwise. "We think it's highly net neutrality-friendly," T-Mobile CEO John Legere said during the Q&A session.
Asked if any of the participating video services are helping to pay for T-Mobile's ads in which their brands also appear, Mr. DeLuca said they are not.Originally Posted by MtnGal Originally Posted by
Ever wonder why Obama is the best gun salesman that has ever lived?
They have such a convoluted way of thinking that perhaps this is part of their plan. What percent of the population will kill each other off when tshtf?
Who needs a standing army when you arm the enemies in this nation and let them do the job for you. Arm the drug cartels, the ghettos, the mosques who knows who else they've helped arm. And, just bring in gangs, jihadist, then light up the ghettos and the givemedats to extreme hate and the want to kill.
Then, there is that hackable list of just white Americans who own guns, some with a big red X marking more than X amount of known guns owned by that person. Heck, even some of 'the good guys' will be bad guys wanting your stash of whatever.
Then you have a fair amount of gun owners who know you point it in a direction and pull the trigger, that simple. These will be the ones who are scared s**tless and innocent people are going to die because of them. I'm thankful I live where I live and people actually know how to shoot.
Everything they do or don't do has a reason.
What percent of the population will kill each other off when tshtf? |
relative calm could deteriorate, and thus are wary of relinquishing territory to a Palestinian leadership that, relatively moderate though it may be, might not be in a position to retain power and honor any accord amid sweeping regional instability.
For Netanyahu, watching Kerry’s from-the-heart interview must have topped what was already a pretty lousy day. In Geneva, the six world powers were inching toward a deal with the Iranians that the prime minister fears would leave Tehran with an enrichment capability even as the sanctions are eased — something Netanyahu considers a “historic error.”
Kerry weighed in on that, too, in the interview. Ultimately, if Iran doesn’t “meet the standards of the international community,” said the secretary unhappily, “there may be no option but the military option.” But, he quickly insisted, “we hope to avoid that.”
Just the sort of message Netanyahu has been urging the US not to deliver to Tehran.Firebug 1.9 has been released and as usual I would like to get this opportunity to present some new features introduced in this version.
First of all, check out the following compatibility table:
Firefox 4.0 with Firebug 1.7.3
with Firefox 5.0 – 11.0 with Firebug 1.9
with Firefox 12.0 (nightly) with Firebug 1.10
Firebug 1.10 alpha 1 will be available next week, you can use Firebug 1.9b6 for Firefox nightlies in the meantime.
Here is a summary of all new features
Firebug UI docking
Firebug UI can be positioned on all fours sides of the browser window. Just open the start button popup menu, pick Firebug UI Location sub menu and finally select the position you prefer the most.
Copy JSON responses to the clipboard
Are you dealing with AJAX & JSON? Firebug allows inspecting JSON responses and copying parts of the JSON tree to the clipboard. Just expand an HTTP request (in the Console or Net panel), select the JSON tab and right click in the tree to get the context menu.
Syntax error position displayed
The Console panel shows an arrow to the exact position inside the line of the syntax error when an error occurred.
New column in the Net panel: Protocol
The Net panel offers a new Protocol column displaying HTTP protocol for every request. You can use this column to sort all request by protocol and e.g. see only https requests. The column isn’t displayed by default, you need to right-click on the header and customize…
Quickly Remove Elements from the page
The well known Inspector feature allows quick removal of selected elements from the page. Just inspect an element and press Delete key to remove the currently highlighted element on the page.
Function objects: displayName property
Firebug also supports a displayName function object property. You can use this property to specify custom function name for anonymous functions. Firebug is consequently using that property to display stack traces.
Every Console log has its origin info
This is just simple new feature. Every log displayed in the Console has it’s origin (file url and line number). Of course, Firebug shows the source as soon as you click on the origin link.
Resend HTTP request
The net panel allows to resend an existing HTTP request. Just right-click on it and pick Resend from the context menu. Nice and easy!
Tooltip for conditional breakpoints
The Script panel is displaying tooltips for conditional breakpoints. You don’t have to open the condition editor to just see the current condition.
Add Watch from the DOM panel
The DOM panel context menu introduces a new Add Watch command. This allows the developer to find specific object or field (can be several layers deep in the structure) and put it directly into the Script panel’s Watch window for further inspection and monitoring.
Response Headers from the browser cache
The Net panel is displaying even HTTP headers coming from the browser cache. Just expand an HTTP request and check the Headers tab, there is a new section at the bottom (in case the response comes from the cache).
Font Viewer
Firebug introduces a font viewer (for *.woff files) integrated into the Net panel. If your page is loading such file you can expand appropriate request and see all meta data about the downloaded font. Very cool!
Font Tooltip
There is yet another neat support for designers. If you move mouse cursor over a font in the CSS panel (or in the Style side panel) you’ll see a tooltip with a font preview.
Tooltip tip for array items
Another nifty improvement is related to debugging and inspecting an array value using tooltips. If you move mouse cursor over array brackets, you can see the actual value, see the screenshot.
Stay Tuned!
HonzaCanada's biggest banks accepted tens of billions in government funds during the recession, according to a report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Canada's banking system is often lauded for being one of the world's safest. But an analysis by CCPA senior economist David Macdonald concluded that Canada's major lenders were in a far worse position during the downturn than previously believed.
Macdonald examined data provided by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the big banks themselves for his report published Monday.
It says support for Canadian banks from various agencies reached $114 billion at its peak. That works out to $3,400 for every man, woman and child in Canada, and also to seven per cent of Canada's gross domestic product in 2009.
The figure is also 10 times the amount Canadian taxpayers spent on the auto industry in 2009.
"At some point during the crisis, three of Canada's banks — CIBC, BMO, and Scotiabank — were completely under water, with government support exceeding the market value of the company," Macdonald said.
"Without government supports to fall back on, Canadian banks would have been in serious trouble."
During October 2008 and June 2010, the banks combined to report $27 billion in profits on their balance sheets.
CMHC mortgage program aided banks
One of the most well-known ways in which policymakers helped the banks during the crisis is through a $69-billion CMHC program whereby the housing agency took mortgages off the balance sheets of big Canadian banks. In contrast with other support facilities, all of the funds granted by the CMHC were through selling assets (in this case mortgages) to the housing agency. They were not funds that had to be paid back.
The CMHC has provided the aggregate total of how much was given out, but has yet to release specifics on which banks sold how much to them, and when, the CCPA says.
When asked for comment in reaction to the CCPA report, the Canadian Bankers Association noted that the $69 billion that Canada's big banks sold into the CMHC program is in fact only 55 per cent of what was allocated for the program.
"Many of the mortgages were already insured and therefore, created no additional risk for the government," the CBA noted in an email to CBC News. The CMHC estimates that by the time the program is wound up, it will have generated $2.5 billion in profit as those mortgages are paid off, the bankers' group noted.
Calling the CCPA report "completely baseless," Department of Finance spokesperson Chisholm Pothier noted that the mortgage program has already generated more than $1.2 billion in net revenues for the CMHC's coffers.
But Canadian lenders also dipped into a program set up by the U.S. Federal Reserve aimed at providing cash to keep American banks afloat. CIBC and BMO took almost $3 billion each out of the fund, RBC and TD took out $8 billion and Scotiabank drew down almost $12 billion, the CCPA report found.
That data came from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which released it publicly. But Macdonald's analysis found that Canadian banks got a comparable amount — $41 billion — from Bank of Canada facilities, an agency that has been far less transparent in sharing information.
"Despite Access to Information requests for the data, the Bank of Canada refuses to release it," the CCPA report states.
"The federal government claims it was offering the banks 'liquidity support,' but it looks an awful lot like a bailout to me," says Macdonald. "Whatever you call it, Canadian government aid for the country's biggest banks was far more indispensable than the official line would suggest.
"The support for Canadian banks was much more substantial than Canadians were led to believe," Macdonald said.
The Canadian Bankers Association disputes the notion that the funds in question were any sort of bailout, arguing they were routine transactions aimed at keeping the financial system liquid.
"These funding measures were put in place to ensure that credit was available to lend to businesses and consumers to help the economy through the recession," the CBA said. "These funding measures were not put in place because banks were in financial difficulty."
Since the start of the recession, the CBA notes 436 U.S. banks have failed. No Canadian financial institution went under, but Canada's banking sector was hit by an overall crisis of confidence in the banking sector that caused some of the banks' normal lending sources to dry up, the CBA says.
Canadian banks get about two-thirds of their funding from consumer and business deposits, but the other third comes from credit markets.
"It was these markets that were seizing up. Funding was less available," the CBA says. "Canadian banks continued to lend and increased their lending after some non-bank lenders pulled out of the Canadian market."
While some of the funding came from government sources such as the Bank of Canada, the bankers' association points out that the central bank itself says Canadian banks needed less official central bank liquidity support than their foreign counterparts.
"The credit was extended at competitive interest rates to protect taxpayers," Pothier said. "Financial institutions accepting this credit paid interest on the loans."
To show the scale of the funding, the CCPA report contrasted the total value of the support Canadian banks took against the bank's total value at the time. Under that comparison, CIBC received $21 billion in support — almost 1.5 times the value of the company at the time. BMO maxed out at $17 billion or 118 per cent, Scotiabank peaked at $25 billion or 100 per cent of its value, while TD and RBC maxed out at $26 billion and $25 billion — good enough for 69 and 63 per cent, respectively, of the total value of those companies at the time.
"It would have been cheaper to buy every single share in these companies," Macdonald said.
But the CBA disputes those numbers too, saying comparing a bank's value to the level with which it participated in a liquidity program aimed at boosting confidence in the market is "an apples to oranges comparison as the two factors are not at all related."
"The Oxford dictionary defines bailout as 'financial assistance to a failing business or economy to save it from collapse," the Canadian Bankers Association noted.
"That definitely was not the case here: not one bank in Canada was in danger of going bankrupt or required the government to buy an equity stake under taxpayer-funded bailouts."(Reuters) - Describing Judge Diane Wood of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals as a stickler for the rules of appellate procedure is like calling ice cream cold, based on the evidence of a pair of orders she filed Monday.
The judge struck response briefs filed by the Justice Department and by the Air Line Pilots Association because the briefs contained inadequate jurisdictional statements. How inadequate? Well, according to Judge Wood, 7th Circuit rules don’t require appellees and respondents to repeat the entire jurisdictional justification required in opening briefs from the parties that have initiated appeals – but the rules do demand confirmation in response briefs that the other side’s jurisdictional statement is both complete and correct.
DOJ and the pilot union, according to Judge Wood’s order, made the mistake of using just one adjective – but not both – to describe their adversaries’ jurisdictional statements. The Justice Department’s now-stricken brief said visa seeker Jorge Baez-Sanchez was correct in his explanation of the 7th Circuit’s jurisdiction – but DOJ didn’t mention whether Baez-Sanchez’s statement was also complete. The pilot union’s now-stricken response brief, on the other hand, said United pilot instructors challenging the distribution of retroactive pay had supplied a complete jurisdictional statement in their opening brief, but didn’t say the pilot instructors’ statement was also correct. (The judge gave DOJ and the pilot union a week to fix and resubmit their filings.)
Judge Wood really, really wants response briefs to acknowledge that the other side’s jurisdictional justifications are both complete and correct. “These terms are not synonyms,” she wrote in Monday’s orders. “A statement might be complete in the sense of covering all required topics, yet contain inaccuracies. Alternatively, everything furnished might be correct, but the statement might be missing something critical, such as the citizenship of a party, the particular statute at issue, or the dates on which the court’s jurisdiction depends.”
The Justice Department and the pilot union aren’t the only parties that haven’t been careful enough about describing why the 7th Circuit has jurisdiction, Judge Wood said. A “distressing number” of briefs fail to comply with the rules, Judge Wood wrote, before reciting the entirety of the 7th Circuit’s requirements. “I am issuing this opinion in the hope that attorneys practicing in the 7th Circuit, as well as our pro se litigants, will take heed and avoid these errors in the future,” she said. “There is no reason why, month after month, year after year, the court should encounter jurisdictional statements with such obvious flaws. This imposes needless costs on everyone involved.”
Did Judge Wood use a bazooka to address a problem that might have been solved with a water pistol? I asked the 7th Circuit clerk for an interview with Judge Wood about how widespread these jurisdictional statement failures are but didn’t hear back. I also reached out to the Justice Department and to pilot union lawyers from Cohen Weiss & Simon and Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum but none responded.Back in 1983 there was an attempt to make a big U.S. version of Godzilla in 3D that was in development for several years before it finally fell apart.
The next big remake of Godzilla is just around the corner, and the buzz from the trailer is pretty good so far. Many fans, myself included, are hoping that this is the Godzilla remake will finally get it right. Many of the right elements are there: nuclear testing, the monster towering over and knocking down skyscrapers (instead of weaving between them), and even hints at other monsters like Rodan. Things that the 1998 film never got. Another difference is that this will be a Godzilla movie released in 3D. But if the news of an American incarnation of Godzilla in 3D sounds familiar to you for some reason, you might recall that back in 1983 there was an attempt to make a big U.S. version of the big G in 3D that was in development for several years before it finally fell apart.
Reports of a 3D Godzilla first started gaining traction in the summer of ’83 when 3D was making a minor comeback. That summer had a big influx of movies in the format, such as Jaws 3D, and Friday the 13th Part 3D, which at the time was the highest grossing 3D movie in history. In fact, the director of the third Friday, Steve Miner, was also going to helm the 3D Godzilla film as well.
Sculptor Shawn Nagle's diorama using William Stout's Godzilla designs.
As Miner told writer Steve Ryfle, “I had always been a fan of Godzilla since I was a kid. Once seeing it as an adult, I realized that this could be remade as a good movie. I had just done Friday the 13th in 3D, and wanted to do a good movie in 3D.” The screenplay for this version of Godzilla was written by Fred Dekker, who also directed The Monster Squad and RoboCop 3. Dekker was honored to get the assignment, it was his first big Hollywood job, but he wasn’t a huge Godzilla fan, and wanted to elevate the monster genre to a higher level. For everyone involved, the whole idea was to treat this movie seriously, and make it on a big, Spielberg blockbuster level instead of lowballing it.
Artist William Stout, who was a production designer on Conan the Barbarian and who also designed the poster for Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards, did extensive storyboards for Miner’s Godzilla, and he’s very proud of his work on it to this day. (Stout calls this incarnation of Godzilla “the greatest film project that never happened.”)
William Stout's concept art for the proposed 1983 Godzilla 3D.
Miner wanted a lot of “presentation art” for Godzilla, so the studios could get a good idea of what the finished movie would look like. (A great deal of “presentation art” had to be created for Fox to understand Star Wars.) Stout was very impressed with the screenplay he was helping bring to life, telling us, “We were working from a great script, I think Fred Dekker really outdid himself with it.”
Stout liked the idea of giving a Godzilla film the A-list treatment. “So many times, people want to remake a classic film, and as soon as they’re announcing it, they’re pissing people off,” he says. “Rarely have remakes captured, much less exceed, the quality of the first film. What Steve Miner was doing was so much smarter. He was taking a film that was beloved, but it was really defective when you consider how primitive the special effects were, and trying to remake that. Remake a film with a great idea, a great concept, take Godzilla, and the public’s expectations of Godzilla, and surpass them.”
As Stout recalls, Miner wanted really large storyboards that were 6x8 instead of 2x3, and Stout filled in each panel with a lot of details. Stout made his storyboarding as detailed as possible because “there were FX in almost every scene, and you had to storyboard what needed so you could get accurate bids from FX houses.”
Stout got a crash course in 3D when plotting out the movie by buying every 3D comic he could get his hands on, and watching every 3D film he could. When creating the storyboards, Stout realized you don’t want to crop your images, or it ruins the effect. “You tend to design things where what’s going on in the center is most important,” Stout says. “I really began to familiarize myself with the advantages and disadvantages of the 3D process.”
Miner put together a “dream team” of FX artists he wanted to bring Godzilla to life. Dave Allen (When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth) was going to do the stop-motion, and Rick Baker was going to create a giant robotic Godzilla head. “Because we were going to do it as stop-motion animation, we weren’t limited by having a guy in a suit,” Stout says. “What always bothered me about Godzilla were those big, baggy legs, sort of like baggy trousers, that the Godzilla costume had. I was able to make him more realistic, more dinosaur like, while retaining the look of Godzilla with the dorsal fins on his back.”
The biggest hurtle Miner was facing was having to shoot stop-motion in 3D. “That created unusual problems because stop motion works on the opposite principals of 3D,” Stout says. “It’s taking tiny little things, and compositing them with two-dimensional footage. So we had a 3D camera that was miniaturized. The way 3D works is it has two cameras that are the average pupil distance and the separation between them. We thought if we miniaturized that pupil distance for key scenes, we could convincingly convey a stop motion creature that was huge.”
Stout with both his and the original Godzilla designs.
This version of Godzilla would have cost about $30 million, which was a lot of money in those days, and it made the major studios balk. Miner pitched it to every big studio in Hollywood, and all of them passed.
“It was the right project at the wrong time,” Stout tells me. “It was obviously going to be a very expensive with all the FX, and at the time, a numer of big budget movies like Heaven’s Gate had bombed. The studios were gun shy about approving a big budget movie because of that.”
Not to mention there was no way a studio would spent that kind of money on what they considered to be silly kids stuff. Even though Miner already had hits with the Friday the 13th films, they didn’t give him the kind of clout he needed to make a big budget blockbuster.
“That was another part of the problem was the prejudice the major studios had against Steve,” Stout says. “He directed two Friday the 13th movies, and in the view of the majors he was just some hack horror guy, and it would be insane to give him a big budget movie. If we could have come in with a Friday the 13th budget, it would have gotten a green light, but our budget was vastly higher.”
Ultimately, Miner’s Godzilla languished for about two years before the project finally died. There were also plans to remake other Japanese monster movies, and Miner was hoping Stout would direct Rodan for him, but those hopes were dashed once it was clear Godzilla would never get off the ground.
Cut to today. A 3D Godzilla movie with a reported budget of $160 million is about to hit theaters, and audiences couldn’t be more excited to see how it turns out. “It can be painful to be ahead of your time,” Stout says with a laugh. “The trailer looks incredible, and from the coming attraction it looks like a lot of our concepts and approaches were approved. I don’t think people were waiting for a magnificent Godzilla film when we attempted it, because that concept had not been in the air at the time. The public’s expectations were really low because of previous Godzilla films, and we were just going to rock their world.”As the Supreme Court upheld a central provision of Arizona's controversial immigration law on Monday -– a requirement for law enforcement to check the legal status of suspected undocumented immigrants -- a powerful corporate lobby may stand to benefit: the private prison industry.
For-profit prison companies including Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group Inc. have capitalized on the immigration crackdown over the past decade, now controlling nearly half of the nation's vast immigrant detention system. Both companies have more than doubled revenues from the business of detaining immigrants since 2005, collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Some immigration reform advocates and lawyers have argued that the upholding of the so-called "show me your papers" portion of Arizona's SB 1070 may bring more undocumented immigrants into the web of federal immigration enforcement, resulting in increased detentions and deportations.
"This is really the pointy end of the sword of SB 1070," said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrants' rights group. "It provides a real boon, a real growth opportunity for the private prison industry in the State of Arizona."
A Corrections Corporation of America spokesman said that "under longstanding policy, CCA does not and has not ever taken positions on or promoted any sentencing or detention legislation." A spokesman for the GEO Group did not respond to questions. In the past, CCA officials have stressed that the federal government, not local law enforcement, makes the ultimate decision on which undocumented immigrants should be detained.
Federal officials attempted to assert their authority in Arizona on Monday by rescinding previous agreements with state law enforcement agencies to enforce immigration law at a local level. A senior administration official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement has formally told agents in Arizona to prioritize only the most serious violations referred by local law enforcement. Those include potential undocumented immigrants with a criminal history and repeat border crossers.
"We will not allow a state to set our enforcement priorities," the senior administration official said.
Yet legal observers argue that the federal government's talk of prioritizing certain immigrants is at odds with the recent drive of President Barack Obama's administration to appear tough on immigration enforcement. The administration has deported record numbers of undocumented immigrants, approaching nearly 400,000 each of the last two years, and critics have said the increased Arizona enforcement could bring more opportunities for detention and deportation.
"The main issue here is that there continues to be a focus on deporting a lot of people," said Nancy Morawetz, a professor at the Immigrant Rights Clinic at New York University's School of Law. "There's a sort of pride in the number of people, and a pride in the number of people who happen to come in through an arrest, no matter what the arrest was."
The potential of future litigation remains likely. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R), who signed Arizona's immigration law in 2010, noted in a statement Monday: "Our critics are already preparing new litigation tactics in response to their loss at the Supreme Court, and undoubtedly will allege inequities in the implementation of the law."
Corrections Corporation of America has strong ties in Arizona, operating three detention centers housing nearly 2,000 undocumented immigrants in the state. Dennis DeConcini, a former Democratic U.S. senator from Arizona, sits on CCA's board of directors. And several CCA lobbyists in Phoenix have worked for or consulted with Brewer.
Critics have questioned CCA's ties to Arizona's law. As written, the law in part mirrors draft model legislation on immigration enforcement developed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of conservative state legislators and business representatives tied to the drafting of Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law.
Until 2010, a CCA senior director, Laurie Shanblum, sat on the ALEC executive task force for public safety and elections, along with state Sen. Russell Pearce (R), who introduced SB 1070. Parts of the Arizona law, including the section upheld by the Supreme Court, are word-for-word the same as the ALEC public safety task force's model legislation, according to a review of documents posted online by the Center for Media and Democracy, a left-leaning advocacy group.
Machak, the CCA spokesman, said that "any suggested connection between our company and Arizona's immigration law is baseless."
Though model language developed by ALEC is similar to the language in SB 1070, others have taken credit for helping to draft the law, including Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who worked as an immigration advisor to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft during the George W. Bush presidency. Kobach has advised other states and towns in developing immigration-related legislation, including Alabama.
GEO Group executives in the past have not disputed that enforcement efforts like Arizona's immigration law may have positive impacts on their business. In a 2010 GEO Group earnings call after Brewer signed the Arizona law, an analyst asked executives whether the new legislation might affect business.
Wayne Calabrese, then the company's chief operating officer, said the law "certainly indicates a level of frustration by the public," according to a transcript of the call. He added: "I can only believe that the opportunities at the federal level are going to continue apace as a result of what's happening.... That to me at least suggests there's going to be enhanced opportunities for what we do."[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content” css=”.vc_custom_1484069490912{margin-top: -20px!important;padding-top: 0px!important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1484069320962{margin-top: 0px!important;padding-top: 0px!important;}”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image=”5285″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css=”.vc_custom_1484069603815{margin-top: 0px!important;padding-top: 0px!important;}”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_single_image image=”5692″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Check out our VIP options and Hotel Packages for added benefits. More hotels packages to be added and excursions to be announced. Sign up for the Mailing List to get announcements delivered directly to your inbox.
[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”Book Your Excursions” color=”turquoise” size=”lg” align=”center” link=”url:%2F%2Fjunglejam.com%2Fexcursions%2F|||”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row”][vc_column][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”30″][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1483995880256{margin-bottom: 0px!important;border-top-width: 1px!important;border-right-width: 1px!important;border-bottom-width: 1px!important;border-left-width: 1px!important;padding-top: 20px!important;padding-right: 20px!important;padding-bottom: 0px!important;padding-left: 20px!important;background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.52)!important;*background-color: rgb(0,0,0)!important;border-left-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-left-style: solid!important;border-right-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-right-style: solid!important;border-top-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-top-style: solid!important;border-bottom-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-bottom-style: solid!important;border-radius: 10px!important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1488479736972{margin-bottom: 0px!important;}”]
GENERAL ADMISSION WEEKEND PASS
MARCH 10 – 12, 2017
$175
Includes weekend entry to festival grounds. Excursions can be added to your Package but must be booked separately. Check out our Excursions page for more information.
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VIP WEEKEND PASS
*MARCH 9 – 12, 2017*
$300
Includes entry to festival grounds from Thurs to Mon (noon), VIP pit in front of the stage, VIP bars, drink specials and other schwag. (Shuttle Package available $400, and hotel packages below)
[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”Get Tickets” color=”juicy-pink” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.universe.com%2Fevents%2Fjungle-jam-2017-jaco-costa-rica-tickets-PB3Q62|title:Get%20Tickets||” el_class=”unii-listing-button” css=”.vc_custom_1484015542168{margin-top: 0px!important;margin-bottom: 0px!important;}”][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”30″][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1483995899784{margin-bottom: 0px!important;border-top-width: 1px!important;border-right-width: 1px!important;border-bottom-width: 1px!important;border-left-width: 1px!important;padding-top: 20px!important;padding-right: 20px!important;padding-bottom: 0px!important;padding-left: 20px!important;background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.52)!important;*background-color: rgb(0,0,0)!important;border-left-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-left-style: solid!important;border-right-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-right-style: solid!important;border-top-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-top-style: solid!important;border-bottom-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-bottom-style: solid!important;border-radius: 10px!important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1488479851884{margin-bottom: 0px!important;}”]
$80
*Cedula/ID required for admission
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DAY PASSES
[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”custom” style=”dotted” border_width=”2″ el_width=”80″ css_animation=”none” accent_color=”rgba(208,0,0,0.77)” css=”.vc_custom_1484016219594{margin-top: 0px!important;margin-bottom: 0px!important;}”][vc_row_inner equal_height=”yes” content_placement=”top” gap=”30″][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1488480151508{border-top-width: 1px!important;border-right-width: 1px!important;border-bottom-width: 1px!important;border-left-width: 1px!important;padding-top: 20px!important;padding-right: 20px!important;padding-bottom: 20px!important;padding-left: 20px!important;background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.52)!important;*background-color: rgb(0,0,0)!important;border-left-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-left-style: solid!important;border-right-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-right-style: solid!important;border-top-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-top-style: solid!important;border-bottom-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.8)!important;border-bottom-style: solid!important;border-radius: 10px!important;}”][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1488479872569{margin-bottom: 0px!important;padding-bottom: 10px!important;}”]
GENERAL ADMISSION DAY PASSES
$60
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directly from the trial website, users have to install a plugin first, then the R&DTV episode should start to play.
Pouwelse further encourages those who are able to participate in the trial to submit feedback and report bugs. As the technology is only in an early stage of development, problems with some video cards are expected to occur, but it should work fine with the majority.
Those who want to participate can check out the BitTorrent-powered episide of BBC’s R&DTV here. Details on the number of users connected and the bandwidth transferred can be found on the statistics page.Some young professionals are going online or logging onto Facebook looking to join groups organized around a decidedly low-tech entertainment: having conversations.
On a recent Wednesday evening, in the back room of Aeronaut Brewing Company, some 60 people gather in groups around tables or sit cross-legged on the floor. They sip beer, and chat, their voices filling the cavernous industrial space near Somerville’s Union Square.
Then Ashley Kirsner asks the crowd to stop talking and close their eyes. “Think about the interaction you just had,’’ she begins. “Raise your hand if you wish you’d shared more.” A few hands go up. “Raise your hand if you wish you’d shared less.’’ Again, a few hands rise. “Raise your hands if you wish your partner had shared less.’’ This time no one raises his or her hand.
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Welcome to Skip the Small Talk, Kirsner’s brainchild with a challenging mission: stimulate meaningful conversation and connection among strangers. It is one of the mostly informal, loosely organized groups that have arisen to fill a hunger for community and actual human interaction in an era chock-full of options for virtual ones.
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Skip the Small Talk hosts events where “you can push your comfort zone” and “feel safe talking about the things you actually care about,” according to the Facebook invitation for the recent gathering. Over two hours, in various combinations, participants are prompted to discuss personal questions with people they’ve likely never met before. “What are you proudest of?,” “What sorts of things make you feel the most cared about?,” and “Tell me about a time you had to overcome an obstacle” some of the conversation-starting cards read.
“Every person in this room has a deep interest in having a deep conversation,” Kirsner, 27, reminds the crowd. “This is an OK place, just for tonight, to be vulnerable, to show up for yourself.”
Groups like Skip the Small Talk have people like MIT media scholar and psychologist Sherry Turkle shaking their heads. They are, she notes, “a symptom that we have lost so many opportunities to talk to each other face-to-face in the natural settings in which we find ourselves.”
Turkle is the author of “Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age,” and her book examines how we got here and what we can do about it. “I don’t know how we will warm to coming together with the express intention to ‘just talk,’ ” she said.
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For now, Skip the Small Talk participants seem pretty comfortable with the directed conversations. The monthly gatherings launched last fall; the next is scheduled for March 22.
Kirsner said the idea for the group emerged from her own longing for a firmer sense of community. “I had a large quantity of people in my life,” Kirsner says, “but I didn’t feel comfortable going to any of them for emotional support.”
To make participants feel more at ease with opening up, Kirsner, a self-described “total psych nerd,” created a format and serves as facilitator. The former research assistant at the Harvard Decision Science Lab and Boston University’s Psychotherapy and Emotion Research Lab devised rules: Each “speaker” talks for a few minutes, while their partners play “listener”; then they switch roles. A strict time keeper, Kirsner hops onto the mike to say when it’s time to find a new conversation partner or group. No interrupting the speaker, and no worrying “Am I being interesting enough and charming enough?” Just talk, and then listen.
Other groups meet in smaller numbers with less structure. Tea With Strangers brings together a handful of people at a time, usually at a restaurant or coffee place, with a volunteer who plays host; the outings typically run a couple of hours.
Tea With Strangers was founded by Ankit Shah, 25, in 2014. Events have taken place in more than 15 cities, and groups are currently active in Boston, New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, London, Chicago, and Washington. Shah estimates about 8,000 people have been drawn to 2,500 tea times.
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“Everybody is a stranger, and nobody is a stranger,” says Shah, via telephone from San Francisco, where he lives and works. “Our hope is to create gatherings that reveal our shared humanity to one another,” regardless of background, appearance, race, and ethnicity.
‘Every person in this room has a deep interest in having a deep conversation. This is an OK place, just for tonight, to be vulnerable, to show up for yourself.’
Aziz Alhassan, 25, moved from Saudi Arabia to attend MIT two years ago. Suffering from “high levels of stress and anxiety,” one night he Googled the keywords “meet strangers Boston,” “and one of the first results was ‘Tea With Strangers,’ ” he says. “You don’t know their names, have no idea about their backgrounds, and you only know that they’re here to have a conversation. This is exactly what I needed.”
“I was genuinely surprised by the amount of deep stuff people have shared to strangers — some things their friends probably won’t even know,” says Jiaorui Jiang, 22, in an e-mail. The marketing intern from Everett has been to 11 of the teas, which typically take place a couple of times a week.
Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe Molly Lunn and Evan Hatten, both of Somerville, at the Skip the Small Talk event at Aeronaut Brewing Company.
Turkle views all this as a “wake-up call that in all of the other places in our lives where we are turning away from each other to text, not talk, we would think twice and put down our phones.”
For now, for some, these events work their connective conversational magic, if but for a few hours.
Back at the Aeronaut, husband and wife Ron Levine, 44, and Diane Levine, 42, were attending their second Skip the Small Talk. “It can be surprisingly easy to make genuine connections once certain hurdles, like small talk, are removed,” says Ron. “I find it unusually freeing.”
Or, as Diane tells it, “I feel I have nothing to lose.”
An earlier version of this story incorrectly noted which question posed by Ashley Kirsner elicted no response from the group.
Ethan Gilsdorf, author of “Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks,” can be reached at ethan@ethangilsdorf.com or on Twitter @ethanfreakFears about the rapid spread of an intestinal virus that has killed 26 young children reached the Chinese capital today, as it emerged that doctors have recorded almost 1,500 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease in Beijing.
The nationwide tally leapt to 11,905 today after the government ordered all local health officials to notify it of cases. More than half are in Fuyang City, in eastern Anhui province, where 22 of the victims died after becoming infected with Enterovirus 71. The virus has caused sporadic outbreaks of the disease in the Asia-Pacific region since 1997.
Hand, foot and mouth does not normally kill children, but in its severest forms can lead to complications including heart and respiratory problems and meningitis. It is most easily spread through contact with infected blisters or faeces.
The Beijing News reported today that the city has had 1,482 cases of hand, foot and mouth. It is not yet clear if they involved the EV71 strain or another virus.
Staff at a children's hospital told the Guardian they were treating "many" cases of the disease, but declined to give further details.
One mother said she would avoid taking her child to crowded places such as
markets and parks and would disinfect his bottles daily.
But Belle Zhao, whose son is eight months old, added: "They think it's not as frightening as Sars [the disease which killed almost 350 people in China
in 2002-3]."
The city's Centre for Disease Control has advised that infected children should be isolated at home, and that any class with more than three infected children should be suspended.
Today the state news agency Xinhua reported that authorities in Anhui had punished 10 doctors and officials for mishandling the outbreak. Two doctors were criticised for delaying moving a patient to a larger hospital, while others were fined for illegally injecting immune globulin into children, claiming it could prevent EV71 - for which there is no vaccine.
Five county-level officials were reprimanded for failing to inform the public of the problem.
The official media has attacked the authorities in Anhui for not announcing the outbreak until weeks after it began.
This week the World Health Organisation said the delay was caused by the difficulty of diagnosing the disease, as many victims did not have the usual symptoms.
The fatality rate has dropped dramatically, but the rapid spread of the illness is still causing concern and experts believe numbers will not peak until later this month or even next, when the disease is normally at its height.
"The fact that the current outbreak in China continues, with so many cases and deaths, is worrying," said Professor Tom Solomon of Liverpool University, who is researching EV71 outbreaks in Asia.
He said it was unclear why some patients died, but that it probably related to the severity of the virus as well as their immune response and how late they arrived at hospital.
Solomon said the virus was not a major problem when it was first recognized
in California in the 1960s.
He added: "In 1997 the virus caused a large unexpected outbreak of hand,
foot and mouth disease in Sarawak, with many fatalities. Since then the
virus has plagued the Asia-Pacific region with outbreaks most years. An
outbreak in Taiwan in 1998 was estimated to affect 1.5 million people.
"We don't know why the virus has suddenly started causing these outbreaks,
or whether they will spread beyond Asia. It probably relates to the virus's
fast rate of evolution, and the emergence of new genetic subtypes."
Additional research by Alice Xin-LiuThis story has been updated on Feb. 3 at 9:00 PM ET to add more budget details and reactions.
Many of the climate-change goals were old, but some were new in President Obama's budget request to Congress, published on Monday.
Familiar elements included more green-energy R&D, permanent status for tax breaks that subsidize renewable production of electricity, and yet another plea to end existing subsidies for fossil fuels. Among the novelties: new incentives for states to meet the low-carbon targets of proposed Clean Air Act regulations.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which would manage the $4 billion Clean Power State Incentive Fund, said it would support "state efforts to go above and beyond their carbon pollution reduction goals in the power sector."
Some environmental advocates have criticized the EPA's proposed power regulations for not going far enough, with some states likely to meet the targets without introducing tough new measures.
In a significant new argument to bolster his case for action on climate, Obama's budget warns that if Congress delays spending now, it will only pay a higher price in years to come.
"The Federal Government has broad exposure to escalating costs and lost revenue as a direct or indirect result of a changing climate," says an extensive discussion of the financial risks facing the nation from global warming.
Even though Congress, which controls the purse strings, is now in Republican hand, it's worth paying attention to both the overarching message and to the details in a presidential budget. No single document in the policy universe better outlines a president's priorities, and this one shows the depth and breadth of the administration's climate agenda. It covers the fiscal year that begins next October. And however the negotiations with Congress turn out, it will lock in the course of climate policy through the next presidential election.
"In order to secure America's energy future and protect our children from the impacts of climate change," an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) cover sheet said, "the budget invests in clean energy, improving energy security, and enhancing preparedness and resilience to climate change. These investments support the President's Climate Action Plan, helping to expand American leadership in the clean energy economy with new businesses, jobs, and opportunities for American workers."
It called for "leading in the development of clean energy alternatives and the promotion of energy efficiency while moving toward energy security through safe and responsible domestic energy production."
The full budget, if you count all the pages of data justifying its programs line by line, runs into tens of thousands of pages. The White House spelled out the main selling points in simplified summaries released by OMB and by each agency. National Journal, among others, provided an early run-down of overall energy and climate programs—and, in an aside, described why some of them "are never going to happen."
Obama's climate ambitions may be far-reaching, but they focus on a few main themes.
First of all, Obama wants money to carry out the central programs of his Climate Action Plan, including his use of the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions of carbon dioxide from electric power plants for the first time. These are the programs that might directly bring down emissions of greenhouse gases. At the very least, he'd like emissions to be lower when he leaves office than when he was first sworn in.
Second, he wants to sustain the progress of federally funded research into new technologies, especially into cars and trucks that use less and less petroleum, but also into ways to accelerate the lowering of costs of producing wind, solar and other clean forms of energy. This part of the budget has the best chance of weaning the nation off fossil fuels, but not until long after he leaves office.
Third, recognizing that climate change is now upon us, Obama wants increased spending on adapting the nation to its worst effects—improving our resiliency to storms, droughts, floods, pestilence and the like. This is important not just because it protects people and property, but because it drives home the message that if we do nothing to stave off worsening global warming, we will pay the price in federal budgets for many years to come.
Fourth, the big strategic objective is to exert American leadership over international talks for a new climate treaty that the world's nations want to approve in Paris just 10 months from now. That means showing the rest of the world that the U.S. is committed to paying its own share of the burden, and to helping poorer nations pay for their shares. So the budget will include the first down payment toward the $3 billion the United States has pledged to the Green Climate Fund, the chief United Nations vehicle for climate finance related to the Paris treaty.
One of the main new proposals is EPA's offer to assist states as they try to deeply cut carbon emissions from power plants.
The question is, will Congress zero out that proposal as part of a broad assault on the EPA's coal-power rules? Or, will lawmakers go along with aid to their home states for a program that not all of them oppose?
Reuters said that the budget for clean energy research and development next year, at $7.4 billion, was $900 million more than Congress allotted for these Energy Department programs this year. Obama had sought $6.9 billion for this part of the energy budget this year, and Congress cut it to $6.5 billion, but also rearranged how it would be spent.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's immediate response to the overall budget was unenthusiastic.
He called it "another top-down, backward-looking document that caters to powerful political bosses on the left and never balances—ever."
And that was before he and his aides had a chance to look at the fine details of what the budget request would mean for coal, the beleaguered bastion of his home state of Kentucky.
McConnell announced that he had taken a new assignment on the Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversees the EPA's budget. "I will continue to fight back against this Administration's anti-coal jobs regulations," he declared.
A pro-coal group, the American Council for Clean Coal Electricity, denounced the EPA's spending plans, issuing a statement that "President Obama has resorted to bribing states with taxpayer money to implement a rule many are already working fervently to overturn."
But major environmental organizations, heaped praise on the Obama proposals. "If we hope to avoid the worst damages of climate change," said Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, "we need to put our money where our mouth is."A gigantic sinkhole has carved out an impressive chunk out of an island in southeast Queensland, Australia. The monstrosity that swallowed part of the beach is the size of a football field. Life-savers have warned people to stay away.
A spokeswoman for Surf Life Saving Queensland told AP the gaping hole on North Stradbroke Island is 100 meters wide and opened up at some point on Wednesday. It’s a long way from any areas patrolled by life guards.
“There are really strong currents in the water and the sand is quite unstable,” the spokeswoman said.
Senior lifeguard Michael Bates told ABC the hole is “a little bit smaller than a football field,” but experts think it may grow even further.
North Straddie sinkhole does not = good swimming hole! Stay well back from edge & remember to #swimbetweentheflagspic.twitter.com/YArkfQAEwy — Surf Life Saving QLD (@lifesavingqld) November 25, 2015
The spot at Jumpinpin bar, on the north of the island, is popular with fishermen and four-wheel-drive enthusiasts, but no one was there on Wednesday.
"It is almost like a swirling effect in the water that is created by the change of tides and there is unstable sand in the area," Bates continued. "It is not a safe area for swimming at all, due to it being so unstable, unpredictable and varying depth and the strong water movement. It is going to make it a very massive hazard."
North Straddie now believed to be affected by significant coastal erosion from strong tidal changes, after consultation with land managers. — Surf Life Saving QLD (@lifesavingqld) November 26, 2015
Despite the scare, researcher Konrad Beinssen of the University of Queensland says sinkholes are actually quite common at Jumpinpin. Beinssen, who wrote a research paper on another sinkhole in September, says the conditions are just right here.
140 campers evacuated after sink hole opens up, cars, vans tents in the waster near Rainbow Beach click video #9Newspic.twitter.com/0cKkTFh9Y9 — Darren Curtis (@DarrenCurtis9) September 27, 2015
The sinkholes “occur when an underwater sand cliff retrogresses backwards and sometimes it reaches the shore and collapses the beach,” he said.LONDON (Reuters) - The young actors who have worked on the “Harry Potter” movies for half their lives said on Wednesday they were struggling to come to grips with the series ending.
Rupert Grint arrives at the British Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London February 13, 2011. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor
Their journey began with “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (Sorcerer’s Stone in the U.S.), which was released by Warner Bros in 2001, and it ends 10 years later with “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” which has its world premiere in London on Thursday.
The central cast members, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, were between 9 and 11 years-old when they were chosen for the parts of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively, meaning they grew up in a bubble of global movie stardom and personal wealth.
At their final press conference before the movie’s launch, the stars were asked to reflect on how well they will cope with no longer being on the job.
“I don’t think I still have really come to terms with that,” said Grint, now 22. “After we finished (filming) a year ago now I have felt a little bit lost without it, really, and not really knowing what to do with myself.
“It’s been such a constant part of my life and to suddenly have that come down to this one film, it is quite sad and I’m really genuinely going to miss it and miss everyone.”
Watson, 21, described how she believed playing Hermione pushed her to become a better person in real life.
“I will actually just miss being her, getting to come into work every day and be this girl that lives in this magical amazing world and get to go on all the adventures that she goes on. That part’s quite devastating.”
Radcliffe, who addressed the packed press room in a pre-taped video because he was appearing in a play on Broadway, said the three share a strong friendship.
“I do think the bond between me and Rupert and Emma is pretty unbreakable, because I don’t think anyone knows what it’s like to go through this craziness. I will miss them both very, very much but hopefully we will find other projects to work together on.”
NO OSCARS? NO PROBLEM
Director David Yates, who made the final four “Potter” films, was asked whether he was bothered by the fact that the Potter films had been consistently overlooked for major film awards, including the Oscars.
Despite several nominations, mainly in technical departments, the seven films released so far have failed to pick up a single Academy Award, a fact some critics argued was a major oversight.
“I think we’ve all made peace with that in a way,” Yates said. “There are so many things to enjoy being part of this whole series of films, most of all the affection of the fans and the fact that there’s a global community who follow these stories with great passion.”
He pointed out that hundreds of Potter fans from around the world were camping in Trafalgar Square, the venue of Thursday’s red carpet premiere, just to be a part of the final chapter.
“That’s more of a compensation than lots of trophies so I think we’re cool about that,” Yates said.
The seven previous films have made around $6.4 billion at the box office, and J.K. Rowling’s books on which they are based have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide.
“Deathly Hallows - Part 2” is the first “Potter” movie to be available in 3D, and industry experts predict it to perform strongly when it hits theatres, starting on July 13. The British and U.S. release date is July 15.
Asked to explain the franchise’s success, Yates replied: “It’s the beautiful books that they’re based on that have this global fan base, and this eclectic series of characters...there’s kind of something for everybody I think.
“Also the fact that their world offers us something bigger and more extraordinary than our ordinary lives and I think there’s a sort of sense of wish fulfillment in that.”
In “Deathly Hallows - Part 2,” Harry moves inexorably toward a final showdown with his nemesis Lord Voldemort, played by Ralph Fiennes.
One effects-laden battle scene at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry seems straight out of a war movie, with death and destruction on a large scale as the young magicians struggle to stave off the forces of evil.
Yates and producer David Heyman said they were confident there would not be another Harry Potter novel or film.
“It (the series) will be sorely missed,” Yates said. “It’s going to create a huge hole.”KABUL (Reuters) - For Samihullah, a tailor from a family of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, the first indication that it might be time to leave the country was the insults leveled at him in the bazaar.
Born to refugee parents in the northern Pakistani town of Mansehra, he never gained citizenship but was always considered an Afghan, something which began to count against him as local resentment grew over Afghanistan’s deepening ties with India.
Many Pakistanis view India as their enemy at the best of times, and that attitude has hardened in recent months as tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals have risen.
“Afghans used to be called ‘Kabuli’ in Pakistan, but now Pakistanis call them ‘Hindus’ because we signed economic agreements with India,” said Samihullah, who, like many Afghans, goes by one name.
Married with two wives, one Afghan and one Pakistani, the 32-year-old is among thousands of people who have gone to Afghanistan and are housed temporarily in a refugee center near Kabul.
Even before the latest clashes between Indian and Pakistani soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region, the climate was more hostile.
“They were telling us, we chose India’s friendship so we should go to India. We were hiding in our shops and homes to avoid being arrested,” Samihullah said.
After almost 40 years of war in Afghanistan, Pakistan has some 1.5 million registered refugees, one of the largest such populations in the world, according to the United Nations refugee agency. More than a million others are estimated to live there unregistered.
Islamabad, which announced new repatriation plans last year, has stepped up pressure to send people back and numbers have risen sharply in recent months as Afghan-Indian relations strengthened and those between India and Pakistan soured.
“These people were our guests, we kept them in our house. Afghanistan should be grateful to us,” said a Pakistani army official based in the southern city of Quetta.
“Instead it... has become buddies with India, it’s like stabbing us in the back.”
The treatment Samihullah and others at the reception center complain of reflects how quickly diplomatic tensions can affect refugees, many of whom must start again from scratch.
“These returnees are coming back after more than three decades in exile,” said Maya Ameratunga, director of UNHCR’s Country office in Kabul. “It will take a big adjustment.”
The United Nations provides $400 a person in emergency help as well as medical and other assistance, but international funds are drying up in the face of a series of global crises.
An Afghan refugee girl returning from Pakistan looks on after she arrives at a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) registration centre in Kabul, Afghanistan September 27, 2016. Picture taken September 27, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail
Longer term reintegration into a country many never knew as home may be difficult.
“Some people are able to go to live with relatives, but others may not have that possibility. So unfortunately what we are seeing is people becoming displaced,” Ameratunga said.
“HONOR AND DIGNITY”
Ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan have long been clouded by mutual accusations that militant extremists find shelter on the other side of the border.
But Pakistani officials deny there has been systematic harassment of Afghans living in Pakistan and say their country has demonstrated great generosity to the refugee population, despite severe economic problems of its own.
“We want them to return home in peace with honor and dignity,” said Akhtar Munir, spokesman at the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, adding that there was no connection between the repatriation of Afghan refugees and India.
He said Pakistani police had clear instructions not to harass registered refugees, but added that some Afghans living illegally in Pakistan were involved in crime, and action against criminals should not be seen as mistreatment of refugees.
The spike in the number of returnees has, however, moved in step with escalating friction between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which flared into brief clashes at the Torkham border crossing in June.
A series of economic and political accords with India in recent months and the fanfare around the completion of the Indian-financed Salma dam in western Afghanistan in June has also weighed on relations.
According to UNHCR figures, the number of assisted returns jumped from 1,433 in June to 11,416 in July and 60,743 in August. More than 90,000 have been returned to Afghanistan so far this year, almost all from Pakistan, and the number is expected to pass 220,000 for the year.
Although repatriation is not compulsory, many Afghans say life in Pakistan has become so uncomfortable they feel they have little choice.
Even in areas like Baluchistan in the south, where authorities have long taken a more lenient view of refugees than in the northwest frontier areas, attitudes have changed, particularly in the wake of recent attacks.
“My son was stopped at a checkpoint and an officer tore up his Afghan citizenship card,” said Bibi Shireen, who moved to Quetta from the southern Afghan city of Kandahar 30 years ago.
“Now he has no identification and we’re scared he could get picked up any day now and sent away because he isn’t registered,” she said.
Slideshow (10 Images)
Previously, Afghan refugees did not need visas or passports to cross the porous frontier. This has now changed, a step Pakistan says is needed to ensure control of militant extremists on both sides of the border.
Despite the problems, many returnees say they are not unhappy to be back, though they need help with food and shelter as harsh winter months approach.
“We did our best over the past 20 years but could not make a living,” said Sheer Banu Ahmadzai, a burqa-veiled mother who left her home in the northern province of Baghlan as a child. “I hope we have the chance to make a living in our own country.”Author's Notes: Heyyy there, while not a new chapter I felt this needed to be remastered since it was my first published work. ALSO, I have a poll up on my profile to help decide a futa Salem X someone pairing in spooky celebration of Halloween coming up. So just head to my profile page and vote for whoever is going to get dominated by futa Salem, also have to be looking at my profile through desktop view to see poll. ANYWAY, this is here and better than before, so if you don't care about the poll you can still enjoy this.
Yang loved her little sister Ruby and who wouldn't, so it was no surprise to her when Ruby announced that she was dating Pyrrha.
Yang was happy to see her sister so happy with someone as gentle and caring as Pyrrha Nikos. Which is why she wasn't concerned with how Ruby would stay late at the gym with Pyrrha seemingly every night and even thought it adorable when Pyrrha would carry Ruby back to the dorm for her after they trained and showered.
Her only concern was how much more milk and water Ruby had been drinking recently, as if she was dehydrated after every workout, but she didn't think too much about it.
*Totally subtle scene changing music an art*
Ruby was sweating all over.
She felt exhausted, and the worst part was that she could tell her girlfriend, the Mistral champion, was not nearly as spent.
Pyrrha sounded like the incredibly nice and gentle person Ruby knew she was and fell in love with by offering to call it enough of their combat training for tonight.
Though in truth, Ruby knew what Pyrrha wanted to do just from the hungry look in her eyes that always appeared after they would train by themselves for a bit and got Pyrrha worked in the best way.
It was a Friday night and Yang trusted Pyrrha completely to keep Ruby out as long as she wanted in part to her personality in public and her combat skill. After a few months of them dating, Ruby had learned of Pyrrha's special kink.
One that most, if not all girls, would be more than okay with, not that Ruby was really complaining.
They headed for the showers, with it being so late on a Friday night and knowing everyone else would relaxing or partying elsewhere they had the whole building to themselves.
Ruby and Pyrrha began to undress and Ruby felt Pyrrha's hungry eyes on her smaller body, Ruby knew she was in for it tonight.
Ruby started the shower and felt the comforting warm water pour over her to wash the sweat off. Not even five seconds later she felt Pyrrha's hands on her shoulders, she didn't do or say anything.
She felt Pyrrha's hands slide down her chest and grope her breasts earning a soft small gasp out, she looked back at her usually gentle and self-less girlfriend and saw a devious smile on Pyrrha's face and the ever-growing hunger in her eyes and immediately felt extremely wet and hot from the shower.
Pyrrha toyed with Ruby's breasts for a little while earning a few delicious moans from the smaller huntress and decided she wanted more and slid one of her hands down Ruby's body to her clit and softly, slowly, played with her.
It was so slow, it felt like agonizing torture, in the best way possible and Pyrrha loved getting lustful moans out of Ruby.
She would have been happy toying with for hours, but stopped as Ruby neared her limit.
Only to start back up again and after a few minutes, Ruby's mind was already a little gone, but the part of Ruby still there knew Pyrrha was just taking her time before she really started.
Once Pyrrha had played with Ruby enough she thought it was time for her to sate her appetite or more accurately her thirst.
Pyrrha then turned Ruby around and looked her in the eyes. The taller red-head then licked her own lips, as if she couldn't wait for her meal while Ruby just stared into her girlfriend's eyes, unable to move
She knew what was coming and braced herself.
Pyrrha got down on her knees and ever-so-gently kissed Ruby's clit and gave her one more look before snaking her own arms under Ruby's legs to grasp her petite ass and prepare for the next stage.
In a flash, Pyrrha dove tongue first into Ruby's now very sensitive pussy while at the same using her incredible strength to pick Ruby up off the ground. Pyrrha then putt Ruby's legs over her shoulders.
With Ruby's back against the tiled wall and her feet along Pyrrha's back, the champion was able to absolutely devour her little rose's pussy.
As she always loved to and oh boy did she love to.
Ruby came instantly from how far Pyrrha was able to stick her tongue in and said champion was more than happy to swallow down Ruby's delicious juices.
Ruby may have wanted to come down from her orgasm, but Pyrrha didn't allow that and instead continued to lap her tongue and occasionally suck on Ruby's clit.
While Pyrrha was certainly enjoying herself with Ruby's taste, Ruby herself was in absolute heaven cumming a second time less than a minute after her first,
While some would have given oral and then asked for some in exchange, Ruby knew Pyrrha and she knew this wouldn't end soon.
To Pyrrha, Ruby's cum was more than delicious, it was magical and even addicting, the Mistrial champion had indulged in nearly every kind of delicious extravagant food there was, but nothing came close to Ruby's sweet nectar. Pyrrha could only assume it was thanks to a combination off all the sweets Ruby eats and her own sweet personality affecting her through her aura perhaps.
Pyrrha didn't need to know, all she cared about was tasting Ruby's snatch and devouring her cum, not to mention hearing her amazing girlfriend scream as loud as she could without having to worry about being heard or getting caught.
After Ruby came a fifth time she couldn't even keep her hands on her beloved girlfriend's head, not that she had too since Pyrrha was going as deep as she could with as few breaths as possible,
While Ruby was reduced to a drooling mess and didn't even feel the warm water hitting her still.
She could only feel her girlfriend eating her out, already pushing her to a sixth orgasm spraying herself into Pyrrha's awaiting mouth.
The entire time Pyrrha's focus was of course on making her smaller half cum as many times as possible before she passed out, but she did not neglect herself entirely.
Pyrrha has been fingering herself since the beginning and has managed to push herself over the edge every second time Ruby came, which just as of that moment was her eighth time meaning it was Pyrrha's fourth time.
She tried to make sure she got off every second time she tasted Ruby's delicious juice.
Ruby always wanted to be able to walk back to her dorm to prove she was just as resilient as her caring girlfriend,
but Pyrrha was relentless in her assault on Ruby's pussy.
Even when Ruby had moments when her mind would come back to her and she would try to push Pyrrha's head away from her slit, Pyrrha would never budge and in fact only made her push deeper into Ruby, meanwhile Ruby couldn't even formulate words
Upon Ruby's 13th orgasm, she passed out from the pleasure, not that Pyrrha was stopping until she got herself off 15 times so 30 for Ruby.
Eventually Pyrrha did relent in her pleasure assault on her beloved girlfriend and got them both out of the showers.
Pyrrha carried her sleeping girlfriend back to her dorm. She laid Ruby on her bed and before she left to return to her own dorm she gave Ruby a gentle kiss on the head and heard Yang behind her ask,
"So you really tired out my little sis with some good training huh?" she said so completely oblivious to what actually happened,
Pyrrha had a slight blush appear on her face, but not enough for yang to notice and replied,
"why yes, she held on as long as she could" and then gave Yang the big cheerful and gentle smile she was known for.
As she was walking out of the room she stopped and told yang one more thing,
"Oh right, yang be sure Ruby drinks enough fluids, she got a little… dehydrated… again" and with that she left
She couldn't wait for another training session with Ruby tomorrow.After a third night of violence and unrest in St. Louis, about 100 protesters marched in silence along downtown streets Monday during the morning rush hour. Once they reached City Hall, the silence gave way to chants for justice.
The city has been marked by protests since Friday, when former police officer Jason Stockley was acquitted on charges of murdering a black motorist after a police chase in 2011. Stockley is white.
Overnight Sunday, police arrested more than 80 people after a peaceful protest turned violent as night fell. In a concentrated area downtown, some protesters smashed windows and overturned trash cans, while others threw chemicals and rocks at police, authorities said.
“After the demonstration, organizers announced that the daytime protest was over,” Mayor Lyda Krewson said in news conference at about 1 a.m. Monday. “But a group of agitators stayed behind, apparently intent on |
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overflow:visible; }.ui-datepicker.ui-datepicker-buttonpane button.ui-datepicker-current { float:left; } /* with multiple calendars */.ui-datepicker.ui-datepicker-multi { width:auto; }.ui-datepicker-multi.ui-datepicker-group { float:left; }.ui-datepicker-multi.ui-datepicker-group table { width:95%; margin:0 auto.4em; }.ui-datepicker-multi-2.ui-datepicker-group { width:50%; }.ui-datepicker-multi-3.ui-datepicker-group { width:33.3%; }.ui-datepicker-multi-4.ui-datepicker-group { width:25%; }.ui-datepicker-multi.ui-datepicker-group-last.ui-datepicker-header { border-left-width:0; }.ui-datepicker-multi.ui-datepicker-group-middle.ui-datepicker-header { border-left-width:0; }.ui-datepicker-multi.ui-datepicker-buttonpane { clear:left; }.ui-datepicker-row-break { clear:both; width:100%; } /* RTL support */.ui-datepicker-rtl { direction: rtl; }.ui-datepicker-rtl.ui-datepicker-prev { right: 2px; left: auto; }.ui-datepicker-rtl.ui-datepicker-next { left: 2px; right: auto; }.ui-datepicker-rtl.ui-datepicker-prev:hover { right: 1px; 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float: right; /* LTR */ margin-top: 1.4em; }.password-strength-title { display: inline; }.password-strength-text { float: right; /* LTR */ font-weight: bold; }.password-indicator { background-color: #C4C4C4; height: 0.3em; width: 100%; }.password-indicator div { height: 100%; width: 0%; background-color: #47C965; } input.password-confirm, input.password-field { width: 16em; margin-bottom: 0.4em; } div.password-confirm { float: right; /* LTR */ margin-top: 1.5em; visibility: hidden; width: 17em; } div.form-item div.password-suggestions { padding: 0.2em 0.5em; margin: 0.7em 0; width: 38.5em; border: 1px solid #B4B4B4; } div.password-suggestions ul { margin-bottom: 0; }.confirm-parent,.password-parent { clear: left; /* LTR */ margin: 0; width: 36.3em; } /* Generated by user.module but used by profile.module: */.profile { clear: both; margin: 1em 0; }.profile.user-picture { float: right; /* LTR */ margin: 0 1em 1em 0; /* LTR */ }.profile h3 { border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc; }.profile dl { margin: 0 0 1.5em 0; 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} div.tweets-pulled-listing.tweet-author a { font-weight: bold; } div.tweets-pulled-listing.tweet-time a { color: silver; } div.tweets-pulled-listing div.tweet-divider { clear: left; border-bottom: 1px solid #efefef; margin: 5px 0 5px 0; }.panel-three-column-integrated { /* overflow: hidden; */ }.panel-three-column-integrated.col-count-1.panel-col { width:100%; }.panel-three-column-integrated.col-count-2.panel-col { width:49.5%; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-top { width: 66%; float:left; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-bottom { width: 100%; clear: both; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-top.inside { margin-bottom:.5em; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-left { float: left; width: 33%; } body.page-admin.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-left { clear: both; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-left.inside { margin: 0.5em 1em.5em; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-left-bottom { clear:left; float: left; width: 66%; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-left-bottom.inside { margin: 0.5em 1em.5em; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col { float: left; width: 33%; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-middle { float: left; width: 33%; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-middle.inside { margin: 0.5em 1em.5em; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-right { float: right; width: 33%; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-col-right.inside { margin: 0 0 1em.5em; }.panel-three-column-integrated.panel-separator { margin: 0 0 1em 0; }/** simple gallery **/.scmp_gallery-simple { margin: 0 0 15px 0; }.scmp_gallery-simple * { padding: 0; margin: 0; }.scmp_gallery-simple li { margin-left: 0; padding-left: 0; list-style: none; }.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-slides { margin: 0; overflow: hidden; position: relative; }.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-slides ul { list-style-image: none; list-style-position: outside; list-style-type: none; float: left; margin: 0; padding: 0; z-index: 1; }.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-slide { display: block; float: left; position: relative; } /** is this used? **/.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-slides.panel-overlay { position: absolute; bottom: 0.5em; left: 0; background: transparent url(images/bg-trans.png) repeat; width: 100%; color: white; } /** caption **/.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-caption { background: #ccc; }.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-caption.caption-inner { color: #000; padding: 5px 10px; font-size: 0.857em; } /** buttons (is this used?) **/.scmp_gallery-simple.slide-button { top: 42%; position: absolute; display: block; cursor: pointer; } /** navigation **/.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-nav { background: url(../../images/sprite-slideshow.png) 0 -80px repeat-x; height: 20px; margin: -20px 0 0 0; padding: 0; position: relative; z-index: 100; }.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-nav.wrapper { /* is this used? */ overflow: hidden; position: relative; }.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-nav ul { text-align: center; list-style: none; margin: 0; }.scmp_gallery-simple.prev-slide,.scmp_gallery-simple.next-slide,.scmp_gallery-simple.nav-item { cursor: pointer; background: url(../../images/sprite-slideshow.png) no-repeat; width: 30px; height: 20px; }.scmp_gallery-simple.prev-slide { background-position: 5px -51px; display: block; left: 0; margin-left: 1px; position: absolute; }.scmp_gallery-simple.next-slide { background-position: 15px -28px; display: block; margin-right: 1px; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; }.scmp_gallery-simple.nav-item { background-position: 0px -9px; display: block; padding: 1px 1px 3px 1px; float: none; display: inline; }.scmp_gallery-simple.activeSlide { background-position: 0px 6px; }.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-nav.nav-item a { outline: none; } /** js enabled **/.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-processed.gallery-frame { position: relative; }.scmp_gallery-simple.gallery-processed.gallery-slide { float: none; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; }.panel-1col { /* overflow: hidden; */ }.panel-2col.panel-col-first.inside { margin: 0; }.panel-1col.panel-col { width: 100%; } #panels-edit-display.panel-pane, #panels-edit-display.helperclass { margin:.5em; }.panel-2col.panel-separator { margin: 0 0 1em 0; }.print-link { /* Use these for links above the content */ display: block; text-align: right; padding-bottom: 0.5em; /* Use these for links in a corner of the content */ /* position: relative; bottom: 0.5em; float: right; */ } div#block-print-ui-print-links span { display: block; }.print_html,.print_mail,.print_pdf,.print_epub { margin-left: 1em; }.print-syslink { margin-right: 1em; } img.print-icon { vertical-align: middle; } img.print-icon-margin { padding-right: 4px; } /** * SASS Variables */ /** * Property Listing */ /** * Fonts */ /* * voting_colors * All possible colour codes for the voting poll */ /* * field_background_color * field colors * Used for section and topic colors */ /** * Article level container widths * You Have Been Warned! By default article level width should 100%, we are using grid layout. */ /* Listing levels */ /* Taxonomy levels */ /** * Container size. */ /* Respond within min and max width */ /* * This image annotation mixin * is used to apply the text over image * style used in article levels * * We use an extend placeholder for Dry CSS. */ /* * This image background mixin * is used to apply the content over image * style used in article levels * * We use an extend placeholder for DRY CSS. */ /** * Resize an article level * * This can be used when the field configuration is the same * and the image size needs to change */ /* line 5,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #cboxLoadedContent { margin-bottom: 0; } /* line 8,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */.pane-scmp-email-to-friends-email-to-friends { display: none; } /* line 9,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form { width: 100%; height: 100%; background: #fff; } /* line 14,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item { margin: 0; border-bottom: 1px solid #EBEBEB; } /* line 17,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item label { width: 100px; color: #cccccc; font: 16px/20px "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: right; padding-top: 10px; } /* line 25,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item.form-required { color: red; } /* line 28,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item input, #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item textarea { box-sizing: border-box; width: 530px; height: 40px; font: 16px/26px "PT Sans", sans-serif; color: #000; border: 0; border-radius: 0; box-shadow: none; outline: none; margin: 0; padding: 5px 6px; } /* line 40,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item input[disabled], #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item textarea[disabled] { background-color: transparent; } /* line 43,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item input::-webkit-input-placeholder, #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item textarea::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #808080; } /* line 46,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item input:-moz-placeholder, #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item textarea:-moz-placeholder { /* Firefox 18- */ color: #808080; } /* line 49,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item input::-moz-placeholder, #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item textarea::-moz-placeholder { /* Firefox 19+ */ color: #808080; } /* line 52,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item input:-ms-input-placeholder, #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item textarea:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #808080; } /* line 56,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form.form-item textarea { line-height: 28px; resize: none; } /* line 60,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form #edit-custom-title { background-color: #EBEBEB; color: #02987d; text-transform: uppercase; padding: 20px 0 0px 25px; } /* line 65,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form #edit-custom-title h2 { font: 20px/20px "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; } /* line 68,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form #edit-forward-message { background-color: #EBEBEB; color: #808080; padding: 0px 0 3px 25px; font-size: 11px; } /* line 73,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form #edit-forward-message p { margin: 0 0 10px 0; } /* line 76,../scss/email_to_friends.scss */ #scmp-email-to-friends-print-mail-form #edNew images surfacing on the internet suggest China’s aircraft carrier has taken a big step toward flights ops.
Photos posted to the Internet in China last week seem to confirm that the Chinese Navy has installed arrestor gear and other vital equipment on its refurbished Soviet-made aircraft carrier, the ex-Varyag. If genuine, the installations could represent a big step forward for the first-ever seaborne, fixed-wing aviation capability for the People's Liberation Army Navy.
One image appears to show a traditional four-wire arrangement on the aft flight deck of the roughly 1,000-foot-long carrier. Another depicts a small tractor of the type used to move aircraft around the deck.
The ex-Varyag, which was speculated to have been renamed the Shi Lang in Chinese service, underwent more than a decade of rework in Dalian shipyard following her acquisition from Russia in the late 1990s. She conducted her first sea trial in July and performed a second, brief, at-sea test in November. These tests didn't include fixed-wing aircraft. Indeed, much of the equipment necessary to support airplanes apparently had apparently not been installed.
In December, a Chinese government spokesman denied rumors that Russia had refused to sell China arresting gear. The ex-Varyag's deck equipment was being developed indigenously, the spokesman said.
The wires and the tractor should allow the ex-Varyag to begin flight trials with navalized J-15 fighters as early as this spring – assuming, of course, that other requisite gear has also been installed, including air-traffic-control radars, communications, aircraft fueling and repair facilities.
Even with all that equipment in place, it could take years for China to train aviators and deck crew to safely and efficiently launch, recover and maintain carrier-based aircraft. Coordinating ship and plane tactics could require additional years of trial and error.
A truly effective carrier capability is one of the Holy Grails of modern naval operations. China's progress toward that goal has been slow but steady.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- Virginia State Police have charged a wrong-way driver, accused of causing a four-vehicle wreck on the Powhite Parkway Sunday morning, with Reckless Driving and Driving with a Suspended license.
It was the 11th time Thomas Meece, 29, of Mecklenburg County, has been charged with driving with a suspended license.
The accident happened Easter Sunday when a 2004 Nissan Maxima, driven by Meece, was traveling south in the northbound lanes near Midlothian Turnpike and struck three other vehicles.
The accident made for an unusual Easter Sunday for Gabrielle Vargas and her five-year-old son Robbie.
"Easter bunny came,” Vargas said. “He was really excited. We were in his room opening new toys and stuff and all of the sudden we hear this loud boom!”
The family’s backyard butts up to the Powhite Parkway where Virginia State Troopers investigated the crash.
Meece and two other people were taken an area hospital with injuries that were called non-life threatening.
After seeing the wreckage, Vargas said things could have been a lot worse.
“All you see is pieces of car all over the highway," she said.
Her son, Robbie, was excited to see the police in action since he wants to be an officer when he grows up. Accordingly, Vargas decided to use Sunday as a teaching moment for her young boy.
"I'm like, ‘You never know what's going to happen. You have to be careful on the road. You have to be alert at all times.’"Phil Jay
The winner of a soon-to-be announced heavyweight rematch between Tony Bellew and David Haye will get a shot at the WBO title, provided Joseph Parker comes through his defence against Hughie Fury.
Parker faces Fury in a mandatory clash, nine months in the making at Manchester Arena in the UK following a maiden world championship win over American slugger Andy Ruiz Jr. back in December.
Should the New Zealander fend off the challenge of fellow-undefeated puncher Fury, WBN has learned of an agreement being in place for Parker to face the winner of Bellew v Haye II.
Bellew and Haye have been reported to be ‘in talks’ for a December clash on the back of their debated March affair, although WBN understands the fight is far more advanced at this stage.
An announcement could be made next week and depends on all parties agreeing to a date at the O2 Arena in London. All Saturday’s are currently taken at the London venue, leaving promoter Eddie Hearn with a potential headache and a difficult decision to make.
Following public talks with both Bellew and Haye’s teams earlier this year, it’s been proposed Parker faces whomever comes out on top in his voluntary defence, possibly in the late spring or early summer of 2018 at an outdoor UK venue.
Bellew and Haye will be avid viewers when it comes to Parker facing Fury in two weeks’ time as the 25 year-old champion attempts to seal what will be a career biggest payday for the WBO ruler.
It’s then highly possible the eventual champion, whether it be Parker, Bellew or Haye, will earn the right to tackle Anthony Joshua in a unification, should the Olympic gold medallist keep his own record perfect in the meantime.
Joshua is currently scheduled to fight Kubrat Pulev before Luis Ortiz or Deontay Wilder next year.
Phil Jay is Editor of World Boxing News. Follow on Twitter @PhilDJayThe best thing about the Halo 5 gameplay trailer is the story doesn't immediately collapse into sci-fi nonsense; this is a coherent elevator pitch. The people our hero Master Chief trusted have asked him to do something outside his moral boundaries, and he's gone rogue. Now, a band of four soldiers must travel across a hostile galaxy to capture the warrior of their time. That's the story, or something close to it. Either way, this trailer alone offers a more coherent through-line than the previous Halo games, each of which I've played multiple times — I vaguely remember them having something to do with space politics, a floating space ring, something call the Flood, and clone babies. Following along required a patience for text-heavy in-game computer terminals and loopy dialogue.
My only issue with the Halo 5 trailer stems from a gut feeling that the most interesting computer-animated bits we see today won't quite be as over-the-top as playable chunks in the game. This trailer promises a high-speed snow-skiing death ballet, and I hope that's what I get instead of a slow-paced bullet fest that's just like any other shooter corridor, but on a horizontal decline. Actually, I hope for two things from the actual gameplay: more snow-skiing firefights and less Muse.Two authors tell the NBC10 Investigators they believe they’ve solved one of Philadelphia’s oldest and most notorious cold cases. NBC10 Investigative Reporter Mitch Blacher reports. (Published Wednesday, March 2, 2016)
Two authors tell the NBC10 Investigators they believe they’ve solved one of Philadelphia’s oldest and most notorious cold cases.
On February 25, 1957 police discovered a young boy beaten, stuffed in a card board box and abandoned in the woods in the city’s Fox Chase neighborhood.
The boy was dubbed “the boy in the box.” Today his grave reads “America’s Unknown Child.”
The details of the cold case chilled Philadelphia. Putting a name on the boy’s grave is something that frustrated generations of police investigators.
“To put a name on the child’s grave and to solve the case, it’s the ultimate in police work,” Philadelphia Police Sergeant Bob Kuhlmeier said.
Kuhlmeier is the third generation of Philadelphia police detectives to lead the case.
In 1998, police exhumed the boy’s body and took a DNA sample from a remaining tooth.
The two authors – one from Los Angeles, and another from outside New York, say they believe they’ve traced the boy’s family to Memphis, Tennessee and need his DNA to prove it.
While researching separate books, they say they've paired two tips together: one from a woman claiming her mother bought and killed the boy; the other from a Philadelphia man who told the authors his family rented a home to a man who sold his son.
They took a DNA sample from who they believe to be the boy’s brother.
“The only way I’m going to find out if it’s the child is with the DNA evidence. Scientific evidence,” New Jersey based author Lou Romano said.
“It makes the most sense when you look at all the facts,” Los Angeles based author Jim Hoffman said.
Dr. Greg McDonald reviewed pictures of the boy, his potential brother and potential father.
McDonald is Philadelphia’s former assistant medical examiner and the current Montgomery County deputy medical examiner.
He said forensic experts will use pictures to judge if further laboratory analysis is required.
“There are some similarities to these pictures,” McDonald said. “Enough similarities that I think it’s worth further investigation through further laboratory tests.”
Dr. McDonald said the three men appear to share traits that could point to a genetic match.
Sgt. Kuhlmeier and his colleagues worked 280 homicides in 2015. He said they have to work fresh cases first leaving little time to chase leads in a 59 year old cold case. He called the author’s tip “average” and said before comparing any DNA police would need to confirm the timeline that led the authors to their conclusions.
“We’re going to investigate further is what we’re going to do,” Kuhlmeier said.The Iranian President made the remarks at a meeting on Wednesday morning in Tehran with Parliament Speaker of the People's Assembly of the Syrian Arab Republic Ms. Hadiyeh Khalaf Abbas.
Rouhani extended congratulations on recent victories of Syrian people against terrorists stating “in the past months, positive developments have been observed in Syria as evidenced by the change in views of world governments who are bound to succumb to realities of Syria.”
“Like always, Iran will remain on the side of Syrian people in the fight against terrorism and upcoming peace talks,” he continued.
The senior Iranian official, while referring to difficult and tough conditions experienced by Syrians, reiterated that Syria’s support of the Palestinian cause partly explains the pressure imposed against people of Syria in recent years.
“Syria has always led the frontier of Resistance which explains high pressures against its people,” noted Rouhani.
Iran’s President deemed establishment of peace and stability in Syria to the benefit of Palestine and the region asserting “Palestine remains as the most significant issue in the Islamic world and we hope the 6th International Conference on Palestinian Intifada will mark a major step towards resolving regional issues.”
Speaker of People's Assembly of Syria Khalaf Abbas, for her part, conveyed warm greetings of the Syrian government and people to President Rouhani saying “the people of Syria appreciate generous supports of Iran in the absence of which no victory would have been obtained.”
She pointed to the importance of coordination between Tehran and Damascus in the fight against terrorists adding “bilateral coordination will offer fruitful and positive outcomes as Syrian issues have taken up constructive approaches as regards political and military dimensions.”
Hadiyeh Khalaf Abbas also called for further strengthening of Iran-Syria ties maintaining that Syria attached great importance to bolstering multilateral relations with Iran.
On holding of the Conference on Palestinian Intifada at present circumstances, the visiting official explained “the event will exert positive effects on backing the Palestinian cause especially at a time when several Arab and Western countries want the Palestinian issue to be overlooked.”
HA/IRN82440380In the aftermath of last month’s CRTC’s zero rating decision, there have been several pieces in the Globe and Mail raising the possibility that Canadian cultural policy might benefit from zero rating Cancon. In other words, rather than rely on net neutrality rules (including restrictions on zero rating) to ensure that Canadian content benefits from a level playing field, perhaps it would be even better to tilt the rules in favour of Cancon by mandating that domestic content not count against monthly data caps.
The issue was raised during the CRTC zero rating hearing as Canadian Media Producers Association argued that:
the Commission should be open to considering ways in which differential pricing practices related to Internet data plans could be used to promote the discoverability of and consumer access to Canadian programming.
The CRTC rejected the argument, concluding that “any benefits to the Canadian broadcasting system would generally not be sufficient to justify the preference, discrimination, and/or disadvantage created by such practices.” In response, anti-net neutrality advocate Roslyn Layton argued that Canada should exempt Canadian content from data charges, an idea picked up by Kate Taylor and Robert Everett-Green.
To date, Canadian Heritage Minister Melanie Joly has been a vocal net neutrality supporter and there is no indication that she plans to change that position. Indeed, abandoning net neutrality in order to support Canadian content would raise of host issues including the prospect of increased surveillance of Internet usage, unenforceable regulations, and diminished value of Canadian content.
When Canada first debated net neutrality regulations in 2009, the Canadian cultural community was solidly in favour of it. For example, the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA), the predecessor to the CMPA, stated:
The CFTPA submits that certain ISP traffic management practices, such as discriminatory traffic throttling, diminish the range of distribution options and degrade the quality of the Internet as a content distribution platform. If left unchecked, such practices threaten to reduce the diversity of Canadian programming that is available to Canadians. It is therefore critical that a regulatory framework be adopted that ensures that ISPs do not become gatekeepers of Canadian content on the Internet, undermining the ability of Canadian independent producers to play their role.
The CFTPA, therefore submitted that the CRTC should require “as a condition of service that ISPs refrain from employing any traffic management practice that discriminates on the basis of application or protocol.” Similar support |
the entire MK II lineup — the lineup that was responsible for their three most classic albums — except organist Jon Lord who sadly passed away in 2012 and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, whose current relationship with the band is so rocky that their manager wouldn’t even allow him to attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. No Blackmore is the obvious downer — his riffs are arguably the most essential part of Purple’s sound — but it shouldn’t take away from the amount of legendary talent that’s still on stage.
Not to suggest that Deep Purple aren’t selling a lot of tickets when they’re playing secondary markets. In fact, a band like Pentagram is probably selling less tickets at their shows. But by playing cool youth-targeting festivals like Meltasia, Psycho Las Vegas, and Burger Beach Bash and touring with hip modern bands that they’ve influenced, they’re securing their legacy with younger generations (even if that’s not all a positive). Deep Purple seem like they’re at risk of becoming a relic, if they haven’t become one already.
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My own relationship with Deep Purple goes back to childhood. They were actually my first rock concert, though I was too young to remember anything other than that it was very loud and that I fell asleep during their set. It was the 1998 tour with Emerson Lake & Palmer, and my dad took me to the Jones Beach show. There was a third band, but we stayed in the parking lot for their set because my dad said they sucked. Years later I learned that band was Dream Theater. My dad never steered me wrong.
I couldn’t have known it then, but I’d see the light of Deep Purple’s masterpieces down the line. Like a lot of people, I first knew “Highway Star” and “Smoke on the Water”, both off 1972’s Machine Head, but it wasn’t until years later that I’d discover their less played, more groundbreaking material. 1970’s Deep Purple In Rock, the first album with the MK II lineup — which had Blackmore and Lord plus founding drummer Ian Paice and then-new members Ian Gillan (vocals) and Roger Glover (bass) — still sounds shockingly ahead of its time today. Released the same year as Paranoid and Zeppelin III, Deep Purple In Rock predicted the future of heavy metal in ways not even those albums could. Ozzy was more evil and Plant had better range, but neither of them screamed like Ian Gillan did. He set as much or more of a precedent than Plant and Ozzy did for guys like Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson. Sabbath and Zeppelin both got fast, but “Speed King” is to speed metal what “Sweet Leaf” is to doom. You can just picture a young Lemmy hearing it and finding inspiration.
In Rock also justifies anyone calling Blackmore a guitar god. The noise that introduces “Speed King” must have sounded like a huge “fuck you” to Deep Purple’s MK I period when this record came out, and all the riffs and solos that follow in the next 43 minutes leave you wondering just how the hell “Smoke on the Water” is what people wanna remember him for. That MK I period, by the way — which had Rod Evans on vocals, Nick Simper on bass, and produced three studio albums — had Purple functioning as a straight-up psychedelic rock band, like a lot of proto-metal bands were at first. That sound is almost entirely gone by In Rock, save for “Child In Time,” which is essentially a jam on “Bombay Calling” off the first album by It’s A Beautiful Day, a highly underrated band from the same San Francisco psych scene that produced the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.
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Elsewhere on In Rock, there’s the early stoner rock of the murky “Into The Fire,” more noise and heroic solos on “Bloodsucker,” and still plenty of other stuff that still feels fresh today. Then there’s the 1971 followup, Fireball, with its opening title track that rivals “Speed King” as far as essential early speed metal goes. This album’s also got “Anyone’s Daughter,” an outlier and the only time you might call MK II-era Deep Purple “Dylanesque.” It’s also got the iconic “The Mule,” which could get extended to ten minutes at live shows (with a lengthy drum solo), as you can hear on the band’s must-have live album Made In Japan.
Fast forward a few years, and Deep Purple’s MK III lineup debuts with 1974’s Burn. In place of Gillan and Glover, they’ve now got David Coverdale on vocals and Glenn Hughes (of the psych/prog band Trapeze with future Judas Priest drummer Dave Holland) on bass/vocals, introducing a dual-vocal style to Purple’s sound. Coverdale would get a lot more famous a few years later by forming the hair metal band Whitesnake and churning out cringe-inducers like “Here I Go Again.” But his (ongoing) hair metal years are forgiven when you consider he was making real-deal heavy metal before most bands were. (Maybe even Coverdale looks back more fondly on his Purple years — Whitesnake’s latest album, 2015’s The Purple Album, is all Deep Purple songs, and he’s planning a live album/film of the tour he did in support of it.)
Burn came out the same year as Judas Priest’s first album, but even that was more of a traditional hard rock record. Today, the wailing vocal harmonies of Burn‘s opening title track could fool someone into thinking they’re listening to early ’80s NWOBHM. (Deep Purple really know how to pick opening songs.) Coverdale and Hughes’ vocals really introduce a new life to the band, and it doesn’t hurt that Blackmore and Lord are at the top of their game here too. It’s truly classic heavy metal. Another album (Stormbringer) would drop later that year, and then Blackmore would leave Deep Purple, team up with some guy named Ronnie James Dio from some band called Elf to form the band Rainbow, and explore the Burn sound even further.
Like Sabbath (but unlike Zeppelin), Blackmore fully embraced the “heavy metal pioneer” title and continued to innovate the genre as it gained popularity with a slew of bands he himself influenced. Those first three Rainbow albums are crucial heavy metal albums. I might even argue that they’re a little more highly regarded by metal audiences today than Deep Purple albums, but that’s probably more thanks to Dio than to Ritchie Blackmore. Unlike any band Blackmore ever played in, Dio was voted one of the 25 best metal bands when MetalSucks polled 100+ musicians/critics/industry folk in 2014. AC/DC, who of course influenced metal but were never really a metal band themselves, make the list. Even… Lamb of God does. (Obviously Black Sabbath are #1, and Ozzy is on there solo too.)
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Speaking of, an interesting plot point that anyone who’s read this far probably already knows: After Dio left Rainbow (who had 2 members who went on to form Bible Black with future members of Blue Cheer and Anthrax), he replaced Ozzy in Black Sabbath and did two classic albums with them. Once Dio left Sabbath, he was replaced by Ian Gillan for one album. Then Gillan left, and Sabbath’s next album had Glenn Hughes on lead vocals. The only Sabbath member that appears on all of those releases is Tony Iommi. How often do two major guitar-hero rivals also work with three of the same singers?
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Deep Purple’s rich proto-metal history may be written off in part because of the novelty of that “Smoke on the Water” riff, but they aren’t the only band with this fate. Take another colorfully-named band Blue Oyster Cult, a band where you risk being told something about cowbells anytime you bring them up. “Burnin’ for You,” and to a lesser extent “Godzilla,” are still classic rock radio staples, but they tell so little of the band’s story. A major difference between Deep Purple and Blue Oyster Cult (besides that BOC are still not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), is that while “Speed King” or “Burn” trump “Smoke on the Water” any day, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” and “Burnin’ For You” really are BOC’s best songs. Also, neither of them are metal songs. “Reaper” lives on because of its iconic guitar arpeggio and lush ’60s-recalling harmonies, and “Burnin’ For You” is new wavey power pop. (Both also make use of the ever-addictive Am-G-F chord progression that has never failed at making a rock song lovable. Just ask “Hey Hey, My My” or you know, “Stairway to Heaven.”) But really Blue Oyster Cult were never very metal anyway — they had evil imagery (like the umlaut over the “O” in their name and the cross in their logo) and sometimes evil sounds, but they weren’t a very heavy band. That’s why now they often get namedropped when people talk about Ghost. That’s not a knock though. Looking cool is a really important part of rock and roll and don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise! It does matter that BOC looked evil before zillions of evil-looking metal bands formed.
Blue Oyster Cult’s heaviest record is their 1973 sophomore LP, Tyranny and Mutation, a nice slice of early stoner rock, but nothing that Sabbath or Purple (or Budgie or Uriah Heep) hadn’t already out-heavied. Their most important album to the development of heavy metal though, is that album’s 1974 followup, Secret Treaties. It may not be a very heavy song, but the devil-ish chord progression and truly evil vocals on album opener “Career of Evil” predicted metal’s popular era more than the louder Tyranny and Mutation. Add some thick distortion to that song and it wouldn’t be too out of place on a Judas Priest album, or maybe like, a Diamond Head album. (Not to mention Patti Smith — who was dating the late Allen Lanier of BOC at the time — wrote the lyrics to that song, and other songs throughout BOC’s career. How cool do you have to be to collaborate with Patti Smith?) “Subhuman,” “Harvester of Eyes” and “Astronomy” offer another glimpse into the devil’s lair.
Patti Smith’s contribution aside, there’s some proto-punk on this album too. “Cagey Cretins” sorta sounds like a slightly more evil Stooges (whose Iggy Pop would go on to collaborate with Allen Lanier). “Dominance and Submission” makes you wonder if the Ramones had it in mind when they wrote “We’re A Happy Family” the same year they opened for Blue Oyster Cult.
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After Secret Treaties came 1976’s Agents of Fortune, home of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” and the band’s best album. Opener “This Ain’t the Summer of Love” is more BOC-style evil and a clear heads up that this band is no bunch of flower-power hippies (even though, again, “Reaper” has those harmonies that beg to differ.) That song aside, BOC really aren’t much of a proto-metal band anymore at this point. Patti Smith returns, this time not to just to co-write but also to sing on “The Revenge of Vera Gemini,” and that song is not surprisingly a highlight. There’s some more hard rock on this album (“True Confessions,” “Sinful Love,” “Tattoo Vampire”), but the band’s days as a prescient heavy metal band are mostly behind them by 1976. It’s the year Judas Priest set a new bar for heavy metal with Sad Wings of Destiny, and Agents of Fortune’s hard rock songs sound dated in comparison.
Blue Oyster Cult are sometimes lumped in with washed-up baby boomer bands, but they’ve been popping up in hipper modern-day circles too. “Reaper” turned 40 this year, and the band’s tour in celebration of that hit NYC for a residency at BB King’s, where classic rock is usually represented by the current lineups of Asia or America or Foghat. (For comparison, the back-in-action Grim Reaper hit Brooklyn’s home of underground metal, Saint Vitus.) That said, the very cool Psycho Las Vegas festival — which also booked Pentagram — had them repping proto-metal along with Alice Cooper and obscurer bands The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Truth & Janey. Pitchfork also put “Reaper” on their recently-published 200 Best Songs of the 1970s, a list which does not include “Stairway to Heaven” (or anything by Ritchie Blackmore). How’s that for revisionist history of the ’70s?
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Subscribe to Brooklyn Vegan onAmericans across the country now know about a soup kitchen serving thousands of hungry people in Youngstown, Ohio.
Unfortunately, most learned about it because of a publicity stunt by Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The backlash from The Ryan Budget Traveling Roadshow could threaten future funding for the program.
Last weekend, Ryan and his family were on their way to the airport, when he decided to barge into a dining hall run by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The patrons already had eaten and departed. The volunteers had cleared the hall and cleaned most of the dishes. Nevertheless, Ryan, his wife and three young children donned aprons. Moments later, photographers and television cameras captured Ryan standing at the sink, his head bent low as he scrubbed a pot.
When the charity’s president, Brian J. Antal, found out about Ryan’s stunt, he was furious. Ryan and his campaign had “ramrodded” their way into the kitchen, Antal told The Washington Post on Monday.
“We’re a faith-based organization,” he said. “We are apolitical because the majority of our funding is from private donations. It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it. They showed up there, and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors. […]The photo-op they did wasn’t even accurate. He did nothing. He just came in here to get his picture taken at the dining hall.”
Public reaction was ferocious — and much of it has targeted Antal.
When I talked to Antal on Tuesday afternoon, he said he was starting to worry “a little bit” for the safety of his family. A young child wailed in the background as he described the barrage of angry calls he’d been fielding ever since the story broke.
“They keep accusing me of being partisan,” he said. “They say they’re donors who will never give again because of what I said.” None of them would give a name.
Juanita Sherba, St. Vincent’s Saturday coordinator for the dining hall, told The Youngstown Vindicator’s David Skolnick that she had given the Ryan campaign prior approval but later regretted her decision to allow what was clearly “a photo-op.”
“It was the phoniest piece of baloney I’ve ever been associated with,” she told The Vindicator. “In hindsight, I would have never let him in the door. […]They couldn’t have cared less. The advance man said Paul Ryan wanted to come and talk to our clientele, but he didn’t.”
Pundits and reporters are having a field day with this, of course. One reporter called it “Brillo Gate.” Another pointed out that Antal has voted in Democratic primaries — in the Democratic stronghold of Youngstown, you understand, where local Republican candidates are as common as palm trees.
Lost in this revelry are some hard facts facing Youngstown every day.
Between October 2011 and September 2012, St. Vincent’s served more than 98,000 meals. Antal says the need only continues to grow.
“They come from all walks of life,” he said. “Homeless people, of course, [Youngstown State University] students, people who just can’t make ends meet.”
The largest growing population in need? “The working poor. We see a lot of families these days, a lot of children.”
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40520 Tortured, Killed at Popular Muslim Shrine in Pakistan by ‘Faith Healer’ (VIDEO)
A Muslim faith healer reportedly drugged and killed 20 disciples at a popular shrine.
20 individuals are dead and four more are wounded (in critical condition) following their drugging and violent stabbing by a Muslim faith healer in Punjab, Pakistan at a Sufi shrine.
The victims, who were disciples of the healer, were said to be drugged via laced food, stripped naked, and then stabbed to death with a dagger and stick. The incident occurred at midnight between Saturday and Sunday.
A Breitbart post from April 3 gives more details:
The alleged perpetrator of the crime is the 50-year-old shrine custodian and faith healer Abdul Waheed, who confessed that he killed these people because he feared that they had come to kill him, according to regional police chief Zulfiqar Hameed. “The suspect appears to be paranoid and psychotic, or it could be related to rivalry for the control of shrine,” Hameed said.
Despite being known for his erratic behavior, Waheed was popular as a healer.How to Act In the Face of Uncertainty: Both “Doubt” and “Faith” Can Be Rational
In every action there is an element of uncertainty. This is because we never know exactly how the future is going to play out.
We can gain knowledge and experience, and have a “good guess” on how something may work out, but we can’t know anything as 100% certain.
Our uncertainty is therefore a necessary byproduct of our lives as human beings, who never have perfect knowledge or perception.
While some view this uncertainty as crippling, others find ways to move past their uncertainty and take action in light of it.
There are two main ways we can respond to our uncertainty to help guide our lives rather than keep us stuck.
Rational doubt
Sometimes uncertainty tells us that we lack enough knowledge to properly guide our decisions, so we should therefore try to educate ourselves more.
For example, when you first start looking at colleges or choosing a study, you’re naturally going to feel a little uncertain about what the right course of action is.
And that’s a good thing – because you shouldn’t make important decisions in your life if you haven’t given them any real thought or done any research.
A person who has spent time reading about different colleges, visiting them, and talking to others who have attended that college, will gradually become more certain about what a good choice is vs. a bad choice.
In this case, uncertainty creates a feeling of doubt that allows us to step back, re-evaluate our actions, and seek new knowledge if it’s necessary and appropriate.
Rational faith
No matter how much information you get regarding a decision in your life, you’ll never have a complete picture.
When we over-think things we fall into analysis paralysis, a state where our uncertainty has us chasing an endless amount of knowledge but never taking action on any of it.
In every action, you need to take some leap of faith in the face of your uncertainty. This is because in every decision you have to accept that you are limited by:
Imperfect knowledge: We can never know all the information going into a situation, so we have to be comfortable acting on imperfect knowledge.
Time constraints: If you wait too long to make a decision then you might miss it forever. Sometimes you have to take action simply because you don’t have any more time to think about it.
The downward spiral of inaction: You can’t get all your knowledge from books, videos, or other people – sometimes you need to just take action to learn and grow, even if things don’t work out the way you planned.
With these things in mind, it’s clear that working with some degree of uncertainty is an embedded part of everyday life.
Uncertainty is a sign to either “step back” or “move forward”
Doubt and faith are both rational responses to our uncertainty.
When we have doubt, we believe we should “step back” and halt a course of action until we know a bit more. And when we have faith, we believe we should “move forward” and pursue a course of action even though we don’t have all the facts.
Both are important functions of the human mind that need to be exercised. And when you learn to balance both accordingly, you become a master of your uncertainty.
Stay updated on new articles and resources in psychology and self improvement:Kayla Goodfield, CP24.com
A male victim has been taken to a trauma centre in life-threatening condition after a shooting took place at Sherway Gardens Plaza in broad daylight on Wednesday night.
Officers were called to the shopping plaza’s parking lot at around 7 p.m. for reports of several gun shots heard in the area.
Police said they had located one male victim at the scene but did not specify his age.
As well, Toronto Paramedics said a second male victim was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries caused by shattered glass.
Both victims are believed to be in their 50’s.
Witnesses at the scene told CP24 on Wednesday night that the male victim was shot inside a maroon-coloured vehicle in the plaza’s parking lot.
“We were coming into the parking lot and we saw a van rush right by us and as soon as we pulled into this lot we saw a lot of police activity going on,” Ricardo Bocaegra said. “And there was a man being pulled out of a car.”
Furthermore, acting Duty Inspector Leah Gilfoy told reporters at the scene that the suspects approached the vehicle from behind before shooting at the victims.
“It’s very concerning,” she said.
Gilfoy said that this shooting is a public safety issue adding that two bullets hit a witness’ car in the parking lot during the incident.
“Gun violence is plaguing all of our society here and it’s very concerning.”
According to officials, a black SUV was seen fleeing the scene driving out of the mall’s parking lot after the shooting.
The vehicle was later located by police in Mississauga in the area of Hurontario Street and Queen Elizabeth Way, but the suspects involved are still at large.
After locating the suspect vehicle, police said it was stolen and burned.
As well, police said two men were seen in the suspect vehicle at the time of the shooting and confirmed that neither of them entered the mall before or after the shooting.
No suspect description was provided for either of the men as police say their faces were “concealed” at the time and they were both wearing all black.The other day I wanted to find out how much it costs to rent an apartment in each city block.
When taking a quick look at available OpenStreetMap data, I was able to get the locations and boundaries of administrative regions, buildings and streets but not boundaries of each individual block within a city.
Simply plot the streets and convert them to polygons at intersections? It was not as straightforward as I thought it would be.
In this blog post, I'll talk about using QGIS software to explore and visualize LARGE maps and provide a Python script (you don't need QGIS for this) for converting lines that represent streets to polygons that represent city blocks. The script will use the polygonize function from Shapely but you need to preprocess the OSM data first which is the secret sauce.
Throughout this post I will be using the GeoJSON format since it's easy to use with JavaScript maps libraries. I didn't know about GeoJSON before and I never looked at the spec and you don't have to either.
Mapzen Metro Extracts
Go to Mapzen Metro Extracts and search for the city of interest.
In my case, I'm using the data for Riga, Latvia
Download the dataset split by geometry type in GeoJSON format.
Extract the zip file. You will have three files.
riga_latvia_osm_line.geojson riga_latvia_osm_point.geojson riga_latvia_osm_polygon.geojson
The riga_latvia_osm_line.geojson file is the one we are going to use.
QGIS
QGIS is an open source desktop software package for editing maps on your computer.
You don't strictly need it (you can skip this section and scroll down to the code).
In fact, I found about it at the end of my journey and was using geojson.io to visually see polygons in my browser. But geojson.io will struggle with any substantial amount of data so QGIS is much better suited for playing with this data.
Download and install QGIS desktop. It is cross-platform software.
Open file
Launch QGIS Desktop.
Create a new project with Project -> New.
Drag & drop the riga_latvia_osm_line.geojson onto the blank canvas in QGIS.
That's way too many lines.
Filter lines
In the Layers Panel, right click on the only layer that you have and choose Filter....
In the Query Builder window, find highway in the Fields listbox and click on the All button in the Values section. You will see all possible values for the field highway.
We are going to filter out lines that are not roads and we are only going to use major roads and exclude pedestrian paths and service roads, etc.
Here is a sample query that you can play with. You could also include railways, other roads, etc.
"highway" IN ('primary','secondary', 'tertiary','residential', 'trunk')
Now our map has much less detail and you can clearly see the city blocks.
Add real map layer
First, go to Plugins -> Manage and Install Plugins..., search for OpenLayers Plugin and install it.
Then go to Web -> OpenLayers plugin -> OpenStreetMap -> OpenStreetMap.
It will add a layer with OpenStreetMap. Make sure to move your layer in the Layers Panel above the OpenStreetMap layer, so that the lines are on top of the map and you can see them.
You could also use Google Maps or Bing Maps but I found that the streets were a little bit off.
If the lines are hard to see, you can change the line color to, say, blue to make it possible to see them better.
Or just toggle the OSM layer on or off.
Lines to polygons
There is a tool under Vector -> Geometry Tools -> Lines to polygons.
But it will likely give you poor results with OSM data.
Script
We are going to use the polygonize function from the Shapely library for Python.
But we can't use it with the downloaded data. We first need to prepare the data.
The first step is to exclude certain lines so that we don't end up with too many polygons, just likely we did with the filter function in QGIS earlier.
Then we are going to split LineString s with many points to many LineString s with just two points. This is the secret sauce to make the polygonize function to work properly. If you skip this step, the result may have many missing polygons or in the worst case look just as patchy as the Lines to polygons tool in QGIS.
Dependencies
Install Shapely with pip
pip install shapely
If you are on Windows like me, this is not going to work.
Instead, go here and download the whl file for your Python version.
Then install it
python.exe -m pip install Shapely-1.5.16-cp35-cp35m-win_amd64.whl
Filter lines
This is similar to what we did earlier in QGIS
import sys, json if __name__ == '__main__' : input_filename = sys.argv[ 1 ] output_filename = sys.argv[ 2 ] highway_whitelist = { 'primary','secondary', 'tertiary','residential', 'trunk' } streets = json.load(open(input_filename, encoding= 'utf-8' )) streets[ 'features' ] = [feat for feat in streets[ 'features' ] if feat[ 'properties' ][ 'highway' ] in highway_whitelist] json.dump(streets, open(output_filename, 'w' ))
Run it
python filter.py riga_latvia_osm_line.geojson riga_streets.tmp.geojson
The original file was 112 MB and the filtered file is now 17 MB.
If you cleared the properties (which you may not need anymore) of every feature, the file size would be even smaller.
Convert lines
This is the secret sauce.
The length of lines that represent streets are arbitrary. I guess they were added by humans manually. Which means that a street can span multiple intersections which is my theory why the polygonize function gets confused and you get few or patchy polygons.
The solution was to split each line that consists of multiple points into multiple lines with just two points (beginning and end).
import sys, json if __name__ == '__main__' : input_filename = sys.argv[ 1 ] output_filename = sys.argv[ 2 ] data = json.load(open(input_filename, encoding= 'utf-8' )) geojson = { "type" : "FeatureCollection", "features" : [] } for feature in data[ 'features' ]: coords = feature[ 'geometry' ][ 'coordinates' ] for i in range( 0, len(coords) - 1 ): geojson[ 'features' ].append({ "type" : "Feature", "properties" : feature[ 'properties' ], "geometry" : { "type" : "LineString", "coordinates" : [coords[i], coords[i+ 1 ]] } }) json.dump(geojson, open(output_filename, 'w' ))
Run it
python split-lines.py riga_streets.tmp.geojson riga_streets.geojson
The file size grew from 17 MB to 98 MB.
If you uncomment the line that clears the properties field, the file size will be just 12 MB.
Polygonize lines
This script polygonize.py will read all lines from a GeoJSON file, call the polygonize function from Shapely and save all polygons to a GeoJSON file.
import sys import json from shapely.ops import polygonize from shapely.geometry import asShape from shapely.geometry import mapping if __name__ == '__main__' : input_filename = sys.argv[ 1 ] output_filename = sys.argv[ 2 ] streets = json.load(open(input_filename)) lines = [] for feature in streets[ 'features' ]: lines.append(asShape(feature[ 'geometry' ])) polys = list(polygonize(lines)) geojson = { "type" : "FeatureCollection", "features" : [] } for poly in polys: geojson[ 'features' ].append({ "type" : "Feature", "properties" : {}, "geometry" : mapping(poly) }) json.dump(geojson, open(output_filename, 'w' ))
Run it
python polygonize.py riga_streets.geojson riga_polys.geojson
The final file size is just 3 MB.
Results
If you load the polygons in QGIS, it'll look like this.
You can make the polygon layer fill color transparent by changing the opacity/alpha of the fill color under style properties.
This file is small enough so that you can open it in geojson.io which means you can also use Leaflet (a JS library for interactive maps) to add these polygons from a GeoJSON file to your map in JS.
I actually found geojson.io to be much easier to use to add and delete polygons than QGIS.
Here are some polygons from Brooklyn, New York, US.
You can download the map.geojson file from this gist and open it in geojson.io for more interactivity.
Extra
In the beginning, I attempted to do this with node.js since my visualization and data crawling was also written in JavaScript.
There is turfjs for node.js which is a collection of functions for working with GeoJSON data.
Here are some of the code that I threw out but may be useful.
Filtering lines by distance
If your downloaded map is too large and you have too many lines to show (if you are not using QGIS but sticking with geojson.io only, for example), you can exclude lines that are a certain distance from the city center.
var fs = require ( 'fs' ) var distance = require ( 'turf-distance' ) var centroid = require ( 'turf-centroid' ) var s = fs.readFileSync( 'riga_latvia_osm_line.geojson' ) var geo = JSON.parse(s) var cityCenter = { type : "Feature", geometry : { type : "Point", coordinates : [ 24.1153139, 56.9570109 ] } } var highwayWhitelist = { "primary" : true, "primary_link" : true, "secondary" : true, "secondary_link" : true, "residential" : true, "service" : false, "tertiary" : true, "tertiary_link" : true, "trunk" : true, "trunk_link" : true, } for ( var key in geo.features) { var feat = geo.features[key] var keep = false if (highwayWhitelist[feat.properties.highway]) { var lineCenter = centroid(feat) var d = distance(cityCenter, lineCenter) if (d <= 3.5 ) { keep = true } } if (!keep) { delete geo.features[key] } else { delete feat.properties feat.properties = {} } } var lines = geo.features.filter( f =>!!f)
The same code In Python with Shapely.
from shapely.geometry import Point from shapely.geometry import asShape, mapping import json center = Point( 24.1153139, 56.9570109 ) max_distance_from_center = 0.033 highway_whitelist = { 'primary','secondary', 'tertiary','residential', 'trunk' } data = json.load(open( 'riga_latvia_osm_line.geojson', encoding= 'utf-8' )) for feature in data[ 'features' ]: if feature[ 'properties' ][ 'highway' ] in highway_whitelist: line = asShape(feature[ 'geometry' ]) distance = center.distance(line.centroid) if distance < max_distance_from_center: lines.append(feature)
Filtering lines by polygon
This piece of code will filter out lines that are not part of a polygon (an administrative boundary within a city, for instance).
That's accomplished by splitting each line into 100 meter segments and checking if the center point of a segment is within that polygon. I couldn't find a function that checks if a line intersects with a polygon so this was my quick workaround.
var fs = require ( 'fs' ) var centroid = require ( 'turf-centroid' ) var lineChunk = require ( 'turf-line-chunk' ) var gju = require ( 'geojson-utils' ) var region = { "type" : "FeatureCollection", "features" : [ { "type" : "Feature", "properties" : {}, "geometry" : { "type" : "Polygon", "coordinates" : [ [ [ 24.011306762695312, 57.07750772096635 ],... ] } } ] }.features[ 0 ] for ( var key in geo.features) { var feat = geo.features[key] var keep = false if (highwayWhitelist[feat.properties.highway]) { var segments = lineChunk(feat, 0.1, 'kilometers' ) segments.features.forEach( seg => { if (keep) return var lineCenter = centroid(seg) if (gju.pointInPolygon(lineCenter.geometry, region.geometry)) { keep = true } } } if (!keep) { delete geo.features[key] } else { delete feat.properties feat.properties = {} } }
Summary
Download GeoJSON files from Mapzen Metro Extracts
Filter lines with filter.py
Split LineString s with multiple points to LineStrings with two points with split-lines.py
s with multiple points to with two points with Create polygons with polygonize.py
Look at results with QGIS or geojson.io
So this may not be perfect and if you have any suggestions I am open to them.Arizona House Kills Bill That Would Punish Protesters By Seizing Their Assets
from the slightly-more-temperate-heads-prevail dept
The nice thing about truly stupid ideas is they generally have very short lifespans. Last week, the Arizona Senate did itself a huge disservice by passing a bill targeting a nonexistent problem ("paid protesters") with fines, jail time, and seized assets if any act of destruction occurs during a protest. It wasn't limited to just the person committing the act. Anyone else participating in the same protest could be rung up on the same charges, as well as any nonparticipants who may have been involved in the planning process.
In support of this idiocy, idiotic statements were made, including the unforgettable assertion that a new terrible law was needed because existing rioting laws were constantly being undercut by a functioning bail system.
Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, said the new criminal laws are necessary. “I have been heartsick with what’s been going on in our country, what young people are being encouraged to do,’’ she said. She agreed with Quezada that there already are laws that cover overt acts. But Allen said they don’t work. “If they get thrown in jail, somebody pays to get them out,’’ she said. “There has to be something to deter them from that.’’
Once again, I'm at a loss for words.
Unfortunately for R-Snowflake, the state's existing laws will have to do. Antonia Nooni Farzan of the Phoenix New Times reports the bill is dead, killed by an apparently less-stupid House. (h/t Caitlin Burns)
House Speaker J.D. Mesnard has confirmed that he does not plan to consider the bill, which means that it won't move forward in the legislature. “I haven’t studied the issue or the bill itself, but the simple reality is that it created a lot of consternation about what the bill was trying to do,” Mesnard tells New Times. “People believed it was going to infringe on really fundamental rights. The best way to deal with that was to put it to bed."
Good call, Rep. Mesnard. Indeed, it did look an awful lot like an unconstitutional bill. In fact, the bill's underlying conceit makes one suspect its author accidentally sent a page of his dream diary to a staffer to type up. The more surprising aspect is that a presumably-sober Senate moved it forward.
If he'd left |
the phrase, "I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about." It's a line from the film Moonrise Kingdom.
Forsyth says Yarn Bombing is "when you crochet or knit something, and you put it up so that it's where everyone could see it." People have yarn bombed trees, statues, bikes... pretty much any inanimate object is fair game.
The trend started around 2005 in Texas and has expanded to the rest of the world. Hanging crocheted pieces in public shares some similarities to graffiti. "It's kind of this form of peaceful street art. You're not permanently damaging public or private property. You can easily take it down, or leave it there to be appreciated," says Forsyth.
At home, Forsyth takes care of her four-year-old boy and crochets on the side. While jogging in Santa Monica, she spotted a crocheted robot sewed onto a light post. She contacted the artist through a business card that was attached to the robot, and was immediately hooked into the world of yarn bombing.
"There's an idea in my head and I really want to get it out, and I can express it through a yarn bomb," she said.
Giovanna now takes her son along when she's yarn bombing. She says it's exciting to show her son a different way of harnessing his creativity. Forsyth also enjoys this form of street art because it makes a person stop and look, adding: "you would be hard-pressed to walk by a yarn bomb and not at least think about it."The King County Democratic Central Committee was late in reporting both campaign spending and contributions during the 2016 election, according to a new lawsuit by the Washington Attorney General’s Office.
OLYMPIA — The Washington Attorney General’s Office has filed a complaint alleging the King County Democratic Central Committee failed to disclose on time certain campaign spending and donations during the 2016 election cycle.
The central committee did not report some of its spending and contributions made during the height of campaign season until after the Nov. 7 general election, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Thurston County Superior Court.
As a result, the central committee inhibited “the public’s right to know who is contributing to Washington political committees,” according to a news release by the Attorney General’s Office.
In 2016, the central committee failed to timely disclose a total of $65,442 in election spending and $74,261 in campaign contributions, according to the news release.
The lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount of penalties and costs, gives a month-by-month breakdown of the central committee’s disclosure filings made to the state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC).
Some of those reports were filed months after they should have been, according to the lawsuit. Reports due to the state in the July, September, October and November before the election weren’t filed until afterward, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes in response to a complaint filed by Glen Morgan in March, the Attorney General’s Office said.
Morgan in recent months has filed a slew of complaints against Democratic officials, including Washington House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle.
Before that, however, the PDC had initiated its own investigation into the central committee over potential violations.
That investigation came after the central committee’s treasurer quit last August. At the time he left, the treasurer delivered a cash box, laptop and records from the organization to Olympia and left them outside the PDC’s door, according to the PDC’s investigation.
Bailey Stober, chair of the King County Democrats since December 2016, said Friday that the organization is looking into the lawsuit and “will be filing a response” to it.This article is from the archive of our partner.
Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas is excited that the state of Utah's Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining is hosting a contest for Earth Day asking kids to make a poster highlighting the importance of drilling. "The best thing about the Earth," Stockman tweeted, "is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out." This was a provocation that Twitter couldn't resist.
It is a bit strange to use the occasion of Earth Day as a moment to talk up oil and gas drilling. To Stockman's point, fossil fuels and raw minerals are part of the Earth, it's true. But environmentalists tend to consider the extraction of those things to be a net negative for the environment, much less burning them. The spirit of Earth Day isn't that people stand around and clap at the planet, of course — it was founded to draw attention to environmental degradation. As Stockman and the Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining are very well aware. Could you use the word "troll" in this scenario? If you wish.
Twitter, as it does, quickly took the bait.
The best thing about the Earth is exploiting it until it and we are all dead. — Cord Jefferson (@cordjefferson) March 21, 2013
I would say best thing is ramen, but just me MT @stevestockmantx: best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out — Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) March 21, 2013
"The best thing about the Earth is all the plagues and floods and hurricanes that it sends to kill us!" said no congressman ever. — Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) March 21, 2013
#2 is bacon RT @politico: Stockman: 'The best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out' politi.co/16LLwXR — Libby Edgar (@libbyliblib) March 21, 2013
The best thing about Earth is that it's constantly bathed in near-limitless energy flows from the sun and wind. — David Roberts (@drgrist) March 21, 2013
Earth sucks, we don't even have any unobtainium here — Jim Newell (@jim_newell) March 21, 2013
The best thing about the Earth is that it looks increasingly likely that it will be incapable of supporting human society in the near future — Alex Pareene (@pareene) March 21, 2013
The second best thing about Earth is gaffes. — Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) March 21, 2013
To Beutler's point, Stockman's follow-up tweets suggest that this was hardly a gaffe.
Funny thing about liberals hating oil and gas - they're expressing it on computers made from petrochemicals. Why do liberals hate science? — Rep. Steve Stockman (@SteveStockmanTX) March 21, 2013
There is reportedly $1 trillion in oil off the coast of California. But liberal hatred of science and human progress keeps them bankrupt — Rep. Steve Stockman (@SteveStockmanTX) March 21, 2013
Energy-rich oil propelled civilization into the 21st Century. But liberals want to turn back the clock to inefficient Bronze Age wind power. — Rep. Steve Stockman (@SteveStockmanTX) March 21, 2013
Natural gas and oil give us cheap, clean energy and life-saving plastics, petrochemicals. Environmentalists want to turn back human progress — Rep. Steve Stockman (@SteveStockmanTX) March 21, 2013
An observer could certainly take issue with some of the points made here by Stockman. We won't pass judgment on the characterization of liberals, but will note that the congressman's characterization of California's oil wealth appears to be conflating a few different things.
The best reply came from the Guardian's Ana Marie Cox, who could certainly be grouped among the aforementioned science-hating, Bronze-Age-loving liberals.
Also true of many congressmen. RT @stevestockmantx: The best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out. — Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox) March 21, 2013
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.Stringer / Reuters Residents carry an injured man after what activists said were two airstrikes by forces of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on a market in central Douma, near Damascus.
GAZIANTEP, Turkey — The recent fervor over planned U.S. airstrikes against extremist militants in Syria has obscured an important fact: Many of the moderate Syrians that America considers its allies are against the idea. And some of them are extremely angry. These Syrians are themselves enemies of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the radical force that the Obama administration has painted as a rising global threat. But they're also increasingly suspicious of U.S. policy toward their country. They warn that any U.S. military action against ISIS in Syria risks making the problem worse — and also turning Syrians of all stripes, including moderates like them, against America. At the heart of their critique is the idea that the U.S. left them to their fate when they rose peacefully against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime, leading to a devastating war, and that the U.S. ignored their warnings about ISIS as the militant group wreaked havoc in opposition-held parts of Syria for much of the last year. They say now that U.S. strikes will do little to help them on either front, and that they long ago lost faith in America. "I'm mad at the U.S., because I'm someone who has always said that the U.S. fights for freedom and fights for people's rights," said one 35-year-old Syrian activist, who didn't want to be named discussing the issue with the U.S. press. "You can be called a traitor for supporting the U.S. right now." He added: "The U.S. has screwed up everything so bad. You can't tell anyone now that the strikes will be a good thing and that the U.S. will strike for our benefit. Bullshit. They know it's not for our benefit." The activist said he still believed in the U.S. and backed the idea of U.S. strikes in Syria. But here are six moderate Syrians — all of whom have spent the last three years pushing for a secular democracy in Syria — who feel strongly otherwise. Those who requested anonymity did so for fear of losing their jobs.
Hosam Katan / Reuters Children walk on rubble after what activists said was an air strike by Assad's forces on southern Aleppo city.
Wissam, 29, a local employee with a U.S. NGO that works on the Syria issue. "Why now? Is it because of the crime of the beheading of two American journalists?" Wissam asked, referring to James Foley and Steven Sotloff, whose videotaped deaths at the hands of ISIS militants helped galvanize U.S. support for military action against ISIS. "If so, it's kind of an internal issue [for the U.S.]. It's not about us. They're bombarding us and we have nothing to do with it. "Or is it because this is really a terrorist group that terrorizes people in Syria? If so, then the regime has committed more crimes than ISIS. With much cruelty. People are dead in the prisons by the thousands. What about this? Human Rights Watch has a report that documented almost 12,000 people dead under torture in prisons of the security forces. So what about this? Isn't it terror? It's not obvious that Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons to kill more than 1,400 people at the same time [in the regime's infamous attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in August 2013]? That was more than a third of the people who died in the twin towers on 9/11. "So why now? And why [did Obama announce the strikes] on this dramatic date, on the same eve of 9/11, so that no American can criticize it and say 'no.' And what about the people who are facing Assad airstrikes? Now the same civilians will face the American airstrikes? We all know that ISIS puts its headquarters among civilians. What can America do about it? Nothing. They are going to bombard the good with the evil. That's why I'm angry about it. ISIS are criminals, but the solution is not to kill them with airstrikes. "I am angry with this hypocrisy. We [the U.S.] are trying to do something? No, you're not. The American government is not trying to do the right thing. They are just trying to make more destruction. "And I'm also angry at the American people. It's a democracy. If America is a democracy, it's a choice of the American people to bombard Syria. It's not a choice of the government. It's not a dictatorship. It's a democratic government. So all the American people are involved with this."
Ammar Abdullah / Reuters Free Syrian Army fighters rest during their fight against the Assad regime in Aleppo.
Beriven Ahmed, 24, an employee with the Syrian opposition's government-in-exile. "I think that our enemy in Syria is not ISIS. It's the Assad regime. So when they are thinking that they will strike ISIS, this is a problem, because the regime is the real enemy. If the Assad regime finished, I think ISIS would also finish."
AP Photo/Militant Website, File ISIS fighters.
Anonymous, 27, a local translator and coordinator with a Western NGO that works on the Syria issue. "My opinion is that I'm against [the airstrikes] in any way. Those airstrikes will attack ISIS. But just imagine the civilians around ISIS and in the areas ISIS controls. And especially people who [are vulnerable to seeing ISIS as the representatives of Islam]. They will believe that the real Islam and the real Islamic state is ISIS, because America is hitting them. So they will join ISIS as well, and it will get bigger. So more will come — right to this area. Every fucking jihadi in the whole world will come to ISIS because America fought them. "Two hundred thousand people died in the revolution and more people disappeared, in the same place and the same land. All kinds of terror have been done in Syria: killing, beheading, slaughtering, burning. What more do you want? No, there is no intention to help Syrians. I am sure 100%."
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais President Barack Obama greets members of the military upon his arrival on Air Force One at MacDill Air Force Base.
Anonymous, 30, a local employee with a U.S. NGO that works on the Syria issue. "I think my opinion is like many other Syrians' on this subject. The problem is not in ISIS itself but in the regime and ISIS together. The U.S. strike will be like cutting the tail of the snake instead of cutting the head." The man said the U.S. is "absolutely not" interested in helping Syrians with its air campaign. "They are just looking out for their own interests."
Stringer / Reuters Residents look for their belongings amid the damage left by an airstrike.
Rasha Qass Youses, 30, a freelance translator and humanitarian activist based in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the Syrian border. "I don't think that an intervention will actually be the solution for what's going on in Syria. There are a lot of socioeconomic issues that we could address without going with intervention. Because I think that as with what happened in Iraq [with the 2003 U.S. invasion], the U.S. is using the same approach, the same tools, to cause the same problem always. And what happened in Iraq with ISIS is the indirect result of the 'war on terror' that started in Afghanistan and then moved to Iraq." Syria's civil war largely pits Sunni rebels, who hail from the country's majority, against a regime dominated by Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. ISIS, meanwhile, pushes an extremist form of Sunni Islam. Youses warned that U.S. strikes risked spiking sectarian tensions drastically. "I think a lot of Sunnis will think that this is a war against Sunnis, because Assad has been killing his own people in Syria for more than three years, and nobody talked about it. "And sorry for what happened to the two American journalists who were killed by ISIS, but this also happened before with the regime, which killed the British aid worker [Abbas Khan] under torture in its prison and killed the U.S. journalist [Marie Colvin] with an airstrike in Homs. And nobody moved. I don't think the military action will lead to a less radical Middle East — it will only make it more radical, and it will make the problem much more complicated."
Sana / Reuters Syrian President Bashar al-Assad heads a meeting of his cabinet in Damascus.Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, and Kevin James at the Transylvania 2 photo call. Photo: Getty Images
Selena Gomez recently wore a sexy red ensemble promoting her new movie, Transylvania 2. Designed by Katie Ermilio, the silk two-piece set consisted of a bandeau top and a skirt with a thigh-high slit and oversized bow fastened to the waistline. Her co-stars, Adam Sandler and Kevin James, on the other hand, showed up to the Cancun, Mexico photo call in sweatpants and shorts.
Besides the fact that the 22-year-old seemed to be uneasy flanked by two 40-something men, it appears that her red carpet ensemble left her feeling similarly uncomfortable. The former Disney star was photographed grasping at the dress’s wide seam, using her arms as skin shields. Perhaps it’s because she’s wildly overdressed, at least in comparison to Sandler and James.
But what if Gomez showed up to the event dressed in the same vein as her male counterparts? Unless the actress wore fancy short shorts that put her long legs on display, the fashion police would most likely ridicule Gomez for her too-casual outfit choice. But the young multi-hyphenate who’s been in the biz for over a decade knows the name of the game: look good, get your picture taken, make a best dressed list, get lots of press, rake in money.
View photos
Adam Sandler in burgundy corduroys, orange button-down, and track jacket, with his wife, Jackie, in an LBD. Photo: Getty Images
There’s a double standard in Hollywood fashion, and this photo — men, looking as if they’ve rolled out of bed or come from the gym, with their female co-star putting effort (and hours of it) into her appearance — encapsulates it. Sure, Sandler’s got a reputation for being a slob, often throwing a middle finger up in the face of assumed dressing standards and having an apathetic attitude towards the bright lights big city culture, but that doesn’t discount him from the sexist issue at the heart of it all.
Part of the problem is how individuals devour, and professionals publish, media. Whenever someone wears something — good, bad, or ugly — it’s a headline, tweet, Instagram, Facebook, Vine, or any other. Best and worst dressed lists abound and the fashion industry breeds a culture that not only has readers coming back for more information, but one that also has audiences striving to emulate the ensembles their celebrity idols step out in.
Part of the reason why women put so much effort into cultivating manicured red carpet sartorial personas — like Gomez, for example — is that they get paid to do so. Oftentimes, designers pay celebrities and their stylists. "It’s prevalent across the board,“ Jessica Paster, who dresses Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Sandra Bullock, and Rachel McAdams, among many others, recently revealed on a panel at the Vulture Festival. "Jewelry people are paying, shoe people are paying, tampon companies are paying, everyone is paying!” She added, "It could be just paying the stylist and we get anywhere between $30,000 to $50,0000. Or it’s paying the actress something between $100,000 and $250,000.“
So there’s an obvious perk to the excessive amount of time spent in a makeup chair and in dressing rooms with a personal stylist. But men’s fashion has never been as popular. The annual sales aren’t as large and and endorsements are hard to come by. (Unlike Kylie Jenner, for example, who can promote something as inane as colored hair extensions for the cool price of a Malibu mansion.) Kit Harrington for Jimmy Choo, Eddie Redmayne for Burberry, and David Beckham for H&M are a few examples (oddly, all Brits); but it’s not as if oxfords and tuxedos have the same market impact as a couture gown or a diamond necklace.APRIL 3--A business tycoon gave a gay porn star $500,000 and a luxury automobile in hush money payments after being threatened with the exposure of details of his paid sexual liaisons with the accused extortionist and other X-rated performers, according to sources and court records.
The alleged shakedown scheme resulted in the arrest last month of Teofil Brank, a 25-year-old Los Angeles man known professionally as “Jarec Wentworth.” A U.S. District Court judge has ordered Brank (seen at right) held without bail in advance of trial on the felony charge.
Brank’s alleged victim--who is only identified by the initials “D.B.” in court filings--is Donald Burns, 51, a regular on the society circuit who made his fortune through the 1997 sale of a telecommunications firm he co-founded. The jet-setting Burns’s real estate portfolio includes waterfront estates in La Jolla, Nantucket, and Palm Beach, where he lives a mile up N. Ocean Boulevard from Rush Limbaugh’s compound.
Burns did not return a message left today with his assistant seeking comment about the Brank case.
In mid-February, after Brank threatened to post incriminating photos of Burns to Twitter--along with what a criminal complaint describes as “embarrassing information about the Victim’s sexual past--Burns wired $500,000 from a Goldman Sachs account into Brank’s bank account.
The businessman also gave the porn star his Audi R8, which investigators valued at $180,000. Brank picked up the vehicle at Burns's La Jolla home, which he purchased in 2011 for $14.1 million.
The six-figure payoff, however, did not sate Brank, according to prosecutors. In a series of text messages, the porn star demanded an additional $1 million for his silence. Brank also told Burns, “I want a condo here in LA. Bachelor pad.”
Faced with the new demands, Burns contacted the FBI on March 3. In subsequent interviews with agents and prosecutors, Burns admitted paying Brank for sex, as well as arranging sexual encounters with other men. In text messages quoted in the felony complaint, Brank told Burns, “You lied to me and treated me like Shit,” adding that, “I only wanted to drive cars and Enjoy your company. I guess findin you boys is out of the picture.”
Brank was arrested March 4 when he met with an undercover FBI agent posing as a “trusted friend” of Burns (pictured below). During the meeting at a Starbucks in El Segundo, the agent provided Brank with title to the Audi and claimed that the $1 million was in the trunk of his vehicle. When the duo left the Starbucks to retrieve the cash, Brank was arrested by FBI agents who were surveilling the meeting.
During a court hearing last Friday, prosecutor Kimberly Jaimez told Judge John Walter that “D.B.” paid Brank “for sexual conduct” and also gave him up to $2000 for individual referrals to “other individuals who would have sexual contact.” Jaimez estimated that Brank made “less than ten” of these referrals to “D.B.”
Jaimez said that Brank met “D.B.” in late-2013, when the victim “began considering investments in the homosexual pornography industry and in connection with that began having meetings and getting to know individuals in that industry.” When Walter asked if Brank and “D.B.” were “business associates,” Jaimez made the nature of their relationship clear. “Pay-for-sex operation,” she said.
In reply to a question about the age of the sex partners referred to “D.B” by Brank, Jaimez told Walter that “D.B.” “informs us that all these boys were over the age of 18.” She added that FBI agents were investigating to confirm that the sex referrals did not involve minors.
Since Brank’s arrest, Burns’s attorney has argued in court that the identification of the victim in the case should remain limited to the man’s initials. Brank’s lawyers have countered that “D.B.” does not deserve anonymity since, “by the government’s own admission,” he allegedly paid Brank for sex and to “procure sexual partners for himself.” Jaimez also disclosed that there is evidence that several Brank associates were involved in the extortion plot and, as a result, could face conspiracy charges.
Additionally, Brank’s counsel contends that, “the government does not know whether any of the ‘boys’ with whom D.B. engaged in sexual activity were underage. This begs the fundamental question of why D.B. is not named as a fellow defendant given that he engaged in an interstate arrangement with Mr. Brank to pay for procurement of sexual partners.”
A judge has, so far, agreed to keep “D.B.”’s name out of the public court record.
The salacious nature of the case is likely of concern to Burns, who regularly attends charity galas and society events and sits on the board of a public company. He also heads an eponymous charitable foundation that donates to organizations in Nantucket and Palm Beach, where Burns maintains his principal residence, an oceanfront mansion. According to its 2013 tax return, the Donald A. Burns Foundation had assets totaling $10.1 million and it paid Burns $132,834 annually for his work as the group’s president. Over the last five years, the foundation has reported donations totaling $2.2 million
Burns’s wealth appears principally derived from the 1997 sale of Telco Communications Group, a Virginia-based long-distance phone carrier. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Burns--Telco’s founder and chief executive--received around $250 million in cash and stock when the deal closed.
Burns has maintained a role in the telecommunications industry through positions with Magicjack Vocaltec Ltd., the publicly held company that produces the magicJack Internet phone device. Burns, chairman of the company's board of directors, reportedly provided part of the investment used to launch the firm, and he served as its chief executive for several years. According to an SEC filing, he currently owns Magicjack stock with a market value of $2.8 million.
A registered Republican, Burns has donated to a variety of GOP candidates and committees, including Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, Jeb Bush, Rudolph Giuliani, and the Republican Party of San Diego. In 2004, Burns made a $1000 donation to a “swift boat” group opposing Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, and he also gave money to the presidential campaigns of John Edwards and Ralph Nader. Last year, he made a maximum $2600 contribution to Richard Tisei, an openly gay, married Republican who lost a bid for a congressional seat in Massachusetts.
Burns’s largest political donations came in 2008, when he contributed $400,000 to a group opposing a Florida ballot measure that called for amending the state constitution so as to define marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman. The measure, which passed with 62 percent of the vote, is the subject of ongoing litigation by gay marriage proponents. (14 pages)Pin 2 2K Shares
Derrick Broze
August 24, 2015
(ANTIMEDIA) Earlier this month, the Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a new project designed to help educate communities about the growing list of surveillance tools deployed against the unsuspecting public. The EFF calls the new project the Street-Level Surveillance Project (SLS), which it describes as “a Web portal loaded with comprehensive, easy-to-access information on police spying tools like license plate readers, biometric collection devices, and ‘Stingrays.’”
The EFF has been involved in the fight against surveillance for 25 years, but with a massive influx of military equipment and surveillance tools to local police departments, it has never been more important to be aware of the growing Surveillance State. EFF Senior Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch says the project “provides a simple but in-depth look at how these surveillance technologies work, who makes and uses them, and what kind of data they are collecting. We hope that community groups, advocacy organizations, defense attorneys, and individuals all take advantage of the information we’ve gathered.”
The SLS project hopes to educate users about the dangers of spying from law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local level. The privacy invasions include tracking cell phone calls, photographing our vehicles and following our driving patterns, taking our pictures in public places, and collecting our fingerprints and DNA.
“The public has heard or read so much about NSA spying, but there’s a real need for information and resources about surveillance tools being used by local law enforcement on our home turf. These technologies are often adopted in a shroud of secrecy, but communities deserve to understand these technologies and how they may be violating our rights,’’ said EFF activist Nadia Kayyali.
RELATED: AT&T Is in Bed with the NSA
The Anti-Media works diligently to keep readers aware of the looming Surveillance State and any possible solutions. The Street Level Surveillance Project is one of those solutions. The website currently includes information on biometric technologies, which collect fingerprints, DNA, and face prints. It also details the use of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) — cameras mounted on patrol cars and on city streets that scan and record the plates of millions of cars across the country. In the coming months, more information will be added regarding cell site simulators, also known as “Stingrays.”
The website also includes explainers, FAQs, infographics, and links to EFF’s legal work in courts and legislatures. Under the “Resources” tab, there is also information for defense attorneys fighting surveillance cases, information on how to file a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request, and resources for community members fighting surveillance.
RELATED: FBI Had 12 Page File On George Carlin Because He Made Jokes About Government
In the fight against oppression it is paramount that each individual find a method to contribute to the global awakening. Organizations like the EFF help fight the legal battles and provide resources such as the Street Level Surveillance project. At the same time, journalists at The Anti-Media and other organizations help spread the word. Now it is your turn, brothers and sisters. If you want to join the resistance to tyranny, the tools are available. The only thing left to do is to shake off the chains of bondage and take your first steps towards liberation.
This article (Here’s the Newest Tool to Help You Fight the Surveillance State) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Tune in! The Anti-Media radio show airs Monday through Friday @ 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Help us fix our typos: edits@theantimedia.org
Pin 2 2K SharesThe latest record-setting Vancouver property assessments tell the story of the hottest real estate micro markets around the city. And nowhere is it hotter than the formerly low-income neighbourhood of Strathcona, which butts up against the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown.
The neighbourhood, which is a combination of light industrial, commercial and a village-like residential area, saw the biggest assessment increases in the city. The city averaged about a 30-per-cent overall increase, according to a comprehensive set of BC Assessment data obtained by planner Andy Yan, who is also director of Simon Fraser University's City Program. Meanwhile, Strathcona averaged a 48-per-cent overall increase, due to high-priced sales that occurred close to July 1, 2016, when properties were assessed. Dunbar-Southlands came second, at 38 per cent. And downtown averaged the lowest increase, at 22 per cent. The relatively small increase in the downtown core is likely because it's already developed. Areas such as Strathcona that have been undervalued and have development potential have the greatest to gain.
"We have to wonder what is the role of speculative investment in this," Mr. Yan says. "The increase is obviously above the rate of local incomes increasing, and if this is not supported by local incomes, what is it supported by? Is it ultralow interest rates, global capital or by the outliers flipping?"
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Strathcona has, until recently, been a mostly unrealized gem. The neighbourhood is big on community and heritage protection, and is central to the downtown core. It's a highly walkable, livable area, surrounded by a light industrial zone that has become trendy with tech industries, coffee shops and restaurants. It draws creative types who crave an urban area rife with old buildings. People with money started taking note back in 2007, when a 114-year-old house set a record when it sold for more than $1-million. Prices have since nearly doubled.
The sale of a house at 740 E. Pender St. set a new record as the highest sale on a standard 25-foot-wide lot this past fall. It was listed at $1.879-million and sold for $1.95-million after nine days on the market. It's a two-storey, 3,171-square-foot character house with a one-bedroom basement suite. As a rental, the house brought in $6,000 a month. It sold far above its assessment of $1.629-million.
Although the house sold to another Strathcona resident, a big part of the drive behind the big prices is the migration of west side residents into the area, says realtor Dwayne Launt. A west side couple paid $1.85-million last year for a 2,000-square-foot house on a 25-foot lot on Union Street.
"A lot of the big purchase prices are coming from people moving out of Point Grey and Dunbar," Mr. Launt says. "We have a lot of people who've cashed out and their kids moved out – sometimes older people who don't need a 50-by-something-foot lot on a big, sprawling yard. They want something more urban, and they want to go back to a sense of community. That's the biggest thing for them, just like you see with all these east side neighbourhoods."
Also, he says, boomer-age parents on the west side are spending so much time visiting their grown kids on the east side, they figure they may as well move there, too.
"They're the grey wave who can now give the kids money for property, and they have more money to play with. They think, 'We're driving into the east side two or three times a week anyway, why don't we just move over there?' That's some of our clientele, definitely. They're driving values. There are no foreign buyers buying in Strathcona, although that may happen soon.
"There are some speculators, but most people are wanting to live there, absolutely. And there is the odd person buying multiple houses because they can rent them for a lot. You can rent out a basement suite in Strathcona for $1,800."
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Ilka Riemann is a Strathcona homeowner who owns a second house in the neighbourhood that she rents out to young professionals. She'd like to keep the rent affordable. Her houses increased in value by 42 per cent and 43 per cent, which will likely result in a future tax increase.
"Not only that, but I won't get the homeowners grant any more," she says. (The value increases could put her houses above the program's threshold.) "At this rate, what is next year going to bring? I'll see whether or not I can keep it up. I don't think I can."
BC Assessments regional assessor Jason Grant says it was a notable year overall for property value increases.
"What I can say is that there would only be a couple of times since the early 1980s when the single-family residential market in the Lower Mainland moved as much as it did from July 1, 2015 to July 1, 2016," he said.
Massive commercial property hikes also drove the Strathcona figures, including some properties along Railway Street that saw 300-per-cent increases in values. Several business owners are planning to appeal the valuations. Long-time Inform Interiors owner Niels Bendtsen says he is considering moving his business out of Vancouver because of the increased taxes he'll be facing.
Joji Kumagai, executive director of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association, says he suspects the increases are the result of speculative investments in the area. He says the latest assessments saw some properties around Railway average a 232-per-cent increase and other industrial properties in Strathcona average 100-per-cent to 145-per-cent increases.
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"It's a straight line upward, basically," he says. "We haven't seen that before."
As a result, he's hearing from business tenants that are caught off guard by tax increases. As well, the rise puts pressure on all business owners that depend on a work force that can afford to stay in the area.
"We've heard quite a few businesses say they are having a hard time finding the right workers, and the distance people have to travel to get to work, so if they could only offer a certain wage and that person is coming from Langley or something, they know they won't stick around. You start hiving off the potential work force. There's a real consequence to this."
While residential properties are the hot topic in the Lower Mainland, commercial and industrial zones are interconnected because they make the city function. Take away industry and jobs, and you've got a resort town.
"This is one of the last areas where actual industrial uses can still function," Mr. Kumagai says. "A lot of people don't think about what they actually contribute, but they are important in terms of resilience to the economy. It's a wealth-generating process."
Mr. Yan used to release a map that showed the city divided between the single-family houses that sold for above $1-million and those that sold below that amount. Each year, his $1-million line crept further east. Some time between January, 2016, and July, 2016, it disappeared. He says soaring assessments may feel like a win to the homeowner, but he questions their intrinsic value.
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"I think that on paper it looks like you're winning, but isn't this really about how we all lose as a vibrant and sustainable city? It's a genuine question for renters, startup entrepreneurs, young families, seniors – who really wins when property prices go up this fast in such a short time? And what are the consequences?"Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
When the |
to 25 percent in a February 25 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University and 21 percent in a May 6 survey. Jostling for second place are Donald Trump and Ben Carson, at 10 percent each, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at 9 percent each, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida at 8 percent and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida at 7 percent. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has 5 percent. No other candidate is above 4 percent and 5 percent are undecided.
Trump -- who, if he were the candidate, would lose 59 of the 50 states -- has done nothing but become more of a public embarrassment, and he's rising in the polls practically everywhere.
Bush stands at 19%, up from 13% in May -- and his best showing in CNN/ORC polling since December. Trump follows at 12%, up from 3% before his announcement. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (8%), neurosurgeon Ben Carson (7%) and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (7%) round out the top five. Notably absent from this top five -- though statistically speaking not far behind -- are Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (6%, down from 14% in May) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (6%, down slightly from 10%). Both had been top five candidates in each of the last two CNN/ORC polls, and Walker had been in the top five since February. The poll, conducted just before New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie formally launched his campaign with a rally in Livingston, New Jersey, on Tuesday, also finds that Christie begins his push for the presidency with just 3% support.
Again, you see Walker sinking, along with Marco Rubio. You don't have to be Mark Hanna to see what's coming here. Let us assume that Jeb (!) is on his way to becoming the de facto frontrunner in the Republican primary processes. That leaves Trump with no serious political purpose except to rip on Jeb (!) every chance he gets, in front of whatever camera will have him which, alas for the republic, is quite a few. If the Republican party were still an actual political party, with institutions capable of exercising actual party discipline, Trump's "candidacy" would die a quick and silent death. But there's nobody left with enough clout to wield the knife. All have money. All must have prizes.SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — John Chayka knows there is a rumor swirling that he never slept this offseason. On Thursday at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort, the Coyotes general manager admitted it was largely true.
“For me, it was like starting up a business,” Chayka said after the Coyotes Faceoff Luncheon. “If you’re not doing everything you can to be profitable, odds are you’re not going to be profitable.”
The Coyotes should profit from Chayka’s offseason work. Since late June, he and the Coyotes scouting and hockey operations staffs have stocked the cupboard with a handful of defensive prospects at the NHL Draft, signed free-agent defensemen Alex Goligoski, Luke Schenn and Jamie McBain, signed free-agent forwards Jamie McGinn, Radim Vrbata and Ryan White, re-signed Shane Doan, Connor Murphy, Michael Stone, Tobias Rieder, and made several other moves.
“We approached the offseason knowing we wanted to be aggressive and we needed to make some significant changes to the roster and we knew we had some players coming so we needed to be in the right position to support that growth,” Chayka said. “We needed to just hunker down and look at all the possibilities, all the potential deals.”
Chayka’s nocturnal habits first came to light when the Coyotes completed a deal with the Florida Panthers on Aug. 25 to acquire Lawson Crouse and Dave Bolland at 1 a.m. Arizona time — a deal Chayka said Thursday was months in the making.
I am becoming convinced that Coyotes GM John Chayka runs on about 4 hours of sleep per day. — Craig Morgan (@craigsmorgan) August 25, 2016
“It never stopped all summer and when adrenaline kicks in and you get close on a deal, you can go days on end without needing sleep or rest or recovery,” he said. “I have a very understanding wife who allows me to work the hours I do.”
It may seem odd to complete a deal with a team for which it was 4 a.m. Eastern Time, but Chayka wasn’t sheepish about picking up the phone one final time and making the call that completed the deal.
“Credit to the guys in Florida because they work hard, too, and they were always available,” he said. “The league is pretty good that way. We understand that if there’s a deal, time doesn’t matter.”
The evolving product the Coyotes put on the ice will determine if Chayka was successful, but the new hockey operations triumvirate of Chayka, president of hockey operations Gary Drummond and executive vice president of hockey operations Dave Tippett has put its stamp on the franchise quickly.
“Oftentimes, we get into some pretty critical discussions,” Chayka said. “They’re never personal; they’re always based on what is best for the organization but we all come at it from different angles.
“Gary has a really logical mind that breaks down and synthesizes information really well. Tip has that experience and knowledge; he’s been through so much and he can draw upon that. I bring youth and energy and some ideas and some creativity.
“It’s kind of the same mix we’re talking about with our team.”
Chayka believes the Coyotes have assembled a good, albeit young team for the 2016-17 season, which opens Saturday at Gila River Arena against the Philadelphia Flyers. That said, he admits to being frustrated that he couldn’t do more.
“He’s going to tell you that for the next 25 years,” Tippett said, chuckling. “Nobody has a perfect team, but John is very intelligent and very thorough. Working with him and Gary, it’s been good. We collaborate on a lot of stuff and usually we come to the same conclusions.”
Its no secret the Coyotes would like to add a top-four, right-handed defenseman to their roster, but Chayka said there were other deals for forwards and even goaltenders they explored — deals that ultimately fell through or were deemed unwise.
“Even teams that win Stanley Cups are looking for ways to tweak or improve their team,” he said. “I have high standards for myself and this organization so you’re never done.”
Follow Craig Morgan on Twitter
Follow @craigsmorganQWERKeys are a UK based startup that originally stocked Cherry MX switches and custom key caps for mechanical keyboards. Since the overwhelming success of the customisation of mechanical keyboards (see Geekhack deskthority and reddit), QWERKeys has now expanded their product range to include their own branded keyboard dubbed the “QWERKeyboard”. What we have in to review today, is the first iteration of the QWERKeyboard, which means the model I have will be tweaked a bit for it’s final release, but the main feel and look of it will remain the same. The QWERKeyboard is based on the Tex Beetle 60% keyboard, however it will be available with ISO layouts and various switch types. The current model I have in front of me has little or no obvious branding, although I have been told that some QWERKey/QWERKeyboard branding will appear. For parts of this review I may come across Tex branding, which I have had confirmed, will remain unless otherwise stated later in the review. It is apparent from the specs that the QWERKeyboard is more of a premium keyboard (taken from the Tex datasheet) and will no doubt be aimed more towards portability.
Features
USB Interface HID Device Plug & Play／Hot-Swappable Firmware upgradable over USB QWERTY Layout About 60% as wide as of the standard 104-Key keyboard Uses Cherry MX-Series switches N-key rollover Memory function users can define Multi-Lingual Layout Laser-engraved Keycaps Aluminum top case design Gold plated connector
Specification
Power consumption：USB 5V / 60 mA Dimension（W＊L＊H）：124 mm＊298 mm＊35 mm (without stand) ／124 mm＊298 mm＊46 mm (with stand) Weight：760 g USB Cable Length：1.8 meters Number of Keys： 66 Keys（English-USA/Traditional Chinese/Korean Layout）
67 Keys（Japanese/European Layout） Lifecycle of Cherry switches：50 million key presses
There is also a LED version available, although the version I have in to review is the non-backlit version, but that’s enough talk, lets take a closer look.
Closer Look
The QWERKeyboard comes in a plain white box, void of any forms of branding, although this could change for the final release, with hopefully some QWERKey branding. Opening the box you are presented with the QWERKeyboard in a plastic surround with a foam cushion on the lid, which protects the keyboard well. Other than the keyboard itself, there is only a USB cable in the box, although again, this could change for the final release. EDIT: It has been confirmed that QWERKeys will also be supplying an special set of key caps for any preorders, however it is unknown which will be included. My first impressions of the QWERKeyboard, is that the build quality is fantastic. The top part of the case is machined aluminium, which has a very crisp edge, clean lines and smooth corners. The keyboard itself if fairly heavy weighing in at 737g which is quite a lot considering my full size Cherry MX Board 3.0 weighs 825g.
As you can see, the keyboard is the 60% size, which means the layout has had to be changed to compensate for the smaller size. Subsequently, there is no direct function key row or modifiers such as page up/down, insert, home etc. This mini sized keyboard does however have the arrow keys, which is not often seen on keyboards of this size. I will show you later on how the QWERKeyboard adds the function keys into the small size. The only other accessory you get with the keyboard is a USB cable (USB to mini USB), which has gold plated connectors. The cable is not braided, however it does feature a ferrite choke to reduce any interference. Due to the small nature of this particular keyboard, the function and modifier keys have been combined with others, to maintain full functionality. The function keys have been combined with the number keys, which results in you having to press an additional function key (either side of the spacebar) to activate the other key function. There are also additional keys (L1-L5), which are combined with the QWERT keys. These keys act like DIP switches, which swap various functions of the keyboard around – but more on this later. The current layout is ISO UK layout, although there are other layout options such as different European layouts (french, german, nordic etc). This particular model has Cherry MX Blue switches which are tactile and require 45g of force to actuate the key. The switches are plate mounted, meaning they are more stable then their PCB mounted equivalent, although this means the keyboard weighs more. The underside of the keyboard is relatively featureless, although the inset part in the middle is intended to be covered with a sticker, which you can see in the next photo. This sticker is not attached to keyboard as standard, so it has to be applied yourself. It displays the various options that can be controlled via the L1-L5 keys that I mentioned earlier. The sticker also features the model and serial number, alongside “Designed by TEX, Made in Taiwan” and the website address. Just like most keyboards, this one also features some feet that raise the back of the keyboard. A nice feature of the QWERKeyboard is that it has a removable USB cable, which increases the customisation options. From this angle you can see some small marks on the key caps, which are most likely from the spruce the keys would have been attached to when made. Whilst this doesn’t affect the performance of the keys, it doesn’t look great if you like your keyboard to look good – which most keyboard enthusiasts do. That said, it’s nothing major and not visible when in use. The standard (right) key caps are made from ABS plastic and have the typical print for the labels. The key cap on the left is a QWERKey key cap, shown for comparison purposes. So that pretty much covers the aesthetics of the QWERKeyboard, now it’s time to put it to the test.
The best way to review the performance of a keyboard is through many hours of use across many difference games and programs. Typically I run the tests across a week or more to best find the positive and negative aspects of the product – and not only that, sometimes, they can be quite different to what I’m used to, so it takes time for it to settle in. For the tests, I used the keyboard for gaming and general use (in fact I’m using it now to type this review), across a week to potentially discover any faults with the keyboard. Setting up the keyboard was very simple, it is just simply plug and play, with no drivers required. Gaming First up was gaming, so I played many games of my current favourite FPS – Battlefield 3, Diablo 3 and some Supreme Commander 2.
Battlefield 3 was up first and straight away I was finding the keyboard very pleasant to use, however, it is not without it’s disadvantages, mainly being that to change seats in vehicles you need to press F1 through F5, which of course is made more difficult by having to press an additional Fn key to activate the key. This was a major pain and took a while to get used to. For games of less intensity, the lack of direct function keys also became a bit of an issue, although the general use for both Supreme Commander 2 and Diablo 3, with the blue switches really felt great and to some degree improved my performance, down the the tactile feedback you get from the switches.
That said, the switch type is down to preference, so you may find this experience different. General Use The main purpose of the QWERKeyboard is for typing, which makes perfect sense with the blue switches. The tactile feedback is great, although I wouldn’t recommend using it in a room that you share with others as it’s very loud compared to the other switch types and even rubber dome keyboards.
The lack of dedicated function keys isn’t so obvious when you are typing or just using it for casual internet browsing, as there isn’t the same pressure to perform well that you get whilst playing games, however the I did miss the dedicated delete and home/end keys as I tend to use these keys quite a lot for when I’m typing/coding. The addition of volume +/- and mute is a nice touch and I did find myself using these fairly often.
The size of the keyboard meant I could take it on my daily commute to my place of work and use it instead of the rather old and rubbish rubber dome keyboard I have to put up with. As I already mentioned, the keyboard is quite heavy, although the build quality and durability of the keyboard meant I could just chuck it into my bag and take it around with me. So that pretty much sums up the performance of the keyboard, now it’s time to conclude the review.
Final Thoughts
I’d like to start the conclusion off with a reminder that the QWERKeyboard I was supplied with for this review, is currently still in the beta stage of development so much could change in terms of aesthetics, however performance should remain the same. The QWERKeyboard’s 60% size is ideal for anyone who likes to take their keyboard around with them, whether to work, college or even LAN events.
The look of the keyboard is very appealing and the aluminium case looks great and gives it a solid premium characteristic. Typing and gaming on the keyboard was also a pleasure, however this is subjective as I favour blue switches over the others – so you may find this different to how I did. The keyboard is not without it’s flaws however, as when you are gaming the lack of dedicated function keys does mean you are one step behind on your enemies, though with practise this could be reduced.
Whilst the QWERKeyboard is perfect for travelling with, due to it’s design and build quality it does weigh a fair bit, although this is often a sign of good quality. The price is also a potential problem with this keyboard as it’ll set you back around £100 – which would get you a decent full sized keyboard.
Overall the QWERKeyboard is superb for anyone who is after a great looking, well performing and portable keyboard. If you are willing to pay a premium for aesthetics and it’s portability and don’t mind making a compromise for the lack of dedicated function keys, then this could be a worthy contender. Sure this could be seen as nothing but a rebranded Tex Beetle, but currently these are very difficult (and even more expensive) to source in Europe, so availability combined with the great support I’ve experienced with QWERKeys, makes this particular iteration stand over the rest.
Whilst I’m very eager to give this keyboard the best award possible, I’ll hold back until the final version is available, so for these reasons I’m not going to award it with the editor’s choice, but since the QWERKeyboard is so well designed I am awarding it with the:Physicists have created an MRI-like machine capable of making three-dimensional scans of single virus particles — a resolution 100 million times higher than previously possible.
The achievement is a step toward imaging individual proteins, the knotted molecules that assemble to form viruses and that play a central role in the chemistry of all life.
“Our long-term dream is to have a technique that could look at the 3-D structure of molecules in your body such as proteins,” says Daniel Rugar, a physicist with IBM Research at Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif. Currently, finding proteins’ 3-D shapes requires first crystallizing the proteins, a difficult and time-consuming step that hinders protein research. Rugar’s MRI-like technique, reported online January 12 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, might someday image individual particles without the need for crystallization.
Like MRI machines used iUpdate (5:27 pm, April 18)
Today, the Rules and Elections Committee has released a revision to their original Sanction 9. In this revision, R&E state that upon further evidence brought to them during the appeals process, they could not prove that “A Stronger Union” campaigned as a party after Sanction 8. As a result, they have decided to remove all sanctions applied to Han and Etzine. However, they find that Sudano is in violation of the GM Handbook honor code and leave the sanctions of sanction 9 applicable. Their revision can be found on Flagship Docs.
Original Story
The Rules and Elections Committee has released the following sanction regarding the GM Week 2015 elections:
Referencing Sanction 8 issued during Grand Marshal Week 2015 Elections, which barred the party, A Stronger Union, from actively campaigning as a party,
In light of evidence brought to the Rules and Elections Committee by members of the Union, which proved A Stronger Union undertook actions on April 16, 2015, after the release of Sanction 8, which constituted actively campaigning as a party,
Recognizing that the purchased campaign materials involved in this incident were not recorded on their party expense forms,
Due to the failure of the officers of the A Stronger Union party to follow the rules in the Grand Marshal Week 2015 Election Handbook and Sanction 8, the following candidates are disqualified and barred from the Grand Marshal Week 2015 Elections:
Andrew Sudano, President
Michael Han, Co-President
Justin Etzine, Party Manager
This does not invalidate the races in which these candidates were involved.
Approved: 6-0-1
Members Present: Paul Ilori (Chair), Michael Hoherchak, Anthony Barbieri, Jacob Derechin, Paul Blejwas, Melanie Todis, Tim Breen, Victoria Phan.Australia's Victorian state parliament passed a draconian anti-protest bill on Tuesday, prompting protests in the Melbourne parliament chamber that were violently shut down by security.
The Summary Offenses and Sentencing Amendment Bill has been widely criticized as a crackdown on freedom of expression and public protest, as well as an attack on marginalized, poor, homeless, and undocumented people.
When opponents of the bill voiced their opposition during debate in the chamber on Tuesday, security "proceeded to drag people by their arms, legs and their necks out of the gallery for daring to express the concerns of the community," said protester Samantha Castro in an interview with 7 News describing the scene, which was captured on the video below.
In addition, a riot police squad was called to the scene to disband the approximately 30 protesters. The demonstrators "were representative of a much larger movement, of many [thousands] of people who do not want to see democracy further stifled in this state," wrote Nicola Paris of nonviolent direct action group CounterAct, in a statement about the action.
Now passed, the bill drastically expands police powers to force individuals or groups of people in public places to "move on" on the suspicion that they will cause violence, obstruction, or sell drugs, and it expands powers to ban, imprison, and fine people who are deemed not in compliance.
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"These laws will disproportionately affect marginalized young people, people experiencing homelessness, poverty, and mental health issues who occupy public spaces, both as a result of social choice and necessity," reads a statement from a coalition of Australian organizations that oppose the bill.
"By necessity, people experiencing homelessness live their lives in public places," reads a statement from Australian organization Justice Connect. "Unlike the rest of us who could go home if told to move-on, homeless people have no-where else to go."
Many suspect the law is aimed, in part, at stifling demonstrations and worker pickets in the state, including Melbourne protests against an East West Link Road under construction that critics charge would displace residents, contaminate the environment, and expand carbon pollution.
Describing the Tuesday protests, Paris wrote, "We were there for unionists, for teachers, for nurses, for people who fought for the rights we now have. We were there for environmentalists, for people who care for refugees, who care about the city we live in, and who have saved the buildings we now cherish. We were there for those defending their homes and communities from an unwanted road project that will bring no benefit but much pollution, at a cost of billions."
"This legislation is yet another step down the slippery slope. If we don’t fight for our rights now, they will take them away."
_____________________Ninety years since the founding of the Chinese Communist Party
5 July 2011
Last Friday, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrated its 90th anniversary with great fanfare throughout the country, including films, exhibitions and countless other events. But the very character of the festivities demonstrated that the present-day party has nothing to do with communism, the working class, or indeed the CCP as it was founded in 1921.
The central theme was a disgusting celebration of Chinese nationalism and patriotism, designed to bury the party’s origins as a fighting organisation of the working class based on socialist internationalism. The present CCP regime, which has presided over a staggering expansion of Chinese capitalism, certainly did not want workers drawing any lessons from the party’s early history.
The CCP promoted “Red tourism” to the town of Yan’an, where Mao Zedong’s peasant army had its headquarters in the 1930s, but not to the sites of the revolutionary upheavals of the working class in the 1920s. The fate of the grey brick house in industrial Shanghai where the CCP held its founding congress in 1921 is telling. It now sits in an up-market dining and entertaining district developed by Hong Kong property tycoons for the affluent Chinese middle classes.
The founding congress was attended by just 13 men, representing a membership of less than 60, and by Maring (Hendrick Sneevliet) on behalf of the Communist International. Chen Duxiu, the dean of the Peking University and editor of New Youth, was elected as leader. Formed as part of the powerful international response to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the party, even though small at the outset, was quickly thrown into the maelstrom of revolution and posed with the challenge of taking power.
Tragically, the bureaucratic degeneration of Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin in conditions of international isolation and internal backwardness became the chief obstacle to the subsequent Chinese revolution in 1925-27. Repudiating the lessons of the Russian Revolution, Stalin revived the Menshevik “two-stage” theory, subordinated the CCP to the bourgeois Kuomintang (KMT) on the basis that in backward China the capitalist class must first lead the bourgeois revolution and take power, postponing any socialist revolution by the working class to the distant future.
The results were disastrous. The KMT under Chiang Kai-shek exploited the prestige of the CCP and the Soviet Union, then turned on the party in April 1927, murdering thousands of members and workers in Shanghai. Three months later, the debacle was repeated when Stalin subordinated the CCP to the “left” KMT. To counter criticism of these ruinous policies by the Left Opposition formed in 1923 by Leon Trotsky, Stalin ordered the battered CCP to stage an uprising in Canton in late 1927 that ended in catastrophe.
Two alternatives were starkly posed to the CCP. The first, taken by Chen Duxiu, was to draw the necessary lessons from the betrayals of Stalin and to form the Chinese Left Opposition. The second was pursued by Mao Zedong, who concluded that the working class was incapable of leading a revolution and turned to the peasantry. By submerging the CCP into a peasant guerrilla movement, Mao wrenched the party off its proletarian axis and transformed it into a radical movement of the rural petty bourgeoisie—a transformation that was to have profound implications.
In a far-sighted letter to Chinese supporters in 1932, Trotsky warned of the dangers facing the working class from Mao’s peasant armies. “The peasant movement is a mighty revolutionary factor insofar as it is directed against the large landowners, militarists, feudalists and usurers. But in the peasant movement itself are very powerful proprietary and reactionary tendencies and at a certain stage it can become hostile to the workers and sustain that hostility already equipped with arms,” he explained.
Those warnings were borne out in 1949. Having first tried to form a coalition with the KMT, Mao was forced to respond when Chang Kai-shek attempted to militarily crush the CCP. The CCP’s victory was not so much the result of Mao’s supposed military genius, but the political and economic implosion of the thoroughly corrupt KMT regime. On seizing power, the CCP suppressed any independent working class activity, jailed the Chinese Trotskyists and implemented Mao’s version of the two-stage theory—an alliance with those big businessmen who had not fled to Taiwan and Hong Kong and former KMT generals, including some who had massacred communists in 1927.
The subsequent evolution of China into capitalism’s largest sweatshop flowed organically from the regime’s foundations laid in October 1949. Article three of the CCP regime’s founding constitution contained an explicit defence of capitalist property relations. Insofar as the CCP carried out nationalisations, the aim was not socialism, but a nationally-regulated economy, not dissimilar to measures carried out in avowedly capitalist post-colonial countries such as India. The nationalisation of the land was not, as Lenin had explained, a socialist measure, but a radical bourgeois policy to put an end to the feudal landlord class—a policy that ultimately created the basis for the full flowering of capitalism.
Despite various internal divisions, the CCP regime was based on the reactionary Stalinist utopia of “socialism in one country.” Cut off from the world economy, China lurched from one crisis to another. Mao’s experiments in rural socialism created economic havoc and the disastrous famine of the late 1950s that killed tens of millions.
The last gasp of Mao’s peasant radicalism was his attempt to smash his factional rivals by launching the misnamed “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” in 1966. The faction fight unexpectedly unleashed militant struggles of the working class, forcing the CCP to call a halt by sending in the army to suppress the movement. Having reached an economic dead-end, Mao signalled the CCP’s embrace of imperialism by making a rapprochement with the US in 1972. He then began to open the door to ties with foreign corporations.
In the midst of the current anniversary celebrations, the official Xinhua news agency boasted: “History has proven that only the Communist Party of China can save China.” The ending of restrictions on capitalist exploitation in the three decades since Deng Xiaoping formally unleashed pro-market reforms in 1978 has certainly proved a boon for emerging Chinese capitalists, as well as international capital desperate for new infusions of cheap labour.
Since 1949, the CCP police-state has implemented bourgeois measures—integrating the country, nationalising the land, broadening education and building infrastructure—that the KMT proved completely incapable of achieving. The one guiding thread through all of the CCP’s twists and turns has been its intense distrust and hostility to the working class, most graphically demonstrated in its brutal crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989 as soon as masses of workers began to voice their own class demands in the protests.
All the regime’s present patriotic boasting cannot obscure the immense contradictions of Chinese capitalism, however. The CCP leadership is intensely aware that it is sitting on top of an economic and social time bomb—above all, the huge gulf between rich and poor. The feeling of insecurity and isolation was spelled out by CCP General Secretary Hu Jintao, whose party of 80 million now includes some of China’s billionaires. He recently warned that ending the party’s endemic corruption was the key to “winning or losing public support and the life or death of the party.”
These anniversary events could well be the party’s last hurrah. Despite their extravagance, the regime is like a 90-year-old man watching in horror at the grave digger it has prepared—the vastly expanded proletariat that has grown from 8 million in 1949 to 500 million today. The only basis for overturning the police-state in Beijing is Trotsky’s Theory of Permanent Revolution that insists on the leading role of the working class in mobilising the oppressed masses to overthrow the CCP regime, establish a genuine workers state and implement socialist policies as part of the struggle for socialism internationally.
In preparation, workers and intellectuals in China must learn from the tragic lessons of the strategic experiences of the working class in the twentieth century in China and internationally—particularly the betrayals carried out by Stalinism and Maoism. A new genuine Marxist revolutionary party is needed, based on the lessons of the Trotskyist movement’s protracted political fight against Stalinism. That means building a Chinese section of the International Committee of Fourth International.
John Chan
John ChanFood is one of the most important aspects of a Christmas wedding. Read on to explore Christmas wedding food ideas.
Christmas Wedding Food
Food is an important party of every party, be it a birthday party, a Christmas party or a wedding party. If you are planning to get married soon, then, you must be thinking about the food that you will be serving at the wedding. You wouldn't like to spoil the party by serving tasteless food at your wedding. It is better to plan your menu for the Christmas wedding food beforehand and save yourself from the embarrassment. You can also choose your menu from the Christmas wedding food ideas given below.
Drinks
Eggnog
Hot Spiced Cider
Hot Chocolate
Fruit Punches
Mocktails
Wine
Appetizers
Christmas cookies
Bourbon balls
Gingerbread Snacks
Spritz
Finger Chips
Nachos
Main Course
Baked Beans
Cheese Pasta
Roasted Chicken
Cold Sandwiches
Smoked Salmon
Stuffed Turkey
DessertDishes typical of Creole food
An example of creole Jambalaya
Louisiana Creole cuisine (French: Cuisine créole, Spanish: Cocina criolla) is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, United States, which blends French, Spanish, West African, Amerindian, Haitian, German, Italian, influences,[1][2] as well as influences from the general cuisine of the Southern United States.
Creole cuisine revolves around influences found in Louisiana from populations present in Louisiana before the sale of Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
Overview [ edit ]
Louisiana sits at a crossroads for a large variety of immigrant influences. It is widely known that Louisiana was founded by the French, thus in Louisiana Creole is placed in a French aesthetic, with an emphasis on complex sauces and slow-cooking. Later, émigrés came to New Orleans from the French and Haitian Revolutions and added further elegance and gallic influences to the cuisine.[3]
Classic Creole dishes [ edit ]
Appetizers [ edit ]
Oysters Rockefeller
Soups [ edit ]
Southern Oxtail Soup
Main dishes [ edit ]
Side dishes [ edit ]
Red beans
Dirty rice
Smothered green beans with sausage and potatoes
Desserts [ edit ]
Beverages [ edit ]
Breakfast [ edit ]
Condiments [ edit ]
Creole cooking methods [ edit ]
Barbecuing - similar to "slow and low" Southern barbecue traditions, but with Creole seasoning. Baking - direct and indirect dry heat in a furnace or oven, faster than smoking but slower than grilling. Grilling - direct heat on a shallow surface, fastest of all variants; sub-variants include: Charbroiling - direct dry heat on a solid surface with wide raised ridges. Gridironing - direct dry heat on a solid or hollow surface with narrow raised ridges. Griddling - direct dry or moist heat along with the use of oils and butter on a flat surface. Braising - combining a direct dry heat charbroil-grill or gridiron-grill with a pot filled with broth for direct moist heat, faster than smoking but slower than regular grilling and baking; time starts fast, slows down, then speeds up again to finish.
Boiling - as in boiling of crabs, crawfish, or shrimp, in seasoned liquid.
Deep frying
Smothering - cooking a vegetable or meat with low heat and small amounts of water or stock, similar to braising. Étouffée is a popular variant done with crawfish or shrimp.
Pan-broiling or pan-frying.
Injecting - using a large syringe-type setup to place seasoning deep inside large cuts of meat. This technique is much newer than the others on this list, but very common in Creole cooking.
Stewing, also known as fricassée.
Deep-frying of turkeys or oven-roasted turduckens entered southern Louisiana cuisine more recently.
Ingredients [ edit ]
The following is a partial list of ingredients used in Creole cuisine and some of the staple ingredients.
Grains [ edit ]
Corn
Rice — long, medium, or short grain white; also popcorn rice
Rice proved to be a valuable commodity in Creole cuisine. With an abundance of water and a hot, humid climate, rice could be grown practically anywhere in the region and grew wild in some areas. Rice became the predominant starch in the diet, as it was easy to grow, store and prepare. The oldest rice mill in operation in the United States, the Conrad Rice Mill, is located in New Iberia.
Wheat (for baking bread)
Fruits and vegetables [ edit ]
Meat and seafood [ edit ]
Creole folkways include many techniques for preserving meat, some of which are waning due to the availability of refrigeration and mass-produced meat at the grocer. Smoking of meats remains a fairly common practice, but once-common preparations such as turkey or duck confit (preserved in poultry fat, with spices) are now seen even by Acadians as quaint rarities.
Game is still uniformly popular in Creole cooking.
The recent increase of catfish farming in the Mississippi Delta has increased its usage in Creole cuisine, replacing the more traditional wild-caught trout (the saltwater species) and red fish.
Seafood Freshwater Bass (Commonly known as green trout in south Louisiana) Catfish Sac-au-Lait (white perch or crappie) Yellow perch
Saltwater or brackish water species Trout Redfish Pompano Drumfish Flounder Grouper Perch - many varieties Snapper - many varieties
Shellfish Crawfish (ecrevisse)- either wild swamp or farm-raised Shrimp, or Crevette ("Chevrette" in Colonial Louisiana French) Oysters Blue Crab
Also included in the seafood mix are some so-called trash fish that would not sell at market because of their high bone to meat ratio or required complicated cooking methods. These were brought home by fishermen to feed the family. Examples are garfish, black drum also called gaspergou or just "goo", croaker, and bream. Poultry Farm Raised Turkey (and turkey confit) Chicken (and Guinea Hen)
Game birds Dove Goose Quail Duck (and duck confit)
Pork Andouille - a spicy dry smoked sausage, characterized by a coarse-ground texture
Chaurice, similar to the Spanish chorizo
Ham hocks
Wild boar or Feral Hog
Head cheese
Pork sausage (fresh) - not smoked or cured, but highly seasoned. Mostly used in gumbos. The sausage itself does not include rice, separating it from boudin.
Salt Pork Beef and dairy
Though parts of the Louisiana where Creole cooking is found are well suited to cattle or dairy farming, beef is not often used in a pre-processed or uniquely Creole form. It is usually prepared fairly simply as chops, stews, or steaks, taking a cue from Texas to the west. Ground beef is used as is traditional throughout the southern US, although seasoned differently. Dairy farming is not as prevalent as in the past, but there are still some farms in the business. There are unique dairy items produced in Creole cooking such as Creole cream cheese. Other game meats Alligator
Alligator gar, or Gator gar
Frog, usually Bullfrogs (not just the legs, but the entire creature)
Gros bec commonly called Night heron
Nutria
Squirrel
Rabbit
Skunk, or mouffette
Turtle
Snake
Virginia opossum, or sarigue
Creole seasonings [ edit ]
Individual
Blended
"Creole spice" blends such as Tony Chachere's and REX King of Spice are sometimes used in Creole kitchens, but do not suit every cook's style because Creole-style seasoning is often |
driver’s intent. And she says the incident comes at a moment when racial tensions are high.
"When you have this kind of behavior coming from a citizen against a group of students, you're sticking your finger up at a group of kids? I don't know what that is," she said.
Police and the school principal say they have no proof that the driver flipped off the students. And neither the school nor the police are assigning intent to the driver.
Principal Johnson says he's proud of how students conducted themselves, and says Thursday's incident was a lesson Centennial students could never have learned out of a book.In on of his most interesting films, The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom, Adam Curtis describes how the free market fundamentalists attempted to apply what has been called 'Shock Therapy' in Russia, right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. 'Shock Therapy' not only ruined the Russian economy, but even led to the rise of Vladimir Putin in power.
As Curtis says:
In 1992, the American government had passed the Freedom Support Act. Its aim was to help Russia reconstruct itself. Along with millions of dollars of aid, came a group of young American advisers, economists and political theorists, that had a radical vision of what was necessary. They called it 'Shock therapy'. The aim was to remove all State control over the Russian economy as a stroke. All price subsidies will be removed, and all State industries privatized overnight. Their leader was a Harvard economist called Jeffrey Sachs.
The Americans allied themselves with a group of young radical free marketeers around Yeltsin, and together they drew up a plan. Underlying it there was a theory of how to transform society by creating new human beings. It was the same theory that laid behind the rise of what was called market democracy in Britain and America in the 1980s.
The theory said that if one destroyed all the elite institutions that in the past had told people what to do, and instead allowed individuals to become independent in the market place, then they would become new kinds of rational beings, choosing what they wanted. Out of this, would come a new form of order, and a new kind of democracy, in which the market, not politics, gave people what they wanted.
But things didn't work out as the theory predicted. On the first day of the plan, all price controls in Russia were removed, and the cost of all goods soared. Millions of people found themselves unable to afford even the most basic of goods, and with no one to help them. The only solution for millions of Russians, was to come out on to the streets and sell their belongings for anything they could get.
The chaos began to spread, as the currency no longer had any value. Factories began to pay their workers in the products they made, which the people then had to sell wherever they could in order to live. Then, the privatization plan kicked in. Every Russian was given vouchers to buy shares in the privatized companies, but desperate for cash, they simply sold their vouchers to ruthless businessmen for a fraction of their worth. And a new elite began to emerge who snapped off vast sections of Russian industry. They became known as the 'oligarchs'.
Faced with this, the deputies in the Russian Parliament, began to protest against what they called 'economic genocide', would led to chaos and violence inside Parliament. And in the face of this the group of reformers around Yeltsin persuaded him he had to suspend Parliament. In protest, the deputies occupied Parliament. Yeltsin's response was brutal. He ordered the army to attack, the deputies were arrested, and Yeltsin announced that he would now rule by decree.
Shock Therapy continued, but in the future, people were going to be made free, through force and dictatorship. But what actually happened was that Yeltsin became the creature of those with the real power in the new Russia, the oligarchs. In return for loans, Yeltsin gave oligarchs like Boris Berezovsky, the rest of Russian industry. Sometimes at less than 2% of its real value. And then, in 1998, the experiment came dramatically to an end.
The days of economic reforms seem to be well and truly over here. Out of this economic catastrophe, a new order emerged, but it wasn't a spontaneous order dreamt of by the free market utopians. It was the very opposite, a harsh, tough nationalism, imposed by the new president Vladimir Putin. Putin arrested or exiled the major oligarchs, and set about dismantling many of the democratic freedoms in the new Russia. But this was welcomed by the majority of Russians, who now wanted order, not freedom. What president Putin could offer Russians were other things, security, dignity, and above all, a meaning that went beyond their own individual lives.
Curtis presents ideas originated from the neoconservatives, first appeared in the US in the early 70s. This coincides with the neoliberalism era that dominated the West for about four decades until today. Since then, the neocon/neoliberal establishment of the West has spread chaos in various regions through military or economic intervention.
Russia was on its knees after the collapse of the Soviet Union. But it is obvious that the neocons not only failed to fulfill their ultimate target which was the definite occupation of Russia from inside through an economic war, but, instead, they helped Putin to rise in power. Now, they want desperately to return to Russia with the same target. With Putin in power, things now are much more difficult. The US deep state has only one option: provoke an open and direct conflict.
As already described, w hat we see in Ukraine is probably another failure of various think tanks, mostly from Washington, which they are funded, of course, by the international capital. It seems that, apart from the fact that they have underestimated Putin's abilities, they have also wrongly estimated that Russia had passed permanently in the neoliberal phase and would be ready to become an easy victim to promote their plans. According to these plans, the ultimate goal would be probably to dissolve the vast Russian territory in future and bring in power Western-friendly puppet regimes, in order not only to conquer the valuable resources, but also to impose permanently the neoliberal doctrine on "unexplored" regions and populations. hat we see in Ukraine is probably another failure of various think tanks, mostly from Washington, which they are funded, of course, by the international capital. It seems that, apart from the fact that they have underestimated Putin's abilities, they have also wrongly estimated that Russia had passed permanently in the neoliberal phase and would be ready to become an easy victim to promote their plans. According to these plans, the ultimate goal would be probably to dissolve the vast Russian territory in future and bring in power Western-friendly puppet regimes, in order not only to conquer the valuable resources, but also to impose permanently the neoliberal doctrine on "unexplored" regions and populations.President Obama will veto legislation that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.
“That is still the plan. The president does intend to veto this legislation,” Earnest told reporters at the daily briefing.
The 9/11 Museum, Gold Star Parents, Earthquake Alley
The House approved the measure on Friday and the Senate passed the measure in May. In the Senate, it was sponsored by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chuck Schumer, D-New York.
Earnest said Monday that the White House has had “significant” concerns with the bill because it could open up the U.S. to being continually sued by people in other countries.
“The way that this bill is currently written exposes the United States, U.S. diplomats, U.S. servicemembers and, in some situations, even U.S. companies to significant risk in courts all across the world,” Earnest said. “The president believes that it’s important to look out for our country, to look out for our servicemembers, to look out for these diplomats and allowing this bill to come into law would increase the risk that it would face.”
The bill’s passage came before the 15th anniversary Sunday of the 2001 attacks that killed thousands in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
Even after Obama vetoes the bill, it’s possible Congress might have the votes to override his veto.Scopolamine, otherwise known as Devil’s Breath, is a drug derived from the seeds of the Borrachero tree, as well as other varieties of plants within the same “nightshade” family, to include henbane and Angel’s Trumpet. The drug causes memory loss by limiting or inhibiting the function of the acetylcholine neurotransmitter.
Acetylcholine is concentrated in location to the hippocampal region, and this is the part of the brain that records your memories onto a perpetual stream of newly formed brain cells. The class of drugs which includes scopolamine is called anticholinergics, and is also described as a deliriant, as they produce hallucinations and vulnerability to suggestion that leave the user virtually no free will.
In 1922 Robert House, a Dallas, Texas, obstetrician, arranged to interview under scopolamine two prisoners in the Dallas county jail. He published some eleven articles on scopolamine in the years 1921-1929, with a noticeable increase in polemical zeal as time went on. What had begun as something of a scientific statement turned finally into a dedicated crusade by the “father of truth serum”, wherein he was “grossly indulgent of its wayward behavior and stubbornly proud of its minor achievements’.
Only a handful of cases in which scopolamine was used for police interrogation came to public notice, though there is evidence suggesting that some police forces may have used it extensively. Eventually the use of “truth serum” became of interest to the CIA, and they began their own experiments and research into drugs and hypnosis with the inception of Project Bluebird in 1949, with a wide range of drugs being administered, to include LSD and Scopolamine.
The experiments, carried out under the direction of DCI Allen Dulles, continued until 1951, when they decided to shift the focus of their efforts to using the drugs and hypnosis during actual interrogations, and the program morphed into Project Artichoke. Reports are conflicting as to whether or not Project Artichoke directly preceded the MKULTRA program, but we certainly know that this program expanded upon their previous efforts, and was aimed at developing procedures for mind control techniques, and as well utilized tests with LSD and Scopolamine.[1]
According to the Church Committee (the forerunner to the to the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that was formed in 1975 in the wake of the Watergate scandal), MKULTRA’s projects included “research to develop a capability in the covert use of biological and chemical materials. This area involves the production of various physiological conditions which could support present or future clandestine operations.”
The committee also acknowledged that the Inspector General’s survey of the program in 1963 evidenced that they were using alternate means of funding to avoid implications of the following enumerated unethical practices:
a. Research in the manipulation of human behavior is considered by many authorities in medicine and related fields to be professionally unethical, therefore the reputation of professional participants in the MKULTRA program are on occasion in jeopardy.
b. Some MKULTRA activities raise questions of legality implicit in the original charter.
c. A final phase of the testing of MKULTRA products places the rights and interests of U.S. citizens in jeopardy.
d. Public disclosure of some aspects of MKULTRA activity could induce serious adverse reaction in U.S. public opinion, as well as stimulate offensive and defensive action in this field on the part of foreign intelligence services.”[2]
‘Places the rights and interests of US citizens in jeopardy‘, and ‘could induce serious adverse reaction in US public opinion‘, let us realize the gravity of that, and let that permeate into our minds. They’ve expressed a willingness to carry out field experiments in mind and behavior control on unwilling and unknowing subjects within the American population for covert means, to include illegal activity, and that our rights and interests are ‘in jeopardy.’
In light of this information, I will have to say that I would’ve always been one that would have felt that a “Manchurian Candidate” scenario was either a remote, if not impossible, potential reality, yet ultimately find, that in reality, there is more potential for this scenario to be possible than I had ever previously conceived of. Let me emphasize the fact that if CIA handlers were to keep a subject strung out on this drug for any length of time, for that length of time, they would have an operative with no behavioral filters of morality or ethics, nor the capability for reason that would preclude them from participating in the CIA’s illegal ‘clandestine operations’.
The ramifications are virtually unfathomable, and I would have to say I agree with the Inspector General’s estimation that this information “could induce serious adverse reactions in US public opinion.” While it’s not that great of a surprise to me, upon having learned the scope of this project in greater detail, I think I might replace the term “adverse reaction” with outright outrage.
References:
[1] Memorandum – Project Artichoke
[2] Foreign And Military Intelligence: Book 1; Final Report of the Select Committee To Study Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities
“Truth” Drugs in InterrogationA federal judge has knocked down the government’s attempt to hold a secret hearing in a case challenging the military’s practice of force-feeding Guantanamo detainees who are on hunger strike.
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler called the government’s desire to close the proceedings “deeply troubling,” and chastised the Department of Justice for appearing to “deliberately” make the request “on short notice.”
The case involves Abu Wa’el Dhiab, a Syrian man who has been held at Guantanamo since 2002, though he was cleared for transfer out of the island prison by the military in 2009. He began a hunger strike last year and claims that he has been subjected to painful and abusive force-feedings. He has asked the federal court to intervene and stop the military forcing him from his cell and restraining him during the feedings.
The government wanted the hearing to be largely closed to the public, on the grounds that classified videos of force-feedings and so-called “forced cell extractions” would be shown. The doctors scheduled to testify might reveal secret details of how detainees are moved from cell to feedings, the government argued.
In denying their demand, Kessler noted that it would not be difficult to briefly close the court for classified matters. “A reasonable amount of delay and logistical burdens are a small price to pay for the virtues of judicial transparency,” Kessler wrote.
The decision nodded to public interest in Dhiab’s case. The practice of force-feeding at Guantanamo came to the fore last year when over one hundred detainees went on hunger strike. Many of them alleged that force-feeding was being done in a brutal, punitive manner. The military, for its part, said that the detainees were lying to gain public sympathy. The prevailing secrecy at Guantanamo makes independent verification of conditions at the prison next to impossible.
“With such a long-standing and ongoing public interest at stake,” Kessler wrote, “it would be particularly egregious to bar the public from observing the credibility of live witnesses, the substance of their testimony, whether proper procedures are being followed, and whether the Court is treating all participants fairly.”
First Look Media, the Intercept’s parent company, was among 16 news organizations that filed a motion opposing the closed hearing this week. A separate challenge to the classification of the force-feeding videos is still ongoing.
Kessler’s full opinion is below.Though White House press secretary Sean Spicer was decidedly chill about Melissa McCarthy's impression of him on Saturday's episode of SNL, our president reportedly wasn't so much. Shocker.
Politico reports that, according to "sources close to" President Donald Trump, the president was more bothered by a woman portraying Spicer than the fact that Trump hired someone who seems like a parody of himself:
"More than being lampooned as a press secretary who makes up facts, it was Spicer's portrayal by a woman that was most problematic in the president's eyes, according to sources close to him. And the unflattering send-up by a female comedian was not considered helpful for Spicer's longevity in the grueling, high-profile job, where he has struggled to strike the right balance between representing an administration that considers the media the "opposition party," and developing a functional relationship with the press."
A "top Trump donor" added that Trump "doesn't like his people to look weak." Because the "weak" piece of the equation here is that a woman portrayed him.
What's interesting, though, is Trump's silence on Twitter about the whole ordeal. We'll have to see what happens on Tuesday, when Spicer faces reporters in the briefing room.
(H/T Politico)Hamon Filled Noodles:
A Joseph Joestar X Squid Ink Spaghetti Fanfiction
During the three weeks of training that Joseph and Caesar endured while preparing to fight the Pillar Men, the delightful duo would often take short breaks to sit back and reflect on their friendship. Whether it was a walk in the park, a visit to the inner city, or simply just sitting down to chat, Joseph and Caesar always had a wonderful time. In one particular instance, the two had decided to stop at a restaurant for a fine lunchtime meal. However, this was not any ordinary restaurant. It actually just so happened to be the very restaurant where the pair met for the first time. Joseph could remember the day clearly: it was the first time that he had the intense pleasure of consuming a dish of spaghetti al nero di seppia, an experience he would never be able to forget. Plus, as mentioned before, this was the same day he met his partner in crime, Caesar. The suave bastard was flirting with some woman when his eyes locked with Joseph's. A bond was created that would not soon falter, but there was one other bond that cannot be overlooked. This bond is that of Joseph and his new favorite meal, spaghetti al nero di seppia. Joseph would never let Caesar know his true motive for returning to this restaurant, so for the time being, the excursion was being disguised as nothing out of the unusual.
After a brisk walk, Joseph and Caesar arrived at their destination. It wasn't long until they were sat down at a table in the far corner of the room. The waiter approached, having no idea of what he was getting himself into, and asked what Caesar would be ordering. Caesar, naturally, had already picked out what he had wished to eat this afternoon, however Joseph had other plans. The brown haired loudmouth shouted out, "My friend Caesar and I will both be getting the spaghetti al nero di seppia! With glasses of wine too!" Joseph flashed the waiter a thumbs-up and turned to Caesar, who was clearly not very thrilled with Joseph's decision to order for him. "Hey," Caesar exclaimed, "I can order for myself! I don't need you making my decisions for me." Joseph could tell that Caesar had absolutely no taste. Who wouldn't want to eat the delight known as spaghetti al nero di seppia? Caesar's complete ignorance almost made Joseph lose his appetite, but he would not let a party pooper like Caesar ruin this moment for him. No, Joseph would get his spaghetti, and nobody was going to stop him. With a flick of his wrist, Joseph sent the waiter away without allowing Caesar to order what he wanted. The now disgruntled Caesar wanted to keep a grudge with Joseph, but realized that it would not be wise to turn on the person who would be fighting the Pillar Men alongside himself. So, he decided to let this go for now as to not cause any problems in the future.
Waiting for their meal to be brought out took a decent amount of time, but it would be worth it. Joseph's face beamed as he saw his true desires on a literal silver platter being brought to him. It was perfect, almost as if this whole encounter was nothing but a dream, but Joseph knew better. This was more real than anything he had experienced before. "Your meals, good sirs," the waiter muttered as he swiftly placed the platter in front of the two gentlemen. "Okay!" screamed Joseph, "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time." Caesar was slightly perplexed. Why would Joseph be so excited over something as simple as spaghetti al nero di seppia? He could never understand the complexity of Joseph's emotions, which prompted him to inquire about this strange obsession. "What has you so attracted to your food, JoJo?" Joseph scoffed. What a simpleton Caesar was. "You're such an ass, Caesar," Joseph rebuked, "I need a break from your negativity. I'm going to the bathroom to take a breather." He promptly stood up and made his way to the men's restroom. Unbeknownst to Caesar, Joseph had also stashed a fistful of spaghetti al nero di seppia in his pocket, which he had big plans for.
Joseph casually entered the bathroom, not looking suspicious in the slightest. Only the most perceptive would be able to see a devious glint in his eye as he approached the stall at the far end of the bathroom. It was finally his moment and he knew what he had to do. After entering the stall, which was much too small for his bulging muscles, he managed to sit down on the toilet seat and reveal the ball of hidden spaghetti al nero di seppia. With one final nod of affirmation, Joseph began to control his breathing. He wasn't kidding when he said he was going to take a breather. With intense concentration, Joseph focused his ripple into the blackened noodles. Using his past experience regarding infusing this treat with hamon, it wasn't long before his meal was completely in his control. "Niiiiiiice," Joseph whispered, very pleased with himself. "Now, how should I start this?" Joseph placed his hand on his chin in a contemplative position. Almost instantly, an idea formed in his clever mind. Joseph was always good with coming up ideas on the spot. With one strong and confident breath, Joseph began to make the spaghetti al nero di seppia wrap around every part of his body he could think of. The dark strings of noodle goodness gleamed a jet black as they made their way around the contour of Joseph's rippling sculpt, eventually expanding to reach underneath the Joestar's clothing. Joseph was met with instant gratification, so much so, that he felt as though a new presence was being born from within him. He heard the words "Hermit Purple" ring in his head as the long strips of spaghetti began to harden around him. Although Joseph would not know the meaning of this awakening for a very long time, he was too preoccupied to focus on trying to decipher this strange message. Instead, he decided to go farther, harder, and deeper with his ceremony. At last, he decided on his final course of action. Every thick noodle was placed in its perfect position surrounding one of Joseph's many openings present on his body. With one final breath, a loud chant was uttered: "NOODLE PLEASURE OVERDRIVEUUU!" Within a split second, all of the spaghetti al nero di seppia noodles straightened at once, shooting deep within every one of Joseph's hole's. The feeling he experienced was the most intense mix of pain and pleasure that he could have ever dreamed of being able to partake in with his noodle love. Naturally, Joseph screamed out to world, letting everyone know that he was in heaven.
Caesar, who was still deciding whether or not he should he eat his own plate of spaghetti al nero di seppia, heard Joseph's loud roar from within the bathroom. "JoJo?!" Caesar had suspected that something horrible must have happened, and out of concern for his best friend, decided to investigate. Knocking over the table in a panic, Caesar bolted straight for the source of the screaming, banging into various other customers along the way. As he slammed open the door, he could have never imagined the position he would be put in. The blonde wonder could see outstretched noodles reaching out from under the last stall, and the only sound that he could manage to single out from among the screams was a loud, "OHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSS!" This shouting voice was instantly recognizable to Caesar as the man whom he had begun to befriend just a few weeks ago. Without further hesitation, Caesar ran over to the stall the sounds were being projected from, melted the lock with hamon, and broke the door open. His eyes widened. There, right in front of him, he saw his dear friend pleasuring himself with the very meal they had ordered at this restaurant. Before Caesar could get a word in, Joseph interrupted with: "Your next line is: 'JoJo, what the hell are you doing with that spaghetti?!'" Caesar quickly responded, "JoJo, what the hell are you doing with that spaghetti?!" His eyes widened once more. "NANI?!" he proclaimed as he took a step back, being caught off guard. This stumbling gave Joseph the perfect opportunity to escape by implementing the Secret Joestar Family Tradition. "Run away!" screamed Joseph, who dashed past his charming companion and made a beeline for the exit to the restaurant. Of course, Joseph had not removed any of the spaghetti al nero di seppia from any of his orifices; but why would he? The pleasure he felt could not simply be taken from him. Without another word, Joseph was gone, leaving his friend alone to try and comprehend what it is that just happened. Caesar never forgot this day, but probably because he was the one who had to pay for the meal.GENEVA, Switzerland, April 25 (UPI) -- A French woman boarding a flight to New York from Geneva with her husband and two children was barred from flying due to what she suspects is the mispronunciation of her name.
Printed on her passport surname first, Alic Aïda can sound like "al-Qaida," the terrorist organization, when mispronounced. Alic says the mispronunciation is common and her friends joke about it but she didn't think this particular case was funny.
"Alic Aïda, Al Qaeda. When friends make the play on words to try and pull my leg, I am used to it, but not this. Especially since my name is actually pronounced Alitch. It is of Yugoslav origin. And now here I am labelled as a risk," she told The Local.
Alic says she called the American consulate in Lyon but was unable to confirm the reason why she was put on the list.WASHINGTON — The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles can now recall and replace existing license plates that have Confederate flags with ones that comply with state law. This according to a formal order from Virginia…
WASHINGTON — The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles can now recall and replace existing license plates that have Confederate flags with ones that comply with state law.
This according to a formal order from Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring on Thursday.
Last week, a federal judge in Danville decided the Commonwealth won’t be forced to issue Sons of Confederate Veteran’s license plates with the Confederate battle flag any more.
The heritage group won an injunction requiring it 15 years ago.
In Texas, a Supreme Court ruling found that the state should be able to turn down Confederate battle flag plates since license plates are government speech.
WTOP’s Max Smith contributed to this report.
Follow @WTOP on Twitter and WTOP on Facebook.
© 2015 WTOP. All Rights Reserved.The Pentagon will send some 200 U.S. soldiers to Jordan to control spillover violence from the Syrian civil war, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the Senate.
But the troops, near Jordan's border with Syria, could be the forerunner of 20,000 or more U.S. troops deployed if the Obama administration decides to intervene in the 2-year-old civil war, senior U.S. officials told the Los Angeles Times.
The 200 or so troops from the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, will work alongside Jordanian forces to "improve readiness and prepare for a number of scenarios," Hagel told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Those scenarios could include securing chemical weapons arsenals or to prevent the war from spilling into neighboring countries, he said.
But the Pentagon has drawn up plans to possibly expand the force to 20,000 or more, the officials told the Times.
These forces could include special operations teams to find and secure Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles, U.S. air defense units to protect Jordan's airspace and conventional military units capable of moving into Syria if necessary, the Times said.
Defense Department officials consider the move as preparing the United States for possible direct military involvement in Syria, the Times said.
The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the report.
"Military intervention is always an option, but it should be an option of last resort," Hagel told the committee.
He warned a major deployment could "embroil the U.S. in a significant, lengthy and uncertain military commitment."
Hagel told the panel the new forces will initially help deliver humanitarian supplies and help the Jordanian military cope with the flood of Syrian refugees.
The will replace an ad hoc group of U.S. troops "pulled from various units and places" who have been in Jordan since last year, he said. That group included U.S. Army Special Forces, also known as Green Berets.
Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., asked Hagel and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, who testified with him, if Obama had asked the Pentagon to recommend how to apply "any additional military pressure" on the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad.
"We've had national security staff meetings at which we've been asked to brief the options, but we haven't been asked for a recommendation," Dempsey said.
"We've not been asked," Hagel said. "As I said, I've not been asked by the president."
Hagel is to be in Jordan next week as part of a Middle East trip that will also take him to Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the Pentagon said Wednesday.In these days of renewed gloom about the future of Europe, a quick test is in order. Who has the world’s biggest economy? A) The United States B) China/Asia C) Europe? Who has the most Fortune 500 companies? A) The United States B) China C) Europe. Who attracts most U.S. investment? A) Europe B) China C) Asia.
The correct answer in each case is Europe, short for the 27-member European Union (EU), a region with 500 million citizens. They produce an economy almost as large as the United States and China combined but have, so far, largely failed to make much of a dent in American perceptions that theirs is a collection of cradle-to-grave nanny states doomed to be left behind in a 21st century that will belong to China.
That China will rise to be a superpower in this century, overtaking the United States in terms of gross domestic product by 2035, is becoming conventional wisdom. But those who subscribe to that theory might do well to remember the fate of similar long-range forecasts in the past. At the turn of the 20th century, for example, eminent strategists predicted that Argentina would be a world power within 20 years. In the late 1980s, Japan was seen as the next global leader.
The latest pessimistic utterances about Europe were sparked by a debt crisis in Greece which raised concern over the health of the euro, the common currency of 16 EU members. Plus U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to stay away from a U.S.-EU summit scheduled for May in Madrid, with a new EU leadership structure that should have made it easier to answer then U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s famous question: “Who do I call when I want to talk to Europe?”
There are still several numbers to call in the complex set-up, giving fresh reasons to fret to those crystal-gazers who see the future dominated by the United States and China, the so-called G-2.
Pundits who see the European way of doing things as a model for the United States (and others) to follow are few and far between, not least, says one of them, Steven Hill, because most Americans are blissfully unaware of European achievements and, as he puts it, “reluctant to look elsewhere because ‘we are the best.'”
As foreigners traveling through the United States occasionally note, the phrases “we are the best” and “America is No.1″ are often uttered with deep conviction by citizens who have never set foot outside their country and therefore lack a direct way of comparison. (They are in the majority: only one in five Americans has a passport).
Hill, who heads the political reform program at the New American Foundation, a liberal Washington think tank, has just published a book whose title alone is enough to irk conservative Americans: Europe’s Promise. Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Future.
STUBBORN PRECONCEPTIONS
It marshals an impressive army of facts and comparative statistics to show that the United States is behind Europe in nearly every socio-economic category that can be measured and that neither America’s trickle-down, Wall Street-driven capitalism nor China’s state capitalism hold the keys to the future.
While China’s growth has been impressive, says Hill, the country remains, in essence, a sub-contractor to the West and is racked by internal contradictions.
“When I talk to American audiences,” Hill said in an interview, “many find the figures I cite hard to believe. They haven’t heard them before. U.S. businesses making more profits in Europe than anywhere else, 20 times more than in China? 179 of the world’s top companies are European compared with 140 American? That does not fit the preconceptions.”
Such preconceptions exist, in part, because U.S. media have portrayed Europe as a region in perpetual crisis, its economies sclerotic, its taxes a disincentive to personal initiative, its standards of living lower than America’s, its universal health care, guaranteed pensions, long vacations and considerably shorter working hours a recipe for low growth and stagnation. “In the transmission of news across the Atlantic, myth has been substituted for reality,” says Hill.
He is in good, though numerically small, company with such views. The economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, both Nobel prize winners, also have positive outlooks for Europe. In a recent column in the New York Times, Krugman said that Europe is often held up as evidence that higher taxes for the rich and benefits for the less well-off kill economic progress. Not so, he argued. The European experience demonstrates the opposite: social justice and progress can go hand in hand.
The relative rankings of countries tend to be defined by gross domestic product per capita but Hill points out that this might not be the best yardstick because it does not differentiate between transactions that add to the well-being of a country and those that diminish it. A dollar spent on sending a teenager to prison adds as much to GDP as a dollar spent on sending him to college.
On a long list of quality-of-life indexes that measure things beyond the GDP yardstick — from income inequality and access to health care to life expectancy, infant mortality and poverty levels — the United States does not rank near the top.
So where is the best place to live? For the past 30 years, a U.S.-based magazine, International Living, has compiled a quality-of-life index based on cost of living, culture and leisure, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety and climate. France tops the list for the fifth year running. The United States comes in 7th.In 2005, the West-Eastern Divan performed in Ramallah, marking the orchestra’s first event in the Occupied Territories. For many Palestinians in the audience, this was the first time they encountered Israelis in a non-military setting. One young girl remarked to Daniel Barenboim, “You are the first thing I’ve seen from Israel that is not a soldier or a tank.”
Because of the Lebanon War in 2006 some musicians could not attend the orchestra’s rehearsals. Those who did hotly debated and discussed what was happening. Emotions ran high, and the orchestra’s very existence and continuity seemed at stake. While there was ultimately no agreement on any one position, there was meaningful exchange and mutual respect. For individuals who were positioned as enemies, this was an extraordinary achievement.
When open war broke out again in Gaza in 2009, Barenboim began the Divan’s performances by reading a shared statement of the orchestra which said: “We aspire to total freedom and equality between Israelis and Palestinians, and it is on this basis that we come together today to play music.”In a momentous vote that could change the course of a conflict that had seemed close to a devastating end, the United Nations last night authorised military action against forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya.
Diplomats said preparations for air strikes by coalition forces against multiple targets on the ground and in the air would begin immediately. Early reports had suggested that aerial attacks, led in the first wave by British and French air forces, could begin within hours.
The adoption by the UN Security Council of a resolution to approve outside intervention was greeted by cheers and the firing of guns and fireworks in the key rebel stronghold of Benghazi – even as an artillery barrage from loyalist forces began to hit the city.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The text of the UN document was supported by 10 countries and was pushed in particular by Britain, the US and France. Among five nations that abstained were Russia and China. The resolution, which became politically viable only after the US earlier this week shifted its position to support it, aims to stop and reverse the recent gains made by Gaddafi's forces and prevent the overrunning and likely massacre of rebels and ordinary citizens in Benghazi.
"We have very little time left, perhaps it is a matter of hours," said Alain Juppe, the Foreign Minister of France.
Colonel Gaddafi had earlier issued a chilling warning that suggested his determination to break the rebellion would not be broken by the threat of international action. "We are coming tonight," he said. "Prepare yourselves... we will find you in your closets."
That threat was expanded to all those who supported the UN resolution with a statement from the Libyan foreign ministry. "Any foreign military act against Libya will expose all air and maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea to danger," the defence ministry declared. "Civilian and military [facilities] will become targets of Libya's counter-attack. The Mediterranean basin will face danger."
While the resolution authorises a coalition of countries, which will include participation by some Arab nations, to take " |
it will heal you! All of the marks are consumed when you use a special attack, so using them with strategy is key.
More good news!
The STEAM Build is looking really stable-- features depth of field, bloom, and we have a really nice options menu coming together. We have been diligently working on our submission and are aiming to get AdventureQuest 3D players with early access onto the platform by the end of next month. Lots more on this to be posted.
Emote judging is in! Announcement post coming ASAP
Capes now working on Development Server
Head replacements (Like Dage's Skull head) now working which make a lot more helmet types and in the future, different racial heads.
Our first dungeons are modeled and now in the "texturing phase"
How to Help & Get Involved
When I started writing this post I had no idea where to start. Everything is moving so rapidly in all directions-- it would be fair to calling this a flurry of development. But it is hard to get constructive feedback when looking at... EVERYTHING all at once. It is sort of like a President asking for everyone to just tell them "everything that needs fixed in the entire world." That much scattered feedback just turns into random noise. So one of my major goals this week was to make special (and very focused) posts to get your feedback on the specific things we are working on! For example, the next week-and-a-half we will be very focused on combat. So getting our whole video game community to lock onto the topic of combat and work with the team on making the combat the very best it can be should be priority one. But then it dawned on me, that not everyone knows how to be a good coach and give constructive feedback. What I mean is... most people on the internet are not used to people actually listening to them. So instead of offering suggestions on how to make something better, they just get vocal about what they do not like. It is really easy to hate on something, especially if it makes the poster feel superior. But the only way to make progress is to answer the question "What can I suggest to make it better?" It may sound like something everyone would do, but giving truly constructive "coaching" is hard for a lot of people. Probably because most people do not expect anyone to actually listen to them. Or sometimes, they know they do not like something, but they do not know what they would like. Which, honestly, takes some serious thinking. So I would like to make a video... using some tips from my Martial Arts school... on how you can be a great coach to the AQ3D Team! Which brings us to this post's challenge!
CHALLENGE
Tell a story in the comment section below of a time you posted something online that made a positive change, helped someone, or it got noticed and made a difference! (It is also OK to post that no one ever paid attention to your posts before if that is really true.)
Comments
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Home
Embodiment Course
The Embodiment Course helps students, in a safe and empathic environment, to discover and re-encounter some of their earliest embodied experiences: conception and before.
Class 2
Egg Journey
The egg you came from was formed inside the ovary in the first few weeks of your mother's life while she began her gestation inside the body of your grandmother.
This means that the egg you came from marinated in the energy of your grandmother's body for months, and then in your mother's body for years. How has this influenced who you are? In the egg journey class you can find out what it was like for your soul to develop its relationship with the matrilineal lineage, as well as the amazing egg cell itself. Upon ovulation, this cell, which has been stationary for decades, drifts from the ovary into another organ, the fallopian tube. Being the largest, and only round cell in the body, it then rolls down towards its destiny: conception.
The egg journey class can help you answer some of the following questions: What was the emotional and psychological environment of my conception? When did my "life" begin? Why did I choose my mother? How have my mothers and grandmothers experiences and attitudes towards life been unconsciously affecting me and how can this change? How did the stages of the egg journey affect my soul? When and how did my soul embody?Witness Told Cops He Saw Trayvon Martin Straddling George Zimmerman And Punching Him "MMA Style" Share
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A witness told Florida cops that he saw Trayvon Martin straddling George Zimmerman and pummeling the neighborhood watch captain “MMA style” shortly before the unarmed teen was felled by a gunshot to the chest.
The witness’s account was included in Sanford Police Department reports released today.
Interviewed by cops about 90 minutes after the shooting, the witness--whose name was redacted from police documents--said that he was inside his home when he heard a “commotion coming from the walk way” behind his residence.
The man recalled seeing “a black male, wearing a dark colored ‘hoodie’ on top of a white or Hispanic male who was yelling for help.” The black male, he added, “was mounted on the white or Hispanic male and throwing punches ‘MMA (mixed martial arts) style.'”
The witness--who was in his living room and about 30 feet away from the confrontation-- said he called out to the two men that he was dialing 911. “He then heard a ‘pop,’” police reported, and saw the black male “laid out on the grass.”
Zimmerman is pictured above in photos taken by police shortly after the February 26 shooting.
The police reports also include observations from two Sanford cops regarding Zimmerman’s physical appearance following the shooting. Officer Timothy Smith reported that Zimmerman was “bleeding from the nose and back of his head,” while Officer Jonathan Mead noted that he “appeared to have a broken and bloody nose and swelling of his face.”
Investigators also reported receiving medical reports from Altamonte Medical Practice “identifying the injuries sustained by Zimmerman on the evening of 2/26/2012.” The records indicated that he suffered an “open wound of scalp” and “Nasal bones, closed fracture.”React is an incredible JavaScript library created by Facebook and Instagram, focused on creating users interfaces, it dominate the view layer of modern web and mobile applications in the world’s best tech companies. React makes simple the development of interactive user interfaces that can be updated efficiently for each change of state.
Using declarative programming React make easy to debug and create a more predictable code.
React Native is the version of React that supports cross-platform mobile development. According to Facebook, React Native is very similar to React, but instead of using web components, it uses native components to create the building blocks.
PROTIP: The React / React Native does not make assumptions about the application’s current architecture. Most people consider React as the View layer of the MVC pattern and it can be used along any back-end technology, such as Java, Ruby, Python and Node.js
The Wix case demonstrates how easy it is to scale the mobile apps development, They migrated development for their application IOS and Android to React Native and increased their development speed in impressive 300%.
Wix — React Native Case at ReactNext 2016
PROTIP: With React Native it is possible reuse up to 90% of the written code between platforms iOS and Android.
Is It Some Magic?
It’s Magic
No, it’s not magic, React isn’t perfect, to create scalable applications with React and Reactive Native you have to manage the application state in a consistent and maintainable way using libraries like Redux, Mobx, Effex, Flux or even frameworks like Relay.
At Getty/IO we use Redux with Immutablejs.
PROTIP: Redux is basically a state container that takes the best parts of the Flux architecture to a logical and efficient conclusion. Its aim is to make state changes more predictable.
Although widely used with React, Redux can also be used with other libraries. Ex: Angular, Ember or Dart.
Redux/Flux Flow
Redux provides a sustainable standard for developing complex and large-scale applications, regardless of platform.
Creating Better Apps
In order to create better products, we decided to build a reference architecture for new projects with React and React Native technologies.
This architecture takes into account enterprise usage, application exponential growth, performance, scalability, testability, interoperability, and usability.
Our front-end stack:
The Modular Software Architecture
According to our experience, there are several ways to organize a javascript project, each form has its advantages and disadvantages.
We understand that the code should be clean and should provide support for adding new features without compromising the existing codebase. All code must follow a implementation plan to ensure everyone understands what was written.
Taking this into account, we have design a well defined structure for enterprise use, already organized by modules that maximizes the reuse of components.
.
├── package.json
├── src
│ ├── Root.js - Main App Component
│ ├── Routes.js - Routes
│ ├── assets
│ ├── components - Reusable Components
│ │ ├── home
│ │ │ ├── __tests__
│ │ │ │ ├── Card.spec.js
│ │ │ │ └── EventItem.spec.js
│ │ │ ├── Card.js
│ │ │ └── EventItem.js
│ │ ├──...
│ │ └── shared
│ ├── config
│ │ ├── constants.js - Constants and Configs
│ ├── modules
│ │ ├── home
│ │ │ ├── actions
│ │ │ │ ├── index.js - Action Creators
│ │ │ │ └── types.js - Action Types
│ │ │ ├── components
│ │ │ │ └── HomeScreen.js - Redux Container
│ │ │ └── reducers
│ │ │ ├── index.js - Redux Module
│ │ │ └── reducers.js - Redux Module Reducers
│ │ ├── events
│ │ ├── navigation
│ │ ├──...
│ ├── store
│ │ ├── store.js
│ │ └── reducers.js
│ ├── styles
│ │ └── main.js
│ └── utils
│ ├── date-utils.js
│ ├── string-utils.js
│ ├── storage-utils.js
│ └── responsive-utils.js
├── tests
│ ├── components
│ └── modules
│ ├── home
│ │ ├── actions
│ │ │ ├── home.action.spec.js
│ │ │ └── home.actionTypes.spec.js
│ │ ├── reducers
│ │ │ └── home.reducers.spec.js
│ │ └── components
│ │ ├── HomeScreen.spec.js
│ ├── navigation
│ ├── events
│ ├── login
│ └── survey
└── yarn.lock
In this example it is possible to observe that the containers are separated by modules and the reusable components are totally independent. For each module defined a set of tests for Actions, Types, Reducers and Components must be defined too.
The tests folder location here it’s a matter of preference here, you can use the Jest __tests__ standard as well.
Weekly Releases
In order to consistently collect feedback from users, we’ve also defined the weekly releases that which key users or even potential customers are invited to participate.
At the beginning of each week we define a goal for each and, from that goal, we organize the tasks for the sprint. Each sprint ends on Friday and on that is when we make a final week build for each platform.
Publicação Automática de Releases para iOS(Apple Store) e Android(Google Play) na Getty/IO
The Results
We have developed and used this process and technologies since 2015. So far the results have been surprising.
Every time we create a new application, the reference architecture receives numerous optimizations that have been collected as feedback from previous projects.
With the Redux reference implementation of all business logic is modular and decoupled from the front end and the same on mobile apps and web apps.
Applications that needed six months to be developed on two platforms can now be created in one third of the time.
With the use of React and Redux, we can also equalize the code between developers, all code is done using the same blueprints and if something different appears, our lint will complain in the continuous integration cycle.I share with Pierre Dagand the pleasure of having finished the redaction of a small article on realizability for JFLA 15 (Journées francophones des langages applicatifs). It is a rather simple presentation of the computational content of adequacy proofs, which we hoped to understand better by exhibiting their proof terms as well-typed lambda-terms in a dependently typed meta-language.
http://gallium.inria.fr/~scherer/research/norm_by_rea/dagand-scherer-jfla15.pdf
A frustrating aspect of the paper is that it has much less than what we originally hoped to discuss. We initially looked at realizability proofs for System L-style sequent calculi, and I conceived the lambda-calculus adequacy as merely an introduction. The introduction filled the 15 pages limit and it became the whole thing. Excluded from this work yet very much desirable are;
an extension to second-order quantification (impredicative polymorphism)
an extension to classical calculus through an explicit call/cc primitive
an extension to strong normalization rather than weak normalization
an adaptation to typed polarized System L as presented in Guillaume Munch-Maccagnoni’s work
The reason I started looking at this is that I wanted to understand better the way logical relations “work” surprisingly well to build strong meta-theoretical results. This probably first requires understanding better the links between this explicit computational content and the idealized presentation of orthogonality in Bernardy and Lasson’ “Realizability and Parametrcity in Pure Type Systems”.
The reviews we got from the JFLA reviewers were extremely, surprisingly helpful (I suppose reviewers at larger conferences have on average more papers to review). As we expected and hoped, they unearthed references to Related Work that we were not aware of, and this submission was very efficient at forcing us to explore the whole area more in depth.
Pierre had the courage to do mechanized formalizations of this work, in both Agda and Coq, which turned out reasonably well, although it only covers the first part of the paper – this is not our main gig. We are quite lucky he did that effort upfront, because it is increasingly hard to escape the peer pressure to proof-assist these days; our submitted version didn’t come with the formalization (we felt it was too rough to be useful), and the reviewers demanded too see it. A very natural request for an article about writing a dependently-typed programs, and – of course – the process of cleaning it up made Pierre notice a handful of typing mistakes I made when LaTeXing the proof terms. Not yet ready to defend.
http://gallium.inria.fr/~scherer/research/norm_by_rea/html/Norm.html
.
Post Scriptum: François also has a JFLA paper!Alt-right demonstrator 'Based Spartan' at a rally on June 4th, 2017, in Portland, Oregon.** (Photo: Natalie Behring/Getty Images)
It has been over six months since Donald Trump was elected, and the so-called alt-right is still with us. Their "God Emperor" having been elected president, these 21st-century American Nazis aren't looking to crawl back under their futons. Instead, they are expanding: propagandizing, holding recruitment rallies, and starting violence around the country. And yet, with their troll ethics, gladiator costumes, and frog-god iconography, it can be very hard to take them seriously as a threat to public safety or national democracy. The alt-right is a bunch of clowns—how dangerous could they be?
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To get a sense of the historical context behind today's alt-right, I spoke with Elaine Parsons, a professor of history at Duquesne University and author of Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan in Reconstruction. The book is an excellent history of the 19th-century Klan and the rise and fall of its wave of terror between 1867 and 1872, and in the year since its release, Parsons' book has acquired new significance as white-identity politics have declared themselves openly. Most of our ideas about the Klan come from the 20th-century version, and especially from the civil rights movement, but the original group is probably more relevant to our present moment. The parallels between the Reconstruction Klan and the milk-chugging Proud Boys are not a stretch—they're undeniable.
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The goofiness and so-called irony with which the alt-right goes about fascism can seem distinctly postmodern and Internet-forged, but a similar humor animated the Reconstruction Klan. All the Klannish affectations and accoutrements that seem so ridiculous today—the alliterative k's, the costumes, the Magic: The Gathering titles like "Grand Wizard" and "Exalted Cyclops"—were ridiculous, and self-consciously so. One of the functions of humor for the Klan, Parsons says, was to mark their transgressions as acceptable. "The right believes in the truth of racial and gender inequality and the legitimacy of domination as the engine of change," she says, "but in America after the Civil War, stating that openly becomes more taboo. So they used humor to shake loose people's refusal to talk about inequality, playfully illustrating what they thought should be reality. They creatively destabilized norms to shake people loose of comfortable pieties." Like the Klan, the Proud Boys actually do think that patriotic militias of white men should be the foundation of American political society, and as long as they perform it as a circus show, they can avoid some of the consequences for acting out that fantasy.
The architects of the Reconstruction Klan weren’t revanchist Southern gentlemen; they were memelords.
Wearing wacky costumes is associated more with the far left (think climate activists dressed as polar bears) than with the far right, yet during the latest fascist/anti-fascist confrontations, it has been the latter working harder on their outfits. They've stirred together an aesthetic mélange of sports equipment, American flags, Internet memes, Greco-Roman battle wear, Nazi iconography, and fetish gear. It looks laughable and absurd, but they're humoring themselves first and foremost. The Reconstruction Klan learned their costume tradition from actual costume parties of the sort that rich Southerners used to throw, and they attempted a more unruly set of ensembles than even today's alt-right: not just the infamous white-hooded ghosts, but moon men and demons and cross-dressers. "The Klan served an energizing function in part by building a new Southern white male identity that was drawn self-consciously from the newest trends, from popular entertainment to contemporary forms of organizational structure" Parsons writes in the book. The architects of the Reconstruction Klan weren't revanchist Southern gentlemen; they were memelords.
Based on her research, Parsons has come to think that costumes also fulfill another function for the far right. "Costumes tell the viewer that the thing the wearer is trying to do is cultural, that it's not a political or violent attack," she says. "They suggest that the wearer is trying to convince, or engage. If you're wearing a costume, you're thinking about the viewer, you're imagining yourself in conversation with someone else. But what people fail to understand is that cultural control is a question of power." The playful outfits give the rest of us a false sense of security by tricking us into thinking the performers are acting within the liberal symbolic order. They indicate an expressive speech-act is occurring. "Costumes tell us that they're performing, that they can come back from what they're doing," Parsons says. "But why should that be reassuring? Military uniforms are costumes in the same way." Just because it's a performance doesn't mean it's not real.
When media outlets first started talking about Richard Spencer, the white supremacist who coined the term "alt-right," the profiles framed him as the "dapper fascist": a stock character in American entertainment (from Law and Order to Sons of Anarchy) who preaches faith and family while wearing a suit and pocket square, yet holds atrocious views. But as Spencer's character came into focus (jobless heir to a plantation, failed academic aesthete, more interested in young men and frog memes than in his wife and child), he started to look more like one of the bored musicians who formed the original Klan than a 20th-century chairman of the local White Citizens Council. During Reconstruction, Parsons says, white Southern men (reasonably) believed that their time for prosperity had passed, that their leadership roles in the family and community were being usurped. "They thought there was nothing for them to do," Parsons says. "These groups emerge when white men feel they can no longer exercise legitimate democratic authority, and some of them turn to violence." Purposeless losers are extremely easy to mock, and that can sometimes obscure just how dangerous they are.
A right-wing demonstrator participates in the Denver March Against Sharia Law in Denver, Coloradom on June 10th, 2017. The march was supported by two right-wing groups, The Proud Boys, and Bikers Against Radical Islam. (Photo: Jason Connolly/AFP/Getty Images)
Think of Jeremy Christian: Most of the pictures we have of the man who stabbed two men to death on a Portland train are from one of these Nazi costume parties that their attendees call "free speech rallies." The images are of Christian standing alone, wearing an American flag around his neck, throwing up a heil with his right hand. Only anti-fascists have seized on video from the event, where you can see Jacob Von Ott, organizer and spokesman of Identity Europa (a pseudo-intellectual white supremacist group that targets college campuses), go up and shake his hand, which Christian lowers from his Nazi salute. There is no bright line distinguishing the current state of affairs from one in which white-power militias stalk the country intimidating, harassing, and even killing their enemies. Don't let the silly costumes fool you; we are already there.*
Fortunately, there are some encouraging lessons from the 19th century. Though the federal government betrayed Reconstruction, the Klan's reign was short-lived. "I don't want to sound like I'm suggesting anything," Parsons says, "but speaking as a historian, violent resistance was very effective. We've told ourselves a story about the Klan facing cowering victims, but people organized, fought, and defeated the Klan constantly." Black Americans in the Reconstruction South were often armed, not just as individuals but as communities, for collective self-defense. "There were places the Klan couldn't go," Parsons says, "people who, according to their code, they should have attacked, who they didn't."
Fighting back also dispelled the air of comedy. In 1868, when costumed night-riders showed up at Bob Anderson's home in Knoxville, Tennessee, he came out shooting. The local liberal paper celebrated Anderson, writing, "We wonder now if the Conservative papers will deny that the Kuklux sneak about the country in the unhallowed business of stealing from the freedmen. A Kluklux has been killed, laid low by the bullet of a brave colored man who had courage to defend his home from the assaults of reckless villains." If history is to be our guide, ignoring or laughing at the alt-right isn't going to be good enough. We have to take these jokers seriously.
*Update — June 13th, 2017: This article has been updated with the proper location where the stabbing took place.
**Update — June 14th, 2017: This article has been updated to correct an error in a Getty Images caption; the man in the picture calls himself the "Based Spartan," not the "Based Stickman."An engineer at Google has taken up a personal campaign against non-compliant USB-C adapter cables, warning of potential charging problems or device damage.
Benson Leung, who worked on Google’s latest Chromebook Pixel and Pixel C tablet, has been calling out the guilty cables in his reviews on Amazon. The issue lies solely with cables that have the new reversible USB Type-C connector on one end, and legacy Type-A or Type-B connectors on the other. As Leung notes, these cables must use a specific resistor value to meet compliance and charge safely.
The worst case scenario with these cables is they could damage the user’s hub, charger, or device. When plugged into a laptop such as the Chromebook Pixel, they may also fail to charge properly. “I have started reviewing USB cables on Amazon because I have gotten fed up with the early cables from 3rd party vendors that so blatantly flaunt the specification and I want to hold them to task,” Leung wrote on Google+.
Unfortunately, there’s no easy way for consumers to identify a non-compliant cable at the time of purchase. Leung has posted some instructions for Pixel users to run their own tests in developer mode, in case anyone wants to help with the campaign.
For now, it’s best to check Leung’s own reviews to weed out the bad actors. So far, he’s identified seven non-compliant adapter cables, from vendors CableCreation, Monba, Kupx, Juiced Systems, Orzly, and TechMatte. Leung has also been praising cables that meet the USB-C spec; those from Frieq, Belkin, and iOrange are safe bets.
Why this matters: While USB-C’s reversible connector is a vast improvement over legacy USB, it does require an adapter cable to work with older chargers or peripherals. Cable makers are clearly trying to exploit this demand, but it appears that some are also cutting corners along the way. Early adopters of USB-C devices such as the Pixel,12-inch MacBook, or new Nexus phones will need to be extra cautious when buying additional cables from unknown brands.
This story, "Beware bad USB-C cables, Google engineer warns—while naming names" was originally published by PCWorld.LAKEWOOD, NJ - A 23-minute "lights out delay" in the bottom of the ninth could not spark the BlueClaws, who were set aside 1-2-3 by CJ Robinson and fell 4-3 to Greensboro in front of 10,011 fans at FirstEnergy Park.
The Grasshoppers (7-4/46-35) swept the four-game series from the BlueClaws (4-7/33-47) who have now lost five straight games.
With Lakewood getting set to bat in the bottom of the ninth, the stadium lights went out. The game was delayed by 23 minutes before Robinson struck out pinch-hitter Grenny Cumana and got Zach Coppola and Carlos Duran to ground out to end the game. Robinson earned his 14th save of the year in the process.
Greensboro jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Zach Sullivan just missed a three-run home run, settling for a two-run double off the top of the left field wall.
Trailing 2-0, the BlueClaws took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a three-run double by Wilson Garcia on the 9th pitch of an at bat against Justin Jacome. After Jacome walked Damek Tomscha, he was removed, allowing three runs on five hits in 1.2 innings.
Ben Meyer (2-4) took over and did not allow a run in 4.1 innings of relief, earning the win.
The Hoppers tied the game off Tyler Gilbert in the third on a Gilbert throwing error and took the lead in the fourth on a fielder's choice groundout by Justin Twine.
Gilbert (4-7) would finish six, allowing four runs, three earned, and striking out nine, tying a career high. Edgar Garcia followed with three scoreless innings in relief.
Duran and Brendon Hayden each had two hits for the BlueClaws in the loss.
Attendance: The crowd of 10,011 fans was the largest by the BlueClaws since 10,032 fans came out to see the BlueClaws retire Ryan Howard's number 29 on August 20, 2010.
The BlueClaws head to Delmarva for a three-game series with the Shorebirds. RHP Alberto Tirado (0-0, 9.00) starts for Lakewood against LHP Reid Love (6-3).
- BlueClaws -Yeah you heard us right…. We are totally basking in what the words ‘Mailable Microsites’ have to offer and we like the word already! … and why not? We share our initials too, the Monks and the Monastery! 😉 Pun things apart, the word Mailable Microsites has been buzzing since the beginning of the year now and is coming up as the new definition of what email evolution would lead us to!
Chad White, at the end of his book on email marketing states, “The emails of the future will be much more like sending subscribers a microsite than a static message”. These emails have the potential to let the subscriber read the message, watch a video, browse through a few products and place an order – ALL OF IT without leaving their divine INBOX! Such is the sanctity of these mail-able microsites aided by the wide array of email functionality they can offer; opening another qualified dimension in the world of email marketing altogether. Below is a brief of what we could be looking at under these much hyped words:
Navigation
Navigation bars in email header can generate a great amount of clicks thereby facilitating conversions. Due to the space constraints in mobile email, marketers and designers choose to move the navigation bars to the bottom of the email. This has led to the rise of hamburger menus in emails for making the best use of the limited space real estate on mobile viewing environments.
Video
Embedding video in emails with effective fallback images has already worked well in email marketing. Many subscribers do not prefer visiting an actual landing page for the purpose of watching the video, and mailable microsites allowing the same along with email client wide compatibility can sure come in handy.
Product and Content Browsing
Email carousels shall evolve for ease in product browsing under the mailable microsite functionality. Browse-able email content can literally cut down the product browsing steps by a few, increasing the conversion rate.
Live Content
Dynamic content has already evolved as component of email marketing that lets you cater relevant and dynamic email copies. Live Content has the potential to take it beyond that. Highly accurate content under this category can deliver live weather forecasts, stock situations, etc. within the emails based on the time of opens.
Payments
In-email payments may start to get more recognized as an easy way of making payments. Google’s Pony Express is a well-known development in this section of in-email functionalities.
There is little time to wait before the future of mailable microsites is shaped across email marketing fraternities. Let us know about your thoughts on the subject in the comments below. Email Monks shall soon come up with a few examples of mailable microsites, with a lot more details and what they have to possibly offer across varied industries. Till then, keep around 🙂
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At an addiction policy forum in Hooksett, New Hampshire, on Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz, the winner of the Republican Iowa caucuses, turned his talk about the awful consequences of addiction into a rant against…illegal immigration. And, of course, the media and Hollywood. After describing how addiction has affected his family—his half sister died of a drug overdose in 2011—Cruz quickly pivoted to discuss the flood of “undocumented Democrats” (Freudian slip?) coming across the border from Mexico and the need to build a wall to keep them out. He suggested the wall was also needed to protect the United States from drug cartels. Then he turned to the entertainment industry and one member in particular:
El Chapo. You know, Sean Penn seems to think he is a sexy and attractive character. I so appreciate Hollywood for glorifying vicious homicidal killers. What a cute and chic thing to celebrate. Someone who murders and destroys lives for a living. El Chapo’s organization brings vast quantities of drugs into this country, vast quantities of heroin.
Of course, this was a reference to Sean Penn’s recent Rolling Stone article, in which Penn conducted an interview with the fugitive drug cartel chieftain in a secret jungle location. The piece did not celebrate El Chapo—but Cruz was looking to blame all the usual suspects for the drug epidemic in New England: the media, Democrats, and a big-name actor.
Asked to respond to Cruz’s effort to link him to the addiction plague in the Granite State, Penn, in an email, told Mother Jones:
Ted Cruz is a generically funny and dangerously adept thought-smith. Clearly, he watches too much television and neglected to read my article before criticizing. It’s understood. He’s busy trading genius and raising aspirations with Mr. Trump. Blame Canada.
Penn’s last sentence is a reference to this.
We’ve asked the Cruz campaign if it would like to respond—and whether the senator is a fan of South Park.Welcome to the Carnival of Personal Finance #299 (so close to 300!!)
Take a load off and take a break.
EDITOR’S PICKS
I tried to keep it to 10 but I couldn’t.
The submissions were too good!!
Plug! Plug!
FruGal actually submitted a guest post written by yours truly 🙂 on how minimalism improved my finances.
BUDGETING
Apparently it isn’t uncommon for those under 29 such as myself to have recession lessons make a lasting impact on finances (The Wisdom Journal) budgeting has become second nature and one of the methods is trickle down budgeting (Moolanomy).
We do things like check grocery sale cycles (Living richly on a budget) and learn how to save on airline tickets (Credit Donkey).
As a result, this is what we can learn from the financial crisis (The Financial Blogger) and here’s how much we should save a year(Oblivious Investor).
If you’re new to budgeting, you might want to check out some envelope budgeting software if that’s your thing (One Money Design) or the review of the USAA iPad Application (The Military Wallet).
You could always try to bring in more green by getting paid for your mad skills (Minting Nickels), or trying out these small business ideas (Experiments in Finance) and passive income ideas (Money Crush) and break free of the debt myth (Pay Off Debt).
If you are starting to feel the pinch of those cellphone bills, check out an overview of which family cell phone comes out on top (Dough Roller).
PURCHASES
Historical gas prices and money saving tips, we are paying $2/gallon than we did 20 years ago (Squirrelers).
Buying a door? Check out the breadth of door options (Funny about Money) and how to save when using disposable diapers (Money Beagle).
Or are you one of those who hide your spending from your spouse (Budgeting in the Fun Stuff)?
If you are in the market for insurance, whole life insurance might not be what it seems (Small Biz Big Dreams), and you might just be scared straight for finances one day (Big Cajun Man).
TAXES
The Tax Man cometh (Sustainable Life Blog) and you shouldn’t miss these 10 common tax deductions (Debt Free Adventure).
How about checking out reviews of the Turbo Tax software here (Canadian Finance Blog) and here (My Dollar Plan)?
I’m thinking of moving to Texas, so learning things like what a Form W-2 is (Bargaineering) would be handy.
If you’ve just gotten hitched hopefully you had a discussion before getting married (Clarity) and communicating with your spouse (Net Worth Journey); if not, here are some post honeymoon tax tips (Growing Money) and perhaps you might want to make a note about things to teach your kids about money (Live Real Now) and start thinking about how to take cheaper vacations (Moneyed Up).
INVESTING
I’ve been looking at dabbling in stocks lately and taking some advice from top financial advisors (Saving to Inve$t) and learning what my investing style is (The Dividend Guy).
Perhaps SIRIUS is the stock to buy (Hedge Honcho) and Netflix should be avoided (Intelligent Speculator), but precious metals considered (Learn Gold Coins)?
I could always read up on how to buy ETFs free of comissions (Personal Finance Reviews) or at least consider that management expense ratios (MER)s may not be the be-all and end-all (Retire Happy Blog).
Remember that investing experts may not be ethical (Sustainable Personal Finance) but let’s not forget the power of compounding interest (Compounding Returns).
If you’ve gone over the 6 considerations of where to invest (Do not wait), and you have saved enough to get a think about where to invest your money next (Think Your Way to Wealth) don’t forget about researching which retirement vehicle is the best one for you (Compounding Returns), even if you have a fear of financial markets (Modern Gal).
That said, if you look at these 11 dividend stocks to make you wealthy (Dividends Value) and pick great dividend stocks using criteria (Dividend Growth Investor), don’t forget to claim dividends on your taxes (Dividend Stocks Online).
CREDIT CARDS & DEBT
When your birthday comes around, watch out for those “birthday gifts” from retailers (Diva in Debt) and start confronting those skeletons in your closet (Soldier of Finance).
I may be debt averse especially when it comes to stupid things we do with credit cards (Money Walks), such as pay for balance fees that can take a bite out of your wallet even with 0% interest rates (Smart Balance Transfers).
As always, be wary of credit card companies skirting the law (Wallet Blog) and striking back against new laws (Clear Choice Credit Card Blog).
Even if you are careful with your money and you use your credit card but pay it faithfully every month it becomes a cost for other credit card users to bear (Credit Eh), but is it really a good idea for credit card markets to ease up (Free from Broke)?
MORTGAGES & LOANS
What is a home equity loan versus a home equity line of credit (Good Financial Cents)?
If you want to turn it into an investing machine, maybe you should read about when it makes sense to refinance for cash flow (Mighty Bargain Hunter) or perhaps if you have to sell ASAP, you might want to check out the psychology of selling the house at a loss (Consumerism Commentary).
I did however own a student loan to the tune of $60,000 and sometimes I wondered how much student debt was okay (The Financial Student) but chasing bank interest rates could be a waste of time (Studeconomics).
As my car gets older I have to think of a replacement, so I |
elected CEO on the strength of his plan to renew and transform the company. (His plan directly lead to a sixfold growth in share value.)
A noted champion of the manufacturing sector, Liveris published a similar plan for reestablishing American manufacturing in “Make it in America: The Case for Re-Inventing The Economy”. President Obama named him Co-Chair of his Advanced Manufacturing Partnership initiative.With the age of the incandescent light bulb fading rapidly, the holy grail of the lighting industry is to develop a highly efficient form of solid-state lighting that produces high quality white light.
One of the few alternative technologies that produce pure white light is white-light quantum dots. These are ultra-small fluorescent beads of cadmium selenide that can convert the blue light produced by an LED into a warm white light with a spectrum similar to that of incandescent light. (By contrast, compact fluorescent tubes and most white-light LEDs emit a combination of monochromatic colors that simulate white light).
Seven years ago, when white-light quantum dots were discovered accidentally in a Vanderbilt chemistry lab, their efficiency was too low for commercial applications and several experts predicted that it would be impossible to raise it to practical levels. Today, however, Vanderbilt researchers have proven those predictions wrong by reporting that they have successfully boosted the fluorescent efficiency of these nanocrystals from an original level of three percent to as high as 45 percent.
Potential commercial applications
“Forty-five percent is as high as the efficiency of some commercial phosphors which suggests that white-light quantum dots can now be used in some special lighting applications,” said Sandra Rosenthal, the Jack and Pamela Egan Chair of Chemistry, who directed the research which is described online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. “The fact that we have successfully boosted their efficiency by more than 10 times also means that it should be possible to improve their efficiency even further.”
The general measure for the overall efficiency of lighting devices is called luminous efficiency and it measures the amount of visible light (lumens) a device produces per watt. An incandescent light bulb produces about 15 lumens/watt, while a fluorescent tubes put out about 100 lumens/watt. White light LEDs currently on the market range from 28 to 93 lumens/watt.
“We calculate that if you combine our enhanced quantum dots with the most efficient ultraviolet LED, the hybrid device would have a luminous efficiency of about 40 lumens/watt,” reported James McBride, research assistant professor of chemistry who has been involved in the research from its inception. “There is lots of room to improve the efficiency of UV LEDS and the improvements would translate directly into a higher efficiencies in the hybrid.”
An accidental discovery
Quantum dots were discovered in 1980. They are beads of semiconductor material – the stuff from which transistors are made – that are so small that they have unique electronic properties, intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and individual molecules. One of their useful properties is fluorescence that produces distinctive colors determined by the size of the particles. As the nanocrystal’s size shrinks the light it emits shifts from red to blue. The Vanderbilt discovery was that ultra-small quantum dots, containing only 60 to 70 atoms, emit white instead of monochromatic light.
“These quantum dots are so small that almost all of the atoms are on the surface, so the white-light emission is intrinsically a surface phenomena,” said Rosenthal.
One of the first methods various groups used in the attempt to brighten the nanocrystals was “shelling” – growing a shell around them made of a different material, like zinc sulfide. Unfortunately, the shells extinguished the white light effect and the shelled quantum dots produced only colored light.
Chemists followed their noses
Following a lead from some research done at the University of North Carolina, the researchers decided to see if treating the quantum dots with metal salts would have a brightening effect. They noticed that some of the salts seemed to produce a small – 10 to 20 percent – but noticeable improvement.
“They were acetate salts and they smelled a bit like acetic acid,” said McBride. “We knew that acetic acid binds to the quantum dots so we decided to give it a try.”
The decision to follow their nose proved to be fortunate. The acetic acid treatment bumped up the quantum dots fluorescent efficiency from eight percent to 20 percent!
Acetic acid is a member of the corboxylic acid family. So the researchers tried the other members in the family. They found that the simplest and most acidic member – formic acid, the chemical that ants use to mark their paths – worked the best, pushing the efficiency as high as 45 percent.
The brightness boost had an unexpected side effect. It shifted the peak of the color spectrum of the quantum dots slightly into the blue. This is ironic because the major complaint of white-light LEDs is that the light they produce has an unpleasant blue tint. However, the researchers maintain that they know how to correct the color-balance of the boosted light.
The researchers’ next step is to test different methods for encapsulating the enhanced quantum dots.
Other contributors to the study include graduate students Teresa E. Rosson, Sarah M. Claiborne and undergraduate research student Benjamin Stratton, who is now at Columbia University.
The work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Read the 2005 story about the original discovery: Quantum dots that produce white light could be the light bulb’s successorEarlier this year on 2 March, Pakistani-British actor (a potential candidate to take the role of James Bond after Daniel Craig) Riz Ahmed delivered Channel 4’s annual diversity lecture in parliament. In it he warned that the failure of TV, as well as wider pop culture, to champion diversity is alienating young people in the UK and leading to divisions in society. “People are looking for the message that they belong, that they are part of something, that they are seen and heard and that despite, or perhaps because of, their experience, they are valued," Ahmed said. "They want to feel represented.”
It was a speech that struck a chord with Aaron Christian, a freelance commercial director and co-founder of the style collective Individualism. Having worked in the fashion industry for many years, Ahmed's words made Christian think about diversity and how few men he saw in fashion that looked like him. Determined to do something about it, he took to social media.
Jonathan Daniel Pryce
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"In his speech, Riz Ahmed made a great point about being given the chance to be seen in different roles and having the opportunity to play different parts," Christian wrote in a Facebook post. "I’ve always felt that one of the routes to change is the ability to actually see one's self in these roles too. I wont get into my childhood memories of never having a brown superhero or character to 'be' when I was young. The possibility of being able to be shown in a variety of ways really is needed.
"We need to see ourselves in all our diversity, and show others that too."
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The result? Christian set up The Asian Man, an Instagram account dedicated to highlighting men with South Asian heritage making waves on the international style scene: models, bloggers, designers, PRs in the fashion industry who not only look great in a street style shot, but who are all doing work every man who cares about menswear should know about.
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We caught up with Christian to talk about Asian diversity, how he got into the style scene and which other Instagram accounts we should be following.
GQ: Why did you start The Asian Man?
Aaron Christian: While I was working at Mr Porter I began shooting the shows and travelling to direct films. The shows were always a great place to be inspired and to meet the most stylish and interesting people in menswear and fashion, but - to put it bluntly - I couldn’t help but notice that there weren't more people that looked like me.
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Recently there has been a great deal of talk about the lack of diversity in many industries - and rightly so. There was always talk about whether designers should cast models that represented a more diverse audience and consumer. However, even though this has begun to happen with black and Chinese and Korean models, I have yet to really see one brown face. The more I looked the less I found. Which was odd as the Asian-Indian population is pretty vast.
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When I got back from the shows I started a Tumblr, which I filled with images of stylish brown men. I didn’t have a masterplan - maybe the hope of connecting with these people and hearing their stories. I even thought it could work as a documentary and started interviewing people, but work was so busy I couldn't set time aside for it.
Fast forward a few years, I left Mr Porter and became a freelance commercial director and I had more time to pick up on the idea again. That's when I started the Instagram account.
How did you get into the style industry?
So I’m one of the rare born-and-bred Londoners. My parents moved here when they were in their early twenties from Malaysia and I was born in Limehouse, raised in Stratford and now live in Bow.
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From a young age I was always interested in style, even if I didn’t know what that specially was. I went to a Catholic primary and secondary school where I had to wear a school uniform, so you had to get creative when thinking of how you could visually stand out. As you could imagine, when everyone was getting their bags from Argos, I made sure mine was from Index, or if everyone had Hush Puppies or Clarks, I'd save up for Kickers.
After school I studied film at uni. Like most students I didn’t have a clue about what do do after getting my degree. My brother, who was working as a freelance stylist, said we should work together on something while I figured out what I wanted to do. I agreed with the condition I could do films in whatever we chose to do.
We had this awful idea of trying to become the male versions of Trinny and Susannah and ended up creating a style consultancy called Individualism. This was around 12 years ago.
Unfortunately, the business side fell flat on its face, but the website and blog we created alongside it to market the service ended up being really popular. I grew the team, we began throwing style-themed parties, created an accessories line and an app to London's stores, and even did style seminars. It was all very new, very fresh and very fun.
However, it was difficult to earn money through Individualism. I took an internship at Esquire and later got a job under the magazine's former editor Jeremy Langmead in his new role as editor of Mr Porter. After four amazing years, I left to go freelance. I now work as a commercial director and still shoot for many fashion brands and houses.
Read next The biggest Spring/Summer 2019 trends for men type-gallery The biggest Spring/Summer 2019 trends for men All the most important shows and biggest trends for men you need to know.
Which Asian men do you think are currently shaking up the fashion scene?
From a streetwear perspective, Kish Kash (above) is a legend in the industry. His knowledge is incredible and he is still one of the most charming people I’ve met on the scene. Also, I'm a big fan of Abhishek Bhatt (a young bespoke tailor who's one of the sharpest men I know - he also plays the ukulele), @Sangiev
(a young YouTuber doing interesting things in style from a blogging perspective) and @nehjatski simply for his epic beard and style.
You regram a lot of stylish guys on your account. Any particular favourites you look to for style inspiration?
From a style perspective, I love what Thian Pillay, co-founder of Non Conformist does. He can move from street to sartorial effortlessly and still has his own spin on everything. He also has probably the most stylish little girl I’ve ever seen.
Baldev is great at putting together designer looks (I love how eclectic his outfits are) and Vikesh Tailor has some seriously great sartorial pieces.
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Which labels would you recommend we look up?
I'd say Non Conformist, as mentioned above, and Eidos: not an Asian brand, but its latest collection featured an all-Asian cast, which looked really cool.
Follow The Asian Man at instagram.com/theasianman_The votes are in and it is official, two red panda cubs born at the Philadelphia Zoo have been officially named Benjamin and Betsy after Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross. (Published Friday, Nov. 27, 2015)
The Philadelphia Zoo proudly announced the names of its two new red panda cubs Friday.
The cubs, Benjamin and Betsy, were born at the zoo on June 26th and debuted to the public in November.
The zoo asked the public for help naming the cubs. After thousands of entries, staff compiled a list and then asked the public to vote. The zoo received 40,000 votes and Benjamin and Betsy, with 17,000 votes, were the overwhelming winners.
“We are thrilled that so many people participated in naming our new panda cubs,” Kevin Murphy, General Curator, said in a release. “There were some really great submissions and paring down the list wasn’t easy but we are happy with the end result. This was a great way to build excitement as well as welcome these two important cubs to the Philadelphia Zoo.”
The names pay tribute to Betsy Ross, who is credited with making the first American flag, and Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation’s founding fathers.
Zoo officials say the cubs, and the mother, are doing very well.A vast majority of Canadians agree that medically assisted dying should be permitted under certain circumstances, but a new poll shows they have decidedly mixed feelings about the rules Ottawa has drawn up to govern the practice.
The survey, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Global News between June 17 and June 20, reveals that a full 86 per cent of respondents believe that there are circumstances when a terminally ill person should be allowed to seek professional medical help to die.
That’s in line with other public opinion polls on the subject in recent years.
WATCH: Bill C-14 receives royal assent, assisted dying now law
“This is one of those areas that used to be morally contentious and is no longer as morally contentious,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, pointing out a similar increase in support over time for same-sex marriage.
The Ipsos poll also indicates that two in three Canadians (65 per cent) agree with the final wording of the Liberal government’s assisted dying law, which states only people whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable” should have access to assisted death.
The Senate had attempted to remove that clause, which would have broadened access considerably and brought the law more in line with a Supreme Court decision rendered last year. But the amendment was rejected by the House of Commons before the bill was passed into law last week.
Strong support for advanced consent, assisted dying for the mentally ill
On other points, however, the poll respondents were not aligned at all with the will of Parliament.
A strong majority (85 per cent) approved — either strongly or somewhat — of the idea of allowing people to sign advance consent so that they can receive help in dying if the time comes and they are no longer able to communicate their wishes.
Just 15 per cent disapproved of advance consent. Still, the Liberals did not allow for it under the law.
WATCH: ‘Be afraid of Bill C-14,’ Price Carter says of assisted dying legislation
And then there is the difficult question of patients who suffer from mental illness. The idea that a natural death (not suicide) must be reasonably foreseeable excludes many mentally ill patients from access to medical aid in dying.
But the poll results indicate that 61 per cent of Canadians agree (25 per cent strongly/36 per cent somewhat) that people with mental illness and physical illness should be treated the same, meaning they believe access should be equal regardless of whether the medical condition is mental or physical.
“(Assisted death) is something that, until it’s tested by actually real-life circumstances, all of these contradictions will remain in play,” Bricker said.
“It will take time for people to kind of clarify their opinions as to what this means, and how it’s actually going to be operationalized.”
The results of the poll did not vary significantly by gender, but they did vary by age. Nearly a quarter of people between the ages of 18 and 34 felt that assisted death should not be an option for Canadians, while the same was true of only 9 per cent of those aged 55 and older.
READ MORE: Ottawa has no place in the deathbeds of the nation: Liberal MP Rob Oliphant
There were also geographical differences, with Quebecers expressing more support for assisted dying, and broader access, than people on the Prairies.
Bricker said that even with these variations, a “public consensus” has formed around assisted death over the last couple of decades. While the new law at times seemed controversial on Parliament Hill, he said, it wasn’t as controversial for average Canadians.
“People feel that this is about choice, no matter how you would want to define choice,” he said.
“Whether you have Lou Gehrig’s Disease or whether you’ve got such long-term depression that you really just don’t want to continue on living, they believe that it should be a choice that you make.”
The offices of Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Health Minister Jane Philpott declined requests for interview on the poll on Tuesday.
Exclusive Global News Ipsos polls are protected by copyright. The information and/or data may only be rebroadcast or republished with full and proper credit and attribution to “Global News Ipsos.” This poll was conducted between June 17 and June 20, 2016, with a sample of 1,005 Canadians from Ipsos’ online panel. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. This poll is accurate to within +/ – 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults been polled.Song Gallery
It's all said and done! The finished album hits stores on Augsut 24th! For posterity, here is the list of all 197 songs that came in during the submission period.
Song Artist Date Submitted
I Hate Heaven Jason Christ 2017-12-17
Burn, Baby, Burn Captain Danger w/TORGO 2017-12-17
Picnic Boy The Beaches 2017-12-16
Honey Bear Headnose 2017-12-16
Harry the Head Rita 2017-12-16
constantinople the knod 2017-12-16
The Old Woman Noise Bleed 2017-12-16
Red Rider Tyler Watkins 2017-12-16
Is He Really Bringing Roses??? Chico Tiberius 2017-12-16
Ship of Fools Ergle Bergle and the Gristle Guts 2017-12-16
The Touch WAK IV 2017-12-16
Hello Skinny Deathcrush 2017-12-16
Hello Skinny Ovalematic 2017-12-16
Floyd (give it time!) ARK 2017-12-16
Simple Mr. Misery Demonic Swagger 2017-12-16
KillThe3Eskimos slotorque 2017-12-16
Bach is dead (acousmatic version) Arthur Soyer 2017-12-16
Rest Aria the Conversation 2.0 2017-12-16
REST ARIA (Extra Fuzz Uke Edit) COUVERCLE 2017-12-16
In between dreams Des Clous 2017-12-16
Theme For An American TV Show Palo Alto 2017-12-16
Blue Rosebuds Leo Nightingale 2017-12-16
The Making of a Soul A&L 2017-12-16
The Aging Musician Connor Bond 2017-12-15
Serenade for Missy (Exercise Montage Mix) Infomercial USA 2017-12-15
Hello Skinny, do you ever wonder who they are? Paraplexus feat. Lars M. 2017-12-15
Bun My Bones TheBizzarreOne 2017-12-15
Moisture OK Glass 2017-12-15
Blue Rosebuds Hardin Keane 2017-12-15
Life Would Be Wonderful The Doppelgangers 2017-12-15
Introduction NEDiSON 2017-12-15
Shut Up Cretin Family 2017-12-15
Kick a picnic The Meet Cafe 2017-12-15
Here Come the Bums Deaf Panda 2017-12-15
Simple Arctic Song KNL 2017-12-15
The Sold-Out Artist CEMANTIC BLOCKAGE 2017-12-15
Simple Song Loopyi 2017-12-15
Shorty's Lament Asa Pillsbury 2017-12-15
Hello Skinny HalfCutLemon 2017-12-15
Harry the Head Still Life 2017-12-14
Amber My Boyfriend the Pilot 2017-12-14
Bach is dead Yankee Doodle Randy 2017-12-14
Dimples and Toes Edgar (1988) 2017-12-14
Santa Dog Conspicuously Alcoholic 2017-12-14
The Census Taker Yvan&Lendl 2017-12-14
Moisture Itch Princess 2017-12-14
Krafty Cheese Darkly 2017-12-14
Shut Up! Shut Up! Pope Paul Pot 2017-12-14
Medicine Man Petrol4brains 2017-12-14
Weightlifting Lulu Misterie Box 2017-12-14
Death In Barstow Cake Boy And The Caker Street Boys 2017-12-13
Mahogany Wood Ranchstyle Chickenpants 2017-12-13
I Hate Heaven MOSURA 2017-12-13
You Yesyesyes Yet Again Fan Guilt 2017-12-13
The New (orchestral) Machine Die Konsonauten 2017-12-13
Shorty's Lament Marselle 2017-12-12
Hello Skinny Lambamannen 2017-12-12
Burn Him Baby Blastcap 2017-12-12
Rushing Like A Banshee Toasty Floyd 2017-12-12
Fever Dreams My Version Of It 2017-12-11
Walter Westinghouse The Brown Christmas 2017-12-11
Smelly Tongues B & E 2017-12-11
Igloo is where the heart is Secret Science 2017-12-11
Betty's Body Kids Techno 2017-12-10
Six Things to Burn Ted Tyrrell 2017-12-10
Sleepwalker OBAA 2017-12-10
Dreaming of a walrus hunt The Fake Masters 2017-12-10
The Sleeper Jabon 2017-12-09
Picnic Boy Dr. Fritz Rotwang 2017-12-09
Boo Who? (@five things per cycle) Uni 2017-12-08
Lizard Lady moldie13 2017-12-08
Boo Who? Cult With No Name 2017-12-07
The Electrocutioner Skating Dicks 2017-12-07
Jelly Lack The Boneless Boy El Douche (and his sister) 2017-12-07
Jelly Jack Yankee Doodle Randy 2017-12-07
Moisture The Black Lodgers 2017-12-07
Hard & Tenderly Utrom 2017-12-07
Hellno Gaw Nihc 2017-12-07
Weight-Lifting Lulu Wizards of Boat 2017-12-06
God Of Darkness (excerpt) DonC 2017-12-05
Hanging by his Hair Wizards of Boat 2017-12-05
Death in Barstow Ben Folkwein 2017-12-04
Demons Dance Alone A Vast Fusion of Nice People 2017-12-04
Lights Out Zheygro 2017-12-03
Rest Aria [midi] Ben Gibeson 2017-12-02
Mahogany Wood GK Machine 2017-12-02
Sinister Exaggerator Donald Shrimp 2017-12-02
Old Time Religion/We Stole This Riff MOLLDYER 2017-12-02
Mahgony Wouldn't TwistedRichie 2017-12-01
Wonderful Phaneron 2017-12-01
Weight-Lifting Lulu Cosmo 2017-12-01
The Wonderful Shoe Salesman Malcolm Tent 2017-12-01
never known questions Ray LeBray 2017-12-01
Scent of Mint Brett Spivey 2017-12-01
40 song titles pitch brothers 2017-11-30
(((westingbounce))) mysterious strangers 2017-11-30
Weight-Lifting Lulu HAMFACE 2017-11-30
On the Way (to Oklahoma) Avionic 2017-11-30
Our House La la lalalala la 2017-11-30
eskimoickyflixvilenessfats Wormcrack 2017-11-30
Red Rider Permanent Summer 2017-11-30
Firefly kwashotfi 2017-11-30
Whatever Happened to Vileness Fats? Charles Klee 2017-11-29
From the Planes to Mexico Spoon Blind Williams 2017-11-29
Lizard Lady Brain Wady 2017-11-29
Fire // Hitler was a Vegetarian Frenesi Gates 2017-11-28
Moles Are Coming Antichrist Kramer 2017-11-28
Kamikaze Lady Imitando al ojo 2017-11-28
Loss of Innocence Dell and the Smoothies 2017-11-28
smellyTONGUES AUOH 2017-11-27
Jelly Jack: The Boneless Boy The Loser Table 2017-11-27
Constantinople (MOOG) Philip Stranger 2017-11-27
The New Hymn Coeur Atomique 2017-11-27
Make Me Moo Late Frequencies 2017-11-26
Six Things to a Red Bicycle Skull in the Crow's Eye 2017-11-26
Fire Fall (Pseudoacoustic Mix) Daniel Riggins 2017-11-26
Krafty Cheese Pee Wee Travolta 2017-11-25
Godsong For The Future Eric Mayer 2017-11-25
Melon Collie Lassie Neponim Eye 2017-11-25
The Weatherman (the) baby born massacre 2017-11-23
Bach est mort (Bach is dead) Deluxe&Collus 2017-11-23
Amber (Instrumental) Tomato Jake 2017-11-23
Smelly Tongues The Zverstvo 2017-11-22
Margaret Freeman The 180 Gs 2017-11-21
Loss: The Weatherman Danny Spiteri and Jason Hallyburton 2017-11-21
Ship's A'Going Down Sebb Sollenhag 2017-11-21
Blue Rosebuds shidt! 2017-11-21
BACH IS DEAD Mystery Ted 2017-11-20
The New Hymn (Recessional) Kreatur Null (Max don't YouKnow) 2017-11-19
Skratz MOLI 2017-11-19
Eloise Smallbridge 2017-11-17
Elmer's Song Laser Pig 2017-11-17
The New Hymn Diablo 2017-11-17
Inner Space Mikey Hemphill 2017-11-16
NUM B UNO Mikey Hemphill 2017-11-16
fukt ("moisture" in swedish) Amöbel Audio 2017-11-16
Santa Doog L'Orchestre Inharmonique de Nice 2017-11-16
Blue Rosebuds Onom MUS 2017-11-14
Sinister Exaggerator Bretts Milk 2017-11-13
Rabbit Habit (The Residents) Sleeping Man 2017-11-13
BOY IN LOVE Freek Kinkelaar 2017-11-13
The Moles Are Coming Nun's Crusty Wimple 2017-11-12
Eloise Exuding Krafty Cheese 2017-11-11
The Sing Pleson X&X 2017-11-09
Mr Bees Bumble mr Mute 2017-11-08
Hanging By His Hair Mr Mute 2017-11-08
Easter Woman Snakes of Christ 2017-11-02
Would We Be Alive? Gretnoid 2017-10-31
Amber Finnth 2017-10-30
Semolina Phil Rhoden 2017-10-28
Honey Bear (Cloudy Weather) Moony Moon 2017-10-26
Would We Be Alive Josh Brown 2017-10-25
Easter Woman el TiGeR CoMiCs GRoUP 2017-10-24
Birds in the Trees YUNA YUNE 2017-10-23
Lauging Song Conroy Pitt 2017-10-22
Hello Skinny/Constantinople destro 2017-10-22
Hard & Tenderly Ibiza Chill Edit Cezary Ostrowski 2017-10-22
Hello Skinny Allen P. Williams 2017-10-21
Hello Skinny Pupaum 2017-10-21
Amber Ape Hivers 2017-10-21
Smelly Tongues Tom-Erik Løe 2017-10-20
Smack Your Lips (Clap Your Teeth) Mr. Smith 2017-10-18
Hitler Was a Vegetarian (mADONNA wAS a pESCATARIAN) iNDECYPHERABLE iNDUSTRIES 2017-10-18
Hello Skinny Agrimorfee 2017-10-17
The Dark Man This Is Past (George Zafiriadis) 2017-10-17
six more to leave SANTA 2017-10-17
Cry For The Fire BROWN 2017-10-15
Monstrous Intro AL KAMYKOWSKI 2017-10-15
Youtube Plays The Beatles Play Beyond The Valley of A Day In The Life Pure Liquid Light 2017-10-13
The Simple Song Chance 2017-10-10
Unknown nano 2017-10-08
The Making of a Soul Buck Tardley 2017-10-07
Tribal Teddy Philip Stranger 2017-10-07
Baby Skeletons And Dogs Mike Noyes 2017-10-07
Laughing Song Folkloration (Christian Panetta) 2017-10-06
Edweena Buck Tardley 2017-10-06
The Aging Musician Jeremy Maloney 2017-10-04
44 Point A Pistol At The Sun 2017-10-02
Happy Home Inspected By 13 2017-10-02
On the Way to Oklahoma Mieze Residents 2017-10-02
Make Me Moo Enemy From Space 2017-10-01
Judas Saves Chesty Vulva 2017-09-30
Easter Woman Substance W 2017-09-29
Honey Bear Nicholas Panagakos 2017-09-29
Crashing the March de la Amber S.R Woodward 2017-09-29
Loss of Innocence SD Berlin 2017-09-28
Boo Who? Lucas Martí 2017-09-28
Bach Is Dead Ray Carmen 2017-09-27
Festival Of Death Aaron Dylan Kearns 2017-09-27
Hanging By His Hair Chesty Vulva 2017-09-27
Safety Is The Cootie Wootie Andor 2017-09-27
Would We Be Alive mr sterile 2017-09-27
When We Were Young Jake Gonnella 2017-09-26
Amber ZWJW 2017-09-26
Smelly Tongues Emerald Suspension 2017-09-25
Le Chien du Père Noêl (Bing Bing Bong Bong) Germaine Scalp 2017-09-25Air Canada to offer daily flights between Toronto and PVD Copyright by WPRI - All rights reserved (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft) [ + - ] Video
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) -- Starting next spring, it will be much easier for local travelers to visit Toronto.
Air Canada announced Wednesday it will be offering daily flights between Ontario's capital and T.F. Green Airport in Warwick beginning May 17, 2018. The route will be a "summer seasonal" route, according to the airline, meaning it will be operated through Oct. 8, 2018.
Flights are already available to purchase. For the first one-way flight, the fare starts at about $200 for an "economy tango" ticket. The flight time is 1 hour and 49 minutes.
Lisa Pierce, senior director of USA sales and marketing development for Air Canada, said if the summer season is a success, the airline will look at adding flights year-round.
Air Canada is the fifth airline to expand service to T.F. Green this year. Norwegian Airlines, Frontier Airlines, Allegiant Airlines and OneJet have also added routes.
"In this market, we see a lot of opportunity," Pierce said.
"We did fly here in the past, but now that we're growing internationally and we've expanded our network we have a lot more opportunity to promote business traffic and leisure traffic from the world to Providence and in the reverse," she added.
Governor Gina Raimondo said growth at the airport will help grow Rhode Island's economy.
"When I'm recruiting companies, they want to know, 'Do you have a good airport? Is it easy to travel? Can you get all over the world from your airport?' And increasingly I'm able to say, 'Yes!'" Raimondo said.
The growth also shows in the numbers. According to data from the R.I. Airport Corporation (RIAC), the number of seats in November is up 22% compared to last November.
"I've got to tell you, things are getting tight around here!" said Iftikhar Ahmad, president and CEO of RIAC.
Ahmad said he expects the growth to continue. Though he won't say which airlines or routes he's targeting, he says passengers should expect more options out of Green in the near future.
"I think that you should anticipate certainly more domestic [flights]," Ahmad said. "We are working on some domestic. We need to increase our footprint. Once we gather that certain mass, then we're going to make a move on the West Coast."
The growth will come at a cost to taxpayers. The state recently created a fund that covers some marketing costs for new airlines and expanded service.
According to the R.I. Commerce Corporation, new international routes are eligible to receive up to $750,000 and domestic routes are eligible to receive up to $250,000.As I am sure you are all aware, the Post Office has its own private railway that runs under London and it lies abandoned and empty. However, it’s ghostly slumbers may be about to be disturbed.
The Postal Museum near Farringdon station has filed an application to revamp the Mount Pleasant part of the tunnels and open them up to the public.
Long rumoured as part of the wider redevelopment of the area and the museum;s own unrelated expansion plans — the documents were deposited with Islington council a couple of weeks ago.
The planning application, made to the London Borough of Islington, seeks approval for the repurposing of ground level workshops, the car maintenance depot and part of the underground tunnel network around Mount Pleasant, home of the world’s oldest mail centre, allowing public (official) access to the site for the first time in its history.
Under the BPMA’s proposals, the new development will show off this unique and important engineering and transport system. The development will also include the now all too necessary event space for hiring out for meetings and parties.
The application forms part of the BPMA’s project to deliver a new postal museum and archive next to their existing site.
Obviously, any transport or subterranean geek will be deeply excited by the plans which will finally see this long ached for site visits being possible.
I’ve heard rumours of public trips in converted wagons along the tunnels — something which would be exceptional if possible.
In the meantime, there is an exhibition inside the museum about the Mail Rail which will be there for some time to come.
Now, how about digging up bits of the Mail Rail’s pneumatic predecessor?I've written that in the end, congressional Republicans won't agree to move forward on the budget, tax reform, immigration, job creation, or any other issues that matter to mainstream America before the presidential elections. But the fall of 2016 is a long time away, and they have to do something in the meantime. Now we know what it is.
It's not much different from what they've done, or haven't done, all along: obstruct Obama. |
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Still, Cronenberg does a fine – if head-scratchingly bizarre – job with what he has. While no one is going to call this movie a classic of western cinema, I recommend it for fans of deliciously bleak Seventies horror, or fans of zombie horror who want to take a look at the roots of the genre as it was taking shape.
AdvertisementsThe Guar is a large, lizard-like creature found primarily in the lands of the Dunmer, Morrowind. These massive grazing lizards travel throughout the Grazelands feasting on any plant life they can find. The jaws of the Guar are specially disigned to eat plants with a poweful jaw bone and massive, grooved molars. Despite the Guar's gentle nature and less that average mind, they can become quit dangerous when angered, causing them to lash out with their extreme brute force and and mace-like tale.In Morrowind, the Guar serves many purposes to the native Dunmer. Guar herds are kept by many Ashlander tribes that use them as beasts of burden and a source of protien-rich meat and durable leather. Because of the pact signed between the tribes and the great houses in answer to the Nerevarine's wishes, all of Morrowind now benefits from the Guar's many uses, and has benefited the island of Vvardenfell with increased trade requests from Cyrodiil.TES materials © Bethesdaredesign © Nicholas Cody Callis (meTHE cold case murder of a Bundaberg taxi driver will be reopened nearly 28 years after his body was found dumped at a quarry on Goodwood Rd.
Further assistance from the public and developments in forensic testing may help piece together the mystery surrounding the murder of Bryan Hodgkinson.
Officer-in-charge of the Bundaberg Criminal Investigation Branch, Detective Senior Sergeant Joe Hildred said it was hoped developments in forensic technology would invigorate the cold case investigation with police following up several other lines of inquiry.
"Mr Hodgkinson was working as a taxi driver on the night of September 10, 1987 when he was murdered. He was last seen alive at a Bundaberg taxi rank at 12.30am," he said.
"His taxi was located that morning in Beatrice St with blood in the taxi and on the rear bumper.
"Mr Hodgkinson's body was found near the intersection of Goodwin and Peirson Rds, outside of Bundaberg.
Mystery of missing Bundaberg woman remains unsolved
"This investigation has been on-going for more than twenty five years with police investigating a number of leads and fresh information over the years.
"With improvements in forensic technology and fresh information received from the public, we have renewed hope that this investigation can progress."
For Mr Hodgkinson's family it has been a roller coaster ride of emotions which they hope will finally come to an end with this latest investigation.
Mr Hodgkinson's sister Doris Hillier said she just wants the case finalised so they can have closure and justice for Bryan.
Mrs Hillier said she was contacted by detectives who advised her the case would be reinvestigated.
"It's good that police aren't giving up," she said.
"They say it's not over until the fat lady sings but I don't sing anymore. I just hope this time it's done. It's been very frustrating."
In 2009 new information lead police to believe the man responsible for the murder had died, with another man being charged with being an accessory to Mr Hodgkinson's murder.
In a committal hearing in 2010, the case was dismissed after a magistrate decided there was not enough evidence.Allegheny Township residents will likely have a new spot to enjoy a few beers this fall as Conny Creek Brewing Co. owners put the finishing touches on their business.
Owners Lee and Erin Layton have been working through the spring and summer renovating the brewery’s location along Route 56 and Shearsburg Road. The brewery will be housed in the former Freedom Farms Cafe and Carry-Out location, located at 4323 Shearsburg Road.
Lee said they are making progress, but are still a couple of months away from opening. They haven’t picked an official opening date.
“We’re hoping late September (or) early October tentatively,” he said.
Lee said they are hoping to get all of their state and federal licenses and inspections done soon so they can move forward.
“We’re hoping to start brewing in the next few weeks,” he said.
Lee said the brewery is starting to take shape and everything is coming along on time.
“We’re just finishing up renovations here and getting equipment set up,” he said. “Everything’s looking really nice in here.”
Emily Balser is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-226-4680, emilybalser@tribweb.com or on Twitter @emilybalser.
Brian C. Rittmeyer is a Tribune-Review staff reporter. You can contact Brian at 724-226-4701 or brittmeyer@tribweb.com.The U.K. has nearly 100 metric tons of plutonium—dubbed "the element from hell" by some—that it doesn't know what to do with. The island nation does not need the potent powder to construct more nuclear weapons, and spends billions of British pounds to ensure that others don't steal it for that purpose. The unstable element, which will remain radioactive for millennia, is the residue of ill-fated efforts to recycle used nuclear fuel.
One solution under consideration is to recycle the plutonium yet further—by using it as fuel in a pair of new, so-called "fast" reactors. Such nuclear reactors can actually "consume" plutonium via fission (transforming it into other forms of nuclear waste that are not as useful for weapons). The U.K. is considering a plan to build two of General Electric's PRISM fast reactors, the latest in a series of fast-reactor designs that for several decades have attempted with mixed success to handle plutonium and other radioactive waste from nuclear power. The idea remains that fast reactors, which get their name because the neutrons that initiate fission in the reactor are zipping about faster than those in a conventional reactor, could offer a speedy solution to cleaning some nasty nuclear waste, which fissions better with fast neutrons, while also providing electricity as a by-product.
"If they really want to get rid of plutonium, a fast spectrum reactor is safer and gets rid of more of it," than other options, argues nuclear engineer Eric Loewen, chief consulting engineer at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy. "It just seems like humans are grappling with the question: 'How do we do it better?'"
The U.K. is hardly alone in struggling to cope with nuclear waste, whether plutonium or otherwise. The U.S. remains a nation in search of a solution for what to do with its nearly 70,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel, which has a small fraction of plutonium mixed in it. A recent blue ribbon commission impaneled by President Obama suggested looking for communities that would volunteer to take the waste, for a fee.
Nor is the U.K. alone in considering fast reactors as a solution for eliminating plutonium. Japan's has built a fast reactor known as Monju to recycle its used nuclear fuel. France had one for awhile, too, but it has since been shut down due to difficulty operating the plant as designed. In fact, most such fast reactors have proved difficult to run reliably. "At one time or another, [fast reactors] were a priority program in the U.S., Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Russia," notes physicist Thomas Cochran of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. "They were largely failures in all those places and in two nuclear navies, so one should think twice before trying it again."
Novel design
The trouble with fast reactors has largely been related to what's used to cool them—liquid sodium in the case of GE's PRISM and many others. The better half of table salt, this element cools a fast reactor nicely and also ensures there is no perpetual chain reaction. And, thanks to a more than 800-degree Celsius boiling point, it can operate at low pressures, unlike conventional reactors. But sodium also reacts explosively with either air or water, necessitating elaborate safety controls in places where it must get close to water in order to create steam to turn a turbine to make electricity, such as steam generators. As a result of numerous fires from leaking systems, operating sodium-cooled fast reactors to date have been shut down more than they have run. "You can't take the top off and look down in the reactor and correct any problems," Cochran notes. "You have heroic maintenance issues any time you need to go into the reactor."
And that's why GE has decided that the solution is to keep such reactors small, to minimize safety concerns as well as the size of systems, among other design changes. For example, the piping in the PRISM that carries the liquid sodium coolant around the reactor has two layers. As soon as the inner pipe that actually carries the sodium springs a leak, sensors in the outer layer shut down its flow. "We have learned from the past," Loewen says.
In fact, the PRISM is based on a government research project design that successfully operated in Idaho for decades, under the name the Experimental Breeder Reactor II, or EBR-II. And, although sodium does not play well with air or water, it gets along with metals. "At EBR-II, you could still see [engineering] chalk marks inside the [reactor] vessel when it was drained," Loewen says. That suggests an impressive degree of stability, given that such chalk marks are rapidly eroded in the hundreds of light-water reactors in operation today.
That compatibility with metals is also why GE has chosen to make an alternative nuclear fuel as well, as part of its "Advanced Recycling Center" concept that includes PRISM reactors. Rather than the pellets of uranium oxide used in other fast reactors and conventional reactors as fuel, GE would fabricate metal alloy fuels, with the plutonium or uranium mixed with zirconium metal. That might also allow GE's metal fuels to incorporate the full spectrum of radioactive elements in spent nuclear fuel. "From the experience of making just one oxide, it's tough," Loewen argues. "Add in all the other elements and it's a science project." Such "mixed oxide" fuel has not proved popular in the broader nuclear reactor fleet, although France continues to pursue it, with the U.S. soon to follow.
The challenge is that the metal fuel gets hot—and unlike oxide-based fuels, when it heats, it swells. If the fuel expands too much, it can crack the surrounding cladding, and that presents a big problem. GE's solution is to put in less fuel: "Let's not put in 100 percent of the volume, let's put in 75 percent," Loewen says.
Metal's ability to transfer heat more efficiently means that PRISM's ultimate heat sink—where the 500-degree C heat from the liquid sodium gets dumped—is air rather than water. Natural circulation in the reactor alone is enough to remove all the heat generated by the radioactive decay of the elements in the reactor fuel. "You don't need any human action," Loewen notes. "You don't need valves to open or any automatic safety systems. That's the most significant safety feature."
Fit for purpose
Of course, there is a simpler solution to the U.K.'s plutonium problem: bury it. The PRISM proposal, however, would transmute the plutonium before burying it, as an additional level of security. "We're going to take plutonium oxide that's a powder, turn it into fuel form, put it in the reactor, make it more radioactive, and then put that into the ground," Loewen admits, which would also render it unfit for nuclear weapons. "That's what the customer is asking for."
That additional level of transmutation might prove too costly, both in terms of getting the technology licensed to operate in the U.K. and in constructing the reactor itself. Such fast reactors are more expensive than even traditional reactors, such as Westinghouse's new AP-1000 under construction in China and the U.S., which are estimated to cost roughly $7 billion apiece. Conventional light-water reactors can also "consume" plutonium, if need be. "If I was going to try to get rid of 100 tons of plutonium, I'd burn it in a light-water reactor," Cochran says, by making it into the mixed oxide fuels. And "the cheapest thing to do is vitrify it [convert it to glass] and mix it with other nuclear waste."
Plus, the U.K. has a poor record in the past with its own experimental fast reactor designs—the Dounreay Fast Reactor and the Prototype Fast Reactor—including multiple sodium leaks. Dounreay also suffered an explosion at its dumping ground for used sodium coolant that may have contributed to radioactive particles from spent fuel turning up on nearby beaches. The Dounreay and Prototype cleanup and decommissioning continue today, despite both having been shut down for decades.
Originally, such fast reactors were developed to solve a problem that never panned out: scarcity in the global supply of uranium. The idea was to create fuel within the reactors themselves once fission began, in effect making more than they consumed. But, factoring in inflation, uranium prices remain the same today as they were at the dawn of the nuclear era. "Like all minerals, improvements in the efficiency of extraction and the ability to dig for deeper ores outpaces the depletion of the resource over 100 years or more," Cochran notes. "Economically, fast reactors are not competitive and they're never going to be competitive."
"We're not going to run out of uranium," Loewen admits. "Here's a solution for this stuff that's piled up."
Ultimately, however, the core problem may be that such new reactors don't eliminate the nuclear waste that has piled up so much as transmute it. Even with a fleet of such fast reactors, nations would nonetheless require an ultimate home for radioactive waste, one reason that a 2010 M.I.T. report on spent nuclear fuel dismissed such fast reactors. Or, as Cochran puts it: "If you want to get rid of milk, don't feed it to cows."If you're looking for a friend to do yoga with, a farm in Blockhouse, N.S., might have just the thing for you.
As long as you're OK with your buddy walking on your back, getting all up in your face, nibbling on your sweater or hair, and maybe giving a gentle head-butt.
Oh, and possibly peeing near you.
Yes, the goat-yoga craze that started in Oregon last year is coming to Nova Scotia.
Sweetwood Farm owner Heather Squires thinks her farm's June 18 class is the first in the province, but she doesn't think it will be the last.
Sweetwood Farm owner Heather Squires sees goat yoga as an opportunity to teach people about the animals. (Natalie Dobbin/CBC)
"I haven't met a person to meet the goats who hasn't absolutely enjoyed it," Squires said.
'Why wouldn't we do goat yoga?'
Ever since the Oregon story went viral, Squires has been getting requests.
"Would we do goat yoga? Could we do goat yoga? And why wouldn't we do goat yoga?" Squires said.
So downward dog with upward facing baby goat it is. Unless the kids decide to lay down next to you and have a nap, which they might.
"They're just doing their normal goaty things, which is the entertainment value," Squires said.
The whole experience will happen on a flat field on the farm.
The goats won't bite, Squires said. And they've been disbudded so they don't have horns to worry about.
This year's baby goats will become yogis. (Natalie Dobbin/CBC)
Squires sees goat yoga as an educational opportunity.
"One of the nicest parts of the whole year is having these baby goats jumping around and interacting with you," she said.
A lot of people want to come experience life on the farm and meet the goats, Squires said. This event will be one opportunity to do that.
So along with getting your zen on, you can learn how goats are raised, how they can be great pets, and the various things they do such as providing milk, Squires said.
Goat therapy
And there's a bigger-picture piece to the whole experience.
"Interacting with animals of any kind is incredibly therapeutic to people," Squires said.
The goats are Toggenburg goats, and one is half Alpine. (Steve Lawrence/CBC )
Although serious yogis might find it a bit distracting, she said, the class is really about enjoyment and relaxation, with yoga involved. That makes it great for beginners.
Full class
Squires is into yoga herself and recruited a yoga teacher friend, Tracy Murdoch, to teach the class. They planned to offer up 20 or 25 spots, but expanded to 40. Now the class is completely full, Squires said.
If it's a success, she might run one again in the future.Who Represents You? Portlanders Are Trying—Again—to Get Representation on City Council
HAVE YOU EVER wondered who represents you on Portland City Council? The answer is: no one, specifically. East Portland resident Collene Swenson wants to change that.
Swenson and her Hazelwood-area neighbors feel slighted by the city, and say their complaints about inadequate sidewalks, not enough neighborhood police patrols, and a general lack of representation at city hall go largely ignored.
So in March, along with two neighbors, Swenson—who lives between NE Halsey and Glisan near 122nd—decided they were leaving... and taking the rest of East Portland with them. The trio started a movement to de-annex 13 neighborhoods from Portland and reincorporate them as their own city.
"When you're dissatisfied with something that's happening, what do you do?" Swenson asks. "You either leave or you change it."
Since filing the original de-annexation initiative—deemed unconstitutional by the city's elections office—Swenson's decided she doesn't want to leave after all. She wants to change things.
"People are mad about the sidewalks, but what I care about are the drug houses in the area and the stripped cars," she said during a Saturday interview at her home, surrounded entirely by a chain-link fence to deter would-be intruders. "We pay taxes so we can be represented and protected under the laws."
Portland is weird in many ways, and proud of it, but perhaps weirdest is the configuration of city hall: The Rose City is the last US city with more than 100,000 residents that uses a commission-style form of government, and it's one of only two big cities that elects an all at-large city council rather than splitting the city into districts.
Proponents of districts, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say local representation is the best way to bring new voices to the table. Probably the most famous example of that theory in action came out of San Francisco and was documented in the 2008 movie Milk. In 1977, the city started voting for council members by neighborhood districts. The result of that first election: three women, an Asian American man, and Harvey Milk—an outspoken and openly gay business owner living in the city's Castro neighborhood—joined city council.
"People tend to like districted voting because it gets more minority representation," says Seth Woolley, who twice ran for secretary of state on the Pacific Green Party ticket and is currently active with local campaign efforts. "And districting makes campaigning less expensive and more accessible to people because you're only campaigning in your neighborhood."
But Woolley's got reservations about the new proposal. Swenson's initiative would require that potential councilors live and work within their districts, an idea that Woolley says is impossible to enforce.
Right now, three Portland commissioners—Dan Saltzman, Steve Novick, and Amanda Fritz—live on the west side of the city. Commissioner Nick Fish resides in Northeast Portland, and Mayor Charlie Hales lives in Eastmoreland. The Oregonian reports that only Randy Leonard, a commissioner from 2002 until 2012, lived in East Portland during his tenure.
Of course, Swenson's proposal is far from the first time a change-up has been introduced to Portland governance. Eight other attempts over the years have failed to win voter support, most recently in 2007.
"Portland City Club issued a big report in 1932 saying the commission-style system sucks," Woolley says. "But for some reason it's stuck around even through other government reform. No one really likes it, but no one has been able to change it."
Swenson, who's originally from Southern California but has lived in Portland for years, said she was shocked when she found out about Portland's weird government style.
"Things here aren't like where I came from, and I think other people are starting to realize that too," she says. "When I tried to get city council members to call me back and got no answer, I realized something needed to change."
Swenson's initiative—which the elections office accepted earlier this month—proposes a change from the current structure of four at-large commissioners and a mayor. If approved, Portland City Council would be made up of seven commissioners elected from districts, two council members elected at-large, and a mayor. Seattle voted up a similar system in 2013.
Swenson must collect more than 31,000 signatures by July 2016 in order to get her initiative on the November 2016 ballot. If voters approve, Portland would be separated into districts based on population. But Woolley and others have expressed concern over the proposed districting strategy, because the initiative's language indicates the council would be in charge of creating district boundaries.
"You'd think people would learn not to ever place district drawing power in the hands of the body elected by such districts," he says. "There are literally no reasonable restrictions on district boundaries here."
That's not the only problem Woolley sees with Swenson's initiative, which says the city budget must be approved "by the mayor and a majority of the council" to be effective.
"This language implies the mayor has veto power over the budget," Woolley says. "That's more power than he has now."
The mayor, under the proposal, could also veto laws he or she doesn't like, but the council could override that veto with a two-thirds majority.
"Vetoes are pointless and undemocratic," Woolley says. "It means now you have to elect a mayor that's more than just an administrator, it's somebody who's going to legislate, too. And now your separation of powers are messed up."It’s here… the long awaited Skyrunner® World Series kicks off with what has become, in just 2-years, the iconic Skyrunning Ultra Race, Transvulcania La Palma. The race has come a long way… now considered to be one of ‘the’ races to do, the 2014 edition of the race will only cement this reputation as runners travel from all over the world to take part.
It goes without saying that a quality line-up is guaranteed for this race, however, 2014 has my appetite whet for what I consider to be arguably the most exciting and competitive race we will have ever seen on the island of La Palma. What a line up!
A simple glance at the ladies race confirms one thing, showdown! 2012 Transvulcania winner, Anna Frost returns to the island she loves after missing the 2013 edition through injury. 2013 winner, Emelie Forsberg will toe the line and the trio would not be complete without the ever present and incredibly talented, Nuria Picas*. Add Silvia Serafini, Cassie Scallon, Uxue Fraile and Jodee Adams-Moore amongst others and we have a female melting pot that is going to boil over and may well explode on the trails of the GR131.
But hold on a minute, have you seen the men’s field…? Dakota Jones, like Anna Frost, returns to the island after a year a way and will be looking to take back that ‘President’ title bestowed on him in 2012. Kilian Jornet, 2013 winner will provide the stimulus to push Dakota to a new level but lets not rule out the incredible talent and line-up that will be chomping at the bit to dislodge the 2-previous winners. Luis Alberto Hernando will have prepared all winter to be in the best possible form come May 10th, Timothy Olson, Sage Canaday, UTMB winner, Xavier Thevenard, Ricky Lightfoot, Philipp Reiter… oh boy, how long have I got?
Take out your diary, block out the weekend of May 9th, 10th and 11th and prepare yourself for what will go down as an epic running of the Transvulcania La Palma.
In addition, 2014 will see the inaugural running of the Transvulcania VK. Weaving up the zigzag path from the port of Tazacorte, an exhilarating and awe inspiring test of leg and lungpower will unfold at 1600hrs Friday, May 8th
Please note: the 2014 edition of the race is now listed as 73km and not 83.3km as on the website. In real terms, runners have said for the last couple of years that they thought that the course was short, so, this may just well be an acknowledgement. Importantly though, the route from Tazacorte Port to the finish in Los Llanos has now changed. Runners will now run along the ravine and not along the road as in previous editions. It’s difficult to say at this stage what impact this will have on the race. My initial reaction would be that a fast road ultra runner could use the previous final section to his advantage (Sage Canaday?) to pull back some time, maybe this advantage will no longer exist!
So, who’s going to win?
Ladies
The ladies race has real quality at the front but barring a disaster, I don’t think we will see any real surprises. A select group of 4-6 are outright favourites for the win and my outside tip goes to Maite Maiora Elizondo for surprise performance.
Emelie Forsberg was unstoppable in 2013. Notable for the diversity of her racing; Emelie started the season with a win at Transvulcania and whilst also racing and winning at VK and SKY distances, Emelie crowned out her year with 2nd pace behind Nathalie Mauclair at the super tough, Raid de la Reunion, Emelie’s first ever 100-mile race. Since then, Emelie like Kilian pretty much hangs up her run shoes and spends her time on ski’s. Other than the occasional 20-30min jog and a week of running at the Salomon athlete retreat in Limone, Emelie will arrive on the start line of Transvulcania thinking to herself, ‘I wonder how this will go?’ Emelie had the same thoughts last year and secured an incredible victory over Nuria Picas. Dare I say that she almost made it look easy? I have no reason to think that 2014 will be any different and therefore Emelie is my no1 tip for the crown and a potential new course record.
Nuria Picas* fresh from another victory (just this last weekend) will join the ladies on the island and will without doubt bring her incredible talent, dedication and entourage to ensure that the best possible performance can be guaranteed. However, and this is a big however, her recent win at Transgrancanaria and more importantly, her win at the 105-mile UTMF in Japan on April 26th must leave the Catalan feeling a little tired and jaded. Anyone else and I would say that the occasion, fatigue and tiredness would take a heavy presence and a potential lackluster or under par performance can be expected. But I just can’t rule Nuria out… Anna and Emelie know only too well what a talent Nuria is and equally, Nuria will understand the challenge ahead. I can’t wait! Nuria has decided to rest and recover after UTMF and will not race at Transvulcania. She will prepare for Australia.
Anna Frost arrived on the island of La Palma weeks before the 2013 edition of the race and the reality struck that she was going to have to miss the race due to ongoing injury. It was a tough decision and what followed was a year fighting with injury that forced Frosty to look within and find out what was really important. Even in February 2014 whilst attending The Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica, Anna was forced to reassess her objectives and take more rest. However, a recent win at the marathon distance at the Buffalo Stampede in Australia may well mean that our beloved Frosty is on her way back! Already on the island of La Palma, Frosty will be preparing mind and body for the challenge ahead. Can she win? A b s o l u t e l y! You can never rule out an inform Frosty, particularly on this course. However, it’s early days on the comeback trail and I am going to sit on the fence not wishing to add any additional pressure. Finishing healthy and uninjured will be a major victory.
Cassie Scallon has already had 2-victories in 2014. Most recently at the MSIG Sai King 50 in March and the Ray Miller 50 in February. Dating back to 2006, Cassie has been a force to be reckoned with at the 50k to 80km distance. A victory at the 100km Bandera in 2012 shows that endurance is not a problem for the Boulder based athlete. Transvulcania and its trails will suit Cassie and we will without doubt see her at the front of the race. Cassie posted on Facebook ‘I am terrible at recognizing broken bones in myself. This is bone #2 that I decided didn’t hurt enough to be a break, so I continued to run on it. Again I thought it was getting a little better every day, but it was actually getting worse. Not awesome.’
Jodee Adams-Moore, had a great 2013 and has showed form in 2014 at the 50k and 50-mile distances with 6 top-4 places. Jodee won Orca Island 50k in 2013 and 2014 and the Chuckanut 50k. Just recently, Jodee placed 2nd behind Ellie Greenwood at Chuckanut 50k and placed 4th at Lake Sonoma. The trails of La Palma will offer a new challenge and although we can expect to see Jodee pushing towards the front end of the race, I don’t see her making the podium.
Silvia Serafini is an incredible talent and has always been there or thereabouts at many of the big races. A highlight of 2013 would have been placing 2nd behind Emelie Forsberg at Matterhorn Ultraks. Silvia is not without race victories; in actual fact, her consistency has been incredible. Like so many other runners, Silvia just needs a little luck on one of the big occasions and this will elevate her and her confidence to a new level. Silvia has injury issues and tells me that she may actually not race at all in 2014. A real shame… get well soon Silvia!
Uxue Fraile placed 5th at Transvulcania 2012 and 3rd in 2013. Add to this, top performances at Cavalls del Vent, Trans D’Havet and a recent 6th place at Transgrancanaria and you can’t rule out that Uxue will be looking for an opportunity and an opening to dislodge one of the hot favourites should they falter. On paper, Uxue does not have the outright speed to contest the podium (she was 60-min behind Emelie in 2013), however, she does have the patience and endurance for the survival game.
Maite Maiora Elizondo – my rank outsider for a surprise and potential shock in the overall classification and standings. Maite is a pure mountain runner with a reputation for performing at a high level over the SKY distance. Transvulcania at 73km will be a stretch, however, class is permanent and I predict a surprise.
Ones to watch:
Krissy Moehl – Not sure she is racing?
– Not sure she is racing? Alicia Shay – 3 rd at Chuckanut 50k in 2013
– 3 at Chuckanut 50k in 2013 Alessandra Carlini – 2 nd at MSIG Sai Kung 50 in 2014
– 2 at MSIG Sai Kung 50 in 2014 Natalie White
Maxime Cazajous
Hiroko Suzuki
Men
So, if you thought the ladies race was a tough one to call. Look at the quality of the men’s field. It’s a who’s who of mountain runners.
Kilian Jornet like Emelie Forsberg will step off his skis and make the transition to running with the flick of a switch. In 2012, Kilian lost out to Dakota Jones and Andy Symonds at Transvulcania, it was a combination of elements that influenced his performance, not enough running, dehydration and a particularly hot day! In 2013, Kilian corrected these mistakes and secured victory ahead of Luis Alberto Hernando. Post the 2013 race, I asked him what he had done different? ‘I ran for 7-days before the race instead of just 3!’. Need I say more… no matter how stacked the field you can’t rule out victory for the Catalan, however, he won’t have an easy day! Many of the competition see ‘this’ race as the perfect opportunity to beat the master as he makes the transition from snow to trail.
Luis Alberto Hernando is without doubt looking for that opportunity to take the crown away from Kilian. Luis, for me, is one of the greatest mountain runners in the world. Modest, professional and pure class; he is without doubt one of the few runners who can take Kilian to an edge and hold him there. Luis, along with Marco De Gasperi pushed Kilian to better performances in 2013. It was down to the line at Zegama-Aizkorri and a hand-in-hand finish at Trans D’Havet after personal circumstances dictated a truce between the two warriors. At Everest Trail Race in November, Luis picked up an injury that forced him to only walk, he told me then, I have time, I only have one thing I need to be ready for… Transvulcania! Excited is an understatement.
Dakota Jones went ‘AWOL’ in the early part of 2013 seeking new experiences. A red-hot performance at San Juan Solstice 50m was followed with ‘dns’ at TNFUTMB, as he didn’t feel as though he had adequate preparation time. Dakota re-focused and concentrated on UROC. Victory seemed secure in Colorado; however, a charging Rob Krar stole Dakota’s glory in the latter stages of the race. Since then, Dakota has travelled racing at low-key multi day races and a recent quality performance at the Buffalo Stampede in Australia. Dakota’s return to Transvulcania is eagerly anticipated. It’s a re-match of Balboa and Creed proportions…
Sage Canaday I think was still learning last year. Sage had plenty of natural speed and wanted to run every ultra in the same way he would run a marathon… go out hard, hold on and finish in glory. On many occasions this worked; Bandera 100km, Lake Sonoma, Cayuga Trails and Speedgoat 50k, however, it was a tightrope existence. At Tarawera he just about held off a charging Timmy Olson and at Transvulcania, Sage slowed along with Cameron Clayton and opened the door for Kilian and Luis Alberto. One year on with a repeat victory at a shortened Tarawera and 3rd place behind a dominant Zach Miller at Lake Sonoma, I think we will Sage run a more cautious first half of TV and look to be more in the mix in the latter stages. He can win for sure!
Timothy Olson 8th at Ray Miller 50 and 3rd at the recent Transgrancanaria knows all about peaking for a race. A repeat back-to-back victory at Western States in 2013 confirms this. The question for me is Timothy looking for a Transvulcania victory or is he looking for another solid and consistent performance on the road to Hardrock 100? Don’t get me wrong, I am not questioning Timothy’s ability, performance or dedication, on the contrary, I am actually saying that his focus can very often be at the sacrifice of other races. Of course, if a podium place or win is up for grabs, Timothy will dig deep and seize the opportunity. I expect top-5 and wouldn’t be surprised with an out and out win. What do you think?
Xavier Thevenard was the surprise winner of the 2013 TNFUTMB, a result, considered by many to be one of the performances of the year! It would be fair to say, that Xavier, to many, was an unknown runner. However, this would be a great injustice. In 2013 alone, Xavier placed 11th at Transvulcania, 3rd at 80km du Mont-Blanc and closed out the year with 2nd at Templiers. His 2013 performance at Transvulcania was 1-hour behind the lead men; one year on one can’t help but think that with renewed confidence the gap will be much less.
Tofol Castaner is a great mountain runner and on his day can push with the best in the world. His record at Cavalls del Vent proves this, 2nd in 2013 and 2011. However, he shot to worldwide ultra fame with his dominant CCC performance at the 2012 edition of the race covering the distance in 8:57:04. He will be in the mix.
Philipp Reiter placed 11th in 2012 and 12th at the 2013 edition of Transvulcania. Always on the verge of a big result, his 2012 season was beginning to look like the big time was just around the corner… victories at the Maxi Race in Annecy, Zugspitze Supertrail and Salomon 4 Trails. Add to this Gore-Tex Transalpine and 5th at a stacked Cavalls del Vent and 2013 was a season to be grasped. However, the season lacked any big victories that many of us had expected, arguably his best performance came at Ice Trail Tarentaise placing 3rd behind Kilian Jornet and Francois D’ |
what Jaguar is about.”25 years ago, Masamune Shirow's science-fiction manga Ghost in the Shell wowed readers with its advanced technology. Its various animated incarnations have inspired and intrigued viewers the world over. This month, NTT Docomo Ventures, a venture capital fund, is launching a project to help recreate some of the signature technology from Ghost in the Shell like cyborgs, electric brains and thermoptic camouflage: the Ghost in the Shell Realize Project.
At a panel held on November 12 at Roppongi Garden Gallery in Tokyo, scientists specializing in these technologies convened to formally launch the initiative and discuss how close some of their research is to achieving Ghost in the Shell technology levels. Nobuyuki Akimoto, vice president-director of NTT Docomo Ventures, spoke with Masahiko Inami, a media design professor at Keio University; Naotaka Fujii, a team leader at RIKEN's Brain Science General Research Center and representative director at Hacosco, a virtual reality systems developer; Shuuji Kajita, an intelligent systems researcher and head of the Humanoid Research Group at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology; and Satoshi Endou, director-chairman of Kadokawa Ascii Research Laboratories.
Professor Inami has been conducting research into "optic camouflage," the technology that allows the characters of Ghost in the Shell to blend in with their backgrounds. His inventions allow images to be reflected onto clothes, making the wearer seemingly blend in with their background, and into cars, letting the drivers see what's behind them.
Fujii discussed his research in brain science and presented a video of the head-mounted display his team has developed. This "substitutional reality system" plays pre-recorded video along with displaying reality, thereby confusing the viewer's perceptions of reality. Fujii speculates that this might be the first step towards the memory alteration used in Ghost in the Shell.
Kajita is researching humanoid robots and compared a robot from 2003 with a more humanoid robot built in 2009 with much more realistic and nuanced motions, although he admitted it's still a far cry from Ghost in the Shell's Motoko Kusanagi.
Fujii also opined that the micromachines of Ghost in the Shell that connect brains to computer networks may be possible ("technologically, there's nothing that can't be done"), but the research is still in its early stages, and finding the financial backing for the project would be difficult. Computerizing brains will also be hard due to the sheer amount of noise in brainwaves and the difficulty in finding subjects willing to attach electrodes to their brains for non-medical research. Discussion therefore turned towards the possibility of wearable devices and non-invasive technology like Google Glass, a computerized pair of eyeglasses, or hitoe, a nanofiber patch developed by NTT Docomo that monitors heart rates.
The panel also debated the feasibility of developing cyborgs, with similar optimism tempered with doubt. Kajita pointed out that while humans have around 600 muscles, the humanoid robot in the video only has 44. Beyond the difficulty of merely multiplying muscles, scientists will also have to figure out how to power the cyborgs. While Kajita's robot lasts for an hour at most, "looking into the future, battery life will gradually increase; I think humanoid battery life will be seven or eight hours by 2025. Going even further forward, to 2049 or 2050, using fuel cells, it could reach three days without refueling." Panelists also puzzled over details like the connection between the brain and muscle movement and what kind of network infrastructure regulates the cyborgs in Ghost in the Shell.
A replica of Ghost in the Shell Arise's Logicoma symbolizes the project's ambitions
At the end of the discussion, Inami quoted a science-fiction director as saying that you'll get a good work if you add 5% fiction to 95% reality. He framed the Ghost in the Shell Realize Project's work as bringing that remaining 5% to reality.
Here is the video of the panel for those able to follow technical discussions in Japanese. Video of Inami's optic camouflage can be watched at 4:42, video of Fujii's substitutional reality starts at 6:44, and video of Kajita's robots plays at 9:20.
[Via Anime! Anime! and Engadget]When commenting on the Flynn plea deal with Mueller, we said that while hardly evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, especially since all events took place after the election, the real question is who was the "senior member of the transition team" that instructed Flynn to call Russia. Now, according to Bloomberg's Eli Lake we may have the answer: none other than Jared Kushner, who as Lake says, "could be one of the next dominoes to fall."
According to the Bloomberg report, "one of Flynn’s lies to the FBI was when he said that he never asked Russia's ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, to delay the vote for the U.N. Security Council resolution. The indictment released today from the office of special prosecutor Robert Mueller describes this lie: "On or about December 22, 2016, Flynn did not ask the Russian Ambassador to delay the vote on or defeat a pending United Nations Security Council resolution." At the time, the U.N. Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements was a big deal. Even though the Obama administration had less than a month left in office, the president instructed his ambassador to the United Nations to abstain from a resolution, breaking a precedent that went back to 1980 when it came to one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N.
This was the context of Kushner's instruction to Flynn last December. One transition official at the time said Kushner called Flynn to tell him he needed to get every foreign minister or ambassador from a country on the U.N. Security Council to delay or vote against the resolution. Much of this appeared to be coordinated also with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose envoys shared their own intelligence about the Obama administration's lobbying efforts to get member stats to support the resolution with the Trump transition team.
As Lake correctly notes, "for now it's unclear what to make of all of this" especially since th most important part of a case is missing: motive.
We also know from Flynn's "statement of the offense" that he lied to FBI agents as the bureau was investigating Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and any links between Russia and the Trump campaign in this period. Nonetheless, nothing in the Flynn plea sheds any light on whether the Trump campaign actually colluded with Russia to influence the election.
Here there are two possibilities: one bad for Trump, and one innocuous. As ABC News reported on Friday, Flynn is prepared to tell Mueller's team that Trump had instructed him to make contact with Russia during the campaign itself.
"If those contacts involved the emails the U.S. intelligence community charges Russia stole from leading Democrats, then Mueller will have uncovered evidence of actual collusion between the president and a foreign adversary during the election. Impeachment could then be in the cards."
That's the bad case. But, Lake concedes, it's also possible that the Justice Department became interested in Flynn's initial conversation with Kislyak on other, less explosive grounds.
One leading theory pushed Friday by Democrats involves a violation of a 1799 statute known as the Logan Act. A relic of the John Adams administration, this discredited law makes it illegal for a private U.S. citizen to undermine the foreign policy of a sitting president in contact with a foreign power. No American has ever been successfully prosecuted under that law.
This path is likely a dead end: some conservatives urged the George W. Bush administration to prosecute former House speaker Nancy Pelosi under the Logan Act in 2007 when she visited the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad, when the White House was trying to isolate him. Nothing ever came of that.
Still, a Logan Act investigation would explain the bureau's interest in Flynn's conversations about the U.N. Security Council resolution on Israel. This is what Senator Dianne Feinstein, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Friday: "This shows a Trump associate negotiating with the Russians against U.S. policy and interests before Donald Trump took office and after it was announced that Russia had interfered in our election. That’s a stunning revelation and could be a violation of the Logan Act, which forbids unauthorized U.S. citizens from negotiating with a foreign power."
If that is the extent of Mueller's charges, it's nothing and Trump walks away scott free. As Lake notes, "if that's all there is, then the whispers of collusion will look foolish. Nonetheless, it may be enough to take out not only Flynn, but also the man who married the president's daughter."
Of course, if Kushner is the last casualty of all this, it is likely safe to say that not many tears will be shed.WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump declared Thursday he was pulling the U.S. from the landmark Paris climate agreement, striking a major blow to worldwide efforts to combat global warming and distancing the country from its closest allies abroad. Framing his decision as “a reassertion of America’s sovereignty,” Trump said he was “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
He said the U.S. could try to re-enter the deal under more favorable terms or work to establish “an entirely new transaction.” But he indicated that was hardly a priority. “If we can, great. If we can’t, that’s fine,” he said.
Scientists say Earth is likely to reach more dangerous levels of warming sooner as a result of the president’s decision because America’s pollution contributes so much to rising temperatures. Calculations suggest withdrawal could result in emissions of up to 3 billion tons of additional carbon dioxide a year – enough to melt ice sheets faster, raise seas higher and trigger more extreme weather.
By abandoning the world’s chief effort to slow the tide of planetary warming, Trump was fulfilling a top campaign pledge after weeks of building up suspense over his decision.
The White House indicated it would follow the lengthy exit process outlined in the deal. That means the U.S. would remain in the agreement, at least formally, for another three-and-a-half years, ensuring the issue remains alive in the next presidential election.
However, Trump declared, emphasizing every word: “As of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the nonbinding Paris accord.”
He is breaking from many of America’s staunchest allies, who have expressed alarm about the decision. Several of his top aides also opposed the action, including his daughter Ivanka Trump.
Under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. had agreed under the accord to reduce polluting emissions by more than a quarter below 2005 levels by 2025. But the national targets are voluntary, leaving room for the U.S. and the nearly 200 other countries in the agreement to alter their commitments.
The leaders of France, Germany and Italy joined to “note with regret” the Trump decision and express doubts about any change in the accord.
“We deem the momentum generated in Paris in December 2015 irreversible, and we firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, since it is a vital instrument for our planet, societies and economies,” wrote French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni.
The White House said Trump spoke with the leaders of Germany, France, Canada and Britain Thursday to explain his decision and reassured them that the U.S. is committed to the trans-Atlantic alliance and “robust efforts to protect the environment.”
At home, the U.S. Conference of Mayors strongly opposed the decision and said the nation’s mayors will continue efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
Responding to Trump’s pointing to his city, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto called the decision “disastrous for our planet, for cities such as Pittsburgh,” and a step that “has made America weaker and the world less safe.”
In a rare statement on his successor’s policies, Obama said: “Even in the absence of American leadership; even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future, I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.”
Business leaders, normally strong supporters of Republican initiatives, had vigorously appealed to Trump not to abandon the agreement. Many economists believe the accord would likely help create about as many jobs in renewable energy as it might cost in polluting industries.
The president, however, argued the agreement had disadvantaged the U.S. “to the exclusive benefit of other countries,” leaving American businesses and taxpayers to absorb the cost.
The immediate impact of Trump’s move could be largely symbolic. The White House said the U.S. will stop contributing to the United Nations Green Climate Fund and will stop reporting carbon data as required by the Paris accord, although domestic regulations require that reporting anyway. The decision has no direct impact on major U.S. regulations on power plants and car rules currently aimed at reducing carbon emissions, although those are currently under review by Trump as well.
“This agreement is less about the climate and more about other countries gaining a financial advantage over the United States,” Trump said.
Congressional Republicans applauded the decision, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky saying Trump had “put families and jobs ahead of left-wing ideology and should be commended.”
But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California called it “a stunning abdication of American leadership and a grave threat to our planet’s future.”
Trump spoke from the White House Rose Garden on a warm, sunny day. Seated in the front row were aides who had advocated for the withdrawal, including EPA administrator Scott Pruitt and chief strategist Steve Bannon. During Trump’s speech, the faint sounds of protesters could be heard in the distance banging drums.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who had urged Trump to stay in the Paris deal, did not attend the ceremony, nor did Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, both close advisers to the president who supported staying in the agreement. A White House official said the couple instead attended service at synagogue for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
Business investors seemed pleased, with stock prices, already up for the day, bumping higher as he spoke and the Dow Jones industrial average rising 135 points for the day.
As for the mechanics of withdrawal, international treaties have a four-year cooling off period from the time they go into effect. Trump promised to stop implementation of the “non-binding” parts of the deal immediately.
The U.S. is the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon, following only China. Beijing, however, has reaffirmed its commitment to meeting its targets under the Paris accord, recently canceling construction of about 100 coal-fired power plants and investing billions in massive wind and solar projects.
White House aides have been divided on the question of staying or leaving the accord and had been deliberating on “caveats in the language” as late as Wednesday, one official said. But Trump’s statement was clear and direct.
So was opposition from environmental groups.
“Generations from now, Americans will look back at Donald Trump’s decision to leave the Paris Agreement as one of the most ignorant and dangerous actions ever taken by any president,” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in a statement.
Story: Jill ColvinRackspace, India And A Diseased IPO Market
Posted by Steve Spalding in Featured | View comments
Herbert Tabin of the Social Commerce site VOIS talks about the state of IPOs here and in foreign markets.
To put it lightly the United States IPO market “has fallen and can’t get up”. With tight credit an issue, a housing nightmare that still can’t find a bottom and investment banks looking to their own survival, most IPO’s are being sidelined, making it possible for only the best and brightest of 2008 to have the privilege of going public. Despite having the top Wall Street bookmakers in the world working together on relatively small offerings, amazingly, the last 7 out of 8 IPOs to go public in USA opened lower — some much lower.
IPO Market
This week was no different for internet hosting darling RackSpace Managed Hosting, Stock Symbol RAX. This was the second time RackSpace attempted to go public, the first was in 2000 but that IPO was put off by the tech wreck. RackSpace not only survived the tech wreck but flourished during the last eight years and has since become the world’s largest internet hosting company. RackSpace was thought by many, including Marketwatch, as potentially being “the one” to turn the IPO market around. Apparently it wasn’t. The RackSpace IPO priced at $12 a share proceeded to drop into the $9 range before closing at roughly $10 per share.
While, in my own opinion, RackSpace remains a spectacular buy (for full disclosure RackSpace hosts my Social Sourcing, Social Commerce company VOIS and I became shareholder on Friday buying at $10 a share) just demonstrates the difficulties in the US market even with some of the fastest growing and exciting companies, but what is not being spoken about is the fact that this sickness has now moved on to the Indian IPO market.
At the beginning of 2008 it looked like it was going to be another record year for Indian IPO’s. The Bombay Exchange had been on a roll with double digit gains, but with a slowing US economy and looming credit crisis the Bombay Stock Exchange, 30-share sensitive index plunged more than 25% this year as panicked foreigners began selling billions of dollars of shares.
The sell-off had many different affects on the Indian market but most noticeably it has now infected the Indian IPO market causing more than 19 planned IPO issues to be postponed. The carnage deepened this week as the latest casualty became the Bombay Stock Exchange’s chief executive Raj Patel who resigned for “personal reasons”. Despite the clear negativity and uncertainty, the Indian Government still plans to list the country’s largest phone company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (stock symbol BSNL).
The company with its 70 million subscribers most of them using landlines will still be an important issue as it would be the largest Indian IPO ever at $10 billion. If the government can pull off a successful IPO it could open the way for a long line of other state run companies to go public, if the IPO is a failure it could cause a major blow to an already fragile Indian market.
(Image) (Forum)Former security director suspected for tampering with lottery computers to win $14.3m Jackpot.
According to prosecutors there is strong evidence suggesting that the former computer security head of a state lottery association entered the draw room, hacked the lottery computers and tampered with number generators to buy the winning ticket and receive $14.3m jackpot.
The The Des Moines Register reported that when 51-year old Eddie Raymond Tipton was the information security director at Multi-State Lottery Association (MSLA) he popped in a thumb drive into an extremely locked-down computer that generates the random numbers which determine the lottery winners. He was videotaped while buying a Hot Lotto ticket and went on to win the $14.3m jackpot.
The information has been filed in court documents and prosecutors maintain that they have evidence that supports their theory. They believe that Tipton utilized his privileged position within the lottery association to access a locked room where the random number generating computers are installed and infected them with software, which granted him control over the winning numbers. The room, which was covered by glass, could only be accessed by two people at a time and a video camera monitored it all the time. To avoid hack attacks, these computers weren’t connected to an internet network. Prosecutors believe that Tipton entered the room on November 20, 2010 for changing the time of the computers since on that date the security cameras recorded just one second per minute instead running continuously like always.
Prosecutors explained that:
“Four of the five individuals who have access to control the camera’s settings will testify they did not change the cameras’ recording instructions. The fifth person is defendant. It is a reasonable deduction to infer that defendant tampered with the camera equipment to have an opportunity to insert a thumbdrive into the RNG tower without detection.”
Tipton, obviously, pleads not guilty to all the charges against him and his attorney claims that the computer tempering theory is not “factually viable.”
About a month after the alleged tempering of the computers by Tipton occurred, that is on December 23rd, a man was videotaped at a convenience store buying a Hot Lotto ticket, which actually won the $14.3million pay-out. The man was identified by authorities as Tipton however, being an employee of the association responsible for administering lottery Tipton wasn’t allowed to buy tickets or even claiming lottery prizes. For about a year the winning ticket remained unclaimed and just hours before its expiration time a company integrated in Belize claimed the prize money via a New York attorney. Tipton was charged with two fraud counts in January and the computer tempering allegations were firstly made in the court last week when the court documents were filed.
Apart from the draw room event on November 20th, prosecutors have other supporting evidence to their theory as they claim that Tipton was “obsessed” with rootkits. Rootkits is a kind of computer program that gets installed quickly, can be set to perform just about any task and later is capable of self-destruction without even a trace. Prosecutors state that a witness may identify at the trial and inform the court that in late November Tipton told him that he possessed a self-destructing toolkit.
Tipton’s trial was due to start from Monday but it was delayed when defence attorneys requested for a continuance. Now, the trial will start from July 31st.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: Desmoines Register
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Phonetic Transcription of Japanese Words – Furigana, Romaji and Pitch Accent
Japanese phonetics may seem easy for people who are just starting to learn Japanese. The Japanese language only has five vowels, and Japanese consonant sounds are not very difficult to learn. However, there is one thing in Japanese that will cause you a lot of trouble... Pitch accent!
First of all, what is pitch accent? It means that some vowel sounds in Japanese words are pronounced with different pitch (with high or low tone). In order to understand the Japanese language better, let's compare Japanese with English. The English language has stress accent, which means that stressed vowels are pronounced louder. In some cases, different stress positions can change the meaning of a word. Compare:
He has a perfect [ˈpərfɪkt] pronunciation.
I want to perfect [pərˈfekt] my pronunciation.
In the above example, placing stress on the right syllable and pronouncing the words correctly makes the speaker more natural-sounding and easier to understand. Try pronouncing the word "perfect" both ways in each of the sentences above and feel the difference.
The same phenomenon occurs in Japanese which proves to be a difficult obstacle for those trying to master Japanese speaking. Pitch accent helps to distinguish some words that may seem identical when written with kana (Japanese alphabet). When a person speaks in Japanese while respecting pitch accent, they sound much more natural compared to someone who neglects this part of Japanese language. Someone who uses pitch accent incorrectly sounds similar to the way that Gru from the movie Despicable Me sounds to native English speakers.
There are several different types of phonetic transcription in Japanese - ways to visually represent the pronunciation of Japanese words:
Romaji, which uses Latin alphabet Furigana, which uses Japanese alphabet kana printed next to kanji (Japanese characters) International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
For example, the phonetic transcription of the Japanese word 発音 'pronunciation' can be written as:
hatsuon (romaji) 発音 ( はつおん ) (furigana) [hat͡sɯᵝoɴ] (IPA)
Now let's get back to pitch accent and why it can be difficult to learn. In my opinion, the challenge with Japanese pitch accent is not that it is extremely hard to reproduce - the challenge is that it is often disregarded in Japanese textbooks and dictionaries. As a result, it is considered unimportant by students and even their teachers. When you start learning Japanese from a textbook, the first chapter will likely suggest imitating native speakers on Japanese audio recordings in order to master pitch accent and speak in a natural-sound way. But then the subject is completely dropped! This is a huge oversight for those who desire to learn correct Japanese word pronunciation.
As opposed to fully tonal languages (like Mandarin Chinese), situations where the accent position changes completely the meaning of a word are relatively rare in Japanese. So when a person speaks Japanese and stresses the wrong vowels, they are understood (although often with difficulty). An average student may think: "If people understand me, why bother learning it?" Well, compare these three phrases (different colors are used to mark high and low pitches):
端を見る ha shi o mi ↧ ru – to see an end 箸を見る ha ↧ shi o mi ↧ ru – to see chopsticks 橋を見る ha shi ↧ o mi ↧ ru – to see a bridge
As you can see in the above examples, the pitch accent does sometimes change the meaning of the phrase. If you want to sound natural when you speak Japanese, sooner or later you will need to learn correct Japanese language pronunciation! Why put it off?
All About Our Japanese Phonetic Translator
This online Japanese phonetic translator is designed to make learning pitch accent easier. It highlights in different colors the syllables that should be pronounced in high and low pitch.
A special option shows devoicing of vowels /i/ and /u/. In such cases, the devoiced syllables will be replaced by circled forms of katakana (for example: 惑星 わ㋗せい). Since the circled forms of ピ and プ don't exist, they will be replaced by ㋪° and ㋫°, respectively.
Another option shows weakening of consonant [ɡ]. In such cases, the regular dakuten sign (for voicing) will be replaced by handakuten. For example: 資源 し↧け°ん.
The translator is powered by the Japanese morphological analyzer MeCab, NAIST Japanese Dictionary and the CSS stylesheet for Ruby support. I also used the following dictionaries that contain information on pitch accent in Japanese words:
NHK 日本語発音アクセント辞典 新版 新明解日本語アクセント辞典 Современный японско-русский словарь, Б.П. Лаврентьев
If you are interested in Japanese pitch accent, I highly recommend purchasing at least one of the Japanese dictionaries (NHK or Shin Meikai). Both of them have an introductory section that covers the subject in detail, and this is an invaluable tool for learning how to correctly pronounce Japanese words.
Highlighting of high-frequency Japanese words
This online tool highlights in different colors Japanese words required for the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test JLPT:
N5 N4 N3 N2 N1
This way, you will easily identify vocabulary that you will need to learn to prepare yourself for the specific level of JLPT test.
Maximum text length (in characters):
Note: To ensure the Japanese text (including furigana) displays correctly, use the latest version of your web browser and choose the right encoding for this page – Unicode (UTF-8). This translator is only available online and cannot be downloaded to your computer.
Japanese Romaji, Furigana, and Pitch Accent – Online Resources
Search for related blog postsNiall Dinsmore, who thought he would get a'slap on the wrist', sentenced to five years in prison.
Niall Dinsmore: Holidaymaker was jailed for five years. Spindrift/Deadline/Edinburgh Airport
A holidaymaker who thought he would get "a slap on the wrist" if he was caught bringing stun guns into the country has been jailed for five years.
A judge rejected a plea of exceptional circumstances for Niall Dinsmore to avoid the minimum prison term for firearms offences.
Dinsmore was caught with five stun guns disguised as torches and five batons after he arrived at Edinburgh Airport from a break in Bulgaria.
The judge was told he planned to keep one of the stun guns and give others away to friends and relatives.
Lord Boyd of Duncansby told him at the High Court in Edinburgh: "With regret I have concluded there are no exceptional circumstances in your case.
"You intended, on your account, to gift a stun gun and a baton to a chosen few. Together these weapons are of considerable potency."
The judge said Dinsmore, 28, of Bansbridge, Northern Ireland, would have been putting the weapons beyond his control and could not know where they would have ended up.
Lord Boyd said while Dinsmore did not appreciate the seriousness of what he was doing he knew it was wrong, which distinguished his case from others where exceptional circumstances were argued.
Dinsmore earlier admitted being illegally in possession of disguised firearms and being in possession of offensive weapons, namely the batons.
He was held at the airport on August 31 last year as he returned from holiday with his girlfriend Kerri Luff, from Dundee.
The court heard he bought them as presents as he thought they were "unusual".
Prosecutor Shirley McKenna said: "He thought he would get a slap on the wrist if caught."
Defence solicitor advocate Richard Souter said the items he arrived at the airport with were for sale in supermarkets in the eastern European country where he and his girlfriend had been visiting with another couple.
He said they were bought for about 20 lev each, approximately £10.
Mr Souter said: "His intention was to give them as gifts to some friends and relations. He saw them as something different."
He added Dinsmore accepted it showed his naivety.
On arrival at the airport, Border Force personnel took Dinsmore to a poster of contraband items and asked if he had any. He said he did.
Mr Souter said Dinsmore had fully cooperated with the authorities.
He said: "It was clear he had no idea how serious it was. It was clear he had no idea they were classified as firearms."
"He appeared to be shocked when he was told he had imported firearms."
Lord Boyd told Dinsmore he had read references submitted on his behalf which made it clear he was well regarded in the community, by his employer and by family and friends.
The judge said he accepted he was ashamed and embarrassed by the incident and had shown a significant degree of remorse for his actions.
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Download: The STV News app is Scotland's favourite and is available for iPhone from the App store and for Android from Google Play. Download it today and continue to enjoy STV News wherever you are.Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 for Nintendo Switch launches in Europe and North America next Friday, on September 22. Bandai Namco has been promoting the new motion controls that allow you perform kamehame with your own hands by using the Joy-Cons, but there's another important feature that we're just finding out more about now.
The story mode from Dragon Ball Xenoverse is included in the Switch version of the sequel. YouTuber Ndukauba had access to the game (the Japanese version is already out on the eShop) and made a video showing how to unlock this content. To enter the Legend Patrol quests you have to first find a Capsule Corp robot named Waipa, located near the Elder Kai.
Ndukauba says that you must finish the story of a certain enemy in Xenoverse 2 to unlock the Legend Patrol quest of the same enemy in Xenoverse 1.
There are also other changes related to the gameplay improvements Dimps made for the sequel. For example, the super armour is gone and has been replaced by a larger amount of health.
This feature, as well as the motion controls, are exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version, but remember that DLC is not included.EXCLUSIVE: Up-and-coming British actor Malachi Kirby is set to star in an episode of Netflix’s keenly anticipated new season of Charlie Brooker’s anthology series Black Mirror with Jakob Verbruggen directing. The episode is called Men Against Fire, although plotlines are being kept closely under wraps.
Created and written by Brooker, Black Mirror taps into our collective unease with the modern world and each stand-alone episode is a suspenseful tale exploring themes of contemporary techno-paranoia. The series, which premiered on Channel 4 in 2011 and aired for two seasons, has received an international Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, a Rose D’Or and been nominated for a BAFTA.
Netflix is assembling a top class talent pool for the new series. Deadline previously broke the news that Joe Wright (Atonement) would be directing one of the episodes with Bryce Dallas Howard and Alice Eve starring.
Kirby’s star is very much on the rise after landing the plum role of Kunta Kinte in A+E Networks’ remake of Roots. The event TV series will follow the iconic character as he is captured from his homeland Gambia and sold into slavery in America, and his descendants struggle to survive over the next century. The show airs this year on Lifetime, A+E and the History Channel. Kirby is repped by the Identity Agency Group.
Jakob Verbruggen has a number of high profile TV directing credits to date, including eps of House of Cards and The Bridge. He also directed all five episodes of Working Title’s well-received mini-series London Spy, starring Ben Whishaw (Spectre) and Edward Holcroft (Kingsman: The Secret Service). Verbruggen is repped by the Curtis Brown Group, CAA and Ken Lambrechst GCV.
It was announced last year that Netflix would be ordering 12 new episodes of the acclaimed series from Brooker’s House of Tomorrow. Brooker and Annabel Jones, who exec produced the first seven episodes of the series, will continue to serve in that capacity as well as be showrunners for the new shows, which Brooker has written. House of Tomorrow is a part of the Endemol Shine Group.Image caption The sign features the historic crest of Chadderton and an Oldham Council logo
Council workers were left shame-faced after a town's "welcome" sign was hung upside down.
The sign - which proudly declares "Welcome to Chadderton" - was fitted on Lees Street in the Greater Manchester town.
But the blunder was spotted by a resident, who said it was left in the incorrect position overnight.
A spokesman for Oldham Council said "a genuine error was made by staff".
Workers from the council have now rectified the mistake.
Andrew Robinson, of Chadderton, said he noticed the sign had been put up the wrong way as he passed it on Tuesday.
He said: "They were picking up the old sign and packing it in the van to drive off and I assumed they'd be back to fix that and put that right.
"I checked again this morning and took some photographs because I thought I'd either dreamt it or can't have seen it properly - but the sign was still upside down.
"How hard is it to put a sign up? I wondered if it had been drilled or fitted wrongly - but no, they just seem to have screwed it up the wrong way round."The last time Liverpool finished outside the top eight in England’s top division was in the 1961-62 season, when they weren’t even in the top division. They were winning the old Second Division title that year, ending an eight-year spell outside the top flight, one of the rare periods in their history when they have played below the elite.
In the 110 seasons they have played league football since promotion from the Lancashire League to the Second Division of the Football League in 1893, they have finished, on average, eighth.
That means they have the highest average finish, all-time, of any club. Their precise average finish is 8.26, which puts them ahead of next-best Arsenal (average finish 8.78, also in 110 seasons) and third-placed Everton, who have averaged a placing of 9.71 in their 115 league seasons.
Daniel Sturridge equalises for Liverpool at Anfield against Manchester United on Sunday
Liverpool players celebrate in the dressing room having won the Division One title in 1990
Luis Suarez, now at Barcelona, guided Liverpool to second place in the Premier League last season
The average finishing positions have been calculated as part of a MailSport study to explore which English clubs are the ‘biggest’; 59 different teams of the current 92 in the top four divisions have been considered, having played in England’s top division for at least a season.
Liverpool’s incredible consistency over time means they have only spent 11 seasons of 110 outside the top division. Those were their inaugural season, plus 1895-96, then 1904-05, then the eight-year spell between 1954 and 1962.
At the peak of their powers, between 1972-73 and 1990-91, they finished outside the top two in the top division just once, when they were fifth in 1980-81.
Chelsea, celebrating a 3-2 win at Hull on Saturday, lead the Premier League this season so far
Phil Neal is pictured with the UEFA Cup, Charity Shield, and League Championship trophies in 1976
Arsenal last won the Premier League title in 2004, when they went unbeaten for the entire season
Steve McMahon (centre) lifts with Division One trophy in 1986 with his Liverpool team-mates
CLUBS RANKED BY AVERAGE LEAGUE FINISH Rank Club Average finish Years in league 1 Liverpool 8.26 110 2 Arsenal 8.78 110 3 Everton 9.71 115 4 Manchester United 10.42 111 5 Aston Villa 11.27 115 6 Tottenham Hotspur 12.4 95 7 Chelsea 13.66 98 8 Newcastle United 14.17 110 9 Manchester City 14.23 111 10 |
store in Garrison Keillor's fictional town of Lake Wobegon.
For Aaron Rinehart, one of the workshop's leaders, the goal is to protect the relationship between journalists and their sources, "to get journalists confident using these tools so sources feel they can give them information safely," said Rinehart. Without that possibility, he said, the Fourth Estate could be fundamentally crippled.
And it's not just the NSA journalists and sources need to protect themselves from, warned Rinehart. He used an example of a story exposing pharmaceutical malpractice. "It's not that sexy of an issue, right? But just think of the potential adversaries." There's the government whose regulators screwed up, the drug companies who are poisoning people, and their stakeholders who don't want to lose profits. With any story, there are likely a host of people who want to hack the journalist and sources to prevent the information from being aired.
The workshop was taught by Rinehard and digital security advisers David Reese and Ferdous Al-Faruque. Rinehart and Reese recently founded TestBed Inc., a technology consulting company. And Al-Faruque is a master's journalism student at the University of Missouri who said he wants to establish a class there on encryption and cyber security.
Rinehart, who spent time in Djibouti while serving in the Marine Corps, said his motivation for putting on the workshop came from a time when journalism salvaged his college career. "The media saved me," he said. About a decade ago, Rinehart faced a bureaucratic nightmare at the University of Missouri, when he returned from serving abroad and was not permitted to complete his studies. A local paper led an investigation into the problems veterans were having there, and the university changed policies. Since then, Rinehart said he tries to do all he can to help journalists.
Of the reporters who attended, many are intent on investigative work like the kind that exposed the NSA's mass, indiscriminate surveillance. "Since I cover national security and defense, I would definitely use this to coax sources to communicate with me or send me documents that they don't want their government or our government to see or know about," said Kristina Wong, a reporter for The Hill.
But others also attended, including a cryptologist who said he comes to events like this out of professional interest, and a human rights worker.
"In a lot of countries, activists and human rights defenders especially are really targeted," said Sarah Kinosian, who monitors American security assistance in Latin America for the Center for International Policy. "So we want to make sure [victims] can pass documentation to us in a safe way."
The workshop began with Rinehart and Reese playing a segment of Citizen Four, Poitras's documentary on Snowden and government surveillance that recently won an academy award.
"I would like to confirm out of email that the keys we exchanged were not intercepted and replaced by your surveillance," a narrator said, reading Snowden's correspondence with Poitras as a line of ominous tunnel light split darkness on the screen. "Please confirm that no one has ever had a copy of your private key and that it uses a strong passphrase." Rinehart interjected: "That is what we will be teaching you today."
He then spoke for a while on the importance of responsible password management, recommending a program called KeePass, before moving on to downloading email client software and installing extensions designed to encrypt communications.Officer Harris' patrol car vandalized, man arrested Copyright by WSPA - All rights reserved Fallen Officer Jason Harris' patrol vehicle is covered with flowers, cards and other items early Monday morning (WSPA). [ + - ] Video
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) -- Charles Coulson was arrested Wednesday night after Spartanburg police say he vandalized the memorial for fallen Officer Jason Harris.
Copyright by WSPA - All rights reserved Charles Franklin Coulson
Copyright by WSPA - All rights reserved Charles Franklin Coulson
An officer saw Coulson grab flowers and a wreath off the patrol car and drag them across the parking lot.
The officer stated that Coulson was grossly intoxicated and smelled of alcohol.
Coulson, 21, was charged with littering and public disorderly conduct.
Coulson is a student at Wofford College. He was a member of the soccer team. Wofford says he was suspended for violating team rules before this incident.
The memorial for Officer Harris remains in front of city hall.
Spartanburg Police Department released a statement regarding the incident saying, "It is certainly heartbreaking for our department. The young man made a bad decision as a result of being under the influence. The Spartanburg Police Department cannot say enough about the outpouring of support from our community. We continue to ask for prayers for the Harris family and our police department."
Coulson was released from jail on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond.Kucinich investigates Yankee Stadium perks for NYC officials Nick Juliano
Published: Thursday August 7, 2008
Print This Email This Rep. Dennis Kucinich is opening an investigation into perks for New York City officials being offered as part of a deal to build a new stadium for the New York Yankees. Kucinich (D-OH) chairs a House Oversight subcommittee, and he has made similar inquiries regarding the New York Mets stadium, which offers similar perks for city officials. In its investigation of the deal between the Yankees and New York City for land on which the new stadium is to be built, Kucinich's Domestic Policy Subcommittee found that the lease allows city officials free use of a luxury box in the new stadium and priority rights to purchase up to 180 tickets per game. A letter Kucinich sent to the Yankees Thursday requests details on the perks. The subcommittee's investigations, which have been ongoing for more than a month, are examining whether the IRS can change its regulations and allow stadium projects such as the new Yankee Stadium to receive public-backed financing that comes with tax breaks. The Yankees are seeking an extra $350 million in public funds to build the new stadium. The team wants additional public support from the city's industrial development agency to be added to the $941 million in tax-exempt public bonds the organization already has issued for the $1.3 billion stadium. The stadium has been under construction since 2006 and is set to open next year. With wire reports Kucinich's letter is reprinted below: August 7, 2008 Mr. Randy Levine President New York Yankees Yankee Stadium New York, New York 10451 Dear Mr. Levine: The Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has held two hearings[1] and issued a number of requests concerning the public financing of professional sports stadiums.[2] In conjunction with our specific investigation into the financing of the new Yankee Stadium, the Subcommittee has learned that pursuant to the lease agreement between the Yankees and the New York City Industrial Development Agency (NYCIDA), the City of New York, as assignee of the NYCIDA, is, among other rights, granted: (1) the right to use a luxury box for Yankee games in the new Yankee Stadium free of charge; and (2) priority rights for the purchase of up to 180 tickets for each Yankee home game.[3] I hereby request the following documents: (1) All documents relating to the lease provision, section 4.04, or any other agreement, draft or final, granting the NYCIDA or the City of New York any right to use or purchase any luxury boxes or tickets for any event at the new Yankee Stadium, including without limitation all documents relating to the origination of the concept, negotiation, execution, interpretation, and economic value of any such provision or agreement. The Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the principal oversight committee in the House of Representatives and has broad oversight jurisdiction as set forth in House Rule X. An attachment to this letter provides information on how to respond to the Subcommittees request. I request that you provide these documents as soon as possible, but in no case later than 5:00 p.m. on Monday, August 18, 2008. Sincerely, Dennis J. Kucinich Chairman Domestic Policy SubcommitteeFive families were forced to watch their loved ones get beheaded in a packed street by ISIS after extremists accused them of being spies.
The executioner, who did not hide his identity by wearing only a baseball cap, black clothes and boots as he carried out the savage slaughters, killed five civilians on Sunday in Syria's northeastern Raqqa province.
The victims were captured by the terror group in Tabqa on Saturday, and after being found guilty of communicating with Kurdish troops by their internal Sharia Court of Raqqa, were sentenced to public death.
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The executioner, who did not hide his identity by wearing only a baseball cap, black clothes and boots as he carried out the savage killings, killed five civilians on Sunday in Syria's northeastern Raqqa province
ISIS' police had arrested the five young men in the city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside the day before they were publicly slaughtered for being accused of supplying information to forces of the People's Protection Units (YPG) in northeastern Syria.
'They were publicly beheaded after the Sharia Court of Raqqa convicted them of spying for hostile YPG troops,' a local source told AhlulBayt.
'They were beheaded in front of a large crowd that included their family members,' the source said.
The Raqqa countryside is not an Islamic State stronghold, and Kurdish YPG fighters and allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been battling for the territory having all but driven ISIS out of the area.
Kurdish YPG fighters and allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have recently launched a battle for Raqqa countryside and expelled ISIS from large territories in the northern countryside.
Despite this, Raqqa has essentially become the ISIS capital.
It is here the jihadi Bulldozer - a 20 stone executioner - has been beheading victims.
He has been become infamous for swinging around a 4ft sword in military gear and a balaclava before fatally bringing it down on civilians' heads in the Raqqa streets.Another update! The increased regularity of our tweaks can only mean one thing: Scrolls is getting closer and closer to Beta. That means that, soon, anyone who wants to buy Scrolls will be able to. More players, official rankings, all the good stuff. Brace for impact.
But let’s not get carried away just yet: update 0.85 is mostly concerned with server tweaks: we’ve made some major changes to how things work behind the scenes, along with the following changes to the client.
Features
The splash screen now includes a news area, game statistics, and a developer Twitter feed. The stats are still a work in progress.
Scrolls
Beast Rat (Growth) is now the subtype Beast.
Rallying (Growth) now lowers countdown by 2.
Shrine (Order) rules text has been updated to better match its effect.
Miscellaneous
The Scrolls logo has been updated.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug where movement tiles would show on your side when clicking on a unit on the opposite side
Fixed incorrect idol damage in post-game stats
Fixed a number of timing related bugs (including attacks being interrupted too early)
Fixed a bug where decks would sometimes not get properly repaired after selling or trading excess scrolls
Fixed a bug where certain tiles would remain highlighted after a unit has finished attacking
Fixed incorrect sorting of scrolls in trade and sell lists
Fixed a rare issue that could make a unit invisible.
Known Issues
Users running Avast will need to disable it temporarily to login. We’re looking into why this happens. Sorry!
Thats it for now people! Have a good day.
Owen – @bopogamel“Brexit” means “Brexit”, said the Prime Minister. The question is what “Brexit” really means. No answer to that question has yet been given. Brendan Donnelly argues that it is difficult to see how May’s government and party can ever arrive at a consensus on this issue. In consequence, a “hard” Brexit is a much greater possibility than it is generally assumed.
Recently installed as she is at 10 Downing Street, Theresa May has probably not yet given much thought to her resignation honours list when she ceases to be Prime Minister. If she does, an obvious candidate for preferment should be the official who invented for her the magnificently vacuous mantra, “Brexit means Brexit.” These three little words have provided over the last month at least some decorous concealment of the indecent confusion which comprises current British governmental policy towards the European Union. The phrase corresponds well to Lloyd George’s definition of a perfect parliamentary answer: it is short, true and wholly uninformative.
In a fascinating article this week for the Financial Times, the prominent Conservative campaigner for Brexit, Bernard Jenkin, praised the Prime Minister’s formulation of her European policy and attempted to give his own definition of what “Brexit” should mean. Jenkin advocates what he describes as a “rapid and simple procedure,” consisting of triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, and then immediately giving domestic effect to Article 50 by an Act of Parliament, which “need be no more than a few clauses.” A small act of diplomatic business and a short Act of Parliament are therefore, in Jenkin’s analysis, all that are necessary to emancipate the United Kingdom from its vassalage to “Brussels.” Any attempt to complicate or extend the process simply serve to delay the moment when British national autonomy can be reclaimed.
Particularly striking (and frankly implausible) is Jenkin’s claim that there are no “hard” or “soft” options for Brexit. It is entirely understandable that he should adopt such an attitude. It was before 23rd June an article of faith for the Leave campaign, of which Jenkin was a leading member, that no significant economic damage or even change would result from a plebiscitary vote to leave the European Union. If there were difficult decisions to be taken concerning relations between the European Union and the United Kingdom after Brexit, the difficulties would all be on the side of the European Union, not on the side of the British government. In his insouciant description of what he sees as the straightforward process of leaving the EU, Jenkin is remaining true to the sweepingly optimistic analysis he and his colleagues put to the electorate during the referendum campaign. He therefore has no time for the argument that the result of the referendum on 23rdJune has created a raft of difficult choices for the British government, which it will take many months and perhaps years to resolve. May’s temporisation in the early months of her Premiership before invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty makes it clear that she does not share Jenkin’s confidence that all will be well, all will be well and all manner of things will be well. No doubt it was similar forebodings about the difficulties of Brexit that led her, possibly reluctantly, to argue tepidly for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union during the recent referendum campaign.
May is not to be envied in her attempt to develop a strategy for the negotiation of Brexit. There is within her party a substantial constituency which, like Jenkin, does not believe that any negotiation is needed: for them, Brexit has been decided and any discussion of the modalities of this irrevocable decision is a betrayal of the electorate, a tactic of “experts” and the “metropolitan elite” for backsliding. Other Conservatives (and not just Conservatives) could not accept in Britain’s future relationship with the European Union any maintenance of the principles of free movement or respect for the acquis communautaire that would be intrinsic to, for instance, any future British membership of the European Economic Area, an option favoured by many British exporters. There are further divisions within the Conservative Party on the issue of British future membership of a Customs Union with the European Union. As May herself has recognised, there are also concerns and interests specific to Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and even Gibraltar that need to be accommodated in any final settlement between the United Kingdom and the European Union. It is unsurprising that May has recently taken to speaking about a “bespoke” arrangement for the United Kingdom in its future relationship with the EU. It must be questionable whether an arrangement that will satisfy all May’s stake-holders is politically or even logically achievable.
Within the British government and its administrative structures, it is increasingly coming to be realised (pace Jenkin) that extricating the United Kingdom from the European Union and establishing a new relationship with the Union will be a gigantic logistical undertaking, involving many different and overlapping negotiations. It was not widely understood for instance before 23 June that the negotiations for leaving the Union must precede and be separate from those regulating the UK’s future dealings with the EU, a temporal separation that probably creates in its turn the need for a “transitional arrangement” between the two agreements. Nor did the formalities relating to the UK’s membership of the WTO after leaving the European Union receive anything like the attention they deserved during the referendum campaign. It requires an enormous leap of faith to believe that all these negotiations can be satisfactorily concluded within a reasonable time-frame, and certainly not within the two years envisaged by Article 50 for the conclusion of an initial agreement on the administrative aspects of the UK’s leaving the European Union. The difficulty of May’s task has been illustrated by the unwillingness of the remaining members of the Union to begin substantive negotiations with the United Kingdom before Article 50 is invoked. When one government is negotiating with twenty-seven, it is the twenty seven who corporately set the timetable of the negotiation, not the one.
Against this murky and unpredictable background, it is extraordinary that the British government still claims to believe that it is constitutionally entitled to trigger Article 50 without specific parliamentary sanction for doing so. In invoking Article 50, the British government of the day is essentially putting an end to British membership of the European Union in two years time at the latest. What the terms will be for the reversal of the past forty years of British integration within the European Union is at the moment wholly unknown and indeed wholly unknowable. There is and may never be any coherent British strategy for these negotiations; it is equally impossible to predict, other than as an exercise in wishful thinking what the reaction of our partners may be to the final British aspirations. Many of those who argued that Britain should leave the European Union did so on the basis that they wished to restore the parliamentary sovereignty supposedly compromised by British membership of the European Union. It is a highly idiosyncratic view of this British parliamentary sovereignty to believe the British government has the right or even the duty to take such a momentous and potentially disruptive decision as that of leaving the European Union with only minimal parliamentary involvement. That 38% of the British electorate, on the basis of a dishonest and fantasy-driven referendum campaign, expressed a wish to leave the Union on 23 June is a flimsy basis for the subversion of centuries of parliamentary democracy in the United Kingdom.
There is a view sometimes expressed by commentators both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe that as negotiations proceed there will be a gradual and inevitable convergence of positions between the European Union and the British negotiators charged with making a “success” of Brexit. This may well be wishful thinking. For many years, the leadership of the Conservative Party has shown itself incapable of standing firm against the ever more exigent demands of its most radical Eurosceptic wing. This process reached its culmination in the appointment by May of a raft of Ministers from this wing of the party to conduct the Brexit negotiations. David Davis and Liam Fox in particular are instinctively sympathetic to Jenkin’s analysis of the balance of forces between the United Kingdom and the European Union. Davis revealingly commented before the referendum that “We have far more to gain than we have to lose, while the opposite is true for the EU.” If he really believes that, then it is difficult to foresee any meeting of minds between him and his twenty seven partners, all of whom are firmly convinced of the opposite proposition.
It is certainly true that the United Kingdom’s partners in the European Union would prefer an amicable to a fractious parting of the ways between themselves and the British. But they will expect the negotiations to proceed at a minimum in a spirit of co-operation, goodwill and political realism. There is very little in the recent history of the Conservative party to suggest that it is corporately capable of such behaviour in its European policy. The Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative Party won, from their point of view, a famous victory on 23 June. It is not about to cede the fruits of that victory by accepting an arrangement with the remaining European Union (delightfully described by the Daily Telegraph recently as the “rump” EU) that resembles in any significant way the present state of affairs, for instance through continued payments to the European budget or the adoption of European social and environmental standards. When substantive negotiations between the UK and its European partners begin, there is at least as much reason to believe they will rapidly dissolve into an impasse as to anticipate that they will generate convergence.
The possibility that Britain will leave the European Union in a “hard” Brexit, perhaps even in the way sketched out by Mr. Jenkin, is much greater than is generally assumed. Those British politicians who fought during the referendum campaign for Britain to remain within the Union and have consoled themselves since with the reflection that much could still be rescued from the wreckage of the UK’s forty years within the European Union may be in for an unpleasant shock. It may even be a shock so unpleasant as to transform the already volatile structure of British politics. There are many millions of voters unwilling simply to acquiesce in Brexit and whose traditional party loyalties have been shaken by the events of the EU referendum. The course of the Brexit negotiations over the coming years is unlikely to reassure them that the present structure of British politics adequately reflects their concerns.
This post first appeared on The Federal Trust and it represents the views of the author and not those of the BrexitVote blog, nor the LSE. Image: Public Domain.
Brendan Donnelly has been Director of the Federal Trust since January 2003 and is a Senior Research Fellow at the Global Policy Institute. He is a former Member of the European Parliament (1994 to 1999).Primal Path Rage burns in every barbarian's heart. a furnace that drives him or her toward greatness. Different barbarians attribute their rage to different sources, however. For some, it is an internai reservoir where pain. grief. and anger are forged into a fury hard as steel. Others see it as a spiritual blessing. a gift of a totem animal. Path of the Giants Path of the Giants barbarians fuel their rage and power from their ancestors: Giants. Barbarians who chose to embrace their heritage can learn much from their ancestory, and grow in power accordingly. Restriction: Goliaths only To embrace a Giant heritage, one must have a giant heritage. Only creatures that descend from the ancient titan line may fuel their rage with the primal fury of the Giants. Your DM may allow other creatures to take on this option. In worlds where Goliaths don't exist, some Humans or Orcs might trace their heritage back to the Giants of old. Some characters that have devoted their life to studying ancient Giant tactics or worship deities in the Giant Pantheon may also be allowed to adopt this primal path. Lineage Trait Your Giant heritage has rubbed off in how you treat yourself and others. You may have gained a quirk associated with your ancestors. When you take this Primal Path at 3rd level, you can choose to gain a quirk from the table below. Heritage Quirk d6 Quirk 1 You despise dragons 2 You feel a constant need to move up in society 3 You feel superior to smaller creatures and frequently underestimate them 4 Your feel your line is mistreated by other Giant kin, and they belong higher in the ordning. 5 You enjoy hurling rocks (the bigger the better) 6 Your idea of "soon" is very different than other races Giant Heritage At 3rd level, you adopt the aspects of one of the great lines of Giants. Choose a Heritage below. While raging, you gain resistance to the associated damage type of your chosen heritage, and gain additional benefits based of your heritage at 6th and 10th level. Heritage Giant Type Resistance Hill Poison Stone Acid Frost Cold Fire Fire Cloud Thunder Storm Lightning Giant's Grip Additionally at 3rd level, your Giant heritage empowers your strength. While raging, treat weapons with the Versatile property as having their Versatile damage die even if wielded in one hand. Also, while raging, you can wield Two-Handed weapons in one hand. Attacking with a Two-handed weapon in this fashion incurs a -5 penalty to all attack rolls you as part of the attack action. Heritage Aspect At 6th level, your Giant Heritage comes out even while not raging. You gain an aspect based on your Giant Heritage. Hill: You gain immunity to the Poisoned condition. You can go twice as long without needing to eat or drink. Your resistance to poison damage persists while you are not raging. Stone: You gain proficiency in one set of artisan's tools of your choice and one skill of your choice. Your resistance to acid damage persists while you are not raging. Frost: You gain proficiency in the Animal Handling or the Athletics skill. If you already had proficiency in that skill, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability checks you make using your selected skill. Your resistance to cold damage persists while you are not raging, and you gain resistance to fire damage while raging. Fire: You gain proficiency in smith's tools or jeweler's tools and the Athletics skill or Intimidation skill. If you are proficient with both Athletics and Intimidation, you may instead gain a skill of your choice. Your resistance to fire damage persists while you are not raging, and you gain resistance to cold damage while raging. Cloud: You gain proficiency in the Persuasion skill or the Deception skill. If you already had proficiency in that skill, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability checks you make using your selected skill. Your resistance to thunder damage persists while you are not raging, and you have advantage on saving throws against illusions. Storm: You gain a swim speed equal to your movement speed. You can cast the Augury spell, but only as a ritual. Once you cast Augury in this fashion, you must complete a long rest before you can cast it again. Your resistance to lightning damage persists while you are not raging.
Rune Magic At 10th level, you gain a basic understanding of Rune Magic, and learn two glyphs related to your Heritage. Over the course of one minute, you inscribe a glyph into a solid surface (such as a table or a section of floor or wall) that stores a specific spell determined by your heritage. The glyph covers a 5 foot wide area. The glyph is easily noticable unless deliberatly concealed under an object. The glyph is triggered if any creature speaks the runic word within 5 feet of the glyph or touches it, activating the stored spell within and applying its effect to whoever triggered it. If the spell affects an area, the spell is centered on the triggering creature. If the spell requires concentration, it lasts until the end of its full duration. You ignore any material components neccisary to cast a spell in this way. Wisdom is your spellcasting modifier for any spell cast using this feature. Hill: Stinking Cloud, Confusion Stone: Stoneskin, Erupting Earth Frost: Sleet Storm, Dispell Magic Fire: Fire shield, Daylight Cloud: Fly, Major Image Storm: Storm Sphere, Wall of Water Once you use this feature, you can not use it again until you complete a long rest. Image of the All-Father Starting at 14th level, your rage finally taps into the full depths of your giant heritage. While raging, you gain these benefits: Your size doubles and wieght multiplies by eight. This increases your size catagory by one. If there isn't enough room for you to double your size, you attain the maximum possible size in the space avalible. Your equipment changes size with you. Your weapons are enlarged, dealing an additional 1d4 extra damage. Your new stature increases the reach of your attacks by 5 feet. You may use a large weapon if you have one available. If you do, it deals damage as a medium weapon with an additional 1d4 damage. You do not suffer a -5 penalty while wielding Two-handed weapons in one hand. You gain immunity to your heritage's damage type from the Giant Heritage table.
Changelog (PoG) 1/1/2017 Heritage Aspect (6) Changed Stone's trait from "You gain proficiency in one set of artisan's tools of your choice. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to roll a d12. Add your constitution modifier to the number rolled, and reduce the damage by that total. After you use this feature, you must complete a short or long rest before using it again. If you already have the Stone's Endurance racial trait, you instead gain one additional use of it before needing to complete a short or long rest to use them again. Your resistance to acid damage persists while you are not raging." to "You gain proficiency in one set of artisan's tools of your choice and one skill of your choice. Your resistance to acid damage persists while you are not raging." Changed Frost's trait from You gain proficiency in the Animal Handling or the Athletics skill. If you already had proficiency in that skill, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability checks you make using your selected skill. Your resistance to cold damage persists while you are not raging. to You gain proficiency in the Animal Handling or the Athletics skill. If you already had proficiency in that skill, your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability checks you make using your selected skill. Your resistance to cold damage persists while you are not raging, and you gain resistance to fire damage while raging. Changed Fire's trait from You gain proficiency in smith's tools or jeweler's tools, and may add double your proficiency bonus to checks made using your chosen tool. Your resistance to fire damage persists while you are not raging, and you gain resistance to cold damage while raging. to You gain proficiency in smith's tools or jeweler's tools and either the Athletics skill or Intimidation skill. If you are proficient with both Athletics and Intimidation, you may instead gain a skill of your choice. Your resistance to fire damage persists while you are not raging, and you gain resistance to cold damage while raging. Overall I need to make some more changes, but I think I like the place Heritage Aspect ended here for first rounds of testing. Hill might not be right, but I do like the idea of the dumbest not getting skills but instead more bulbous and resistant to poison. I'd like to keep the -5 on attack rolls because the penalty sticks with Reckless attack, while Disadvantage can easily be turned into advantage with Reckless+Conditionals. The damage bump is not much, but the ability to have an off hand makes them miss more but have higher AC. Current line of thought. If you could help me brainstorm good spells for Hill/Stone/Frost that are 3-5th level and think about what spell levels Rune Magic should have access to at 10th+. Thoughts on all of the restrictions?By -
JUBA, South Sudan (Morning Star News) – A church elder on Monday (April 3) died from injuries sustained in a raid on an embattled Christian school by supporters of a Muslim business interest in Omdurman, Sudan, sources said.
Younan Abdullah, an elder with Bahri Evangelical Church, died in a hospital after being stabbed while he and others were defending women at the Evangelical School of Sudan, Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) sources told Morning Star News.
Christians had staged a protest against the attempted seizure of the school by a Muslim businessman, they said. Police from the Omdurman Central Division along with a group supported by Sudan’s Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowment arrived at the school first and arrested all the men in an attempt to hand it over to the businessman, they said.
Advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC) confirmed that after the arrests, about 20 men, including members of a committee the government has illegally imposed on the SPEC, arrived at the school with knives and other weapons and began to beat the women.
“Several men from the nearby Bahri Evangelical Church rushed to the church to try and protect the women,” MEC leaders said in a statement. “The armed men attacked them, and two church members were stabbed.”
Elder Abdullah later died of his injuries, and a second church member, Ayoub Kumama, was treated at a nearby hospital and has been released, according to MEC.
Abdullah is survived by his wife and two young children.
Since 2013, the illegally imposed committee has been selling church properties to businessmen aligned with the government, the advocacy group stated.
Police were present during the attack on the school but failed to intervene, according to MEC.
“They also failed to help Younan after he was stabbed,” MEC leaders said in the statement. “Following Younan’s death, the police arrested Mr. Shamshoun Hamoud, a member of the illegal committee who was identified by eyewitnesses as the person who stabbed Younan. None of the other attackers have been arrested.”
Christians held a funeral service for Abdullah yesterday (April 4) at the school, which had declared three days of mourning. The U.S. Ambassador to Sudan and the Second Secretary of the British Embassy were present, according to MEC.
Police in Omdurman, across from Khartoum on the Nile River, on March 27 had arrested 12 staff members of the Christian school and the next day prevented others from leaving the campus, they said.
They were taken to Omdurman’s central division police station and released at about 8 p.m., accused of obstructing the work of Education Vision, which is trying to take over the school. The institution is still functioning as a Christian school, but representatives of Education Vision are regularly disrupting classes, school personnel said.
On March 16 about 20 policemen aboard a truck forcefully entered the school compound, arrested three Christian teachers including the headmaster, Daud Musa, and took them to Omdurman’s central division police station, sources said. Also arrested were Christian teachers Yahya Elias and elder Abdullah, all of the SPEC.
They were released on bail after eight hours, charged with obstructing the work of those attempting to take over the school.
The arrests came nearly a month after authorities arrested and held overnight four educators from the same school, including Musa, before releasing them on bail. They were accused of destroying a sign belonging to Education Vision. The Christians strongly denied the accusation.
The Evangelical School of Sudan is one of several SPEC schools throughout Sudan.
The leadership of the SPEC remains in the hands of government-appointed committee members even after a court ruled in November 2016 that the appointments were illegal, sources said. That case is separate from an Aug. 31, 2015 ruling by the Administrative Court of Appeal saying the Ministry of Guidance and Religious Endowments interfered with SPEC’s Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church by imposing committees on the church in order to enable Muslim investors to take it over.
Harassment, arrests and persecution of Christians have intensified since the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, when President Omar al-Bashir vowed to adopt a stricter version of sharia (Islamic law) and recognize only Islamic culture and the Arabic language. The Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Endowments announced in April 2013 that no new licenses would be granted for building new churches in Sudan, citing a decrease in the South Sudanese population.
Due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations, Sudan has been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended the country remain on the list in its 2016 report.
Sudan ranked fifth on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2017 World Watch List of countries where Christians face most persecution.
If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit https://morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.
If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at https://morningstarnews.org/donate/?
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© 2017 Morning Star News. Articles/photos may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News.
Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that relies solely on contributions to offer original news reports of persecuted Christians. By providing reliable news on the suffering church, Morning Star News’ mission is to empower those in the free world to help and to encourage persecuted Christians that they are not forgotten or alone. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 34281 Doheny Park Rd., # 7022, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624, USA.The fruits of Los Angeles residents’ labor in 2020 will be at least $15 an hour. Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an ordinance in June that makes L.A. the biggest city in America to set that mark for an hourly minimum wage.
Even the Democrats in California’s legislature aren’t that generous. Sen. Mark Leno (D) has introduced a proposal to raise the state’s hourly minimum wage to $11 in 2016 and $13 in 2017. Two years later, beginning in 2019, California’s minimum wage would be tied to the rate of inflation.
But Leno’s proposal won’t stop L.A. or any other city in the state from raising the minimum wage as high as they would like, setting any hiring requirement they deem necessary, or even GOP forbid, a living wage.
Michigan Republicans have decided they are not going to let that kind of minimum wage madness go unchecked in the Wolverine State.
Labor union leaders and Democrats say the Michigan GOP couldn’t have done it without the help of a lobbying organization — funded in large part by the Koch brothers —that has created model legislation to stop any California-style minimum wage stampede in its tracks.
Michigan Democrats dubbed HB 4052 the “Death Star” bill when it was introduced because not only would it prevent a city council or township board from setting a local minimum wage, it would have allowed them to wipe out any protection against LGBT discrimination.
“It would obliterate local control in Michigan, just as the Death Star obliterated Alderaan in 'Star Wars: Episode IV,'" East Lansing Mayor Nathan Triplett told the Washington Post.
Once the GOP dropped its discrimination language, Gov. Rick Snyder (R) was only too happy to sign the Death Star bill into law.
"The bill continues ongoing work to bolster the state's job creation climate by ensuring that regulations regarding employment matters are uniform across the state. That's more effective than a patchwork of varying local ordinances employers must navigate," said Snyder spokesman Dave Murray.
Now and forever more, or until Democrats take control of the Michigan Legislature and governor’s office, and who knows when that |
return for the release of several al-Qaeda prisoners who were allowed to leave the country.
The text of the “designation” of Yasin al-Suri indicated that al-Suri was an al-Qaeda facilitator “living and operating in Iran under agreement between Al-Qaeda and the Iranian government.” Iranian authorities, it said, “maintain a relationship with [al-Suri] and have permitted him to operate within Iran’s borders since 2005.”
It did not mention the fact that al-Suri had served as the Iranian contact with al-Qaeda in order to negotiate the release of al-Qaeda detainees in return for the release of an Iranian diplomat kidnapped by Pakistani allies of al-Qaeda in Peshawar, Pakistan, in November 2008. One of the documents found in Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound after US Special Forces killed him in a May 2011 raid, confirmed that the “kidnapping” of the commercial counselor in the Iranian Consulate in Peshawar had forced Iran to negotiate the release of al-Qaeda prisoners.
When Truthout sought clarification of the “secret agreement” claim, a spokesman for the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence declined to answer any questions on the subject or to allow an interview with Eytan Fisch, the assistant director of the Terrorism and Financial Intelligence office. Fisch had cited the alleged “secret agreement” while briefing the press in February 2012.
Paul Pillar, former national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia regions, called the allegation of such a “secret deal” a “highly misleading characterization of interaction between Iran and al-Qaeda.” A second former intelligence official, who asked not to be identified, told Truthout the “secret deal” claim “doesn’t pass the BS test.”
In December 2012, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), an organization devoted to supporting the interests of Israel and funded by wealthy Zionist donors, presented its first George P. Shultz Award “for distinguished service” to the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (OTFI) at the US Treasury Department. (Shultz was known as the most pro-Israel secretary of state in US history.) In accepting the award for the OTFI, Under Secretary Cohen, paid tribute to FDD’s work, which he said had been useful to the OTFI.
The first deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis in 2005 was Matthew Levitt. He had come from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), where he had founded and directed that organization’s terrorism research program. WINEP had been established by key figures associated with AIPAC to publish longer studies aimed at convincing Americans that US and Israeli interests are indistinguishable.
Before moving to the OTFI, Levitt completed a book on Hamas that relied on purported Hamas documents given to him by the Israel Defense Forces in English translation. Levitt, who speaks no Arabic, was unable to check on the authenticity of the documents or the accuracy of the translations. Reviewing the book, New York Times correspondent Steven Erlanger observed that Levitt had relied “so heavily and uncritically on Israeli sources” that his readers “might easily see it as ‘fronting’ for the Mossad.”
But such uncritical reliance on information supplied by the Israelis was evidently considered a plus by the leadership of the Treasury Department’s OTFI.Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin on Monday
On Monday, Sarah Palin's lawyers announced the Alaska governor's intention to cooperate with the Troopergate investigation.
Sort of.
Palin won't actually cooperate with the original investigation the one approved unanimously by a majority Republican committee in the state legislature this summer, which Palin welcomed in a spirit of transparency and accountability before she became the Republican Party's vice-presidential nominee. The Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee had started the inquiry when former public safety commissioner Walt Monegan alleged that he might have been dismissed for not firing the allegedly loutish state trooper Mike Wooten, who was in a bitter custody battle with Palin's sister Molly McCann and was accused of threatening members of the governor's family. The investigation has since been painted by John McCain and Palin backers as a purely partisan exercise, particularly because the committee chair, state senator Hollis French, is an Anchorage Democrat who made several seemingly prejudicial statements to the media early on, including that the probe could yield an "October surprise" right before the election. Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapleton says French has already made up his mind about the governor's guilt and at this point is "just leading people into an ambush."
Instead, Palin plans to cooperate with an investigator from the state personnel board. That investigator is a Democrat, but the board's three members are political appointees who ultimately answer to the governor herself. (One was appointed by Palin, the other two by her predecessor.) They got involved only after Palin took the unusual step of filing an ethics complaint against herself in early September to spark an investigation that her lawyers hoped would overshadow and effectively kill the legislature's inquiry.
But the Alaska senate inquiry is moving ahead. Last week, after many of Palin's aides and associates, as well as her husband, reversed their positions and refused to testify in front of the legislative committee, French said the senate investigator would issue findings on the matter in early October with or without their testimony. As if to parry that move, Palin's lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, met with the personnel board's investigator on Monday and promised that he would furnish a list of who would be interviewed on Tuesday. The McCain campaign told the Associated Press that after Tuesday, the entire personnel board process would be confidential and that the campaign would have no further comment. The Alaska personnel board is "the only legal forum in the state for the Monegan inquiry," Palin's spokeswoman explained.
For many Alaskans, all this maneuvering is a bit too clever. Palin's jockeying doesn't just clash with her previous image as a good-government reformer. It strikes some here almost as a matter of state sovereignty. There was grumbling when the McCain campaign brought in a high-powered cheechako (that's an outsider), former federal terrorism prosecutor Ed O'Callaghan, to dictate the governor's strategy and deal with the media. Spokeswoman Stapleton says O'Callaghan is in Alaska because she and Van Flein need the extra help, and that the media have made this a national issue, so bringing in advisers from outside of Alaska is only appropriate. But the campaign's public bashing of Monegan, a widely respected, longtime public official in the state, didn't help its case. Now that O'Callaghan's hardball tactics are becoming clearer, the complaints have grown louder, from all sides of the political spectrum.
(See photos of Sarah Palin on the campaign trail here.)
(See photos of Sarah Palin's rise here.)ISIS fighters became a major force last year in Derna, a jihadi bastion in Libya's east, and quickly spread to the biggest eastern city Benghazi, where they have conducted suicide bombings on streets divided among armed factions.
It took Sirte from the government based in Tripoli, which draws its support mainly from fighters from the western city of Misrata, who emerged as some of the most powerful in the country after Gadhafi's fall.
ISIS gunmen arrived in the area in pickup trucks in February when the Misrata forces were busy 150 kilometers to the east trying to wrestle away Libya's biggest oil port, Es Sidra, from forces backing the other government, now based in the east.
When the Misratis returned in force to Sirte in March after failing to seize Es Sidra, ISIS had already set up checkpoints.
The Misrata forces have surrounded Sirte and are diverting traffic on the coastal road to the desert hinterland.
The group has managed to stage suicide bombings on Misrata forces near the power plant and at highway checkpoints, including one on the outskirts of Misrata which frightened residents.
...There are many horror films in the genre’s long history that are now lauded as classics. But they weren’t always. Some movies that are beloved now were critical disasters when they were first released. There’s a lot that can change over time. It’s much easier to go back and look at a movie after the fact, without all the press and the hype and examine it on its own. Or, as is most often the case, once people start liking something others just jump on the bandwagon and claim they always adored it as well. Whatever the case, human beings are fickle and opinions change over time. This is very fortunate, or else the following movies may never have found their audience or gotten their well-deserved acclaim.
Friday the 13th
It didn’t invent the slasher genre but Friday the 13th definitely set the standard and enforced a template that would prove successful in countless films to follow. The movie was an enormous success at the box office and it is now often regarded as a classic of the genre. Audiences loved it and continually flocked to see it in the summer of 1980 but it was a disaster with critics. Its most famous reception came from beloved critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who campaigned against the film and campaigned even harder against its subsequent sequels. Siskel called director Sean Cunningham “one of the most despicable creatures to ever infest the movie business.” He even went as far as to publish addresses for Paramount owner Charles Bludhorn and actress Betsy Palmer, encouraging people across the world to write in their hate mail and express their contempt for the people involved. This is pretty ironic when you consider it. The movie was harmless, but actions like this really aren’t. The feature received a Razzie nomination for Worst Picture and Betsey Palmer for Worst Actress.
Hellraiser struck a nerve with the hardcore horror crowd almost immediately but by and large it was dismissed by critics, despite its financial success. Roger Ebert was the most outspoken against the movie, calling it “without wit, style or reason” and said that it had a “bankruptcy of imagination.” Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader stated that it was “minor, grisly fun, but don’t expect the movie to linger when it’s over.” Of course, years later, the sheer imaginative force of Hellraiser would be one of the most highly praised aspects of the film. After almost three decades, it is still holding at only a 63% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Its sequel, Hellbound, which is also highly praised by horror fans and genre enthusiasts is still rated as rotten.
Alien
Now hailed as one of the best science fiction movies of all time and regarded as being among the best horror movies ever madee, Alien opened in 1979 to some incredibly negative reviews. Siskel and Ebert both hated the movie, claiming that it was “basically a haunted house thriller set on a spaceship” which they would restate years later when talking up the film’s intelligence. They also both called it a “real disappointment.” Variety, Sight and Sound, and renowned critic Leonard Maltin were also immediately dismissive of the film. But as word of mouth spread, the film began to gain traction and garnered more and more positive reviews as time went on. The movie would even eventually even be included on Roger Ebert’s list, Great Movies.
Halloween
Perhaps the most iconic slasher film and also one of the best horror movies of all time, Halloween opened to an utter lack of success. John Carpenter even had to dismiss the movie as a total failure and was already working on his next project before he learned of Halloween’s success. That’s because it had virtually no audience for its first few weeks. Initial reviews were entirely negative. Writing for The New Yorker, Pauline Kael disregarded the film as unoriginal and totally derivative of other filmmakers work, also claiming “it satisfies part of the audience in a more basic, childish way than sophisticated horror pictures do” as her highest point of praise. Other reviews followed, claiming the movie didn’t work. It was one review that changed everything for Halloween. The Village Voice writer Tom Allen stated that Halloween was “a movie of almost unrelieved chills” and claimed that it stood up next to Night of the Living Dead and Psycho. This glowing review was naturally slapped on the movie’s poster and from there, Halloween’s luck began to change.
The Shining
Stephen King is not shy about his distaste for Stanley Kubrick’s film version of The Shining. In fact, people love to frequently discuss how crazy the author is for not seeing Kubrick’s version as a masterpiece every time he brings it up. But those people need to understand that when The Shining was first released, almost everyone sided with King. His novel had been a big success and the movie took many liberties with the source material, abandoning its character-driven themes to focus on broader topics. Variety stated that “Kubrick has teamed with jumpy Jack Nicholson to destroy all that was so terrifying about Stephen King’s bestseller.” The movie was one of the few Kubrick films to receive no Oscar nominations and instead received Razzie nominations for Worst Picture and Worst Actress. It was a financial success almost right off the bat but actually took quite a while to gain the incredible amount of critical acclaim it now holds. The movie is often cited as one of the best (if not the best horror) movies ever made.Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is offering to co-operate with the NDP and the Liberals when it comes to running candidates in the next federal election.
The Green Party of Canada concluded its national convention in Fredericton over the weekend and one of the party's policies is electoral reform.
May said she's hearing from Canadians who want to defeat Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
She says some of these Canadians are telling her that they want to back the candidate who has the best chance of beating the Conservative candidate — whether that means voting Green, Liberal or NDP.
May said it would be better if parties with similar interests could work out a deal before voters go to the polls.
“We'd be prepared to talk to anyone about any form of electoral co-operation that would give Canadians a Parliament that would reflect the way they really voted,” she said.
The electoral co-operation could mean parties would agree not to compete against each other in certain ridings.
May says her offer to NDP Leader Tom Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau is only good for the next federal election. So far, May said neither the Liberals nor the NDP have responded to her offer for future electoral co-operation.
For the co-operation to move forward, May said the parties would also have to support electoral reform.
The Greens want to Canada to replace the current first-past-the-post electoral system with a form of proportional representation.
May said the existing electoral system allowed the Conservatives to form a majority government in 2011 with less than 40 per cent of the vote.
Past electoral co-operation
Electoral co-operation is not a new subject for May.
In the 2008 federal election, the Green Party leader ran in the Nova Scotia riding of Central Nova against long-time Conservative MP Peter MacKay. Even though the Liberals decided not to run a candidate against May in the riding, she still lost the election.
May was elected in the riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands in the 2011 federal election, defeating Conservative MP Gary Lunn. The Liberals did run a candidate in that race, but the candidate finished in last place.
Trevor Parsons was one of several callers to CBC’s Maritime Connection on Sunday, who said he plans to vote strategically in 2015.
"People have to decide, I'm going to vote for the person most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate and that's the only way we're going to save this democracy,” Parson said.
While some voters may be ready to vote strategically, one New Brunswick political observer said it is doubtful the larger parties would agree to any form of electoral co-operation.
J.P. Lewis, a political scientist at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, said it’s not in the best interests of larger political parties to agree to any form of co-operation.
“I think it's a very difficult thing to do. And this is a cynical view, but why would you change the rules of the game that you keep winning,” he said.Penn State today got a surprise commitment from three-star athlete Torrence Brown, a former Southern Miss commit who flipped to the Nittany Lions. Coach James Franklin fielded a call from Brown this morning, according to multiple media reports, and figures to have locked up his 20th and final commitment in the 2014 recruiting class.
While still not official, former Penn State commit Lloyd Tubman is expected to announce a commitment to Kentucky at 10:30 a.m. He de-committed from Penn State, which opened the scholarship that was offered to Brown yesterday morning.
Brown is a 6-4, 228-pound versatile athlete who played running back, linebacker, defensive end, tight end and wide receiver in high school, according to AL.com. He’s expected to play on the defensive side of the ball at the next level and has been listed by Penn State as a defensive lineman.
"He's a big, rangy kid with good size," Tuscaloosa Academy coach Robert Johnson told AL.com. "He has the frame to comfortably carry 250 pounds. He runs very well, jumps well and has real good instincts. Defensively, he reads plays really quickly. He'll fit in a hybrid scheme as an outside linebacker who can put his hands on the ground and rush the passer."
Penn State has received 15 letters of intent this morning and has just five more to go. The lone surprise surrounded the offer to Brown, with the five remaining players — Marcus Allen, Mark Allen, Christian Campbell, Koa Farmer, Johnathan Thomas — all expected to make their commitments official.
The Nittany Lions have the No. 22 recruiting class in the country, according to Rivals, Scout and 247sports.com. The class features 25 total commitments, including five players who enrolled in classes last month.
<br>Bekele Outruns Kipsang to Win Berlin Marathon in 2:03:03 Staff / September 25, 2016
Ethipoian Kenenisa Bekele (right) outran Kenyan Wilson Kipsang in the Berlin Marathon on Sept. 25, in one of the fastest times in history. Photo: PhotoRun.net
Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele won a grueling battle with Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang en route to winning the BMW Berlin Marathon on Sunday in 2:03:03, the second fastest time in history on a record-eligible course.
Bekele took command of the race entering the final kilometer, surging away from former world-record holder Kipsang to take his first victory in Berlin, averaging 4:41.48 per mile and smashing Haile Gebrselassie’s Ethiopian record of 2:03:59 in the process. The world record of 2:02:57 was set by Kenyan Dennis Kimetto a year ago in Berlin.
The women’s race saw Ethiopia’s Aberu Kebede take victory in commanding fashion, running 2:20:45 to come home more than three minutes clear of compatriot Birhane Dibaba.
American Mike Wardian, who is on a quest to run all five Marathon Majors (Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York) in 2016 faster than anyone in history, finished in 2:28:19 to stay on pace with only the Oct. 9 Chicago Marathon and Nov. 6 New York City Marathon remaining.
RELATED: Mike Wardian’s Crazy Globetrotting Adventure Continues
In mild, calm conditions in the German capital, the pace was blistering from the outset, with a group of eight going through halfway in 1:01:11. At the 30K mark, reached in 1:26:26, Kipsang was the one pushing things along at the front, joined by compatriot Alfers Lagat. However, Bekele always remained in touch, and despite dropping back on several occasions, he trailed Kipsang by just five seconds as they reached 35K, more than enough contact for a man with a track pedigree like Bekele, who still holds the world records in the 5,000m (12:37.35) and 10,000m (26:17.35).
Bekele slowly reeled in his target over the kilometres that followed, clocking off consistent splits and running alongside Kipsang at the 40K mark before making his decisive move. Bekele changed gears impressively with just over a kilometer to run, a move Kipsang simply couldn’t match.
With nothing but the clock left to race, the 34-year-old Ethiopian powered up the home straight in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate, but fell just short in his bid to break Dennis Kimetto’s world record of 2:02:57, set in Berlin in 2014.
“I wanted to run my personal best here,” Bekele said. “The time was fantastic but I was disappointed I missed the world record.”
Kipsang came home second in 2:03:13, and had every reason to beam with pride after taking 10 seconds off his personal best.
“It was a very nice race and my feeling was good,” he said. “I was hoping we could run a world record but to run a personal best is good. We ran a good race together. Even though [Bekele] just missed it, he will run it another day.”
Kebede, Dibaba and fellow Ethiopian Ruti Aga ran together through 15km in 49:40, but Kebede began to press on alone before halfway, which she reached in 1:09:27. From there, she extended her advantage all the way to the finish, coming up just 15 seconds shy of her personal best of 2:20:30.
With her third Berlin win after 2010 and 2012 Kebede joins Berlin’s record winners Uta Pippig (Germany) and Renata Kokowska (Poland). Birhane Dibaba (2:23:58) and Ruti Aga (2:24:41) made it an all Ethiopian podium in Berlin in ideal weather conditions.
41,283 runners from 122 countries entered the 43rd edition of the race, which is part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors.The Greenpeace "Arctic 30" could be home by Christmas, and the two jailed members of the punk group Pussy Riot should be released from jail in the coming days, after a wide-ranging amnesty law was passed by the Russian parliamenton Wednesday.
The Pussy Riot pair are serving a two-year sentence for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, while the Greenpeace activists are charged with hooliganism and are currently on bail awaiting trial in St Petersburg.
The amnesty, backed by Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, is timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Russia's constitution. It mainly concerns first-time offenders, minors and women with small children.
An amendment on Wednesday extended the amnesty to suspects in cases of hooliganism, which includes the Arctic 30, who were arrested aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise in September.
They were bailed by courts in St Petersburg last month but still faced trial and potential jail sentences of up to seven years.
Iain Rogers, one of the Greenpeace activists, in a cage at a bail hearing in Murmansk in October. Photograph: Igor Podgorny/Greenpeace/SWNS.com
The Greenpeace activists expressed relief, though Arctic Sunrise captain Peter Willcox said: "There is no amnesty for the Arctic."
He added: "I might soon be going home to my family, but I should never have been charged and jailed in the first place."
Kieron Bryan, a freelance journalist and one of six Britons among the 30 Greenpeace detainees, said that with all the uncertainty about whether or not they would be included in the amnesty, the past week had been hard to cope with: "We've all been feeling the emotional strain this week," he said from St Petersburg.
"We'd heard rumours about the possibility of this at every stage of the process, but there have been so many rumours and false hopes that I never really believed it. For every positive thing that's happened there has been a setback, and a feeling that we might be here for a very long time and go to jail."
Greenpeace communications officer Alexandra Harris said: "We are relieved we are coming home but we don't know when. It is quite a strange feeling.
"Our amnesty will be signed off tomorrow and then the investigators [in the case] will have to approve it and then we have to wait for visas. It could take weeks or we could be home for the weekend. That would be amazing if we could be home for Christmas."
Harris, who works for Greenpeace in Australia, said she was looking forward to spending time with her family in Devon and a long walk on Dartmoor.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky reads documents behind a glass wall during a court session in Moscow in June 2010. Photograph: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
She added: "It's strange that we are being forgiven for a crime we didn't commit, and I keep thinking about my Russian friends. I always imagined we'd all be together in this moment and let go under the same circumstances. We've been a group this whole time and I thought we would be sharing this moment – but the amnesty doesn't mean the same for all of us."
The Duma, Russia's parliament, voted 446-0 in favour of the bill in its third and final reading on Wednesday. Once it is printed in the state newspaper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, probably on Thursday, it will then become law.
The amnesty does not contain names so there is still uncertainly about how exactly it will be applied, but it appears that the decision has been taken on high to improve Russia's image ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which begin in less than two months.
Theoretically, once the law is published, the next step for the Greenpeace activists will be to apply to Russian investigators to end the case against them, and then they will need to apply for exit visas. As they were brought to Russia forcefully, they do not have proper entrance visas. It is a bureaucratic hurdle that could take some weeks to sort out, but it is also possible that now a decision has been taken, efforts will be made to arrange the paperwork quickly.
Bryan said it was unclear whether or not their visas could be ready in the next week: "It could be in time for Christmas, but whatever happens it's a massive weight off my shoulders, and for my parents to know that their son is coming home. That's the main thing, even if I end up missing Christmas."
Sue Turner, the mother of Iain Rogers, one of the six British nationals among the Arctic 30, said: "Until I have heard it officially, I can't quite believe it.
"I am waiting to know whether they have to wait for exit visas or if they are put on a plane straight away. I am so excited, I just can't take it in. It is a great Christmas present for me and the family and all Iain's friends."
The other high-profile beneficiaries of the amnesty are Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina of the punk group Pussy Riot, who are serving two-year sentences for staging an impromptu punk performance in Moscow's main cathedral early last year.
Petya Verzilov, Tolokonnikova's husband, said he believed an order had been given to speed up the process. Although technically releases could take up to six months to be processed from the day the law is published, officials at both prisons have indicated they are ready to release the Pussy Riot duo as soon as soon as the law is passed, he said.
Alyokhina is serving her time in a prison in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, while Tolokonnikova was recently moved from Mordovia, a region known for its Soviet-era gulags, to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
She has said that the conditions are incomparably better than in Mordovia, from where she published a long open letter detailing slave-like conditions of forced labour and cruel punishments.
Verzilov indicated he expected them to be released as soon as Thursday, and was planning to fly to Krasnoyarsk late night.
"They are slightly sceptical of course," Verzilov told the Guardian. "When you're living in these conditions it's hard to think about the Duma passing some bill, and it seems like it could never happen, so it's a big surprise for them that it does actually seem to be happening."
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina, who were both sentenced to two years in jail last summer, were due to be released in early March, as their sentence included time served since their arrest. A third member of the group, Ekaterina Samutsevich, was freed on appeal shortly after the trial concluded.
Verzilov said that on their release, the pair plan to launch a major new project related to the Russian prison system, though he declined to give details.
While Greenpeace and Pussy Riot are celebrating, there are notable exceptions to the amnesty. It does not cover Russia's former richest man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has been found guilty of economic crimes at two separate trials, and neither does it include many of the people on trial for disturbances at a rally the day before Putin was inaugurated last year.
Some of those accused will receive an amnesty, but more than half of the 26 involved will not, including Mikhail Kosenko, who was sentenced to indefinite psychiatric treatment in October, despite the court hearing he was not involved in the violence and his lawyers saying he was of sound mind.
"Theoretically I can apply tomorrow to be released from court proceedings and go abroad for New Year," said Maria Baronova, one of those on trial who does fall under the amnesty. "But this is Russia after all. Maybe the prosecutors will think something up overnight and it won't happen."The true desktop-grade power of the 64-bit A7 chip that’s currently found in several 2013 Apple devices including the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and Retina iPad mini will actually be unleashed once iOS 8 rolls out and developers start making use of the new Metal API for iOS in brand new, console-grade games, according to AppleInsider.
While it didn’t sound like a new Apple product iPhone and iPad users should be aware of, the Metal announcement at WWDC 2014 is as much about end-users as it is about developers. Metal will provide app developers, and specifically game makers, better access to the A7’s resources, with particular emphasis on the GPU.
With Metal, existing A7 and future A8 devices will deliver better graphics performance than what’s currently possible using OpenGL technology, and developers would be able to target millions of iOS devices users that own 2013 and newer devices with games based on Metal that promise even more advanced features, close to what avid gamers expect from consoles and gaming PCs.
By creating an advanced mobile chip, developing a new framework for developers and building an audience consisting of millions of last-gen iOS device buyers, Apple would be able to offer its customers the kind of mobile apps that users who choose competing mobile operating systems won’t have access to.
The arrival of Metal proves that Apple’s mobile processor-related plans are hard to guess, and have been successfully kept secret since the A7 was introduced last year. Regarded initially as a marketing trick – meanwhile Apple’s main competitors have already announced or are working on 64-bit chips of their own – that’s not needed for the current mobile landscape, the 64-bit A7 chip appears to be a key building block for Apple’s iPhone and iPad of the future, opening other important doors to Apple, especially with Metal’s help.
Future Apple chip designs could further improve performance and efficiency, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see future Apple products, including an Apple TV box, or an actual iTV pack future-generation A* chips capable of offering end-users impressive visuals and an immersive gaming experience akin to what’s currently possible on game consoles.
For a more detailed look at what Metal means for Apple’s past and future devices, check the links in the source section, as well as the following video that shows Apple’s quick description of Metal from WWDC 2014, complete with game demos from developers who had access to the Metal framework.Batch 224 voting is now open. The following polls are currently open:
Batch 224
Batch 223
Batch 222
Batch 221
Batch 220
Batch 219
Batch 218
Batch 217 results will be up soon.
The full list of matchups for today is:
Slayer’s Plate vs Prismatic Lace
Evil Eye of Urborg vs Asmira, Holy Avenger
Archfiend of Depravity vs Snakeform
Footbottom Feast vs Anurid Swarmsnapper
Gather Specimens vs Pyxis of Pandemonium
Kessig Wolf vs Hail Storm
Bold Impaler vs Surging Might
Freyalise’s Radiance vs Watchwolf
Chain Stasis vs Shieldhide Dragon
Drake Hatchling vs Skittish Valesk
Illusion // Reality vs Matter Reshaper
Leonin Elder vs Nettle Drone
Geist-Fueled Scarecrow vs Zuran Orb
Bloodthrone Vampire vs Elvish Skysweeper
Dread Wight vs Swords to Plowshares
Child of Alara vs Pestilence
Celestial Dawn vs Shinen of Flight’s Wings
Merrow Levitator vs Stalking Assassin
Chisei, Heart of Oceans vs Ghoulraiser
Dazzling Reflection vs Abduction
Lotus Vale vs Beetleback Chief
Makeshift Mauler vs Standard Bearer
Collective Defiance vs Sword of Body and Mind
Risen Executioner vs Enchantress’s Presence
Pulse Tracker vs King Cheetah
Ezuri’s Predation vs Arena Athlete
Power Taint vs Holdout Settlement
Gleancrawler vs Rathi Assassin
Aboroth vs Profane Prayers
Kathari Remnant vs Angelic Purge
Samite Archer vs Elvish Berserker
Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs vs Woodland SleuthTurkey's president, Abdullah Gul, is expected to sign into law in the next week a bill banning alcohol advertising, and marketers are already racing to get out their poignant farewell messages to consumers.
Raki ad
In May, Turkey's legislative body passed a draconian bill that outlaws all forms of alcohol advertising and promotion, prohibits TV shows, movies and music videos that air on TV from including scenes that stimulate use of alcohol, and ends the sale of alcoholic beverages in stores between 10 pm and 6 am. Stores will also lose income from the point-of-sale signage they can no longer display. It will also be illegal to sell alcohol near schools and mosques, limiting distribution points.
Until now, alcohol advertising has been allowed in Turkey in print, outdoor, cinema and digital media. The new rules are being imposed with little consultation with marketers.
"For almost a year, we've been trying to reach the Turkish government to re-evaluate the proposals for the new regulations on the promotion and sales of alcoholic beverages," said Diageo in a statement. "When we acquired Mey Icki in 2011, we did not only invest in a strong brand, but also in a country which claims that it encourages foreign investments...The fast confirmation of these regulations turning into law, has been a surprise and disappointment for us. But we always respect the laws of each country we operate in."
Diageo owns Mey Icki, the fourth most-advertised alcohol brand by number of ads, according to Nielsen, and Yeni Raki, a version of Turkey's popular local pastis-like drink raki. Diageo's Yeni Raki, Turkey's leading beer brand Efes and wine producers have all run full-page farewell ads in Turkish newspapers.
For local brand Efes, known for its familiar thick, squat bottle, TBWA Istanbul designed a big image of the naked brown bottle without its label. In the Yeni Raki ad by BrandTheBliss, a hand shakes a glass holding the clear liquid drink above the words "Ads are over. Excuse us."
In the wine category, the Wine Producers Association ran an ad with text arranged in the shape of a wine bottle under the headline "Now we commend the 7,000 year old Anatolian wine to your care." Well-known wine brand Doluca said goodbye with the upbeat message "Even if we won't speak to you here [any more], we still see the glass half full, because we know that we are still going to be together in your precious moments. So long!"
wine ad
Turkey isn't exactly a country of heavy drinkers. In fact, 82.4% of the Turkish population above the age of 18 never drinks alcoholic beverages, according to a 2011 study of Turkish consumers by TNS. The Turkish government insists that the new rules are not the beginning of a religious ban on drinking in the increasingly conservative country.
Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told reporters on Friday "The new law including alcohol regulation is not a lifestyle intervention. Because this regulation does not ban alcohol."
Stephan Loerke, managing director of the World Federation of Advertisers, said the World Health Organization has cast alcohol issues as a public health concern around the world. In Turkey's case, he said, "the motivation is probably as much ideological as public health."
"The industry would welcome the opportunity to engage with the government and collaborate in an effort to help address public health challenges," Mr. Loerke said. "The [Turkish] initiative was announced without any consultation. They were caught by surprise. We're trying to establish contacts with the government."
"I wouldn't say there will be a domino effect, but it's clearly an unhelpful precedent," he said.In 2005, the owner of indie label Narnack Records sent me a record he thought I'd like. The album was titled Peanut Butter and Jelly Live at The Ginger Minge. The band, from San Francisco, was called Coachwhips. The music sounded like it was incinerating as it was being played. I was instantly a fan. This was my introduction to bandleader John Dwyer, 42, a punk veteran hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, who, for the last two decades, and with at least five different bands, has written and released an intimidating amount of music. If I may offer my opinion, it's all good.
In this line of work, there is no pension, no safety net. Sustaining a career for any length of time is hard enough. With his creativity, work ethic, and business chops, John has done just that. He fully embodies the DIY ethos of American independent music.
Today, John has two main acts. The first is Oh Sees (this year, they dropped the "Thee" from |
in fact refuse treatment,” police Sgt. Lynne Benton said Wednesday. “Unless we can disprove that, charges probably won’t be filed in this case.”
An autopsy Wednesday showed that Beagley died of heart failure caused by a urinary tract blockage.
He probably had a congenital condition that constricted his urinary tract where the bladder empties into the urethra, and the condition of his organs indicates that he had multiple blockages during his life, said Dr. Clifford Nelson, deputy state medical examiner for Clackamas County.
“You just build up so much urea in your bloodstream that it begins to poison your organs, and the heart is particularly susceptible,” Nelson said.
Nelson said a catheter would have saved the boy’s life. If the condition had been dealt with earlier, a urologist could easily have removed the blockage and avoided the kidney damage that came with the repeated illnesses, Nelson said.
Benton said a board member of the Followers of Christ church contacted the authorities after Beagley died at his family’s home. The teen had been sick about a week, and church members and his family had gathered to pray Sunday when his condition worsened, Benton said.Of just 18 Aam Aadmi Party affidavits that have been uploaded on the Delhi Election Commission site so far, nine candidates have declared assets worth over a crore. These figures include the value of moveable assets such as jewellery, cash and motor vehicles as well as immoveable assets such as land.
Of the nine crorepati candidates, former mediaperson Shazia Ilmi has declared the highest figure, with assets belonging to her and her husband Sajir Siraj Malik totalling upwards of Rs 30 crore. Ilmi, who worked as a television news anchor, is the candidate from the RK Puram constituency. The seat is currently held by Barkha Singh of the Congress.
Deshraj Raghav, whose candidature has been mired in controversy, has also declared assets over Rs 12 crore. Raghav's announcement as AAP candidate from the Uttam Nagar seat was met with protests from local volunteers of the party.
The others that make the crorepati list include Baljit Singh Mann (agriculture) from the Narela seat with assets of Rs 8.67 crore, Girish Soni from Madipur (leather business) at Rs 1.25 crore, Prit Pal Singh (self-employed) of Rajouri Garden at Rs 1.7 crore, Jarnail Singh (business) from Tilak Nagar at Rs 1.7 crore, Mahinder Yadav (self-employed) of Vikaspuri at Rs 1.57 crore, Narender Singh Sejwal (business) of Mehrauli at Rs 3.07 crore and Dharambir Singh (advocate) from Kalkaji seat at Rs 1.04 crore.
Please read our terms of use before posting commentsOne of the FBI documents released in the National Archives blog.
In 1945, after the fall of Berlin, rumors swirled about what had happened to Adolf Hitler, and at least two reports were fielded by the the FBI that he had gone to Argentina.
The National Archives, as part of a series called “The Hunt for Hitler,” published two FBI reports today that discussed rumors that Hitler had gone to the South American country, rather than committing suicide in his bunker as Soviet forces approached.
The documents make for an eerie, fascinating read.
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One document, sent from Buenos Aires on July 14, 1945, said “a source of unknown reliability” had said that “Hitler was landed in Argentina approximately June 20, that his face was disfigured” and that an Argentine army major planned to escort him to a “secret hiding place in Chaco territory.”
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“All rumors being investigated,” the document said.
A second document said a Hollywood movie actor had spoken to a man at a club in Hollywood who said he had a “tremendous problem that was bothering him.”
The man said he “was one of four men who met Hitler and his party when they landed from submarines in Argentina two and a half weeks after the fall of Berlin,” the report, dated Aug. 14, 1945, from the FBI in Los Angeles.
The documents were contained in “Hunting Hitler Part VII: The search continues June-September 1945,” part of a blog series by Greg Bradsher, an archivist at the National Archives in College Park, Md., who studied for his doctorate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
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Historians say that on April 30, 1945, Hitler shot himself at the bunker. His wife, Eva Braun, took poison, and, in accordance with his instructions, their bodies were burned, according to britannica.com.
Below, read an FBI document on Hitler in Argentina.
Martin Finucane can be reached at martin.finucane@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrocheleThe better-than-expected iPhone X shipping estimates ahead of the holiday season are due to an improvement in the phone’s production instead of low demand.
According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, iPhone X production issues “have been well addressed” in recent weeks, with Foxconn’s production now at 450,000-550,000 units per day compared to just 50,000-150,000 a month or two ago as Apple geared up to launch the device. Kuo in a note to investors seen by AppleInsider says Apple and its suppliers have addressed major productions issues that plagued iPhone X output for months
Kuo estimates that Apple only had 2 to 3 million units on launch day, which explains why so few of those eager to buy it then managed to grab a unit. With production going much faster now though the company is not only able to catch up on those backorders, but also deliver new ones much faster.
Reports leading up to this month’s iPhone X debut claimed Apple and its supply partners struggled to boost device supply in the face of a variety of supply chain bottlenecks. Most focused on hardware associated with the phone’s TrueDepth camera, though Kuo in his own analysis blamed short supply on a dearth of advanced liquid crystal polymer LTE antennas.
Suppliers are also ramping up production, with Career’s LTE antenna seeing 100 percent month-on-month growth and the Dot projection module from Sharp and LG hitting 80-90 percent production yield. Kuo said last month that supply of key Face ID components was “stable” and today’s note seems to further echo that sentiment.
When the iPhone X launched, it had a shipping estimate of around 4-5 weeks but Apple has been able to bring it down to 1-2 weeks now.
Ultimately, Kuo says he is “positive on demand for iPhone X” and doesn’t agree with views that say demand for the device is weak.A new federal blueprint for closing tax loopholes unfairly benefiting the wealthy will target Canadians who use private corporations to “sprinkle” income among family members to lower their collective tax burden, according to a Department of Finance document obtained by the Toronto Star. Finance Minister Bill Morneau is scheduled to unveil a package of proposed reforms at a press conference Tuesday morning, part of an ambitious commitment to crack down on tax avoidance and evasion that emerged in the aftermath of the Panama Papers.
“There are signs that our system isn’t working as well as it should, specifically when it comes to private corporations,” writes Morneau in an opening letter contained in the 63-page report. “There are worrying trends. There is evidence that some may be using corporate structures to avoid paying their fair share, rather than to invest in their business and maintain their competitive advantage.” The government is launching a 75-day public consultation on the proposed measures that are designed to target tax advantages not available to most Canadians. “Over the last decade, the number of such private corporations has increased substantially and evidence indicates that a significant share of taxable income has been shifted from the personal to the corporate tax base,” reads the report.
Article Continued Below
Read more: Canada is the world’s newest tax haven CRA pursuing criminal charges against Panama Papers tax cheats Income sprinkling is a key method of shifting the tax burden from individuals to corporations, the report says. Wealthy Canadians can now legally reduce their tax obligations by routing their incomes through private corporations. They then pay salaries to family members, such as their children, who are subject to lower personal tax rates or none at all.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau cited "worrying trends" in a document outlining proposals to crack down on tax loopholes. "There is evidence that some may be using corporate structures to avoid paying their fair share," he wrote. ( Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
The government is working on new rules that would “help to determine whether compensation is reasonable, based on the family member’s contribution of value and financial resources to the private corporation,” reads the report. Morneau writes: “When the rules are used for personal benefit, they are not contributing to growing our economy. Rather, such practices can undermine confidence in our economy by giving tax advantages to a select few. We don’t think that’s fair.”
Article Continued Below
As an illustration, the government report presents the hypothetical comparison of two wealthy Canadians who both earn $220,000. One of them, an employee, pays $79,000 in annual taxes. The other, who owns a private corporation, pays $44,000. That $35,000 tax break takes advantage of an accounting trick. The private corporation owner pays lower small-business tax rates and “sprinkles” a portion of the profits to a spouse and two children through low-tax dividends. The report does not address the issue of a public registry of corporate ownership in Canada — a measure widely considered to be an important step in the fight against tax evasion and avoidance. A Toronto Star investigation in January detailed the culture of corporate secrecy in Canada that can make it impossible to know the identity of real business owners — or “beneficial” owners. Britain adopted a public registry of “beneficial” corporate owners last year. It has been hailed by law enforcement and transparency advocates internationally as a breakthrough in removing the corporate veils that facilitate secret money flows. While absent in the report, a public corporate registry remains on the table, said Dan Lauzon, a spokesperson for Morneau. “It is definitely not on the back burner,” he said. “It just is not a part of this paper.” In a May speech in Toronto, Morneau talked about the lack of Canadian corporate ownership transparency as a “blind spot.” “We know we need to improve the availability of beneficial ownership information here at home to ensure law enforcement and tax authorities have timely access to this information to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion and tax avoidance,” he said. “We can’t sit back and wait for another Panama Papers to tell us whether or not someone may be trying to hide their income from taxation.” Achieving that will require provincial co-ordination, he said, given that only 10 per cent of Canadian companies are federally incorporated — the rest are in provincial registries. The issue was on the agenda at a June meeting of finance ministers in Ottawa. “We discussed … ways to work together to develop a national strategy aimed at improving the availability of beneficial ownership information,” reads a Morneau press release following the meeting. Lauzon said Morneau’s initiative on the registry was “well received” by provincial finance ministers at the table.Australian singer Jessica Mauboy performed before the Eurovision crowd and an estimated telecast audience of about 180m on Thursday night, ending with an onstage arrival of an astronaut holding an Aboriginal flag and stating it was “one small step for Europe, one giant leap for Australia.”
Mauboy performed her song Sea of Flags at the famous competition in Copenhagen and said seeing all the international flags in the audience gave her goosebumps.
"What an incredible night,” she said.
“I am absolutely blown away by the magnitude of it all, from the staging to the lights, to all the colour, glitz and glam. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I'll never ever forget."
The Darwin singer took to the stage during an interval in the competition with an introduction by a Eurovision host.
“For 20 years we’ve had Australian viewers watching the show and it’s no secret they’ve begged us to let them join our competion,” she joked.
“They tried to sweet talk us, they tried to bring us gifts, seriously they’ll do anything to join to Eurovision.”
A kitschy futuristic video featuring SBS host Julia Zamiro and some costumed Aussies helicoptering the continent to Europe followed, before characters including a koala and some Sydney Swans AFL players performed a musical number on stage, name checking Russell Crowe, cockatoos and budgie smugglers.
Mauboy then took to the stage, a little shaky at first, but clearly enjoying herself in front of the thousands of pop music lovers in the audience. Sea of Flags ended as a man dressed as an austronaut, holding the Aboriginal flag, was lowered to stage beside Mauboy, proclaiming today was “one small step for Europe, one giant leap for Australia.”
The Guardian's Katharine Murphy will live blog the Australian broadcast of the final on Sunday.Share. The retailer lists a release date of June 17. The retailer lists a release date of June 17.
Exit Theatre Mode
The GameStop website has listed an unannounced version of The Walking Dead's Game of the Year Edition for PS4.
According to the GameStop listing (which we have screencapped for you above), this PS4 edition of the episodic game's first season will be released in North America on June 17, and will cost $30.
The Walking Dead already has a Game of the Year edition available on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, comprising the entirety of the first season, the 400 Days DLC, the soundtrack, and a behind-the-scenes video. We can probably assume that the PS4 version will be similar, but details are yet to be confirmed by developer Telltale Games.
Exit Theatre Mode
This news follows Telltale' recent announcement that The Walking Dead's second season would become available on PS Vita on April 22.
We thought The Walking Dead's first season was amazing, something that "demands to be experienced" - and so far, it seems the second season is shaping up to be something memorable as well.
Katie Williams is a freelance writer and games journalist. She tweets at @desensitisation and hopes that one day, a bird will tweet back.USC Institute of Armenian Studies has published an article discussing the issue of ‘Hidden Armenians’ of Azerbaijan.
Over the past decade the topic of Turkey’s ‘hidden Armenians‘ has received considerable academic and media scrutiny. The term generally refers to those Turkish citizens, whose ethnic Armenian ancestors adopted Islam and Turkish and Kurdish identities to escape persecution, particularly at the time of the Armenian genocide, but also in earlier periods, as with the more isolated communities, such as Hemshins.
Also watch: Hidden Armenians visit Genocide Memorial
Much less has been written of ethnic Armenians assimilated in Azerbaijan. One paper by sociologist Sevil Huseynova has looked at people of full or partial Armenian descent, almost all of them women, who remained in post-Soviet Baku under non-Armenian identities. Even less is known of Azerbaijani rural communities that went through Islamization as recently as in the 18th century and have since largely assimilated into Azerbaijani mainstream.
In a recent paper delivered at an Armenian Academy of Sciences conference, Samvel Meliksetyan reviews 18th century archival sources that witnessed Islamic conversions of ethnically Armenian and Udi communities of Sheki-Qebele area in northern Azerbaijan in the 1720s. At the time, insurgents against Persian empire led by an ethnic Lezgin Haji Davud, sought to establish an independent state in what is now northern and northeastern Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan, and forced both Shiites and Christians to convert to Sunni Islam.
Also watch: Hidden Armenians from Diyarbakir Discover Armenia
According to estimates gleaned by Meliksetyan, tens of thousands of Christians in dozens of villages converted (see map). Today, a Christian Udi community survives in only one of the area villages, Nij in Qebele (former Kutkashen) district; there are also Muslim, but ethnically Georgian communities further north in Kakh district. In the late 1980s, Armenian and Udi populations fled other nearby localities, including Sheki (former Nukha) and Oguz (former Vartashen), as well as the Ismailly and Shamakhi districts further to the south. While most of Azerbaijan is traditionally Shiite, the rural areas of Sheki-Qebele area remain majority Sunni Muslim.
One of the key contemporary sources cited by Meliksetyan is Johann Gustav Gerber, a German-born officer in the Russian service, who surveyed the area in 1728. According to Gerber, forced conversions of Christians, particularly in the Qebele area, “where all Armenians have been forced to become Muslim,” were still taking placed just a year earlier. Some of these converts later reverted to Christianity, but most others remained Muslim.
According to Nukha (Sheki)-born Azerbaijani scholar and educator Rashid-bek Efendiyev, also cited by Meliksetyan, memories of the 18th century conversions were fairly fresh in Sheki-Qebele area in the late 19th century. At the time, local residents still referred to the area as Gavurstan (country of infidels or non-Muslims) and local nobility, the khans of Sheki, traced their lineage to an Armenian priest who converted to Islam.
In picture: A former church in the village of Kish in Sheki district of Azerbaijan.We posted a story on Tuesday about John Perry's over-the-top article at Newsmax, in which he makes the totally baseless claim that a military coup to overthrow President Obama was a real possibility.
Some C&L readers noticed Wednesday morning that the link to the original Newsmax article went to the main page instead of the article and sure enough, it appears Newsmax scrubbed the article.
Luckily, the amazing Jamie found the cached article and took the above screen grab. You can read the full, original article here.
Did the powers that be at Newsmax realize that maybe, just maybe, they had finally crossed the line? I'm curious to know why such staunch defenders of the constitution decided to cut and run on this one. They can't put the genie back in the bottle. They published an article suggesting a military coup was a real possibility and now they've scrubbed it. Do they agree with Perry, or not? They need to explain publicly why the article was pulled.
You can write Newsmax directly and ask them why they scrubbed the article -- click here.They are scenes one might normally expect to see in the Serengeti. But Franz Graf von Plettenberg has the privilege of watching them from his elevated hunting stand in the forests of eastern Germany.
In his case, though, it's a deer (rather than a gnu) that is walking calmly through the heath, even though the evil killer, a wolf (instead of a lion), is within sight, heading for the forest. It's as though the potential prey can sense that this wolf has already eaten his fill.
Plettenberg, a forest ranger, is responsible for close to 35,000 hectares (86,450 acres) of state-owned forest and open country. His territory also includes a military training area that became famous as the home of Germany's first wolf pack in 150 years.
Plettenberg likes the wolf, because it helps him deplete game populations, an important service because too many deer damage the forest. They love to eat the shoots of tender young seedlings and peel off the bark of larger trees and shrubs -- none of which is good news for someone interested in making money with timber.
There are, however, many hunters who don't share Plettenberg's point of view. They see the newcomer as a rival challenging them for prey and for control of the forest. "Until now, when hunters have been challenged to justify what they do, they've argued that it's up to them to do the work of wolves that no longer existed in German forests," says Plettenberg. But now that wolves have returned, hunters are complaining that they are driving away game.
Meet One-Eye and Sunny
It's been 10 years since the first pair of wolves crossed the border from Poland and appeared in the sandy and isolated heath of the Oberlausitz military training area in the eastern state of Saxony, where they mated and raised their pups. Two females emerged from this family, which in turn found partners and, since then, have reliably produced new litters year after year.
The two females, which were captured, sedated, fitted with transmitter collars and released, were officially named FT3 and FT1. Scientists have given them more endearing names since then. One female, which has a slight limp and, on the blurred images taken by camera traps, has a dark spot where an eye used to be, was named One-Eye. Today One-Eye sports the belly of an older female between her thin legs. Wolves living in the wild rarely live much longer than One-Eye's 10 or 11 years.
The other female, One-Eye's sister Sunny, has been equally productive. Sunny and One-Eye will likely go down in history as the primordial mothers of Germany's new wolf population. Their clan has been largely responsible for a bounty of some 158 pups. Many of them have died, while others have migrated into the wilds of Eastern Europe. Alan, a son of One-Eye, made it as far as Belarus. Nevertheless, some wolves have remained in Germany and established new families.
Today, close to 90 specimens of Canis lupus are roaming through the eastern German states of Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. One female, Zora, made it almost as far as Hamburg, where her trail disappeared.
A Stroke of Luck
By now, it is clear that wolves are here to stay. No one is prepared to make a reliable prediction, but it is quite possible that the predators will advance into the Central German Uplands, including the Harz Mountains, as well as the Taunus, Eifel and Westerwald, three low mountain ranges in western Germany. In these areas, as well as in Bavaria and the southwestern states of Baden-Württemberg and Saarland, they could encounter their cousins from Italy and France -- which, from a genetic standpoint, would be a stroke of luck for the German wolf population.
A wolf from the Mediterranean region was spotted in Bavaria as recently as this spring, and one of the Italian wolves even made it as far as the central German city of Giessen, where it was hit by a car. It hasn't been seen since. In July, one of the southern wolves triggered a camera trap in France's Alsace region, only 60 kilometers (38 miles) from the southwestern German city of Freiburg. Germany's Federal Agency for Nature Conservation estimates that the country could support as many as 440 packs.
Germany is becoming a home for wolves. The gray predators are on the increase throughout Germany as they are across the Continent. It's just that not all of the country's human inhabitants are happy about it.
No other animal has as many friends and foes, or is the source of so much friction. The presence of wolves is turning upright citizens crooked and driving otherwise well-mannered conservationists berserk, triggering a wave of harassment, denunciations and lawsuits. Politicians, biologists, forest rangers, hunters, farmers and even city dwellers are involved.
Near-Mythical Creature
The church once saw the wolf as the devil incarnate, and fairy tales, from Little Red Riding Hood to The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, taught children to fear the wild creature. Wolves were treated as vermin: shot, poisoned and bludgeoned to death. Canis lupus was hounded into near-extinction throughout Central Europe, turning it into a near-mythical creature that existed only in fairy tales.
There is no justifiable basis for our fear of wolves. The predators usually do not attack people, unless they are rabid or have been emboldened as a result of being fed. But rabies is considered eradicated in Germany, and so far Germans have not been crazy enough to offer the animals bowls of freshly slaughtered meat on their doorsteps.
But the debate over wolves is rarely pursued by means of logical arguments -- neither in Saxony nor other places where wild wolves are likely to be roaming forests and fields in the near future.
The situation in the Lausitz region south of Berlin is a case in point. It illustrates what happens when the gray predators have come to stay, and how irreconcilable their fans and enemies still are after more than a decade.
Now the two opposing mindsets have a new reason to be at odds. Saxony's environment minister, Frank Kupfer, recently announced that wolves would in the future fall under the law which regulates hunting, which would mean that hunters, too, would be responsible for the protection of the animals. This has triggered outrage among many conservationists, who feel that hunters are nothing but potential wolf murderers. In their view, hunters abide by three rules when it comes to wolves: shoot, shovel and keep quiet. In fact, since the wolf became indigenous to Germany again, seven animals have been shot, most recently in the Lausitz region in May.From the GWPF
By Dr David Whitehouse
This new paper does not affect the fact that the temperature databases, with their own allowances for data-free regions, show no warming for 16-years, or at the very least no warming for about 95% of the globe for 16-years.
The ‘pause’ seen in the land and ocean global surface temperature during the last 16 years is one of the major talking points of climate science. It has been said by some politicians and journalists that ‘sceptics’ have used the ‘pause’ to undermine climate science. Actually there are a great many scientists and others working hard to understand the ‘pause.’ The ‘Pause’ IS climate science.
Many factors have been put forward as an explanation such as the warming going into the oceans, soot in the atmosphere, natural decadal variability, El Nino/La Nina variations, solar effects, and fluctuations in stratospheric water vapour to give just a few.
The ‘pause’ is seen across databases. It is a remarkable property of the HadCrut4, NasaGiss and NOAA surface temperature datasets and the UAH and RSS satellite lower atmosphere observations.
As we have said before in these pages, it is very curious that the global surface temperature for the last 16 years is flat given the increasing pressure of greenhouse forcing from the ever-rising concentrations of greenhouse gasses. We have also pointed out that the 16-year duration of the pause is not cherry-picked but comes purely from the properties of the data, and contrary to the belief of many the super El Nino year of 1998 makes no statistical difference to the length of the pause because of the following two cool La Nina years.
Even if there are currently more explanations for the ‘pause’ than can possibly be the case (or combine curiously to produce a straight line for 16 years) other explanations are to be welcomed and scrutinised. Hence the interesting new paper by Cowtan and Way in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
Its central premise is not new. Global datasets might not be properly accounting for the recent warming Arctic due to poor sampling. Arctic temperatures are increasing faster than the global average. This would make such datasets cooler than they should be by a factor that depends upon the temperature rise and the area concerned. Cowtan and Way consider HadCrut4 which has gaps in its polar coverage. It should be noted that NasaGiss does carry out some extrapolation to infill missing Arctic data, and HadCrut4 takes into account the missing data in its uncertainty estimates.
In addition to the uncertainty estimates due to polar gaps the shift in 2012 from the HadCrut3 temperature database to HadCrut4 (which included more than 400 extra weather stations in Arctic regions to improve its polar coverage) resulted in an extra 0.04 deg C in warming in the global figure between 1998 and 2010. That extra warming has since been reduced because subsequent years have been cooler than 2010. HadCrut4 turned out to be a little warmer than HadCrut3 post-2005, though statistically it was actually flatter post-1997 than its predecessor.
To illustrate the lack of coverage problem Cowtan and Way take the global surface temperature datasets and reduce them in area to the coverage given by Hadcrut4 and compare before and after, their Fig 2. Click on image to enlarge.
This gives an estimate of the potential bias which is of the order of 0.02 deg C. Three datasets are shown though most researchers in this field use only Giss and UAH. I do not agree with the researchers comments: “All the global series show a rapidly increasing cool bias over the past few decades and a sharp decline starting around 1998.” The minor deviation seems to be at 2005 to me.
Access Denied
Cowtan and Way wanted to find a way to infill the absent data from the Arctic. It’s not an easy thing to do as there are spatial and temporal variations in all the data sets. The researchers used two methods, an infilling method to estimate missing data called Kriging, and a method based on satellite data. They determined a relationship between satellite and ground data and used it to estimate the ground temperature in regions where there is satellite but no ground data. Both techniques have to be applied very carefully.
The researchers created what they call a hybrid global temperature dataset from the satellite and ground data. When ground data is available they used that. When it was not they adjusted the satellite data over that region to produce an estimate of the ground data. They created global temperature databases based on their two approaches. They also removed data at the start and saw if their method was any good in reproducing the deleted data.
Their Fig 3 shows the differences between estimates and observations. Click on image to enlarge.
The typically degree plus differences to my mind suggests there is too much uncertainty to draw any detailed conclusions.
No infilling technique was consistently the best performer. The hybrid method was the best when there was no data, in general kriging was better for the rest of the world. However, looking more carefully shows that the hybrid system was generally best for land whilst neither of them showed any predictive skill over Antarctica.
It is slightly worrying that the researchers then picked the best reconstruction method for various parts of the Earth to create a mosaic of methods to represent global reality. They call this “blended” data. To a paper that wanted to infill missing data in the polar regions, and to a lesser extent Africa, this selection of models to represent other regions of the world as well adds a new layer of complexity if not a biased selection effect.
Ultimately does this reconstruction make any difference?
Looking at their Fig 6 the result is that the temperature period 1997 -2005 remains unchanged and flat. Click on image to enlarge.
That of 1997 – 2007 could have an extra 0.02 deg C warming, and 1997-2011 (the last year they consider) perhaps an increase of 0.03 deg C. Looking at HadCrut4 over this period puts those changes into perspective as they are about 5% of the interannual variations. Click on image to enlarge.
The claim has been made that when the adjustments are taken into account the post-1997 trend is two-and-a-half times higher for HadCrut4 than it was, increasing to 0.12 deg C over the period as opposed to 0.05 deg C – still not statistically secure with one sigma errors of about 0.08 deg C. That’s still considerably less than a degree per century, though closer to the IPCC’s canonical 0.2 deg C per decade.
Given that Antarctica shows no overall warming and that the missing Arctic region is a very small section, about 6 per cent, of the globe, it is curious, perhaps even a fluke that such a small region of the Earth has come to the rescue of climate science from the undermining ‘pause?’
This new work doesn’t affect the fact that the temperature databases, with their own allowances for data-free regions, show no warming for 16-years, or at the very least no warming for about 95% of the globe for 16-years. That in itself is inconsistent with the climate models.
This research is interesting but doesn’t live up to the headline that it explains the ‘pause.’ It also does not warrant such an extensive press release, complete with explanatory videos. It is clear that it has been used as a political tool to deride ‘sceptics’ who rightly see the ‘pause’ as significant. By aiming at ‘sceptics’ such an approach also derides many working scientists who are trying to explain the ‘pause.’ This is regrettable.
Feedback: david.whitehouse@thegwpf.org
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RedditFormer Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has formally endorsed the Colorado ballot measure to create a universal health care system in the state.
At an event in Vermont on Wednesday launching his new political organization, called Our Revolution, Sanders singled out Colorado’s Amendment 69 — also known as ColoradoCare — as something his supporters should rally behind.
“It is absurd, it is beyond belief, that here in America we remain the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to all people,” Sanders said at the event, according to a news release from the pro-ColoradoCare campaign. “If that proposal can win in Colorado, I believe that idea will spread around the country.”
Sanders became a favorite of progressive Democrats nationwide during his presidential campaign, and his endorsement carries extra weight in Colorado, where he won the party’s caucus this year. His endorsement is not a surprise, though, as he has previously made supportive statements about the ColoradoCare measure.
Proponents of ColoradoCare say they are working to get Sanders to campaign for the measure in Colorado.
“It’s hard to imagine a figure whose support of ColoradoCare is more meaningful than Senator Sanders,” said Owens Perkins, a spokesman for the ColoradoCareYES campaign, in a statement.
Sanders’ endorsement, though, further highlights how the measure has divided Democrats and progressive groups this campaign season. The Colorado Democratic Party’s platform says the party strongly supports ColoradoCare, and the measure has also won the backing of county party branches and the League of Women Voters. But Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet and other prominent Democratic figures have come out against the measure, which last week was also opposed by the activist group ProgressNow Colorado.
ColoradoCare would create a universal health care system in Colorado that largely replaces private health insurance and covers all residents. It would be funded mostly through payroll taxes on companies and workers. The system would be overseen by an independently elected board of 21 members, but it would also be considered a political subdivision of the state. People could choose to keep their private insurance, but they would still have to pay the taxes.27 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2009 Last revised: 1 Jul 2013
Abstract
President George W. Bush and his executive branch lawyers have earned widespread criticism for extreme positions and practices regarding the scope of presidential authority. The war on terror that followed the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks provided the context for their most controversial claims of unilateral authority: to override legal prohibitions on the use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; to hold "enemy combatants" indefinitely without access to counsel or any opportunity to challenge their detention; and to engage in domestic electronic surveillance without a court order. Our nation's welfare and integrity depend upon continued evaluation, response, and, when warranted, condemnation of these practices. Many commentators (including me) have proposed reforms and principles to guide future administrations and to encourage Congress and the courts to impose appropriate external checks. This Article, however, urges due care in the formulation of such critiques and reforms, especially regarding the Bush administration's efforts to advance its constitutional views. Critics should be precise with their objections and recommendations in order to avoid undermining legitimate authorities for future Presidents or otherwise disrupting the proper balance of governmental powers. The Bush administration's abuses - especially its claims of authority to refuse to comply with federal statutes - reinforce the need for articulated standards and effective safeguards to ensure lawful conduct. However, those abuses do not obviate the existence or desirability of legitimate presidential authority. Among the powers President Bush has placed at risk is the longstanding and necessary authority of Presidents, with the help of their executive branch lawyers, to interpret the Constitution in ways that go beyond judicial precedent and congressional determinations.Executive Summary
As contentious debate proceeds about the extent and causes of wage stagnation on the lower rungs of America’s economy, efforts have increased across the political spectrum to improve the economic fortunes of low-wage workers. In particular, policymakers have focused on making work more attractive. This approach, unlike most expansions of the welfare state, holds the promise of increasing the immediate well-being of the working poor, as well as the incentive of the nonworking poor to find jobs.
Two wage-support tools typically receive consideration: the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Both have the potential to significantly increase disposable income for at least some low-income workers. But their mechanisms—and impact—differ dramatically. The minimum wage, a price floor under wages, performs well vis-à-vis an individual worker but poorly in its labor-market and distributional effects. The EITC, a subsidy for income earned, has strengths and weaknesses roughly the opposite. The drawbacks of both tools prevent them from delivering fully on their antipoverty goals.
Any discussion of wage-support options should include a third policy tool with the potential to deliver the best of both worlds: a wage subsidy delivered directly to low-wage workers, via their paychecks, as additional dollars per hour for every hour worked. (The EITC, while commonly called a “wage subsidy,” is not one. It is a tax credit paid after the fact on total income earned; a wage subsidy is paid in real time for each hour worked.)
Through its effect on wages paid, the wage subsidy would deliver to workers much the same benefit as a minimum wage. Through its effect on the economics of the low-wage employment relationship, it would influence the labor market in much the same way as the EITC. Its structure is thus preferable for the unemployed, for workers, for employers, and for society.
Variations of the wage subsidy have been proposed previously and have appeared prohibitively expensive |
clots on three occasions, two of which developed in a leg vein: one in 1998 when she was first lady, and another in 2009 when she was secretary of state.
The first occurred during midterm congressional elections when she developed a swollen calf from phlebitis and a blood clot. Mrs. Clinton’s doctors advised that she be hospitalized, but she refused, citing the demands of the campaign. (Mrs. Clinton similarly declined to cancel events after being told she had pneumonia.) She received outpatient treatment without known complications. Mrs. Clinton has not released her medical records from her White House years.
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In 2012, Mrs. Clinton experienced a stomach virus after foreign travel. She became dehydrated, fainted and fell at her home in Washington, striking her head in the process. She experienced a concussion and double vision, for which she wore Fresnel Prism glasses for a period. A follow-up magnetic resonance imaging scan at the time showed a clot in one of the two main veins that drain blood from the brain. Doctors prescribed Coumadin, an anticoagulant drug, or “blood thinner,” to prevent the clot from growing and becoming even more dangerous.
Medications
Other tests showed that Mrs. Clinton did not have an underlying disorder that increased her risk for developing blood clots, Dr. Bardack said. Nevertheless, as a precaution, she continues to take Coumadin (also known as warfarin) daily to prevent further clots. A number of dietary items and other factors can strongly influence Coumadin’s effects on the blood-clotting system. These are among the reasons such patients frequently have a blood test, known as an I.N.R., to monitor the dose.
Many patients have switched to newer drugs like Pradaxa, Xarelto and Eliquis that eliminate the need for blood tests and allow for easier clotting control. However, many doctors advise patients who have stable I.N.R. test results and have not developed complications to stay with Coumadin. Dr. Bardack said she and Mrs. Clinton’s hematologist had decided not to switch to a newer anticoagulant.
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Mrs. Clinton takes no additional regular medication except for thyroid hormone, which tests show properly controls her underactive gland; Clarinex for allergies; and vitamin B-12 when she feels she needs it.
Recovery From Head Injury
Accounts of how long it took for Mrs. Clinton to recover from symptoms of the concussion are discordant. Dr. Bardack said they had resolved in two months. But former President Bill Clinton said his wife’s concussion had “required six months of very serious work to get over.”
Unspecified tests performed in 2013 showed “complete resolution of the effects of the concussion, as well as total dissolution” of the blood clot, Dr. Bardack wrote in 2015. On Thursday, she wrote that a CT scan of Mrs. Clinton’s brain in March 2016 showed no abnormalities. Mrs. Clinton has not released statements from a neurologist, neurosurgeon or other specialists involved in her care in Washington and New York.
Because Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump are in the age range of increased risk for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, some experts have urged that they both take neuro-cognitive tests that can detect early clues to dementia. While dementia can develop independent of head trauma, researchers are exploring whether a head injury might hasten development of dementia, as has been seen with former boxers and football players. Neither Mrs. Clinton nor Mr. Trump has said whether they have taken such neuropsychological tests. Dr. Bardack wrote that Mrs. Clinton “is in excellent mental condition.”
Cardiac Health
Arteriosclerosis, which underlies heart and blood vessel disease, runs in Mrs. Clinton’s family. Her father died in his 80s from a stroke; her mother lived into her 90s and died from congestive heart failure; and one of the candidate’s two brothers has premature heart disease, Dr. Bardack wrote in 2015.
Because of Mrs. Clinton’s family history, she underwent a full cardiac evaluation, which found no evidence of heart disease, according to Dr. Bardack. Her untreated blood pressure was 100/70 and her cholesterol and lipid levels were normal. Because her LDL (bad) cholesterol levels were 118 and 103, higher than the desirable level of below 100, some doctors have asked why she is not taking a statin drug.
But a cardiologist who ran Mrs. Clinton’s cholesterol and other lipid measurements through a standard algorithm developed by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association found that statin therapy is not recommended. It also showed that her risk of a heart attack or stroke was less than 0.5 percent for each of the next 10 years for a person of her age. With a coronary calcium score of zero from a CT scan, another database, developed by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and known as MESA (for multiethnic study of atherosclerosis), showed that her risk of a heart attack was less than 0.2 percent in each of the next 10 years.Did you teach your actors how to work with sheep?
I spent a lot of time taking them to speak to farmers and do these kind of practical rehearsals. I let them stay with the flock and learn how to talk sheep –
– Talk sheep?
To communicate with them! It was really important to me that the actors would be believable as farmers from those first minutes. I put a lot of work into that too.
There is a sense of pride that lies at the heart of the film. The brothers uphold the virtues of an almost ritualistic, even superstitious tradition. Is this a side to Iceland you want to make more widely known, this pride and respect for tradition?
It’s really close to the hearts of Icelandic people. We have a long history with sheep, they were our main source of livelihood throughout the centuries. Some people are really almost ready to die for them. Right now, in Iceland, a farmer is trying to get permission to bury himself with his sheep. What happens in the film is really accurate.
Click here to read our Rams film reviewOstensibly Rams (Hrútar) seems a bit of a hard sell. Pegged as an 'Icelandic drama about sheep farming', Rams broaches a simple subject, and one rarely given much attention on screen. The film, a peculiar mix of black humour and tragic drama, tells of two neighbouring but estranged brothers, Gummi and Kiddi, as they attempt to deal with a crisis on their farm in a remote and secluded Icelandic valley.Directed by Grímur Hákonarson, the film won of Cannes' prestigious 'Un Certain Regard' award, and Hákonarson has been in high demand since. When we meet in the Soho Hotel, he's wolfing down a club sandwich in between press conferences and film screenings. He has, he says, been "living out of a suitcase" since Cannes. Hákonarson speaks in a strong Icelandic accent, in a tone that is at once wry and sincere.He looks up between mouthfuls, frowning from under the brim of his director's beret, as he tells us about life post-Cannes and what made him choose such an unusual subject for his film.None of us expected the film to get into Cannes, so it has been a great surprise for the Icelandic film industry. It’s the first Icelandic film to win a prize at Cannes, and the second to be nominated for the European film awards: it’s exciting. I try not to think too much about it.The film really speaks to the people in Iceland – a lot of farmers I’ve spoken to say that it’s the most realistic film about rural life we’ve seen. It got a lot of people to the cinema.The film is about the importance of human relationships in difficult times. It’s about how important it is to have a brother or siblings in a moment of crisis, you need some kind of human contact. That’s the message of the film, at least. And the story I will try to say: the central part is the relationship between man and sheep: between farmers and sheep.The film begins in the summer and takes place over half a year. I let the actors grow the beards. So they almost look more like savages – or sheep – as the film goes along. They kind of materialise into the sheep. They have a sheep hanging on the wall, and sheepskin hats. They stay with them, talk to them.One where we were trying to take them inside the shed, in the middle of the summer, and they didn't want to go, they wanted to stay outside. They ran all over the place, down the hills – it took us a long time to collect them again and get them together. But usually they were quite easy to work with. I had a feeling, as the shooting went along, that – they didn't know that they were acting in a film but – they got used to the routine.I have some roots in the countryside. I grew up in the city, but I know a lot of farmers and I’m really interested in this kind of culture and I’m really interested in stories from rural communities.A certain type of Icelandic films have a black humour, like Dagur Kari's Virgin Mountain. We also make thrillers, comedies, genre films, but Scandinavians are famous for having black humour. We are so far in the north we get a bit – our mind gets darker.There’s also a lot of black humour in Icelandic literature, the Icelandic sagas about the Vikings. I like to mix drama and comedy in my movies: I’ve been trying to develop a personal style to make my films work both ways.It is not political in the strict sense of the word: you can see Rams as a metaphor for a society that collapses. Many people also see it as a metaphor for the economic crisis: but that was not my intention.It's about the damage. The scrapie disease meant a lot of damage in this community. I wanted to show the personal side of the loss. My mother's sister lost a flock because of scrapie, and I personally experienced how she and her husband got depressed and had to wait for two years for a new flock.I'm working on a new script, it's called The County, a rural lesbian story set in Iceland. It's a similar style to Rams – lots of dark humour.The Justice Department has announced an investigation into whether federal crimes were committed in connection with the murder of Dr. George Tiller.
In a press release, DOJ writes that it will probe whether there were violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act or other federal statutes in the case.The release explains:
The FACE Act was enacted by Congress in 1994 to establish federal criminal penalties and civil remedies for violent, obstructionist or damaging conduct affecting reproductive health care providers and recipients.
A witness has said publicly that Scott Roeder, who has been charged with Tiller’s murder, was twice seen trying to glue the locks of a Kansas City abortion clinic in the week before the shooting. As has been reported, the FACE Act explicitly declares that it’s a federal crime to vandalize an abortion clinic.
Questions have been raised — including by us — about whether the FBI responded aggressively enough to tips about those incidents. And it looks like DOJ is concerned to push back against that criticism. The release continues:
“The Department of Justice will work tirelessly to determine the full involvement of any and all actors in this horrible crime, and to ensure that anyone who played a role in the offense is prosecuted to the full extent of federal law,” said Loretta King, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We will conduct a thorough investigation that will complement and build upon the fine work of the Sedgwick County District Attorney and other state and local law enforcement agencies.”
The prosecution of Roeder is being primarily handled by the Wichita-based District Attorney’s office. We had known that a federal probe into the circumstances around the killing had also been opened. But DOJ’s announcement suggests that this is being prioritized as a national matter.Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER -- British Columbia has become the latest province to lay out its plan for regulating recreational marijuana, announcing that pot sales will be allowed through both public and private stores to buyers who are at least 19 years old.
B.C. is following other provinces in keeping the age of consumption, purchase and possession of marijuana consistent with alcohol and tobacco laws, which Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said Tuesday will more effectively protect young people and eliminate the black market.
"We know that the largest consumers of cannabis are young people," Farnworth said when asked about evidence from health experts on the danger of cannabis on the developing brains of people older than 19.
"If you set it too high, for example at 25, you're not going to get rid of the black market because they're going to go and get it elsewhere."
The federal government intends to legalize non-medical cannabis in July. B.C.'s announcement follows a public consultation period that received submissions from nearly 50,000 residents and 141 local and Indigenous governments.
The B.C. Liberals pressed the government to act quickly on the questions that remain about how pot will be sold and where.
"This should not be seen as a profit centre for government and any extra revenue should be redirected to enforcement and addiction services," Liberal legislature member Mike Morris said in a statement,
Farnworth released few details about retail sales, beyond saying both public and private vendors will be allowed. He was unable to comment on online sales or whether current marijuana dispensaries would be able to apply for licences to continue operating after legalization.
The government expects to release details of its retail model towards the end January or the beginning of February, he said.
Work also remains to be done on whether people will be allowed to grow plants at home for personal use, a practice that has been banned by Manitoba over concerns about enforcement. Manitoba also released its plans for overseeing marijuana sales on Tuesday.
B.C.'s public consultation produced a report that was released alongside its announcement Tuesday. It revealed polarized views on drug-impaired driving, showing that some want zero tolerance while others said cannabis doesn't impact the ability to drive.
The report also says there was some confusion among consultation participants on the distribution and retails sales of marijuana, but many opposed Ontario's model. Ontario intends to sell the drug in up to 150 stores run by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and ban consumption in public spaces or workplaces.
"Most of these individuals preferred to see the existing dispensaries and their supply chain legitimized, licensed and regulated," the report says.
It also says two points emerged on public consumption: People don't want to be subjected to second-hand smoke in public places and they want cannabis consumption limited to indoor use at a private residence or a designated space.As Japan shows increasing signs of playing a more vigorous political and security role in East Asia, neighboring countries are exhibiting a range of reactions. Predictably, North Korea’s response to any manifestation of a stronger Japan is a caricature of saber-rattling paranoia. China and South Korea have responded with a mixture of nervousness and hostility, as Jeffrey W. Hornung of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies ably documented recently in The National Interest. But the reaction has been surprisingly favorable in other countries.
South Korea’s wariness reflects primarily historical factors, although ongoing bilateral tensions over disputed islands (known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan) also play a role. The emotional wounds from Japan’s exploitive and sometimes brutal colonization of the Korean Peninsula during the first half of the 20th century have been slow to heal. Japanese officials exacerbate Korean suspicions by making clumsy, insensitive statements about that period. The most recent example was Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto’s comment that World War II “comfort women” (young women pressed into sexual slavery by the Japanese military) had been necessary to maintain discipline.
Historical factors also play a role in China’s stance toward Japan. Chinese officials and journalists never miss an opportunity to remind listeners about Japan’s egregious behavior in their country during the 1930s and early 1940s.
But for China, current geopolitical rivalries are a larger, more important motive. Indications that Tokyo might end its self-imposed limit of spending no more than 1 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product on the military provoke strongly negative reactions in Beijing.
The same is true of suggestions that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government might seek to modify article 9 of Japan’s post-World War II constitution, which places severe restrictions on the country’s use of military force. “Given the Japanese government’s refusal to apologize for Japan’s aggression during World War II, any revision of Japan’s constitution,” an editorial in China Daily warned, would be “a cause for concern in the rest of the world.” Tokyo’s surprisingly uncompromising stance over the past year regarding the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China Sea has produced shrill accusations of renewed Japanese imperialism in the Chinese media.
But the reaction elsewhere in East Asia to Tokyo’s more assertive behavior in the political and security realms has been markedly different from the response in the two Koreas and China. Less than two decades ago, such countries as the Philippines, Australia and Singapore were adamantly opposed to a more robust Japanese military and the expansion of Tokyo’s security role beyond homeland defense. East Asian leaders also were emphatic that the United States needed to exercise a strong supervisory function regarding Japan’s military activities. Singapore’s long-time leader, Lee Kuan Yew, was the most outspoken in warning about the danger of revived Japanese militarism, but he implicitly spoke for many of his colleagues in the region.
And Washington’s stance was scarcely more trusting. In the early 1990s, General Henry Stackpole, the commander of U.S. Marine forces on Okinawa, famously stated in an interview that the U.S. military presence was “the cap in the bottle” that reassured the region against any prospect of a new Japanese imperialism.
China’s rise has changed the strategic calculations, both in Washington and in many East Asian capitals. During George W. Bush’s administration, U.S. officials worked tirelessly to strengthen the alliance with Japan and to get Japanese leaders to view the alliance as a vehicle to address other security contingencies in the region, not confine it to Japan’s territorial defense. That deepening strategic partnership has continued during the Obama years.
Several East Asian nations now seem to view Japan as an important strategic counterweight to China. When asked how his government would view a rearmed, non-pacifist Japan, Philippines Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario told the Financial Times “We would welcome that very much.” He added, “We are looking for balancing factors in the region, and Japan could be a significant balancing factor.” And such opinions are being put into action. In January 2013, Tokyo and Manila agreed to enhance their cooperation on maritime security. Ties are also growing between Japan and Singapore, as well as between Japan and Australia on such matters. Worries about the need to balance China’s growing power is evident as well in the recent summit between Prime Minister Abe and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in which cooperation even on the highly sensitive issue of nuclear technology was high on the agenda.
Acceptance of Japan playing a political-military role commensurate with its status as the world’s third largest economic power may be slow to develop in China and the Koreas, but it is already happening elsewhere in East Asia. Rommel Banaoi of the Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, based in Manila, succinctly captured that new perspective : “We have already put aside our nightmares of World War II because of the threat posed by China.” The principal remaining question is how effectively Tokyo will respond to that new opportunity.
Ted Galen Carpenter, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is the author of nine books and more than 500 articles and published policy studies on international affairs. He is a contributing editor to The National Interest.Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2009 December 19
Explanation: Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, haunted skies over the island of Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway on December 13. This 30 second long exposure records their shimmering glow gently lighting the wintery coastal scene. A study in contrasts, it also captures the sudden flash of a fireball meteor from December's excellent Geminid meteor shower. Streaking past familiar stars in the handle of the Big Dipper, the trail points back toward the constellation Gemini, off the top of the view. Both aurora and meteors occur in Earth's upper atmosphere at altitudes of 100 kilometers or so, but aurora are caused by energetic charged particles from the magnetosphere, while meteors are trails of cosmic dust.NEW ZEALAND will release commemorative Hobbit coins worth thousands of dollars ahead of next month's premiere of director Peter Jackson's latest Tolkien epic.
The coins featuring characters such as Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the wizard will be legal tender in the country, New Zealand Post said, although their face value will be only a fraction of the cost collectors will be expected to pay.
The most expensive, made from one 28.3 grams of pure gold, will set Tolkien enthusiasts back $A2,955 but has a face value of just NZ$10, while the cheapest is a NZ$1 coin retailing for $A24.
The coins go on sale from November 1 and New Zealand Post said it expected strong international interest in the build up to the premiere of the first of the three Hobbit movies in Wellington on November 28.
Jackson, who was responsible for the Oscar-winning adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, announced earlier this year that he would make three films from The Hobbit book, rather than two as originally planned.
British actor Martin Freeman, from the UK version of The Office, takes on the central role of Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug.
Other big names appearing include Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Barry Humphries, Stephen Fry, and Billy Connolly.
New Zealand enjoyed a huge tourism boom after the original trilogy and is hoping to repeat the success with the Hobbit movies, launching a campaign branding the country '100% Middle Earth' to coincide with the premiere.(AFP) – President Francois Hollande, under pressure from the right wing, on Saturday stepped up his pledge to combat illegal migration, vowing to dismantle a squalid settlement near Calais and prevent similar camps from becoming established in France.
“There will be no camps in France,” said Hollande, two days ahead of a maiden visit to the notorious “Jungle” settlement near Calais, where between 7,000 and 10,000 desperate migrants live.
The Socialist leader spelt out promises to “completely dismantle” the Jungle and set up “reception and orientation centres around the country” to accommodate asylum-seekers.
Hollande’s government has vowed to scrap the Jungle “before winter” and a flurry of preparations underway there suggest the operation may begin shortly.
Migration has been a low-key issue under Hollande’s four-year-old presidency.
But he has been forced to take a visible stance on the issue, under pressure from his conservative predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy — who is hoping to make a comeback as president — and far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
Each are promoting platforms of security, patriotism and national interest in early campaigning for next year’s elections.
“We will provide a humane, dignified welcome to people who will file for the right of asylum,” Hollande said.
Those whose request has been rejected “will be escorted out of the country. Those are the rules and they are fully aware of them.”
He noted that France would accept 80,000 asylum-seekers this year, a fraction of that accepted by Germany.
Meanwhile, Sarkozy returned Saturday to remarks on national identity that sparked a fierce row earlier this week.
On Tuesday, Sarkozy said that once immigrants are granted citizenship “they should live like the French.”
“Once you become French, your ancestors are the Gauls. ‘I love France, I learned the history of France, I see myself as French’,” is what you must say,” he said.
The remarks sparked a storm, prompting historians to note that France has been a land of immigration for centuries and the line “our ancestors the Gauls” was an opening to history textbooks that today is widely derided.
On Saturday, Sarkozy extended his “Gauls” reference and provided what he contended was a patriotic benchmark for Muslim immigrants to France.
“Our ancestors were the Gauls, they were also the kings of France, the Enlightenment, Napoleon, the great Republicans,” he told a rally in the southwestern town of Perpignan.
“Our ancestors were (also) the colonial troops who died at the Chemin des Dames in World War I, the Muslim riflemen who died at Monte Cassino,” he said referring to a battle against German troops in Italy in 1944.
Sarkozy paid special tribute to the Harkis — Muslim auxiliaries who fought alongside French troops in Algeria’s bloody 1954-1962 war of independence.
“In our national story… a special place is reserved for French Muslims who died for our freedom and flag,” he said.EDINBURGH, Scotland - Some like it hot, but contestants at a curry eating contest in Scotland collapsed in agony after biting off more than they could chew at a self-styled "world's hottest chili" competition.
One contestant was hospitalized twice, and others writhed in agony, panting and vomiting after sampling the "Kismot Killer" at a charity eating competition at the Kismot restaurant in Edinburgh on Saturday.
Owner Abdul Ali staged the event to raise money for a children's hospice. He has conceded he'll have to cool things down for next year, after the first 10 contestants became ill and a second group of 10 declined to take part.
Ali said the curry had caused nosebleeds in the past.
All participants signed a disclaimer before tucking in, and the restaurant had provided first aiders, but they were overwhelmed by the number of sick diners.
The Scottish Ambulance Service failed to see the funny side.
"We would urge the organizers to review the way this event is managed in future," it said in a statement.A number of firms are showing off Android-enabled phones
Google mobile boss
About a dozen companies such as ARM, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm showed off prototype handsets at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The free software system was launched in November 2007 and is being developed by an alliance of more than 30 companies including Google.
The first Android-enabled phone is expected to go on sale later this year.
One firm showing off a prototype phone was the UK processor designer ARM.
"It's really a demonstration vehicle rather than a full phone," Ian Drew of ARM told BBC News.
However, he said the wireless phone did show off several applications.
"What we are demonstrating on the Android platform is maps, browser, camera applications, multimedia, e-mail, and calendar - basically everything you'd expect on a mobile phone."
Open world
The Google Android platform is based on open source Linux software that allows developers access to the underlying code.
This allows programmers much greater flexibility to build applications and features tailored to individual phones.
Other companies also showed off Android prototypes such as Marvell, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, NEC and ST Microelectronics.
Korean handset manufacturer Samsung has also said it hopes to have a phone based on Android by early next year.
Android was not the only Linux platform making waves in Barcelona.
The Mobile Linux foundation said that 18 phones from seven different firms would be demonstrated at 3GSM using its Limo software.
LG and Samsung were amongst handset manufacturers showing off Limo devices.BC Edu The ad as it appeared in a 2006 issue of The New Republic.
A classified ad offering a job in the New York publishing industry has been posted, and reposted, with almost no changes for more than 10 years.
The curious job offer advertises a PA/research associate for "a busy executive" in New York City, with no further information about the employer. The salary is described as between $90,000 and $110,000 per year — generous, for the role.
Here is the full text of the current ad, which you can find on Monster.com:
Ideal Candidate :
Highly intelligent, resourceful individuals with exceptional communication skills sought to undertake special research projects and various administrative tasks on behalf of a busy executive.
We would welcome applications from writers, musicians, artists, or other candidates who may be pursuing other professional goals in the balance of their time. We offer a casual atmosphere in a beautiful space, working as part of an extraordinary group of gifted, interesting individuals.
The salary range is $90-110k/yr (depending on qualifications), with significant upside potential and management possibilities. Please e-mail your resume to: mtgen2@gmail.com
It sounds interesting doesn't it? Beautiful space, extraordinary group of gifted individuals, with a potential $100,000 salary. Ain't bad at all.
But it is quite old. The blog Working With Words has tracked the ad since the very beginning, when it appeared in an issue of The New Republic in summer 2004.
The ad seems to have been posted and reposted for a decade now, only with a different email address and other minor changes every now and then.
Back in 2004 you had to email gen8r@spsfind.com for the amazing job. The same address, with a minor variation, was still the recipient in 2006, when the ad was running on page 25 of The New Republic January issue.
A writer on The Huffington Post tried to have her daughter recruited in 2006, only to receive no answer. She saw the same ad in the February issue in 2009.
By that time the ad had also moved online, and in 2008 it was seen on Craigslist, according to a comment on Working With Words. It had also added "medical researcher" among the tasks.
It is not clear when the ad originally first ran. John Ettorre, a writer from Ohio who is behind Working With Words, wrote: " We've just been tracking it here for nine years, but I believe the ad began running several years before that." That was in 2013.
So s omeone has been running this same mysterious classified ad for 10 straight years now.
A Business Insider UK staffer has applied to the ad on Monster. Scores of "writers, musicians, artists, or others" probably have, too. You can do it as well!
We have received no answer so far, but we will keep you informed when hear back.
UPDATE:
A page on Hacker News links the ad to the investment management firm D.E. Shaw, based in New York City and with a taste for creativity and exceptionality in its recruits.
Plus, there is another hint: "I noticed in their own recruitment posts on CL [craigslist] the respond-to e-mail address is Craig-Gen@career.deshaw.com while that one is gencraig@spsfind.com. Coincidence?" a comment reads.
We reached out to D.E. Shaw, asking if this mysterious ad was part of the firm's scheme to hire the best graduates in town. Is it them? We will tell you as soon as we know.
More From Business InsiderYear eight: The great war
This year, Portland's steampunk extravaganza is observing the centennial of the WWI armistice, exploring steampunk militaria, and looking ahead to dieselpunk retrofuturism! Join us for a full weekend of steampunk art, culture, and community, featuring performances and appearances by, Dogwood & Johnstone, Cece Otto, Bright & Shiny, DJ Dirty Mollie, Vanity's Vaudeville Vixens, Academia Duellatoria, "Historical Conjurer" Prof. DR Schreiber, military historian Gordon Frye, master of lightning Dr. Professor Anderson, retrofuturist historians Mahometan & Celestial LLC., artist/maker extraordinaire Geahk Burchill, and more GEAR Con friends old & new.
Packed with workshops, costumes, dealers, games, entertainments, and more, GEAR Con is a full weekend of steampunk art, culture, and community.
Join us as early as 9:30am this Saturday, 7/7 at University Place Hotel, 310 SW Lincoln Street in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon; see the Hotel page for more venue information and travel/transit directions.Readme: Wonders never cease, though I've asked them several times to stop. Anyway, I seem to have invented a new category of psychological deviance -- self-schadenfreude. I turned on the old telly the other evening, after clearing the spider webs and dog hair from the screen, and discovered that Tom, Peter and Dan were all simultaneously atwitter over the imminent threat to the internet posed by (eeek!) spam. Stifling an impulse to call New York and ask where they'd been for the last six or seven years, I managed to sit through one of the reports (I think it was ABC, not that it makes a bit of difference, can't tell which channel I'm on half the time anyway, grumble), wherein the correspondent interviewed a typical victim of (eeek!) spam. Said victim explained that every morning he, wanting only to open his e-mail from his grandkids and golfing buddies, is deluged with more than forty (40) unwanted and intrusive pieces of (eeek!) spam. Peter Jennings came back on the screen and began to cluck. Hah!, says I aloud to the TV, startling Brownie the Dog, who was chewing on an especially tasty bit of the living-room carpet at that moment. That's nothing!, I shouted at Brownie, who was now sitting bolt upright between me and the TV. I was momentarily taken aback by her startling and hitherto unnoticed resemblance to Peter Jennings, but I was still mad at the TV, so I forged ahead. I get more spam than that in a hour!, I declared. Either Jennings or the dog, I was too worked up to look closely, bolted from the room and scampered upstairs. Meanwhile, Fifi the Cat, who is French and sleeps for a living, had awakened from her slumber of top of the stereo and regarded me with a bored, insolent expression, an expression that seemed to say, Yes? You sink zo? Prove it, mon ami. So the very next day, rather than following my usual routine of erasing spam as Eudora filters the detritus into my "spam" mailbox, I just let it mount up like fetid snowflakes. At the end of 24 hours I discovered that I had received 723 pieces of (eeek!) spam. Seven hundred and twenty-three. In one day. It's my own fault, of course. About nine years ago I put my e-mail address on this web page for the world to see, copy and paste. It turns out that doing that is the A-Number-One way to get yourself consigned to Spam Hell for the foreseeable future. For a day or so I had Eudora set up to announce the subject line and sender of every message filtered into my "spam" box out loud through my computer's speakers (so I could intercept any innocent message unjustly convicted), but the sound of a female voice enunciating the topics of the sleazier mail I receive was too depressing to bear. So now I just erase everything. UPDATE I spoke too soon. There's something worse than receiving buckets of spam, and that is to appear to be the one sending spam. Last week some jerk somewhere in the world apparently sent out millions of pieces of spam with forged headers that made the spam appear to have come from the word-detective.com domain. It did not, of course. It wasn't even sent though my mail server. But I know it happened because I am now receiving approximately 400 "delivery failed" bounce messages per hour. My draconian filter array in Eudora is doing a good job in separating the wheat from the crap, but even the 5% of my mail I have to sort by hand is doing bad things to my blood pressure. Y'know, gang, I think it's time to admit that this internet thing isn't really working out very well. I'm gonna go buy some stamps. And now, on with the show: Et All O' Youse. Dear Word Detective: We're arguing over the origin of the word "ampersand." My art director claims it's because a Mr. Amper invented the symbol, thus "Amper's And." Surely he's kidding me! -- Simon Geller, via the internet. Please don't call me Shirley. Actually, that's one of the more superficially plausible word-origin stories I've heard lately, so it's possible that your co-worker actually believes it. The name "ampersand" certainly sounds as if it should mean something terribly exotic, coined in the misty yesteryear of typography, but its roots are actually quite humble, and we have the long-suffering schoolchild to thank for the word. It comes from the practice once common in schools of reciting all 26 letters of the alphabet plus the "&" sign, pronounced "and," which was considered part of the alphabet, at least for learning purposes. Any letter that could also be used as a word in itself ("A," "I," "&" and, at one point, "O") was preceded in the recitation by the Latin phrase "per se" ("by itself") to draw the students' attention to that fact. Thus the end of this daily ritual would go: "X, Y, Z and per se and." This last phrase was routinely slurred to "ampersand" by children rightly bored to tears, and the term crept into common English usage by around 1837. The ampersand symbol itself, the "&," while devilishly hard to draw by hand, becomes much less mysterious when revealed as a stylized rendi�tion of the Latin word "et," meaning, of course, "and." Finally, it's interest�ing to note that proofreaders reading copy aloud to one another (as I can attest based on a spell spent as a proofreader) pronounce the ampersand symbol "et" to distinguish it from the actual |
cheap, easily prepared footstuff for the people of the world was deserving of recognition. So on that day, they would conduct fundraisers and donation drives for those without food and in need.
I think that’s pretty awesome – a Taiwanese guy whose parents die goes into the textile business in the footsteps of his grandparents, moves to Japan, is jailed, finds freedom again and begins a company that becomes synonymous with a full belly everywhere in the world and get a commemorative day from a Texas hospital!
It didn’t say why January 19th was the magic Momofuku Ando Day’s date – here’;s what it does say:
Momofuku Ando Day was established January 2007 at a small hospital in Dallas, Texas. Recognizing the genius life of the man whose product has fed millions, a group of healthcare workers first celebrated the day on January 19, 2007. Each participating employee brought several packages of favorite ramen flavors to a banquet table from which employees could sample. The second year, January 2008, participating employees developed unique dishes using ramen as the prime ingredient. The Day also kicked off the “It Starts With Me” campaign promoting charitable giving and customer service. Unfortunately, the hospital was corporately closed in June 2008. In January 2009, several of the transferred employees continued Momofuku Ando Day by sharing it with their new coworkers at a sister facility. Understanding that ramen has been a staple food for victims of disaster and the poverty-stricken, as well as for college students and those wanting a quick meal, Momofuku Ando Day became an endeavor to help feed those in need by fundraising for charitable organizations, or simply calling attention to poverty or hunger through ramen or food donations to local food banks and free meal kitchens. The day has since been celebrated the second Friday of January to allow Mr. Ando due recognition. (Wikipedia)
I think January 19th, 2012 should be celebrated as Momofuku Ando Day. If I had some Chikin ramen I’d review it, so I think I’ll have to do something a little less authentic. But yeah – MOMOFUKU ANDO DAY 2012! Sounds like a plan. Spread the word! Eat some instant noodles and be charitable towards your fellow being!!!
Here are some links:
Momofuku Ando – Wikipedia | Link
Momofuku Ando Japan Times Obituary | Link
Momofuku Ando’s Mew York Times Obituary | Link
The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum In Osaka, Japan
English | Japanese
A video about the Momofuku Ando museum in Japan.
The Cup Noodle museum. I don’t know but I would be way more excited than this guy is!
This is pretty bizarre.
David Chang runs the Momofuku restaurant.
47.788617 -122.337907Let’s call him Carlos has been up for the last 24 hours tending to the art of cooking pure based cocaine, converting it into a a sticky yellow white pulp called crack, bagging it in $20 and $50 portions and then making the trek over to a phalanx of customers that depend on him to make it through their day.
It’s 7pm in the evening and there in front of me inside some unassuming basement tenament is the arc of a man intent on making as much money is as humanely possible. As he speaks to me, he casually rolls up a spliff, inhales it deeply before turning to pass it to me. I take it, too afraid to tell him that I can’t even stand the aura of weed, let alone crack and make a half assed attempt to inhale.
“The thing pappi,” he regales me “is to never get hooked on your own stuff. The minute you do, it’s over- kiss it goodbye. You become just as bad as the rest of them.”
“As your clients. You mean?”
“What are you talking about?” he shouts, taking the blunt back from me. “Too much of anything will kill you. You think just cause people smoke this shit (poking at a wad gelling at the base of a pot) that I think they’re bad? No- what type of person would I be to judge them?
I nod take out a packet of Marlboro lights and began to smoke anxiously.
In front of me, lies what could easily be a pound of pound of some of the best coke in the city splattered on a black tray. This I know ’cause my tongue is numb and my mind racing just from the simple task of poking my finger in the tray.
Carlos then turns around and reaches for a couple of boxes of Arm & Hammer baking soda and begins the delicate task of cooking up a new batch. Meticulously he places a portion of the cocaine in an empty pot with a few drops of water at its base before applying a portion of baking soda.
“What’s the ratio?” I ask
“Pappy, I like to keep this shit good so the customers keep coming back. At least 7 to 10 baking soda. The trick is to get a consistency throughout.”
Although I’m not sure if the word consistency is his choice of word or mine.
“You don’t measure it with something?”
“Oh no, I know by eyesight.”
As he begins pouring the contents into the pot he then begins to steadily add water and begins to adjust the stove flame, occasionally tilting the pot and stirring it gently with the aid of an oversized spoon.
Next to that pot is another with its contents already slowly gelling into a wad the size of a young child’s fist. Carefully whilst cooking the other pot he tips the water out and places the sticky goo on a double folded paper towel.
As he’s doing this part of me can’t help but wonder to what degree Carlos is enjoying this, the way say a master chef would go about making flame broiled fillet mignon. Except this isn’t a side of a cow that Carlos is baking.
At that moment, Carlos’s live in girlfriend arrives. Barely acknowledging what he’s doing she puts some groceries away, mentions something about how much she can’t stand people who push in line before nonchalantly inquiring what he’s in the mood for dinner.
“I got this steak on special,”she says pointing to a large porter steak with its grocery sticker firmly embossed on the side.
“In a little while baby. Just let me take care of this first.”
He then takes another drag of his spliff and smiles- “So you think you can write an article about this shit and make me a hero?”
“Why not,”I nonchalantly say ” I would never in a million years be able to do what you do.”
“Pappy, do you think I do this because I don’t know anything else in life? You know I went to school. I have my GED. Shit, I could have gone on to college to become a professor like you.”I recently showcased a couple of childhood photos onto a school-funded Asian-American Club facebook page, per instruction for celebrating the Lunar New Year. And just a few days ago, I got this flood of notifications from random fellow students and associates, all white, vying for tales on what it’s like living in a ‘third-world’ country and struggling valiantly within tropical poverty.
And I just. No. What these people saw were a dirty, undereducated brown child living in a dirt hut, sitting on rickety wooden furniture, eating cheap food and wearing single-digit cent clothing. In reality, that was so far from the truth.
From age birth to eight, I lived with my parents in inner-land Taiwan, which didn’t have a lot of international traffic or influence. So yes, my home nearly lacked any glass windows, and yes, all our furniture was cheap, hand-crafted wood. Yes, we lacked an air conditioner or dishwasher or laundry machine or a color TV. Yes, we were surrounded by dirt and wildlife, and yes our food was cheap.
But you know what else we had? Free healthcare and higher education. Very easy access to healthy, cooked food and lots of fresh groceries. I was getting endless top of the line, high quality eyeglasses paid completely by insurance because that’s just how good it was over there. Here’s the thing; we used brooms made out of straw and driftwood because that’s just what the local markets sold. The cornerstore didn’t have plastic acrylic brooms and swiffer sweepers because they just didn’t import them, and therefore we didn’t buy them.
What we had wasn’t technically any worse or lower quality than what you’d find in Target or Walmart. A hand-made straw broom works just as well, and cost around the same. Instead of Tupperware, we hung up our meat in the open air. Instead of canvas bags, we carried our stuff in straw or hemp handbaskets. Instead of buying skinless chicken thighs that were vacuum-wrapped in plastic, we bought freshly-slaughtered chickens and cooked everything, boiling the unlaid eggs that looked like yellow orbs held together by a translucent string.
We didn’t do these things because we were dirty brown slanty eyed savages squatting in the dirt and we couldn’t afford better. We did it because that’s just what our life was surrounded by. Our money was spent on these things because that’s what was available. Our cooking books didn’t call for carefully refrigerating our leftovers, do we didn’t consider doing so. Our windows didn’t have glass because it was always hot, and our floors we either dirt or tile because of the constant rains, flooding, and it was easier to clean.
You just look at these images and see some Americanized interpretation of what it means to be a ‘poor third-worlder’, and you completely undermine everything about my life and what I want to express. You impose an image onto me. Maybe my family was indeed poor, but it wasn’t because we used straw brooms and shelled our rice ourselves. These things were just our lives.
But you know what? I am poor now. I, a first-generation immigrant living in the American midwest, never have more than 200$ in my bank at a time. I have to heavily ration my food, medical needs, and living expenses to the letter, and it’s a daily struggle. I have a job at my college during the day, work a desk job at night, do freelance art services and online commissions, and also am the occasional other half of a sex worker’s cam modeling videos. And I am very much impoverished.
Back when I lived in a windowless unit with no tv or air conditioning and used wooden tools and furniture, I was much better off than what I am today. Your definition of ‘poor’ and ‘impoverished’ is very much off the mark, and it’s because of whiteness.Robert Mueller is not taking his job as special investigator lightly.
In fact, Mueller is proceeding with the investigation into potential Russian interference in the 2016 election by putting together the A-Team of investigatory muscle.
Those included in Mueller’s all-star squad are James Quarles, partner in Mueller’s law firm, and a former assistant prosecutor in the Watergate scandal.
Andrew Weissmann is the head of the Justice Department’s criminal fraud unit. He also worked as a prosecutor in the Enron accounting scandal and has tried numerous mob cases, involving the Genovese and Gambino crime families.
Jeannie Rhee has previously worked for the Justice Department as an advisor to the White House and attorney general, advising on executive power and national security issues.
And if Mueller is the “Hannibal” of this powerhouse crew, then the “B.A. Baracus” has to be Michael Dreeben.
As quoted from the Lawfare blog:
What’s the worst thing that happened to Donald Trump this week? It was NOT Director Comey’s testimony. Rather, it must be the late Friday news that Robert Mueller has hired Michael Dreeben, on a part-time basis, to help with his investigation. Dreeben, a deputy in the Office of the Solicitor General, has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court. His specialty has, for the last 20 years, been criminal matters and he has an encyclopedic knowledge of criminal law. I once saw him argue a Supreme Court matter without a single note. In short, he is quite possibly the best criminal appellate lawyer in America (at least on the government’s side). That Mueller has sought his assistance attests both to the seriousness of his effort and the depth of the intellectual bench he is building.
And this is very much what needs to happen. If a hostile foreign government has attempted to interfere with an American election, it wasn’t for our good.
If there is a chance that someone near to the president had a part in it, that’s even worse news, and people need to put their tribal mentality aside and sincerely desire to see this thing carried out to the end.
If Mueller’s moves are any indication, that’s exactly what he intends to do.Looking for news you can trust?
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As the NFL season rolls on, so too does the debate over players protesting during the National Anthem and the criticism of former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, the man who set the protests in motion. Things came to a head late last month, when President Donald Trump declared at a rally that NFL owners should fire “[those] son of a bitch” players who kneel for the anthem—a move Trump claims is disrespectful to veterans who, he says, fought to defend the flag.
Since October, Kaepernick has dispensed nearly $1 million to dozens of nonprofits.
Among the charges that conservative critics have levied against Kaepernick—who began sitting or kneeling for the anthem last August to protest police violence against black people—is that he’s not doing much off the field to improve the lives of the people he claims to be advocating for. In fact, while Kaepernick’s community activism hasn’t received nearly as much attention as his on-field protests, he’s been plenty active.
Just this week, Kaepernick visited a high school in Harlem to speak to students about social activism. He has also used his social media platforms to help raise money for victims of the various hurricanes. Before that, he sponsored a series of Know Your Rights camps wherein young people, mainly black and Hispanic, learn about their legal rights during interactions with the police. And he’s put up a good chunk of change, too: Since October, through his Colin Kaepernick Foundation, the QB has dispensed $900,000—of a $1 million target—to dozens of nonprofits in Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. Last month, the NFL Players’ Association honored the quarterback with an award for his community outreach.
The grant recipients I spoke with told me Kaepernick’s money has helped them do a lot of good. Take the Los Angeles-based Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, one of four organizations that received a $25,000 Kaepernick donation in January. The check arrived not long before our freshly minted president began signing executive orders to ramp up immigration enforcement. Executive director Angelica Salas told me the money helped the group revive its rapid-response network (which had been dormant for several years) just in time for one of the administration’s first big sweeps.
On February 6, Immigration and Customs Enforcement launched raids in dozens of communities across six Southern California counties, arresting more than 160 people in five days. CHIRLA and its partners sprang into action. They identified where the raids were happening, tracked down people at detention centers, and sent in lawyers to advise the detainees and ultimately free them. Kaepernick’s contribution covered a “kind of overtime” period for work that the nonprofit hadn’t anticipated. Speed is a crucial factor in such situations, Salas says: “If you’re Mexican, you can be deported in 2 to 3 hours, especially if you’re from Los Angeles.”
Thanks to the QB’s contributions, people “have been able to stay with their families.”
During the February raids, Salas told me, CHIRLA and its partners were able to spring 11 people from detention—including one immigrant who was already on a Mexico-bound bus awaiting departure. The network has since gotten about 20 others released, including Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, a 49-year-old dad whose arrest by ICE agents near his daughter’s school made national headlines after the 11-year-old recorded it on her mother’s phone. Those people “have been able to stay with their families,” Salas said. “They’re still fighting their cases. But they’re here.” (In August, a judge dismissed the deportation order against Avelica-Gonzalez.)
At the time Kaepernick’s money came through, most donors and foundations were just trying to figure out how the new political winds would affect their giving priorities. While “everyone was still deciding what to do,” Salas says, Kaepernick “gave us a new agility to respond.”
In April, Assata’s Daughters, a Chicago group that focuses on the needs of black girls, received $25,000 from Kaepernick—20 percent of its 2017 operating budget. For a fledgling nonprofit—less than three years old, with just one full-time employee—the donation was “huge,” equivalent to a few months of fundraising, says organizer Page May.
The money helped the group, named after former Black Panther Assata Shakur, establish its own office space (it was sharing before), and expand its community programs. Conservative pundits went nuts over the donation, perhaps because one of those programs is a yearlong workshop introducing teens to grassroots organizing strategies through a black feminist lens. (Assata’s Daughters aligns itself with the Black Lives Matter movement, and its volunteers have also organized around police reform.)
“Compared to what it normally takes to get $25,000, he made it extremely simple.”
Girls taking part in the weekly sessions receive food, a $5 bus pass, and a $10 stipend. One of the goals is simply to keep teenagers out of trouble. “If we want to address [gun] violence, we have to provide young people with a means to make money,” May said. “This is by no means a job, but it’s a little bit.”
That program has expanded from 15 girls to 50, May says, and Assata’s Daughters has also launched one for boys, with 25 participants. In addition, the group runs workshops on coping with violence, including one where kids learned to deal with gunshot and stab wounds before paramedics arrive—skills that two participants actually deployed within days of the workshop, May says. Yet another proposed workshop would teach strategies for de-escalating tense situations. “We want to actually be training up young people to have the tools that they need to deal with some of the things that they’re seeing,” May told me.
I didn’t hear back from the Kapernick Foundation about its giving strategy, but several recipients said they were contacted by Kaepernick’s manager or a foundation rep and asked to write up a brief proposal explaining how they would use the money. Among the grantees listed on the foundation’s website are a Brooklyn group that helps house homeless veterans, a San Fransisco medical clinic that sent staff to support Native American protesters at Standing Rock last year, and the New York City-based Center for Reproductive Rights.
“People are always asking what can celebrities do, and Kaepernick’s model has been to invest directly in the communities that are impacted,” says Adam Jackson, CEO of Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a Baltimore think tank that addresses black issues. His group received $20,000 from Kaepernick in March. It used the money to pay for its annual policy-and-debate camp, which dozens of students attend free of charge.
“Compared to what it normally takes to get $25,000, he made it extremely simple…He didn’t set up all these hoops that we had to jump through,” May told me. “There’s so much work to be done, and there’s not enough time and there’s not enough money. Kaepernick can’t add more hours to a day, but him throwing money at us allows us to train up that many more young leaders,” she adds. “I think that’s amazing.”Tonight's sunset might look rather unusual if you live on the East Coast of the United States. NASA will be launching a rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia that will release payloads of barium and strontium into the atmosphere, turning parts of the night sky blue-green and others red.
NASA does this kind of experiment every so often in order to study the flows of ionized and neutral particles in the upper atmosphere. The agency uses luminescent chemicals like barium to better visualize and track clouds of these particles as they get moved around in the ionosphere by the Earth's magnetic field. (The launch has to be very carefully scheduled, because the chemicals need sunlight to become luminescent, but the observer needs to be watching a dark sky.) NASA is also notes that the amount of barium and strontium used in the test "is much smaller than that used in a typical July 4th fireworks display and poses no hazard to the community."
Luminescent chemicals help NASA study the ionosphere
The launch will also serve another purpose. The rocket being used is a Black Brant IX suborbital rocket, one that NASA hopes to eventually use to eject payloads like experiments or microsatellites into low orbit. This particular Black Brant rocket was built using some unconventional techniques and materials. Some of its parts were 3D-printed, and there are no welds in the body of the rocket cylinder, which was made possible by an entirely different fabrication process called "near net shaping." The hope is that these innovations could someday lower a rocket's mass and, in turn, its cost.
The rocket is scheduled to launch between 7:00PM and 9:00PM ET, and the chemical payloads will be released about six minutes after liftoff. NASA says that it should be visible as far as 235 miles north of the launch site (New York City and Long Island), 232 miles south of it (near Morehead City, North Carolina), and 165 miles west (Charlottesville, Virginia). That all depends on the weather conditions, though. If you're having trouble seeing it, or live outside that area, NASA will also be streaming the event, which we will embed above when it goes live.What do you do when your plan to dumb down the general public has worked better than you anticipated? Well, someone on Madison Avenue is inevitably gonna realize, “Hey! Why is our subliminal advertising no longer working?” Time to adapt. The Dumbing Down of America is way ahead of schedule.
Apparently, the general public is so far-gone now, that clever subliminals, so long a staple of neural programming and consumer-based demand-generation, are literally, going right over the heads of their intended audiences. I guess the “geniuses” at Tavistock failed to realize that when you dumb-down the conscious mind, the subconscious mind will eventually be stupefied as well.
So, it is time to go super-liminal, or in layman’s terms, “like, obvious.” {*1}
From what I understand, feminist organizations are now complaining that the above ad, which recently debuted in Times Square, is “overtly sexual.”
Note to radical feminists: you think? So, for years and years, you were quite content to shop at Target, who’s logo, is an ancient symbol signifying the anus [i.e., the part of her pressing precisely against the bull’s “eye”]. However, the moment they clue you in on what that symbol may represent, you shout “chauvinism” and threaten to boycott?
Sudden concern is no justification for years of symbol illiteracy. To paraphrase Michael Tsarion: awareness does not begin when you realize “someone’s been selling you a lie,” but when you admit to yourself that “you’ve been buying a lie.”
Can we get now back to the task at hand please? And, that task would be: the agenda of turning all of your little girls into complete sluts. Oh, thank you noble sirs at Viacom! I remember back in the day, if you had any hopes of seeing women you just met run around naked, you had better get them drunk first. It’s so nice to see your company dedicating its MTV “programming” towards the charitable goal of saving us gents a few dollars on alcohol. Much obliged.
By chance, might some of you other mega-companies out there wanna pitch in and hurry the process along? The boys are getting horny. Oh, thank you Wal-Mart!
Maybe I’m kind of obtuse, but, if I read this correctly, it’s basically saying, “Who needs money, when you’ve got a pussy between your legs?” Wow, now that is Super-liminal. It’s kind of like a corporate symbiosis between Visa International and the National Association of Pimps and Pornographers. Cross-marketing? Help me out Madison Avenue. Symbiosis? What do you guys call it?
Regardless, I’m sure the world’s largest retail chain was more than happy to contribute. Good to know that Wal-Mart, while resolute in their focus to destroy the American middle-class, is also willing to lend a hand with a few other agendas. {*2} Conscious of the fact that molding an already developed mind can prove extremely difficult, Wal-Mart chose to distribute these panties in their Juniors section [i.e, girls aged from 8 to 12].
Alas, I will finish this by addressing those males who somehow ended up on this blog via Google search, solely because I threw words like “vagina” and “naked” in here. [and, I seriously hope, your query didn’t also include: “+ little girls”] Don’t you worry! These companies are listening. And, what they hear you saying is, “I don’t care about this shit! I just want more blow-jobs!”
Your friends at Walt Disney are way ahead of you. Today’s graduating seniors come pre-programmed. The good people at Disney figured out that phallic objects were passé 12 years ago. {*3} Multiple studies had proven that children were being mentally stunted from over-exposure to television in their early years. Thus, Disney, in keeping with the times, moved from penis-like objects, to penises.
Now, were I to believe in a place called “Hell,” I would finish this by saying we we’re going to it in a hand-basket, or something like that. Being more pragmatic, I will instead ask, What makes you think we’re not already there?
Posted in Articles (ID)
Tags: disney, fellatio, Idiocracy, Little Mermaid, madison avenue, marketing, media, mind control, MTV, pedophilia, phalli, pornography, prostitution, snopes.com, social engineering, subliminal advertising, subliminals, superliminals, target, vagina, viacom, wal-martPHILADELPHIA -- The dots are a little more connected than they were back in March.
The Philadelphia Eagles traded running back LeSean McCoy to the Buffalo Bills on March 4. A week later, the Eagles sent quarterback Nick Foles to St. Louis in exchange for Sam Bradford.
The two trades were big surprises at the time. Nine months later, they seem part of the same puzzle.
Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said the McCoy deal was initiated because of the running back’s contract. McCoy was due to count $11.95 million against the Eagles’ 2015 salary cap.
With the Eagles and Rams discussing the swap of quarterbacks, Kelly knew he was about to take on Bradford’s $13 million contract.
“We had to free up money to get Sam,” Kelly said Thursday. “It was a tough decision.”
The Eagles got Kiko Alonso back in the McCoy deal. Alonso was going into his third season on his rookie contract. He counts $795,000 against the Eagles’ salary cap this year -- more than $11 million less than McCoy.
“Those decisions are made by money,” Kelly said.
Kelly’s next priority was replacing McCoy in the backfield. He signed DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews as free agents. Instead of one back, McCoy, making $11.95 million, the Eagles had three backs: Murray, Mathews and Darren Sproles.
“We have three running backs here whose salary cap hit is $11.1 (million),” Kelly said. “We had one guy who was going to (count) $11.9.”
Meanwhile, Kelly was determined to shift some salary cap money from the offense to the defensive side of the ball. He released cornerback Cary Williams and linebacker Trent Cole. That helped shave about $15 million from the 2015 salary cap.
Those moves gave the Eagles room to sign cornerback Byron Maxwell to a six-year, $63 million contract. Maxwell counts $8.7 million against this year’s salary cap.
All of this is clouded by the structure of NFL contracts, which often include larger, non-guaranteed salaries in the later years. McCoy’s 2015 salary was an example of that.
“One of the things we had, we had players that were older, at the end of their contracts, getting paid big money,” Kelly said. “That’s one of the things in this league. A guy signs a four-year, $25 million deal, but it’s two years at $16 (million) guaranteed. The rest of it isn’t and the back-end years are really high. So you have to make decisions.”
With McCoy, Kelly said, it was a tough decision. But it helped set the Eagles’ other moves into motion.Worried you’ll ring in the new year with an empty glass? The low FODMAP Diet doesn’t need to put a kink in your holiday plans. While some patients react to alcohol itself, lots of people can have small amounts of FODMAP friendly alcohol. So, dust off that shaker. Your new year’s toast may be back on the menu.
There are lots of low FODMAP options when it comes to FODMAP friendly alcoholic drinks. Check out some FODMAP friendly options below.
Beer
According to Monash University, one (375 ml) can of beer is safe per sitting. Even though beer is made from high FODMAP grains, there aren’t enough FODMAPs in a single serving to trigger symptoms in most patients.
Just so you know, cider hasn’t been tested by Monash yet. Since cider is made from apples, it doesn’t fall under the general “beer” umbrella. So, you should avoid it if you’re in the elimination phase.
Wine
Monash University says wine is safe in servings of one glass (150 ml) per sitting. This means most patients are fine ringing in the new year with red, white, or sparkling wine.
Need help choosing the right wine for your new years toast? Check out this holiday wine list from Upkeep: Wine Body & Soul.
Holiday Spirits
If beer or wine isn’t your thing, check out these low FODMAP holiday spirits.
Classic Rye and Ginger
Add one serving of whiskey to a tumbler of FODMAP friendly ginger beer. According to Monash University, one serving (30 ml) of whiskey is ok for most IBS patients. Serve with a wedge of lime.
Rolling Estonian (Twisted Vodka Cranberry)
To try this classic vodka cran with a twist, add one serving of vodka, 1 tbsp of simple syrup, and a splash of club soda to a glass of 100% cranberry juice. Then drop in a lemon wheel for a hint of citrus. According to Monash University, one serving (30 ml) of vodka is tolerated by most IBS patients.
Remember to double-check your cranberry juice is 100% cranberries. Lots of popular brands add apple juice or glucose-fructose to sweeten their juices. While it tastes delicious, it’s not FODMAP friendly.
According to Monash University, one serving (30 ml) of vodka is ok for most IBS patients.
Raspberry Vanilla Soda with Gin
Add one serving of gin to a glass of PC’s raspberry vanilla cane sugar soda. Serve with a lemon twist. If you can’t find raspberry vanilla soda, swap it out for any low FODMAP floral or berry-based soda.
According to Monash University, one serving (30 ml) of vodka is ok for most IBS patients.
Final Thoughts
I hope these low FODMAP holiday spirits help you ring in the new year in style. Don’t forget to test out your drink of choice before you celebrate. While these drinks are low FODMAP, alcohol is still a gut irritant. So, make sure you’re not sensitive to the alcohol itself ahead of time.
If you like this article, sign up for my mailing list below. You’ll get new articles and recipes delivered right to your inbox. Together we’ll get the Low FODMAP Diet down to a science!
© 2017 Amy Agur – The FODMAP Formula
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SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveA secret federal court approved the National Security Agency's bulk collection of telephone metadata for the 36th time on Friday, allowing the agency to continue gathering phone records even as dueling court cases moved forward this week over the controversial program.
The government's requests for reauthorization are typically classified. But in a release, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said it was declassifying its latest petition to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in light of the public's interest in the metadata program.
Officials also signaled their willingness to cooperate with a presidential review panel that urged significant limits on the NSA's powers in December.
"The intelligence community continues to be open to modifications to this program that would provide additional privacy and civil liberty protections while still maintaining its operational benefits," said ODNI spokesperson Shawn Turner.
The disclosure comes in the wake of two divergent legal opinions on NSA spying. Last month, Judge Richard Leon ruled against the government in an unprecedented rebuke of the NSA program. That opinion was later countered in a separate case by that of another judge, William Pauley, last week. Both cases are being appealed — one by the Justice Department, the other by the American Civil Liberties Union.
"We continue to believe that the NSA's call-tracking program violates both statutory law and the Constitution," the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer said in a statement to the Post. "While the government has a legitimate interest in tracking the associations of suspected terrorists, tracking those associations does not require the government to subject every citizen to permanent surveillance."
Meanwhile, pressure on the NSA is mounting in Congress. In a letter to the agency Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded to know if intelligence analysts had ever scrutinized U.S. governmental telephone metadata or electronic communications.
"Has the NSA spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other elected officials?" Sanders asked.
The NSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.There are 21 active users currently online. Comments
Powell Class WS-07R
Long-Range Warpshuttle
- Click to Enlarge Cover -
Illustrator:Copyright:4th EditionThe WS-07 Powell class warpshuttle was developed in conjunction with the new Explorer class starship and Operation Frontier. It is similar to a large shuttlecraft, with two major exceptions: it can be self-sustaining for months at a time, and it is capable of speeds approaching warp four. The self-sufficiency and warp capability of the craft make it ideal for numerous roles. It has been used with great success as an ambulance ship, and several are attached to Starfleet One as executive yachts for the Federation President or other dignitaries. About these schematics: This warpshuttle is outfitted as a mobile Critical Care Unit attached to the Starbase 99 Hospital Station, 17th Medical Unit. This high-quality packet consists of four 11"x17" fold-out sheets with 5 external views of the craft, as well as a detailed internal layout and cross-section.For more information on Starship Dynamics, please visit their Website or Facebook PageImage copyright AFP Image caption Israel's Iron Dome system is widely credited with preventing the deaths of Israeli civilians
The BBC has seen evidence that appears to confirm hackers stole several secret military documents from two government-owned Israeli companies that developed the Iron Dome missile defence system.
The breaches were first publicised by security blogger Brian Krebs on Monday.
The companies denied their classified networks had been infiltrated.
However, the team that discovered the incidents has given the BBC access to an intelligence report, which indicates hundreds of files were indeed copied.
The documents, which were stolen over a period of many months, relate to:
Arrow III missiles
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones
ballistic rockets
The data collected makes strong indications that the actors behind this attack originated from China CyberESI report
Cyber Engineering Services (CyberESI) tracked the activities of the hackers over eight months between 2011 and 2012.
It said the data taken by the hackers suggested they had been after intelligence relating to Iron Dome.
Iron Dome is a complex anti-missile defence system, which can intercept and destroy rockets and shells.
The technology has been widely credited with preventing the deaths of many Israeli civilians during the ongoing conflict with militants from Gaza.
CyberESI's report, compiled in 2013, also indicates the attacks were made using highly sophisticated tools resembling those used by Chinese hackers to infiltrate US defence firms - an attack in which the Chinese government denies any involvement.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert stands next to a Rafael missile
"The data collected makes strong indications that the actors behind this attack originated from China," it says.
"This assertion is based on the activity during the past year that Cyber Engineering Services has observed on compromised networks, as well as the geo-location of the IP [internet protocol] addresses retrieving the exfiltrated data."
"The nature of exfiltrated data and the industry that these companies are involved in suggests that the Chinese hackers were after information related to Israel's all-weather air defence system called Iron Dome."
Gigabytes stolen
CyberESI, which operates out of Maryland in the US, monitored data being stolen from two leading Israeli defence contractors:
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a government-owned company that develops missiles and aircraft
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, a government-owned company established in 1948, which develops surface-to-air missiles
A spokeswoman for IAI initially confirmed to Mr Krebs the attack had taken place and been "reported to the appropriate authorities".
However IAI subsequently said the "information reported regarding the leakage of sensitive information is incorrect" and only its "civilian non-classified" network had been hacked.
A spokesman for Rafael said the company did "not recall such an incident".
Image copyright AP Image caption The hackers allegedly took documents related to the Arrow missile
But the report seen by the BBC suggests sensitive data was taken from IAI and that Rafael's network was compromised, with hackers able to deactivate security software and harvest authentication data, including passwords.
In total, the report says, gigabytes of data were stolen from the Israeli companies, including:
word documents
power point presentations
sp |
17,000 people at Origins 2017 to check out tons of new games. Here are some of our faves.
>> This Kettering bar has 300 board games, craft beer, and no TVs
A promotional photograph from Origins shows the excited crowd in the Exhibitor Hall. PHOTO / Jacob Sigafoos, Official Origins Photographer
Century: Spice Road
In this simple card game, you get to take on the role of a caravan leader trading spices. Players take turns drawing cards from the common “market” area. These cards allow them to draw “spices” (wooden cubes) from the supply or trade spices they have for others they need. The players can also draw victory point cards which let them trade spices for points that will be scored at the end of the game. And that’s it! The combination of simple, elegant design, quick playtime, and stunning art mean this game it sure to be a hit. In fact, Plan B Games, the company that makes Century: Spice Road brought 300 copies with them to Origins, and were completely sold out only a few days into the convention.
>> 8 things you’ll love about the new Canal Street Arcade & Deli
>> 5 sandwiches we can’t wait to eat at Canal Street Arcade & Deli
The theme was so well executed, we could practically smell the camels in the caravan travelling the Silk Road in Century: Spice Road. PHOTO / David Obenour
The Godfather: Corleone's Empire
This game, which is scheduled for release next month, is certain to be an absolute smash. Based on the beloved film series, The Godfather: Corleone's Empire is a delightfully dark little worker placement number that comes with beautifully-sculpted plastic miniatures. Players will shake down businesses in New York City for money, drugs, and guns. Murder and intrigue is ensured as players battle for influence. This game is guaranteed to be a hit for many reasons, not the least of which that it was created by Eric Lang, one of game design’s current prodigal sons.
>> You’ll LOVE the killer views from this new downtown Dayton apartment up for grabs
Lisboa
Lisboa is an absolutely beautiful European-style board game in which players must rebuild the capital city of Portugal after it was destroyed by a 1755 earthquake. Players will remove rubble from the city, interact with nobles, and build new buildings along a grid system to create the modern-day city of Lisbon. If you want to win this game, you will have to trade with the builder, the marquis, and the king, while exporting goods on ships and making deals with the clergy. Lisboa, like all of designer Vital Lacerda’s titles, has a lot of moving parts that can be used together as paths to victory. This one will definitely require a few play-throughs to perfect strategy.
In the incredible historical game Lisboa, players will manipulate various factors in pursuit of the winning strategy. PHOTO / Josher Lumpkin
EXIT: The Game
Have you ever wanted to recreate all the challenge offered by an escape room adventure, without leaving the house or actually being imprisoned? If so, the EXIT: The Game series is for you. These three budget-priced titles will have you teaming up with your friends to solve puzzles using clues and logic. The series was on fire at Origins. The company who makes it, Thames & Kosmos, only had 50 copies of each title to sell each day during the convention. Every day, they sold out only minutes after the hall opened.
>> 15 kickass patios in the Dayton area
Get all the anxious intensity of Escape the Room without spending the money or interacting with strangers with EXIT: The Game from Thames & Kosmos. PHOTO / Josher Lumpkin
Flip Ships
Flip Ships is all the fun of Space Invaders in analog form. In this dexterity game, players work cooperatively to take out an oncoming assault of alien ships. To do so, they must take turns flicking their own ships off of a wooden launchpad in hopes of landing on one of the advancing enemies. Any enemy ships remaining at the end of the round will move forward to attack. This addictive little game is great for families, because it combines light strategy with cardboard ships that really fly through the air!
>> PHOTOS: See the stunning transformation of DK Effect, a new arcade bar in DaytonThe 2012 Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 12. The ceremony offered the stars another chance to shine on the red carpet, and some of them took this literally: we saw lots of sparkly gowns. Furthermore, the little black dress was extremely popular, but we also so some bright colors, from a see through orange dress to a light elegant blue gown.
Below you have 13 looks that are definitely worth analyzing. Which one is your favorite?
Rihanna in Giorgio Armani
Rihanna in Armani at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by hauntinglylovely on Tumblr
Hot and elegant – that’s how Rihanna looked at the 2012 Grammy Awards, in a jaw-dropping dress that she co-designed with Giorgio Armani. Pendant necklaces, a gold clutch and Christian Louboution shoes completed her look.
Adele in Giorgio Armani
Adele at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by Bad Moon Rising on Tumblr
Adele looked classy and confident at the 2012 Grammy Awards, wearing a Giorgio Armani gown. I can honestly say this is her best look so far, don’t you think?
Katy Perry in Ellie Saab
Katy Perry in Ellie Saab at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by The Nothing Special Blog on Tumblr
Katy Perry picked a blue dress for the Grammys, probably to go with her blue hair. She looked really pretty in an Elie Saab Spring 2012 Couture gown, but I can’t shake of the feeling that she is too young to pull off this look.
Taylor Swift in Zuhair Murad
Taylor Swift in Zuhair Murad at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by TSwiftDaily on Tumblr
The pretty singer opted for a Zuhair Murad Fall 2011 Couture gown. The high neckline of the dress goes really well with her hairdo.
Gwyneth Paltrow in Stella McCartney
Gwyneth Paltrow in Stella McCartney at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by GwynethPaltrows on Tumblr
Paltrow kept it simple at the Grammy Awards and opted for a classy black Stella McCartney dress. I’m personally fascinated by her ponytail.
Carrie Underwood in Gomez-Gracia
Carrie Underwood at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by thelightersideofthings on Tumblr
The country star hit the red carpet at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in a Gomez-Gracia gown. The purse doesn’t go with the outfit tough.
Kelly Osbourne in Tony Ward
Kelly Osbourne at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by Sampaguita on Tumblr
Kelly Osbourne sparkled on Sunday night in a dress by Tony Ward, shoes by Giuseppe Zanotti, and jewelry by Pomellato. Still, I find her hair a little disturbing.
Kate Beckinsale in Zuhair Murad
Kate Beckinsale at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by whoissharon on Tumblr
Kate Beckinsale hit the red carpet in a mini dress by Zuhair Murad with chiffon draping and a black velvet bow detail at the shoulder. She finished off her look with Ferragamo pumps and Sutra jewelry.
Alicia Keys in Alexandre Vauthier
Alicia Keys at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by Hollywood Fashion on Tumblr
Alicia Keys looked lovely on Sunday night, wearing a Alexandre Vauthier Spring 2012 Couture black gown. She accessorized her look with Christian Louboutin shoes. Unfortunately, the ankle strap makes her legs look surprisingly short.
Anne V in Anthony Vaccarello
Anne V and Adam Levine at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by Bound for Beantown on Tumblr
As much as I might love Adam Levine, I can clearly see why he is so into Anne. She looked absolutely stunning at the 2012 Grammy Awards. Her entire left leg was exposed in the tiny dress, and a big section of her stomach too. Thank God she has the body to pull this off.
Jessie J in Julien McDonald
Jessie J at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by Hollywood Fashion on Tumblr
Jessie J choose to shine at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, wearing a Julien Macdonald silver dress. The mermaid hemline highlights her beautiful figure, don’t you think?
Fergie in Jean Paul Gaultier
Fergie at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by mveboutique on Tumblr
I’m sorry, but my eyes are currently bleeding. Apparently even Jean Paul Gaultier makes mistakes. The gown is from the 2012 Spring Couture collection.
Lady Gaga
Lady Gaga at the 2012 Grammy Awards, photo by holyhomoeroticbatman on Tumblr
Lady Gaga wore a custom Versace ensemble at the awards ceremony and covered her face in fishnet. Odd, but I think this is surprisingly a ‘decent’ look for her, due to the history of her award shows appearances.2017 seemed like an endless rollercoaster. And Google, the barometer of the American zeitgeist, was there soaking it all in.
The tech company recently released its annual list of top searches for the year, which included everything from natural disasters and the slew of political movements to hit TV shows and iPhone releases. As always, the results were very telling, and provided a solid summary of the figures, products, and ideas that defined the past 11 months.
Let’s break down the top U.S. searches by category, beginning with music. The list of top 2017 album releases was led by Taylor Swift’s Reputation (duh), followed by Jay Z’s 4:44, Kendrick Lamar’s Damn, Logic’s Everybody, and Drake’s More Life.
Top Albums / New Releases
1. Reputation (Taylor Swift)
2. 4:44 (Jay Z)
3. Damn (Kendrick Lamar)
4. Everybody (Logic)
5. More Life (Drake)
6. Harry Styles (Harry Styles)
7. Issa Album (21 Savage)
8. Divide (Ed Sheeran)
9. True to Self (Bryson Tiller)
10. Flower Boy (Tyler, The Creator)
The No. 1 searched music act was Linkin Park, which isn’t surprising considering the recent death of the group’s frontman, Chester Bennington. Cardi B came in at No. 2 on the top-searched music acts; Lil Pump took the No. 3 slot; and Joyner Lucas and Jason Aldean rounded out the top five, respectively.
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Music Artist
1. Linkin Park
2. Cardi B
3. Lil Pump
4. Joyner Lucas
5. Jason Aldean
6. Danielle Bregoli
7. Post Malone
8. Aaron Carter
9. Remy Ma
10. Montgomery Gentry
There were also a lot of notable record releases in 2017. Luis Fonsi’s record-breaking “Despacito” was the top-searched song in the year, followed by Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” and Migos’ “Bad and Boujee.” Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do,” Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow,” and Future’s “Mask Off” were also included in the list
Songs
1. Luis Fonsi — “Despacito” featuring Daddy Yankee
2. Kendrick — “Humble”
3. Migos — “Bad and Boujee”
4. Taylor Swift — “Look What You Made Me Do”
5. Cardi B — “Bodak Yellow”
6. Lil Pump — “Gucci Gang”
7. Camila Cabello — “Havana” featuring Young Thug
8. Ed Sheeran — “Shape of You”
9. Future — “Mask Off”
10. Ariana Grande — “Side to Side” featuring Nicki Minaj
Google also released a two-minute video that summarizes the top searches around the world in 2017. It might get you a little emotional, so brace yourself.
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You can check out more highlights from top U.S. searches in 2017 below. Head to Google's official Year in Review page to check out the full lists by country and around the world.
People
1. Matt Lauer
2. Meghan Markle
3. Harvey Weinstein
4. Michael Flynn
5. Kevin Spacey
6. Bill O’Reilly
7. Melania Trump
8. Kathy Griffin
9. Milo Yiannopoulos
10. Gal Gadot
Losses
1. Tom Petty
2. Aaron Hernandez
3. Chris Cornell
4. Bill Paxton
5. Hugh Hefner
6. Chester Bennington
7. Charlie Murphy
8. Lil Peep
9. Jim Nabors
10. David Cassidy
Actors
1. Meghan Markle
2. Kevin Spacey
3. Gal Gadot
4. Louis C.K.
5. Meryl Streep
6. Bill Skarsgard
7. Millie Bobby Brown
8. Tom Holland
9. Maia Campbell
10. Tommy Wiseau
Movies
1. IT
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. Wonder Woman
4. Get Out
5. Justice League
6. Logan
7. Baby Driver
8. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
9. Hidden Figures
10. Dunkirk
Movies (Action)
1. Wonder Woman
2. Justice League
3. Logan
4. Baby Driver
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
6. Dunkirk
7. Thor: Ragnarok
8. Spider-Man Homecoming
9. Blade Runner 2049
10. Power Rangers
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Movies (Drama)
1. Hidden Figures
2. Wonder
3. The Shack
4. Murder on the Orient Express
5. Moonlight
6. The Eyez on Me
7. Fences
8. Before I Fall
9. Patriots Day
10. Wind River
Movies (Comedy)
1. Lady Bird
2. The Big Sick
3. The House
4. Girls Trip
5. Going in Style
6. Daddy’s Home 2
7. Rough Night
8. Snatched
9. Fist Fight
10. The Disaster Artist
Movies (Horrors)
1. IT
2. Get Out
3. Split
4. 47 Meters Down
5. It Comes At Night
6. Happy Death Day
7. Alien Covenant
8. The Mummy
9. The Dark Tower
10. Wish Upon
Movies (Documentaries)
1. Casey Anthony: An American Murder Mystery
2. 13th
3. Tickled
4. Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated
5. Chris Brown: Welcome to My Life
6. Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence
7. What the Health
8. Five Foot Two
9. Icarus
10. I Am Health Ledger
TV Shows
1. 13 Reasons Why
2. Game of Thrones
3. This Is Us
4. Iron Fist
5. Riverdale
6. Bachelor in Paradise
7. The Good Doctor
8. Santa Clarita Diet
9. Big Little Lies
10. American Gods
TV Shows (Drama)
1. 13 Reasons Why
2. Game of Thrones
3. This Is Us
4. Iron Fist
5. Riverdale
6. The Good Doctor
7. Big Little Lies
8. American Gods
9. Ozark
10. Mindhunter
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TV Shows (Reality)
1. Bachelor in Paradise
2. Big Brother
3. Dancing With the Stars
4. Survivor
5. America’s Got Talent
6. Dance Moms
7. The Amazing Race
8. RuPaul’s Drag Race
9. Project Runway
10. American Idol
Series Premiere
1. Game of Thrones
2. Scandal
3. Big Little Lies
4. American Horror Story
5. Outlander
6. Young Sheldon
7. The Walking Dead
8. Shameless
9. Chicago Justice
10. House of Cards
Season Finale
1. Bachelor
2. This Is Us
3. Game of Thrones
4. Chicago Fire
5. Dancing With the Stars
6. The Voice
7. Girls
8. Twin Peaks
9. Grimm
10. Vampire Diaries
TV Shows (Documentaries)
1. Ken Burns: Vietnam
2. Time: The Kalief Browder Story
3. Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story
4. One of Us
5. The Sign
TV Shows (Comedy)
1. Rick & Morty
2. Saturday Night Live
3. South Park
4. Star vs. The Forces of Evil
5. The Gong Show
Fashion Brands
1. Gucci
2. Louis Vuitton
3. Supreme
4. Fashion Nova
5. Chanel
6. Yves Saint Laurent
7. Christian Dior SE
8. Dolce & Gabbana
9. Valentino
10. Moschino
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NFL Players
1. Deshaun Watson
2. Tony Romo
3. Josh Gordon
4. Kelvin Benjamin
5. Matt Ryan
6. Jimmy Garoppolo
7. Adrian Peterson
8. Kareem Hunt
9. Alejandro Villanueva
10. Julio Jones
NBA Players
1. Kyrie Irving
2. Lonzo Ball
3. Russell Westbrook
4. Carmelo Anthony
5. Isaiah Thomas
6. Gordon Hayward
7. Paul George
8. James Harden
9. Kawhi Leonard
10. Chris PaulWashington State University – The largest study of its kind has found that organic foods and crops have a suite of advantages over their conventional counterparts, including more antioxidants and fewer, less frequent pesticide residues.
The study looked at an unprecedented 343 peer-reviewed publications comparing the nutritional quality and safety of organic and conventional plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, and grains. The study team applied sophisticated meta-analysis techniques to quantify differences between organic and non-organic foods.
Most of the publications covered in the study looked at crops grown in the same area, on similar soils. This approach reduces other possible sources of variation in nutritional and safety parameters.
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The British Journal of Nutrition study was led by scientists at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. In general, the team found that organic crops have several nutritional benefits that stem from the way the crops are produced. A plant on a conventionally managed field will typically have access to high levels of synthetic nitrogen, and will marshal the extra resources into producing sugars and starches. As a result, the harvested portion of the plant will often contain lower concentrations of other nutrients, including health-promoting antioxidants.
Without the synthetic chemical pesticides applied on conventional crops, organic plants also tend to produce more phenols and polyphenols to defend against pest attacks and related injuries. In people, phenols and polyphenols can help prevent diseases triggered or promoted by oxidative-damage like coronary heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.
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Overall, organic crops had 18 to 69 per cent higher concentrations of antioxidant compounds. The team concludes that consumers who switch to organic fruit, vegetables, and cereals would get 20 to 40 per cent more antioxidants. That’s the equivalent of about two extra portions of fruit and vegetables a day, with no increase in caloric intake.
While crops harvested from organically managed fields sometimes contain pesticide residues, the levels are usually tenfold to a hundredfold lower in organic food, compared to the corresponding, conventionally grown food.
“This study is telling a powerful story of how organic plant-based foods are nutritionally superior and deliver bona fide health benefits,” said Charles Benbrook, a Washington State University researcher and the lone American co-author of the paper.
In a surprising finding, the team concluded that conventional crops had roughly twice as much cadmium, a toxic heavy metal contaminant, as organic crops. The leading explanation is that certain fertilizers approved for use only on conventional farms somehow make cadmium more available to plant roots. A doubling of cadmium from food could push some individuals over safe daily intake levels.Colorist is an Adobe Illustrator extension. Color is one of the most important things in your design. So why not use a precise and simple tool to tweak color values. With Colorist you can adjust colors in a more intuitive way.
Illustrator built-in color controls?
We usually create tools based on our own requirements, and in this case we found ourselves struggling with precise and efficient color workflow in Illustrator. Colorist can make your workflow faster and easier in many cases.
Who is it for?
Colorist is a great tool for anyone who needs to adjust colors in Illustrator. We found it especially useful for UI- and web design process where you need to tweak colors in very small steps. Randomness created by Randomizer is powerful when you need fast ideas for color palettes, logos and other elements.
Tweaker, Randomizer & Setter?
There are three different tools in Colorist, all related to colors. Tweaker is for adjusting color channels in chosen tolerance values. Randomizer is super useful to get random variation to colors with controls. Setter helps in setting colors to chosen items, such as borders, without effecting others.
Credits: Creatide
LINKThe Arabic media is ablaze with the news that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, the emir of an Afghan training camp — whose claim that Saddam Hussein had been involved in training al-Qaeda operatives in the use of chemical and biological weapons was used to justify the invasion of Iraq — has died in a Libyan jail. So far, however, the only English language report is on the Algerian website Ennahar Online, which reported that the Libyan newspaper Oea stated that al-Libi (aka Ali Abdul Hamid al-Fakheri) “was found dead of suicide in his cell,” and noted that the newspaper had reported the story “without specifying the date or method of suicide.”
This news resolves, in the grimmest way possible, questions that have long been asked about the whereabouts of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, perhaps the most famous of “America’s Disappeared” — prisoners seized in the “War on Terror,” who were rendered not to Guantánamo but to secret prisons run by the CIA or to the custody of governments in third countries — often their own — where, it was presumed, they would never be seen or heard from again.
The emir of the Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan, al-Libi was one of hundreds of prisoners seized by Pakistani forces in December 2001, crossing from Afghanistan into Pakistan. Most of these men ended up in Guantánamo after being handed over (or sold) to US forces by their Pakistani allies, but al-Libi was, notoriously, rendered to Egypt by the CIA to be tortured on behalf of the US government.
In Egypt, he came up with the false allegation about connections between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein that was used by President Bush in a speech in Cincinnati on October 7, 2002, just days before Congress voted on a resolution authorizing the President to go to war against Iraq, in which, referring to the supposed threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime, Bush said, “We’ve learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and deadly gases.”
Four months later, on February 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the same claim in his notorious speech to the UN Security Council, in an attempt to drum up support for the invasion. “I can trace the story of a senior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these [chemical and biological] weapons to al-Qaeda,” Powell said, adding, “Fortunately, this operative is now detained, and he has told his story.” As a Newsweek report in 2007 explained, Powell did not identify al-Libi by name, but CIA officials — and a Senate Intelligence Committee report — later confirmed that he was referring to al-Libi.
Al-Libi recanted his story in February 2004, when he was returned to the CIA’s custody, and explained, as Newsweek described it, that he told his debriefers that “he initially told his interrogators that he ‘knew nothing’ about ties between Baghdad and Osama bin Laden and he ‘had difficulty even coming up with a story’ about a relationship between the two.” The Newsweek report explained that “his answers displeased his interrogators — who then apparently subjected him to the mock burial. As al-Libi recounted, he was stuffed into a box less than 20 inches high. When the box was opened 17 hours later, al-Libi said he was given one final opportunity to ‘tell the truth.’ He was knocked to the floor and ‘punched for 15 minutes.’ It was only then that, al-Libi said, he made up the story about Iraqi weapons training.”
As I explained in a recent article, Even In Cheney’s Bleak World, The Al-Qaeda-Iraq Torture Story Is A New Low, drawing on reports in the New York Times and by Jane Mayer in the New Yorker, the use of al-Libi to extract a false confession that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq was particularly shocking, because a Defense Intelligence Agency report had concluded in February 2002 that al-Libi was lying, and Dan Coleman of the FBI (which had been pulled off al-Libi’s case when the CIA — and the administration — decided to render him to torture in Egypt) had no doubt that the emir of an Afghan training camp would know nothing about Iraq. “It was ridiculous for interrogators to think Libi would have known anything about Iraq,” Coleman told Jane Mayer. “I could have told them that. He ran a training camp. He wouldn’t have had anything to do with Iraq.”
There have long been suspicions that, after the CIA had finished exploiting al-Libi, he was sent back to Libya, but although Ennahar Online claimed that he “was sentenced to life imprisonment” in Libya, and that a representative of Human Rights Watch had recently met him in prison (which I have not yet had time to investigate, but find highly unlikely), the most detailed story about what happened to him, and why he was not sent to Guantánamo with 14 other “high-value detainees” in September 2006, was provided to Newsweek by Noman Benotman, an exiled Libyan opposed to the regime of Colonel Gaddafi, who said, in May 2007, that
during a recent trip to Tripoli, he met with a senior Libyan government official who confirmed to him that al-Libi had been quietly returned to Libya and is now in prison there. Benotman said that he was told by the senior Libyan government official — whom he declined to publicly identify — that al-Libi is extremely ill, suffering from tuberculosis and diabetes. “He is there in jail and very sick,” Benotman [said]. He also said that the senior official told him that the Libyan government has agreed not to publicly confirm anything about al-Libi — out of deference to the Bush administration. “If the Libyans will confirm it, it will embarrass the Americans because he is linked to the Iraq issue,” Benotman said.
The most important question that needs asking just now, of course, is whether it was possible for al-Libi to commit suicide in a Libyan jail, or whether he was murdered. I doubt that we will ever find out the truth, but whatever the case, the focus on his death should not rest solely on Libya, which only took possession of him after the US administration had made use of him to justify the invasion of Iraq. Whatever al-Libi’s actual crimes, his use as a tool in a program of “extraordinary rendition” and torture, exploited shamelessly not to foil future terrorist plots but to yield false information about al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, remains a low point in a “War on Terror” that has few redeeming features.
POSTSCRIPT (June 5): In response to a query about the visit to al-Libi by representatives of Human Rights Watch, from blogger Eric Pottenger, who wrote a post about al-Libi here, I’ve realized that I need to clarify the doubts I expressed above about this visit, as mentioned in Ennahar Online. At the time (the evening of Sunday May 10), I wrote that I had “not yet had time to investigate” the claim, but that I found it “highly unlikely.” What I need to clarify is that I was suspicious at the time, because Algerian English language sources online are notoriously unreliable, but I spoke to Human Rights Watch on the Monday, and believe that their representatives did indeed see al-Libi in the prison, and that he refused to be interviewed by them, asking them only where they had been while he was being tortured, as I reported in a follow-up article on the Tuesday.
Andy Worthington is the author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison (published by Pluto Press, distributed by Macmillan in the US, and available from Amazon — click on the following for the US and the UK). To receive new articles in your inbox, please subscribe to my RSS feed, and see here for my definitive Guantánamo prisoner list, published in March 2009.
For updates on the story, see: Dick Cheney And The Death Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, The “Suicide” Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi: Why The Media Silence?, Two Experts Cast Doubt On Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi’s “Suicide”, Lawrence Wilkerson Nails Cheney On Use Of Torture To Invade Iraq, In the Guardian: Death in Libya, betrayal by the West (in the Guardian here), Lawrence Wilkerson Nails Cheney’s Iraq Lies Again (And Rumsfeld And The CIA), and WORLD EXCLUSIVE: New Revelations About The Torture Of Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi.
For a sequence of articles dealing with the use of torture by the CIA, on “high-value detainees,” and in the secret prisons, see: Guantánamo’s tangled web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majid Khan, dubious US convictions, and a dying man (July 2007), Jane Mayer on the CIA’s “black sites,” condemnation by the Red Cross, and Guantánamo’s “high-value” detainees (including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) (August 2007), Waterboarding: two questions for Michael Hayden about three “high-value” detainees now in Guantánamo (February 2008), Six in Guantánamo Charged with 9/11 Murders: Why Now? And What About the Torture? (February 2008), The Insignificance and Insanity of Abu Zubaydah: Ex-Guantánamo Prisoner Confirms FBI’s Doubts (April 2008), Guantánamo Trials: Another Torture Victim Charged (Abdul Rahim al-Nashiri, July 2008), Secret Prison on Diego Garcia Confirmed: Six “High-Value” Guantánamo Prisoners Held, Plus “Ghost Prisoner” Mustafa Setmariam Nasar (August 2008), Will the Bush administration be held accountable for war crimes? (December 2008), The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney (Part One) and The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney (Part Two) (December 2008), Prosecuting the Bush Administration’s Torturers (March 2009), Abu Zubaydah: The Futility Of Torture and A Trail of Broken Lives (March 2009), Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part One), Ten Terrible Truths About The CIA Torture Memos (Part Two), 9/11 Commission Director Philip Zelikow Condemns Bush Torture Program, Who Authorized The Torture of Abu Zubaydah? and CIA Torture Began In Afghanistan 8 Months before DoJ Approval, Even In Cheney’s Bleak World, The Al-Qaeda-Iraq Torture Story Is A New Low (all April 2009), Obama’s First 100 Days: Mixed Messages On Torture (May 2009). Also see the extensive archive of articles about the Military Commissions.
For other stories discussing the use of torture in secret prisons, see: An unreported story from Guantánamo: the tale of Sanad al-Kazimi (August 2007), Rendered to Egypt for torture, Mohammed Saad Iqbal Madni is released from Guantánamo (September 2008), A History of Music Torture in the “War on Terror” (December 2008), Seven Years of Torture: Binyam Mohamed Tells His Story (March 2009), and also see the extensive Binyam Mohamed archive. And for other stories discussing torture at Guantánamo and/or in “conventional” US prisons in Afghanistan, see: The testimony of Guantánamo detainee Omar Deghayes: includes allegations of previously unreported murders in the US prison at Bagram airbase (August 2007), Guantánamo Transcripts: “Ghost” Prisoners Speak After Five And A Half Years, And “9/11 hijacker” Recants His Tortured Confession (September 2007), The Trials of Omar Khadr, Guantánamo’s “child soldier” (November 2007), Former US interrogator Damien Corsetti recalls the torture of prisoners in Bagram and Abu Ghraib (December 2007), Guantánamo’s shambolic trials (February 2008), Torture allegations dog Guantánamo trials (March 2008), Sami al-Haj: the banned torture pictures of a journalist in Guantánamo (April 2008), Former Guantánamo Prosecutor Condemns “Chaotic” Trials in Case of Teenage Torture Victim (Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld on Mohamed Jawad, January 2009), Judge Orders Release of Guantánamo’s Forgotten Child (Mohammed El-Gharani, January 2009), Bush Era Ends With Guantánamo Trial Chief’s Torture Confession (Susan Crawford on Mohammed al-Qahtani, January 2009), Forgotten in Guantánamo: British Resident Shaker Aamer (March 2009), and the extensive archive of articles about the Military Commissions.Plans being considered by Michael Gove suggest the government is planning a two-pronged attack on the Freedom of Information Act (FoI) following the publication of Prince Charles' 'black spider' letters.
The new justice secretary is understood to be trying to include officials' 'thinking time' in the costs of FoI requests, thereby making it harder to request information without falling foul of a £600 limit on costs.
The news comes as David Cameron said he would look into ways of tightening up the ministerial veto over FoI request, in the wake of his lost battle to prevent the publication of Prince Charles' letters to members of the government.
The letters, which detailed the prince's views on a range of issues, were published following a protracted legal battle, with then-attorney general Dominic Grieve's being told he was wrong to try and use his ministerial veto by the supreme court.
How Whitehall neutered the Freedom of Information Act
In the wake of the publication, the prime minister said:
"Our FoI laws specifically include the option of a governmental veto, which we exercised in this case for a reason. If the legislation does not make parliament’s intentions for the veto clear enough, then we will need to make it clearer."
While the government investigates how to tighten up rules around the ministerial veto, Gove appears to be investigating other options for restricting the public's right to FoI.
The Financial Times, which recently discovered a three-month automatic deletion programme for Downing Street emails in a bid to avoid the legislation, reported that Gove was currently considering how to implement 'thinking time' changes to FoI.
Under current rules, there is a £600 cost limit for government departments and £450 for other public bodies. The government may choose to lower that limit or insert additional costs into it – such as official's 'thinking time' – making it harder to satisfy.
A 2012 report by the justice select committee found a 'thinking time' addition to the rules "does not seem to us to be a feasible proposition".
They added:
"Such activities are overly dependent on the individual FoI officer's abilities, introducing an element of inconsistency into the process that undermines the fundamental objective of the Act, that everyone has an equal right to access information."
Even under the current rules, campaigners and journalists are regularly told that the information they seek is not centrally held and that providing an answer would therefore be "disproportionately expensive".
Officials often do not collect information which may prove embarrassing to the department, while others do not hold it centrally, so that requests can fall under an S12 'cost of compliance' exemption.
Other requests are met with an S22 exception saying the information is intended for future publication, although officials often refuse to confirm when the future publication will take place.
Another useful exception for officials is S35, which exempts documents involved in the formulation of government policy. Although the exception is intended for high-level policy, campaigners suspect it is used far more broadly.
There is also an S36 exception for prejudice to the 'effective conduct of public affairs' and an S43 exception on the commercial interests of private firms running public services, like G4S or Serco.
High-level outrage at the FoI Act is not a new development. Even Tony Blair, who oversaw the introduction of the Act, came to regret it. In his memoirs, he wrote about his feelings towards himself after passing it:IN 1950, Californian girl Marcia Campbell took delivery of a customised but unfinished 1942 Ford coupe. She tasked Sam Barris with finishing it, specifying dark blue duco, a ’49 Olds grille, five-inch chop and lengthened doors and quarters.
Similarly, Barris bodyman Bill Ortega treated his 1941 Mercury to a severe chop, relocated fuel filler, smoothed nose and deck, and full fadeaway fenders down either side.
Sally and John Phillips applied US custom techniques to their humble Morris Minor
Sixty-five years and 5390 miles away, Sally and John Phillips have painstakingly applied the most awesome traits of these early Californian game-changers to their humble ’63 Morris Minor, creating a masterpiece in the process.
The Morris oozes style. The bonnet was reshaped and rounded and the grille is |
have a "kbGetBlockID(string unitName)" now we just need to be able to do it in reverse!
Trigger methods like trImmediateUnitGarrison(string unitScenarioName) only take a "scenarioName" and not the unitID. But there's no way to get the scenarioName unless you use the editor UI - and this isn't always available. The only work around is to save it to a global which, apart from being extremely inefficient (having 10 thousand globals), is also not even always possible anyway!
Trust [aom.heavengames.com], we need one [aom.heavengames.com] so badly [aom.heavengames.com]. It actually hurts to think about it.
We have a "kbGetBlockID(string unitName)" now we just need to be able to do it in reverse! Trigger methods like trImmediateUnitGarrison(string unitScenarioName) only take a "scenarioName" and not the unitID. But there's no way to get the scenarioName unless you use the editor UI - and this isn't always available. The only work around is to save it to a global which, apart from being extremely inefficient (having 10 thousand globals), is also not even always possible anyway! Trust, we need one so badly. It actually hurts to think about it. Improved way of transferring data between scenarios.
Maybe add something to the player's in game account.
Maybe add something to the player's in game account. Modify Protounit Percent
Modify a stat of a unit by a percentage or add getProtounitField and setProtounitField instead. This would allow any sort of modification including percentage but others such as making the gold cost of the unit equal to a combination of the other costs.
Modify a stat of a unit by a percentage or add getProtounitField and setProtounitField instead. This would allow any sort of modification including percentage but others such as making the gold cost of the unit equal to a combination of the other costs. trGetTerrainType()
Function that returns the type of terrain a unit is standing on.
Function that returns the type of terrain a unit is standing on. Make ALL units targetable
This could also be done by creating some new units through modding.
This could also be done by creating some new units through modding. A new AI file that tells the CPU player to hold all units and production until told otherwise through triggers
Fix the unit headings
Now it is -180 to 180 and not 0 to 360
Now it is -180 to 180 and not 0 to 360 Enable animations (-> set animation effect) for units in multiplayer scenarios
A new trigger that can change a player's major god.
Improve the Grant God Power effect so you can select which god power slot you want the god power to go into.
A new condition that checks if a god power has just been invoked
The god power used condition only checks if the god power has been invoked once in the entire duration of the game
I'll introduce myself quickly to begin with.I am a member of AoMH for several years and I have been modding AoM for quite some years now. It was awesome to find out that it was going to be ported to steam meaning that the community could last for another 10 years! At the moment I am working on something big for AoM and it requires some easy triggers and that is how I found out about the massive amount of things you can do with triggers. After reading that AoE HD got some new triggers in this post:I came up with the idea to make a list of triggers/stuff that the veteran AoM scenario designers want to be added or fixed in this thread on AoMH:First of all and probably the most importantpatch the currently non-escaping " (quote character) because this is used for a ton of maps. Maybe add \" as an escape method? Read post 3 and 7 in this thread for the scenario design legends you will be scaring away from AoMEX if you mess this up :S Just stating this before the list because it isSo, here is the list (so far) with some extra information:This is it so far, maybe the AoMH scenario designers will think of some more in the future. I have added some information about ways to solve this including ways that require the modification of the proto and techtree files. A lot is possible with the proto and techtree and I could make another list of features that should be added for AoMEX if the developers are interested but from what I know of my experience as a modder is that in most cases triggers>(proto + techtree) because triggers allow a lot more and the only drawback triggers have is that they are not able to modify all the things of a unit/tech that are defined in the proto and techtree files so, I think it is better to focus on the triggers first.I hope the developers will read this and that a few of these triggers will be included at release or later patches.Oh and one thing slightly off topic: where is the preview post button? ATM I'm kinda afraid of pushing the post button haha...Oh and I forgot to add something.Another thing that would be helpful is adding a way to easily add campaigns as someone told me that it is a pain to do. Maybe add a campaign editor in game or create a tool for it?by Health Impact News/MedicalKidnap.com Staff
Michael Brooks is a Tennessee dad whose children were taken from him by Child Protective Services after he used medical cannabis to treat his Hepatitis C. After conventional medical treatments failed to cure his terminal Hepatitis C, he turned to medical cannabis and soon his Hepatitis C was in remission. But unfortunately, Tennessee DCS used his medical cannabis treatment as a reason to take away his children.
His health deteriorated rapidly when he stopped using the treatment in the attempt to comply with requirements by the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) in order to get his children back.
He was set to have his rights terminated last month, but his case was continued. Michael took to Facebook Live on June 26, 2017, to record a video for his followers, and it looks like things may be turning around for the Brooks family. His health has begun to improve and there is again hope of his getting visitation back.
See original story and update:
Health Improves with CBD Oil
Michael Brooks has been dying from Hepatitis C. His disease was under control while using medical cannabis, but he was forced to give up his medication due to Tennessee laws as he tried to meet requirements to get his children back from DCS.
On Facebook Live, Michael said that he had been taking CBD oil, or cannabidiol oil and Moringa oil for the past two weeks. CBD oil is legal in all 50 states, as it contains almost no THC, the chemical that gets one “high.”
His body has responded so well that he has been able to throw away his other 20 medications. He said:
The depression is defeated; I’m thinking clearer than I have in a long time.
He told Health Impact News that his appetite has greatly increased—so much so that he may have gained as much as ten pounds.
Michael went on to say that before starting the CBD and Moringa oil, he was having seizures several times a week. But, within the first few days of the new treatment, the seizures ceased.
Before and After Photos
Michael said:
I’ve been going through this for two years. Two years! It’s almost physically killed me, spiritually left me barren for some time, and emotionally, I was a wreck for a while. But, I’m coming out the other side of this. I’ve learned how to let it go and give it to God. I do everything that I can on a daily basis. I call every state representative, every congressmen. Our governor. I press-in. I call DC. I do everything that I can, and then I give it to God. I think we all should do that. If we want to see change, we’ve got to be the change we want to see.
Possibility of Resuming Visitation
In the Facebook Live video, Michael Brooks said that he expects to go to court on July 19, and he is hopeful about getting visitation with his children back.
It has been about 12 weeks since he and Jamie, the children’s mother, have seen the children. Michael told Health Impact News that the visitations stopped after he complained about the unsanitary condition of the vehicle that the children were transported in.
Michael said that on July 19, his legal team will address issues with the Attorney GAL assigned to his case who has testified that he and Jamie were “not even suited as human beings” to parent, without ever officially meeting the couple.
According to Michael, he and Jamie have only spoken to the Attorney GAL about three times in a courtroom. Reportedly, the Attorney GAL has “acted as a witness and a lawyer” in this case, which, Michael said, is illegal. He said that the Attorney GAL’s testimony has impeded his and Jamie’s ability to have visitation resumed.
Michael went on to say that the court was set to Terminate Parental Rights (TPR) for him and Jamie on June 30, but it has been changed to July 28.
How You Can Help
Governor Bill Haslam may be reached at (615) 741-2001 or contacted here. His Facebook is here. His Twitter is here.
Representative Curtis Halford of House District 79 may be reached at (615) 741-7478 or contacted here.
Senator John Stevens of Senate District 24 may be reached at (615) 741-4576 or contacted here.
Gibson County Department of Children’s Services may be reached at (731) 855-7864.
Comment on this story at MedicalKidnap.com.
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Order here!Google has been tweaking the Google Feed (previously known as Google Now) page quite a bit recently. They started rolling out a dual-tabbed interface in December, but seemingly stopped shortly after. Last month, a new transparent Google Now pane appeared for one user, and now a modified version has showed up.
From left to right: Current UI, transparent UI, new translucent UI
The new design has a translucent background instead of a fully transparent one, which is definitely an improvement in my opinion. The only other change seems to be the removal of the quick access toolbar, but that could simply be a result of this user not being enrolled in the same server-side trial.
The changes only seem to affect the Google Feed page on the Pixel Launcher, the actual Google app hasn't been altered (yet). Let us know in the comments if you have the new Feed interface.It will be Argentina-USA for a spot in the Copa America finals. On Saturday, Argentina beat Venezuela 4-1 to advance from the quarterfinals, with Lionel Messi scoring once and bagging two assists. It was a convincing win for the cup favorites despite some defensive issues.
Argentina took a 3-0 lead, which saw Messi grab an assist on the first goal and make history on the third. Venezuela scored its first goal in the second half and Argentina responded just minutes later to put the game away via Erik Lamela.
With the win, Argentina is once again into the semifinals of the competition, which they actually haven't won since 1993. Argentina fell in the Copa America final in 2015 against Chile.
The U.S. and Argentina will play on Tuesday. The Americans beat Ecuador in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
LIVE BLOGAs Expected, FTC Announces Close Of Google Investigation With No Antitrust Charges, But Minor Tweaks To Biz Practices
from the no-surprise dept
The FTC conducted an extensive investigation into allegations that Google had manipulated its search algorithms to harm vertical websites and unfairly promote its own competing vertical properties, a practice commonly known as “search bias.” In particular, the FTC evaluated Google’s introduction of “Universal Search” – a product that prominently displays targeted Google properties in response to specific categories of searches, such as shopping and local – to determine whether Google used that product to reduce or eliminate a nascent competitive threat. Similarly, the investigation focused on the allegation that Google altered its search algorithms to demote certain vertical websites in an effort to reduce or eliminate a nascent competitive threat. According to the Commission statement, however, the FTC concluded that the introduction of Universal Search, as well as additional changes made to Google’s search algorithms – even those that may have had the effect of harming individual competitors – could be plausibly justified as innovations that improved Google’s product and the experience of its users. It therefore has chosen to close the investigation.
It appears that the rumors from last month were entirely accurate. The FTC more or less has admitted that it can't find any real antitrust problems with Google, but did get Google to agree to a few minor tweaks in how it operates -- which lets the FTC declare victory. On the big question of antitrust, however, which Microsoft and other sites led the charge on, the FTC came up completely empty, noting that the goal Google's practices was, in fact, to offer a better consumer experience, rather than to be anti-competitive.The biggest "change" to Google's business practices is really from an issue they inherited: the handling of Motorola's standards essential patents. We were among those confused by Google's decision a year ago to continue Motorola's more aggressive practices with its standards essential patents, basically trying to get injunctions to block competitors who don't license at the (way too high) rates that Motorola was offering. This made no sense to us at the time, given Google's previous statements about the problems of the patent system. Here was a case where they had a chance to put their words into further action, and they didn't. And that became the biggest part of the FTC settlement. Seems like Google could have avoided a headache just by backing down initially. Either way, even the "settlement" aspect here is really small. Google has agreed thatseeking an injunction, it'll go to arbitration to determine what is a "fair and reasonable" royalty on those patents. To be honest, this seems like the kind of thing that Google was probably perfectly happy to "cave" on -- and it almost makes you wonder if they kept up Motorola's practices just to give the FTC some "red meat" to make FTC boss Jon Liebowitz happy There were a few other small changes, such as allowing sites to opt out ofGoogle News if they don't like traffic. In the past, sites had to opt out of all Google search if they didn't want to appear in Google News -- and some incredibly shortsighted news publications didn't like that. So, basically, now Google is giving them the ability to hurt their own traffic from Google News if they so choose. Also, Google will allow companies to more easily manage ad campaigns across multiple platforms, rather than effectively making them repeat the process for multiple platforms.The end result here, even as the FTC declares victory, has to be seen as a big victory for Google. It made a few tweaks to its business practices -- most of which it probably should have done anyway (and some of which I think it should go even further on). And on the big question of "antitrust" and "search bias" the FTC came up totally empty -- even as FTC boss Liebowitz made it clear that he would have loved it if breaking up Google's monopoly was his legacy. As the FTC announcement notes, try as hard as they could, they just couldn't make the claim stick. I love the begrudging language they use here:In the end, this seems like a massive waste of taxpayer money and the FTC's time and resources. While the announcement claims they got Google to agree to "significant" changes in its business practices, that's a laughable claim when you look at the details.
Filed Under: antitrust, bias, ftc, injunctions, jon liebowitz, patents, search, search bias, search neutrality, standards essential patents
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Your career is a direct result of hard work and a substantial investment of time and money. Doesn’t it make sense to fully protect it? A disability could render you helpless by taking away the one thing that you need to safeguard all of your assets: your income.
Home, auto, life, and health insurance are certainly valuable investments, but failure to couple them with disability insurance will jeopardize your full financial security. For example, health insurance might cover the potential fiscal pitfalls of the medical bills that result from a disability, but the rest of your financial obligations are not going to come to a halt. Vehicle payments, mortgages, insurance premiums, and even savings for the future are all important expenses that cannot be ignored just because you are disabled. Unfortunately, the chances of becoming disabled might be greater than you think.
According to the 1994 Statistical Abstract of the United States, in the course of a year, odds are that 1 in 10 people between the ages of 25 and 64 will suffer a disability. When comparing that ratio to the odds of being victim of a house fire (1 in 122); injured in an automobile accident (1 in 160); or even of death (1 in 117), the advantage of disability insurance is clear. A February 2000 article in the New York Times reported that 1 in 7 people between the ages of 35 and 60 will become disabled for five years or more.
Read
Despite these glaring statistics, many people still take a substantial risk by ignoring the benefits offered by a disability insurance policy. In 2000, a survey by The Consumer Federation of America and The American Council of Life Insurers found that 82 percent of people do not have long-term disability insurance or believe their coverage is inadequate.
The alternatives to disability insurance all carry a degree of risk or have some sort of drawback. Social Security benefits are difficult to qualify for and the disability must prevent you from working in any occupation. Worker’s compensation benefits are limited and only cover job-related sickness or injury. Other options—relying on savings, family, and/or friends—are not guaranteed and have considerable downside.
Guard your assets—don’t leave yourself vulnerable by neglecting to protect your income.
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WE. ARE. BACK! 5TH YEAR BABY!
Craft Beer for a cause! Our event is 100% NOT FOR PROFIT and utterly VOLUNTEER ORGANIZED!
Held in beautiful Downtown Windermere, the Windermere Craft Beer Fest benefits the Windermere Police Department Foundation, Inc and the Florida Brewers Guild.
If you've joined us before, you know the drill. If not, WHAT are you doing?! Our fest is a sampling event. We'll feature tastings of lots of local craft beer brews, an awesome atmosphere, your choice of food vendors and some live music.
This is your chance to try some new brews and check out what's going on in the Florida craft beer scene.
VIP tickets are available for all the hardcore craft beer lovers out there too!
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EARLY BIRD DEAL - VIP Tickets: $45 Each // General Admission Tickets: $25 Each. (subject to availability) *SOLD OUT*
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Ticket prices increase another $5 at the door (subject to availability). Buy online and save!
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FOOD VENDORS THIS YEAR!Historian says children's book from Australian War Memorial author'sanitises' wartime experience
Updated
The decision to name a children's book about war heroes in the 2015 Children's Book Council of Australia Awards has been challenged by a group of historians.
The book, Audacity: Stories of Heroic Australians in Wartime was published by the Department of Veterans' Affairs in association with the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra.
Although Audacity was not the overall winner in the 2015 Eve Pownall Award for Information Books category announced on Saturday, it was named as an honour book.
David Stephens from Honest History told 666 ABC Canberra the book presents a certain line and ignores the consequences of war for civilians.
"It sanitises war, and presents war as a job, and that in doing the job well you can get a medal," Dr Stephens said.
"Yes, it is directed at students who are 12 years old, but it leaves out the nasty bits that it should say."
The author of Audacity, Carlie Walker, works as a senior education officer at the Memorial.
It focuses on Australians who have been honoured with medals in both world wars, as well as more recent conflicts in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Chapter headings such as daring conduct, leadership, determination and exceptional courage are explored in the book.
However Dr Stephens said Audacity was full of bizarre and distorted material that ignored the reality of war.
Example of bomber pilot Peter Isaacson criticised
He cited the example of Flight Lieutenant Peter Isaacson who was a Bomber Command pilot during World War II flying dangerous missions over Germany.
"Apparently the pilots used to play a game to see who could get closest to the target on the ground and take a photograph," Dr Stephens said.
"And the exercise in the book asks how do you think they would have felt doing this? And what does it say about their attitude to war?
"But what it doesn't say in the book is that the bombing in which they were taking photographs of, in this devil-may-care attitude, led to the deaths one night of 42,000 people."
In response to the criticism following the awards, the AWM released a statement, which said it was proud the Children's Book Council had selected its publication Audacity as an honour book.
"Audacity is a learning resource for students in upper primary to lower secondary levels, designed both for classroom use and individual reading," the statement said.
"Like all the Memorial's education programs, the content is developed from material within the Memorial's archives, is age-appropriate and directly aligned with the Australian curriculum.
"The Memorial's purpose is to commemorate the sacrifice of those Australians who have died in war.
"Its mission is to assist Australians to remember, interpret and understand the Australian experience of war and its enduring impact on Australian society."
The book is available to download as a PDF from the War Memorial's website.
Topics: history-education, historians, library-museum-and-gallery, world-war-2, canberra-2600, act
First postedIndia’s Power Minister Piyush Goyal recently announced plans for an interesting program that could see the nation’s whole car fleet becoming 100% electric by 2030. It represents one of the most ambitious goal for the electrification of transport in a large country.
The program would let people buy electric vehicles with zero down payment financed by the state and drivers can then pay for the vehicle at the rate they are saving on gas.
Piyush Goyal recently said at an event via India Times
“India can become the first country of its size which will run 100 per cent of electric vehicles. We are trying to make this programme self financing. We don’t need one rupee support from the government. We don’t need one rupee investment from the people of India.”
The minister added:
“We are working (on the scheme). Can we actually give electric car for free (zero down payment) and people can pay for that out of the savings on the petroleum products. Innovation is possible, it just needs an open mind. You need to think of scale and be honest.
The government established a working group with Road Minister Nitin Gadkari, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. They will meet next week to evaluate ways to implement the program.
India is the third largest automotive market in Asia and a lot like China, which is the largest, they are starting to experience the consequences of the pollution brought by their fast growing industrial economy. But unlike China, India has yet to implement policies to encourage the sale of electric vehicles to try to reduce pollution from transport. The scheme could help Indians get access to increasingly popular small electric vehicles in the country, like the Mahindra e2o – see picture above.Name Amount Raised Start Date End Date Description
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Peter Aman pulls no punches. The candidate for Atlanta mayor, formerly the city's chief operating officer, recently email blasted digs at a few other contenders, although his camp maintains that's just par for the course.
"Why is Mary Norwood ducking the public?," Aman asks in a June 8 email. "She and her campaign team have decided she will skip as many public forums as possible, denying voters the opportunity to truly compare the full slate of candidates.?
Aman's campaign manager, Fred Hicks, says he doesn't see that as a sign of any political beef. "I wouldn't call it a jab at all," he says. "We're sharing information.?
That information shared in the email knocks Norwood, a city councilwoman running for mayor, for "avoiding" five public forums. Hicks tells Creative Loafing that she missed an important discussion at the King Center about income inequality and gentrification. Norwood tweeted during the event that she was getting a car wash, and Aman's campaign capitalized on what they saw as negligence.
"All the other significant candidates were there, including two of the candidates who aren't necessarily considered serious candidates or favorites to win this," Hicks says. "But she is the one who's skipping out.?
No value assigned
Norwood tells CL she was in Adamsville to learn about Atlanta's blight problem, so she couldn't make it to the King Center on time but was able to squeeze a quick car wash into her schedule. As for the other events missed, she says being ill for a couple weeks threw a wrench in campaign plans.
Norwood, who says she hardly knows Aman, is scratching her head about why his campaign is so hung up on his competitors. "I'm focused on what I can do for our citizens and what I can do as the next mayor," she says. "I'm really not focused on any other candidates in the race. Everybody runs their own race and their own campaign.?
Hicks, however, claimed Norwood's people have attacked Aman as well, pointing to a tweet allegedly shared by her campaign treasurer, Jamie Ensley. According to a screenshot shared by Aman's team, Ensley called @PeterAmanATL a "HONKY CRACKER.?
"We're like,???Whoa, whoa, whoa! That was a whole different level there, buddy,'" Hicks says.
Norwood says she's never heard about the tweet, which has apparently been deleted, but she says it could have come from a fake or parody account. "Certainly nobody in my camp would do anything like that or I don't believe so," she says.
Norwood and her campaign manager, Erika Ford, say her mayoral bid has been mired by fake news on a few occasions, and they always take opportunities to clear the air. "There's a post out on Facebook that says I, along with Ceasar Mitchell and Kwanza Hall, approved a property tax increase," Norwood says. "That is not correct." They also claim that, on more than a dozen occasions, people approached them at campaign events and public forums to ask about rumors of Norwood's intention to kill the city's Minority Business Enterprise program. Those rumors, Ford says, are supposedly perpetuated by Aman's cohorts.
And Norwood isn't the only candidate in Aman's crosshairs. He's also slammed City Council President Ceasar Mitchell for ducking a question about climate change and Councilman Kwanza Hall for revealing his conspiratorial beliefs about global warming.
But Norwood is performing much better in the polls than Aman, which might explain why his camp has singled her out. Hicks says she's been circumventing public appearances because she doesn't want to risk losing that advantage: "She has not performed well in the past at debates and forums, so we think they're trying to avoid them to preserve her position in the polls.?
Despite the obvious tension between the two candidates, Hicks insists there's no personal qualms, just politics. "They're not golfing buddies or anything like that, but they don't have a history of beef.?The idea for That the World May Know films began in 1992 when Michigan entrepreneur Ed Prince became exposed to Ray Vander Laan's unique method of Bible teaching. Ray, or RVL as he is affectionately known, has always believed that to more greatly understand and appreciate the Bible, one had to have a sense of the land and the culture from which it sprang. Biblical analogies and examples, while meaningful and helpful even to this day, were first meant to convey God's truth to particular people in a particular time and place. So the more fully we can appreciate those times and places, the more fully we can respond to the power of the Word.
So in 1992 Ed Prince generously offered to underwrite the development of a film series that would capture RVL's teachings to make them available to a wider audience. Director Bob Garner was secured, massive cameras were shipped to Israel, the first 5 sets were produced, and the broader church ate them up. Focus on the Family experienced a hunger for the series unlike anything they had ever seen. And that hunger has continued.
In 2003, sets 6 and 7 were co-directed by Garner and John Grooters, and the style of the films became much more consistent with the experience of an actual RVL trip. The programs moved to HD and were shot in 16 x 9 aspect ratios. These teachings reached beyond Israel and brought viewers to sites like Ephesus, Laodicea, Cappadocia, Galatia, and other biblical locations in modern Turkey. The theme was discipleship as the lessons followed Paul through his first missionary journey.Protestors hold candle light vigil in New Delhi after the December 16 gangrape.
Without knowing it, we have learned to live in a daily crossfire of the ridiculous and the absurd: bans on movies, on books, on beef; displays of legislators tossing microphones or biting opposition members; debates on security audits on politicians; virulent campaigns against VIP culture. The absence of satire makes us view these events in utter seriousness. It becomes hard to see them as the sad quirks of a place burdened by too much dead weight, by the unbearable heaviness of being. Their hyper-reality in the media, the monumental misreadings attached to even the most banal and trifling of public acts, lift these actions into caricature, where ideally they should die a natural death. But they don’t.
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In an urban culture seeking daily relevance, the deliberate perversion of events makes monuments out of trivialities, and trivialises the real tragedies. Despite the daily quantum of human suffering — farmer suicides, female foeticides, tribal displacements, rapes and malnutrition deaths — public convergence occurs in different forms. The merits of Leslee Udwin’s documentary, India’s Daughter, aside, the film will be ridiculed for inane nationalistic reasons.Why must a foreigner make such a film; how did she get access to inmates at Tihar jail when Indian filmmakers couldn’t? Marginal ideas take centre stage. That Gandhi never endorsed a ban on cow slaughter but spoke of vegetarianism on moral grounds is misused to create new alignments. Respecting the religious sentiments of the majority can be legislated on and made into law without any clear rationale based on science, nutrition or culture. Is there a difference between religious sentiment and secular sentiment? Who should be asking the question?
[related-post]
If the nation’s daily debates are rooted in inconsequential positions, the problem lies in the public view of the power game itself. Everyone must have an opinion on everything, everyone must agree to disagree. Media visibility only imparts an added sense of purpose to the misrepresentation. Even in the most private moments, the cameras must be rolling. If Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is not in his seat at the assembly, he can be shown wrapped in a towel, doing jal neti in the secluded privacy of an ayurvedic spa. The TV crew must follow his every move, disclose his falling sugar levels, his current blood pressure. Banalities leave the viewer and reader in a breathless haze of statistical trivia.
The daily dose of such mis-news only signifies a growing relationship between corrupting influence and corrupted conscience. The politician merely employs the media as a storyboard for his own confused picture of India. Tainted by the incoherence, the media demonstrates its mistrust, even disdain, of serious reality. The hour by hour television rescue of a child who had fallen into a well is a sign of the times — a collusion of irrelevant ideas and claims, and the disbelieving public as mute spectators. The daily show must go on.
Of course, when people are ready to believe what they are told or what they read, public gullibility is at its highest. So when, on a routine security audit by the police, Rahul Gandhi is asked to state his age and the name of his mother for the record, angry sides quickly form. Is the outrage over the inquisition of a politician as senior as the Congress vice president, or over the humiliation of a trivial inquiry when the answer is already known to the public? It doesn’t matter. What matters is the need to be regularly outraged.
While every such action reveals the petty vein in which the country operates on a daily basis, it also reveals the larger vacuum of ideas. The corrupt bureaucrat, the idiotic MLA throwing microphones, the sleazy MP viewing pornography in Parliament, the minister describing “dusky” southern women — their pervasive influence on our daily life becomes a continual background noise. Even “ghar wapsi”, the banning of beef in Maharashtra, the proscriptions on documentaries and books are all the deeper, insidious calculations of a rule that refuses to define the larger motive inherent in these minor moves. Efforts at separation and exclusion, essential for some future religious or ethnic purity, come cloaked in the shallow mask of secularism.
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Intolerance and daily bigotry is a convenient cover for a lack of vision and before anyone guesses |
has the hardware installed, but that hardware is being conditioned and prepped to host cloud software,” Richardson says.
Army officials say they are migrating DCGS-A to a private cloud for several reasons: to improve redundancy; to improve capacity; to ensure good quality of service for users who are geographically dispersed; and to improve agility by providing intelligence to soldiers on the battlefield, where they need it most.
“What you are seeing is the demands of Big Data driving cloud usage,” says Alex Rossino, principal research analyst for Deltek.
The Army’s Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) is testing tactical edge cloud nodes at Network Integration Evaluations at Fort Bliss, Texas, where soldiers test and refine new technologies. Once the tactical edge nodes are ready in the coming years, DCGS-A’s Wells intends to deploy them to brigade combat teams.
These next-generation cloud nodes will be fabricated into the size of toaster ovens and can be embedded inside armored vehicles or in UAVs, says Alan Hansen, division director of Intelligence Systems and Processing at the Army’s CERDEC Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate.
On the battlefield, troops can face spotty network connections or low- bandwidth conditions, making it difficult to send large amounts of data over the network for storage and processing. Tactical edge cloud nodes solve that problem by storing and processing the data at the tactical edge, Hansen says. “We no longer have to move all that information. We can process the data where it’s collected.”
CERDEC is also working with vendors to develop DCGS-A’s next-generation software to allow for quick querying, sorting and analysis of the intelligence data it compiles.
More Info: Learn how the Navy Department and Marine Corps are plotting their own course toward the cloud.
Most or nearly all the capabilities will be cloud-based, but some capabilities may not be integrated into the cloud for security or legal reasons, Richardson says. The new DCGS-A software will also address current shortcomings of the system. A June report by the Government Accountability Office said the system was not easy to use and that it was vulnerable to cyberthreats.
The Army will evaluate every version of the cloud-based software with users, and through the lessons learned, developers will improve the software over time.
“The capability will be stood up and matured over a three-year period, so that the user interface is appropriately built, all the data is appropriately ingested in the cloud, and all the security aspects are worked out,” Richardson says. “As we mature the capability, it will be deployed to our users.”
One application CERDEC is developing is advanced analytics software that will vastly improve the systems’ ability to quickly analyze high-volume, disparate pieces of data and provide combat troops with actionable intelligence, says Robert Czajkowski, project lead for the Tactical Cloud Integration Lab at CERDEC’s Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate.
“Instead of spending hours looking for two seconds of critical information, back-end analytics can make this happen in seconds,” he says.The key ingredient in Monsanto's best-selling Roundup weed killer has reportedly been deemed safe – despite the World Health Organization's claim that it likely causes cancer. The finding could mean the herbicide will be relicensed in Europe.
An assessment of glyphosate was conducted by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessments (BfR), allegedly based largely on unpublished papers provided by the Glyphosate Task Force – an industry body which lobbies for the herbicide's relicensing in Europe.
The evaluation, reportedly seen by the Guardian, revealed that the Institute drew different conclusions from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
WHO labels Dow herbicide ‘possibly’ cancer causing http://t.co/p7ilsr1MvJpic.twitter.com/rJ5Nl6Gaml — RT America (@RT_America) June 23, 2015
The BfR report found “very limited evidence of carcinogenicity” in mice exposed to glyphosate and recommended its re-approval, suggesting the available daily intake be raised from 0.3 to 0.5 mg per kilogram of bodyweight per day.
In addition, a BfR spokesperson said another World Health Organization (WHO) working group had also concluded that glyphosate was not carcinogenic, adding that an expert task force would soon clarify the organization's official position, according to the Guardian.
READ MORE: Too 'dramatic': Monsanto shuns WHO verdict that Roundup 'probably' causes cancer
EU legislation requires that the “active substances” present in pesticides and herbicides be re-evaluated at least once every decade. That process is currently underway, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2015.
On Tuesday, Monsanto announced it had arranged for an outside scientific review of the WHO's conclusion, hiring Intertek Scientific & Regulatory Consultancy to arrange a panel of scientific experts.
Following the WHO ruling in March, the agrichemical company said it was “outraged” at the assessment and accused the organization of “agenda-driven bias.”
Developed in the 1970s, farmers have been using glyphosate in increasing quantities since the mid-1990s, when Monsanto introduced genetically engineered crops which could withstand being sprayed with Roundup. The ingredient is also used in Dow's Accord and Syngenta's Touchdown herbicides.
International regulatory bodies, including those in the US, have said that glyphosate is safe when used as directed.
But there is also concern surrounding other ingredients – known as ‘surfactants’ – in glyphosate-based weedkillers, many of which are more toxic than glyphosate itself.
However, manufacturers such as Monsanto believe the ingredients – and studies about their toxicity – should be kept secret.
Monsanto reportedly refused to release a toxicity report for Roundup to the Chinese government last year, stating that it was a trade secret.
Protesters across the world have been speaking out against Monsanto for years, accusing the Missouri-based company of choosing profit over the lives of people.
In May, the third annual March Against Monsanto saw activists from over 400 cities speaking out against the company's sale of toxic chemicals, as well as its attitude toward food safety regulations and staunch opposition to GMO labeling. Small farmers also took part in the demonstrations, accusing Monsanto of monopolizing the seed market.Imagine on top shows the Fuji 16mm f/1.4 APS-C lens. Sony could release a similar lens soon!
I previosly reported with a very low ranking (SR1) a rumor saying that there would be a new 16mm f/1.4 lens. I rated this very low because the source was not one of my trusted ones. Well, a trusted source just read this rumor and sent me this message:
“The 16/1.4 is APS-C project, not the full frame (FE) one”
So it sounds like Sony is really working on a new 16mm f/1.4 APS-C E-mount lens. I hope other sources can confirm or debunk this so that I can upgrade the rumor value to SR5. Thanks!
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SR5=almost certainly correct!It came less than a week before President Hu Jintao was scheduled to travel to Washington for a global economic summit meeting hosted by President Bush.
On Saturday, Mr. Hu spoke by telephone with President-elect Barack Obama about a variety of issues, including the global financial crisis and how their countries might cooperate to help resolve economic problems.
Asian markets welcomed news of the stimulus plan. The Japanese Nikkei index rose 5.6 percent in trading early Monday. Stocks in Hong Kong and Shanghai rallied strongly, jumping over 5 percent and lifting share prices that have been depressed for much of the year.
Although Beijing has indicated that it will focus on keeping its own economy on track, it is difficult to insulate any economy from a global downturn. After five years of growth in excess of 10 percent, China’s economy is beginning to weaken. Growth in exports and investment is slowing, consumer confidence is waning and stock and property markets are severely depressed.
The stimulus plan, though driven by domestic concerns, represents a fresh commitment by China to keep from adding to the economic and financial woes of the United States and Europe. It is also likely to cheer foreign investors in China’s economy by ensuring that the country remains a source of growth.
China’s package is not comparable to fiscal stimulus measures that are being discussed in Washington. In China, much of the capital for infrastructure improvements comes not from central and local governments but from state banks and state-owned companies that are encouraged to expand more rapidly.
The plan also differs from the $700 billion financial rescue package approved by Congress, which has helped strengthen bank balance sheets but did not directly mandate new lending or support specific investment projects in the United States.
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China’s overall government spending remains relatively low as a percentage of economic output compared with the United States and Europe. Yet Beijing maintains far more control over investment trends than Washington does, so it has greater flexibility to increase investment to counter a sharp downturn.
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It was unclear how Chinese officials arrived at the $586 billion figure or how much of the stimulus would be spending above what Beijing normally earmarks for infrastructure projects. Beijing said it was loosening credit and encouraging state-owned banks to lend as part of a more “proactive fiscal policy.”
The government said the stimulus would cover 10 areas, including low-income housing, electricity, water, rural infrastructure and projects aimed at environmental protection and technological innovation — all of which could incite consumer spending and bolster the economy. The State Council said the new spending would begin immediately, with $18 billion scheduled for the last quarter of this year.
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.
State-driven investment projects of this kind have been a major impetus to Chinese growth throughout the 30 years of market-oriented reforms, a strong legacy of central planning.
The biggest players in many major Chinese industries — like steel, automobiles and energy — are state-owned companies, and government officials locally and nationally have a hand in deciding how much bank lending is steered to those sectors.
The investment numbers announced by China’s central government often include projects financed by a variety of sources, including state-backed entities and even foreign investors.
Beijing is struggling to cope with rapidly slowing economic growth. A downturn in investment and exports has led to factory closings in southern China, resulting in mass layoffs and even setting off sporadic protests by workers who have complained that owners disappeared without paying them their wages.
With many economists in China now projecting that growth in the fourth quarter of this year could be as low as 5.8 percent, and amid worries that the country’s economy could be walloped by the global financial crisis, Beijing is moving aggressively.
Analysts were expecting China to announce a big stimulus package, but they said they were surprised at its size. “That is much more aggressive than I expected,” said Frank Gong, an economist at J. P. Morgan who is based in Hong Kong. “That’s a lot of money to spend.”
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Mr. Gong said that after the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Beijing undertook a similar, but much smaller, stimulus package, earmarking huge sums to build the country’s highway and toll-road system, projects that helped keep the economy growing.
Arthur Kroeber, managing director at Dragonomics, a Beijing-based economic research firm, said the government was concerned because people in China had suddenly pulled back on spending as a precautionary move because of worries about China’s suffering with the global economy.
“The government is sending a signal saying: ‘We’re going to spend in a big way,’ ” Mr. Kroeber said Sunday in a telephone interview. “This is designed to say to the market that people should not panic.”
Quake Hits Remote Area in China
BEIJING (AP) — A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the remote northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai on Monday, the United States Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The quake struck at a depth of 6.2 miles, the agency said.
China’s far west is fairly earthquake-prone. A 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12 devastated parts of Sichuan Province, killing about 70,000 people and leaving millions homeless.The astronomers detected a new series of six Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) or radio signals from the deep space, far beyond the Milky Way. This baffled the astronomers and some speculate that extraterrestrial intelligence would like to make contact.
Researchers with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico have detected a series of six FRBs, all in approximately the same location: the Auriga constellation, some three billion light-years from Earth. The most recent wave follows 18 previously detected FRBs, recorded since 2007. The astronomical community continues to discuss the probable source of the repeating signals.
An FRB lasts only a few milliseconds, but contains an incredible amount of energy, about the same amount our Sun produces in a month. Sensitive detection devices have been able to detect FRBs billions of light years from the Earth. While a cosmic event, such as a stellar collision, could be responsible for a single FRB, multiple bursts in short succession imply that the FRBs are a repeating phenomenon, not unlike a signal. Science News claims that the most likely candidate is solar flares from a neutron star, the hyper-dense collapsed core of a larger star.
Another possible candidate is, naturally, extraterrestrials. In 2015, physicist John Learned, with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and astronomer Michael Hippke with the Institute for Data Analysis published a paper arguing that the repeating FRB waves show a consistency between the dispersion measure (the difference in arrival times between high and low frequencies) showing a 1 in 2,000 chance of being coincidental. They speculated that the FRBs could result from a superdense star whose physics may allow for regular bursts of radio waves, or a human-built spy satellite which disguises its transmissions to appear as signals from deep space.
But it could also be the result of an intelligent alien race attempting to make contact through the cosmos. As was detailed in the plotline of the 1997 film Contact, humanity beams radio signals into space in an attempt to communicate with potential galactic neighbors. Mankind’s radio signals, however, have only spread some 200 light-years from this planet.
If the FRBs are of intelligent origin, it could then be a civilization advanced enough to command the energy of an entire star, meaning they would be technologically many thousands of years ahead of humanity.
Online EditorsMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Orthodox religious activists festooned a Moscow museum named for Charles Darwin with banners and leaflets denouncing evolution theory in a display of disdain for secular education.
The incident on Sunday at the Darwin natural history museum named for the Victorian British naturalist who expounded the theory of natural selection was a non-violent but bold attack on secular traditions that remain strong despite a post-Soviet revival of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Footage released by Orthodox activist group Bozhaya Volya, or God’s Will, showed activists unfurling a banner reading “God created the world” on the building’s facade while others threw leaflets bearing creationist slogans into the lobby of a popular destination for school trips and family outings in the capital.
“God created kittens!” read one leaflet visible in the video, which also featured activists holding banners disparaging the theory of evolution as a “pseudo-scientific myth” and singing religious songs.
“Checkmate atheists! In the year 7522 since the creation of the world, creationists have seized the Darwin museum,” a member of the group which advocates “the revival and development of Russia as an Orthodox Empire” said on Twitter.
Moscow police said they had not received any complaints from the museum about the incident. The museum, which is closed on Mondays, could not immediately be reached for comment, and the Russian Orthodox Church could also not immediately be reached.
About two-thirds of Russians consider themselves Russian Orthodox and the church has gained influence since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, drawing concern from critics who say it is too powerful in a secular state.
Tension between Russian Orthodox activists and secular liberals has increased in recent years.
Activists have occasionally vandalized art exhibits they have denounced as blasphemous, while two women from the band Pussy Riot were convicted of a religious hate crime for a “punk protest” in Moscow’s main cathedral in February 2012.
The women, who urged the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, are now serving two-year prison terms.
The singers said they had not meant to offend the faithful, only to lampoon the church’s ties to Putin, who was praised by Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill during his successful campaign to win a third presidential term weeks later.The auto industrial complex impacts our lives in many ways but doesn’t often produce compelling fashion accoutrements, which makes sense. However, the Gear Ring by Kinetk Design is trying to change all of that. If this ring looks like it’s ready to spring into action, that’s because it’s actually fully functional. Six micro-precision gears running along the face simultaneously turn when the outer rims (which are also gears) are turned. I can just pictures these rings being exchanged during nuptials all across the country by motor-head fanatics.
The Gear Ring is made out of 316L surgical stainless steel, the highest quality found in the jewelry market, making it resistant to rusting, tarnishing, fading and scratching. It also won’t break or bend and is hypoallergenic, a plus for those with metal sensitivities. I’ve always appreciated the aesthetics of stainless steel accessories from companies like TENO, but the interactiveness and functionality of this ring definitely steps things up.
The Gear Ring is produced in the following standard sizes: 9, 10, 11 and 12. Amazingly, this diminutive marvel is available for the mere price of $165.
Source: Kinekt DesignNORRISTOWN, PA — The first overdose deaths from carfentanil, which was developed as an elephant tranquilizer, have been confirmed in Montgomery County, health officials said on Friday.
Carfentanil is an opioid which experts believe to be 10,000 times deadlier than heroin and 100 times deadlier than fentanyl, a chemically similar drug.
The first death occurred on June 10, county health officials said, when a 43-year-old man was found dead in his Lower Merion home. Toxicology reports revealed that he had died from a carfentanil overdose.
The second death occurred on June 14, when a 65-year-old Philadelphia man was taken to Lankenau Hospital, where he died from carfentanil overdose. the same day, health officials said.
Both men had a history of heroin abuse.
Individuals who overdose on carfentanil require "multiple" doses of naloxone, an opioid reversal drug, to stand a chance of surviving. While these are the first deaths reported in Montgomery County, the drug has caused deaths in Pennsylvania; and, recently, in Philadelphia.
"The emergence of carfentanil fatalities is further evidence that the county's efforts to provide residents access to treatment and first responders access to naloxone is critical in fighting the opioid
epidemic bracing the region," said Val Arkoosh, Chairwoman, Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, in a statement. "The Montgomery County Overdose Taskforce is fully engaged in educating the public about all aspects of substance use disorder, increasing awareness of extremely dangerous opioids like carfentanil, and providing resources for those in need."
High doses of fentanyl and carfentanil also pose a risk to first responders, who must wear fully encapsulated hazmat suits before approaching victims. This is in accordance with federal guidelines.
Only a tiny amount of carfentanil can be deadly. The equivalent of roughly one grain of salt of carfentanil is enough to kill a human.
Patch file photoHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is arguably Merkel's most high-profile opponent | Stephanie Lecocq/EPA Viktor Orbán to address CSU ahead of German coalition talks The German chancellor’s most high-profile European opponent is set to attend a summit of her sister party.
BERLIN — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will address Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies in January, right before the chancellor begins talks with Germany's Social Democrats on forming a government.
A spokeswoman for the Christian Social Union's (CSU) parliamentary group confirmed on Thursday that Orbán — arguably Merkel's most high-profile opponent on the European stage — will attend a party summit between January 4 and 6 at a former monastery in rural Bavaria.
A day later, Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the CSU are set to start exploratory talks with the Social Democrats, which could lead to formal coalition negotiations.
The talks are Merkel's last chance to form a stable government, which would put an end to an unprecedented coalition deadlock in Europe's largest economy.
The CDU emerged as the top party in September’s election, but it also suffered heavy losses to the far right. When an attempt to form a new government with the Green party and liberal Free Democrats collapsed in November, the reluctant SPD became the chancellor’s last viable coalition partner.
At the negotiating table in January, however, Merkel will not only have to worry about finding common ground with the Social Democrats — she will also have to contend with potential pushback from her more conservative CSU allies.
Although the CSU, which exists only in Bavaria, is in an alliance at the national level with Merkel's CDU, it has often been among the chancellor’s harshest critics, particularly in regard to immigration issues.
In September 2015, at the height of Europe's migration crisis, the CSU fêted Hungary's hard-line leader as the guardian of the EU’s external borders at another summit — a direct rebuke of Merkel and her open-border refugee policy.
Earlier this month, at a party conference in Nuremberg, the CSU was eager to demonstrate its support for Merkel's efforts to form a new government, with party chief Horst Seehofer saying that they "as a conservative bloc, are currently not the problem in German politics.”
However, the Bavarians also have an election for the regional assembly coming next fall, which ultimately matters more to them than national politics. For that campaign, CSU leaders are convinced the party has to reassert its die-hard conservative credentials.Roscosmos will soon consider a project to prevent a large asteroid from colliding with Earth after 2030, the head of Russia’s space agency said on Wednesday.
“A scientist recently told me an interesting thing about the path [of an asteroid] constantly nearing Earth… He has calculated that it will surely collide with Earth in the 2030 s,” Anatoly Perminov said during an interview with the Voice of Russia radio.
He referred to Apophis, an asteroid that he said was almost three times as large as the Tunguska meteorite.
On June 30, 1908, an explosion equivalent to between 5 and 30 megatons of TNT occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in a remote region of Russia’s Siberia. The Tunguska blast flattened 80 million trees, destroying an area of around 2,150 sq km (830 sq miles).
Perminov said Russia was not planning to destroy the asteroid.
“No nuclear explosions [will be carried out], everything [will be done] on the basis of the laws of physics,” he said.
The Russian space official also said after having considered the project, Russia could invite experts from Europe, the United States and China to join it.
“People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and design a system that would prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people,” Perminov said.
Though Apophis is currently considered the largest threat to our planet, NASA scientists published in October an update of its orbit indicating “a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036.”
© RIA NovostiThe man thought to be among 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's candidates to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has long been seen on the right as a champion of the rule of law, and on the left as a crusader for racist policies.
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Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach was an early supporter of the president-elect and is now part of his transition team on immigration, thrusting him into the national spotlight.Should Trump choose Kobach to head the DHS, he will be responsible for turning some of Trump’s more controversial anti-terrorism proposals, like the so-called Muslim ban or Muslim registry, into reality.He would also be at the forefront of Trump’s efforts to build a wall along the border with Mexico and round up undocumented immigrants.Kobach, a constitutional lawyer, has advanced hardline immigration policies during his career — an approach he seems poised to carry into a potential role at the DHS.He is the principal author of Arizona’s strict immigration law, several pieces of which were struck down by the Supreme Court in 2012. Over the summer, he drafted planks of the GOP’s national platform concerning immigration policy. During the 2012 election, he advised presidential nominee Mitt Romney on the concept of “self-deportation."Working at the Justice Department under former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Kobach spearheaded the development of a controversial visa screening program enacted by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.He has also been an active litigator defending cities that have enacted policies aimed at discouraging illegal immigration.
“Kris Kobach would be a great candidate for DHS given his expertise on immigration issues,” Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation who worked with Kobach at the Justice Department, said in an email to The Hill.
“He has an in-depth knowledge of federal immigration law and the problems faced by the states and the federal government in dealing with the illegal immigration surge that has occurred as a direct result of the Obama administration’s amnesty and non-enforcement policies.”
More moderate Republicans have largely stayed silent on Kobach, but his critics don’t mince words: They say he has a mean-spirited obsession with immigrants and ties to white nationalist groups.
In 2015, Kansas Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley (D) called Kobach “the most racist politician in America today” over a comment Kobach made that “it’s not a huge jump” for the Obama administration to put a moratorium on the prosecution of all African-American suspects.
“Kris Kobach dedicated the last decade and a half to dreaming up ways to make life miserable for immigrants, while basking in the applause of white nationalists,” said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of the liberal advocacy group America’s Voice.
Kobach met with Trump on Sunday and discussed “border security, international terrorism and reforming federal bureaucracy,” according to a readout from the transition team.
On his way into the meeting, Kobach was photographed holding what appeared to be a written plan for the DHS for Trump’s first 365 days in office.
Among the three major proposals visible on the document was one calling to reinstate and “update” the Bush-era program he spearheaded, known as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS).
The document also called for reducing the intake of Syrian refugees to zero and instituting “extreme vetting” questions of “high-risk aliens” about Sharia law and jihad.
The original NSEERS required noncitizen visa holders from 25 countries — all but one of which were majority Muslim — to register when they entered the U.S. and check in regularly with immigration officials.
“We are an open country that welcomes the people of the world to visit our blessed land. We will continue to greet our international neighbors with good will. Asking some visitors to verify their activities while they are here is fully consistent with that outlook,” Ashcroft said in 2002 when he announced the program.
Civil liberties groups lambasted the program as discriminatory against Muslims. President Obama suspended the program in 2011 after it failed to produce a single terrorism conviction.
Reinstating NSEERS “flies in the face of the Constitution and is a threat to the civil liberties of all Americans,” said Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).
“It’s a lot like the registry for Muslims [Trump has] proposed, just instead of saying it’s a registry for Muslims, it’s termed as a registry for people from a certain country and those countries are Muslim-majority countries,” said Naureen Shah, Amnesty International's security and human rights director.
“It’s a work-around [for] having to explicitly say it’s a registry for Muslim immigrants.”
It’s unclear what Kobach means by updating the program, but civil liberties lawyers note that the document — partially obscured by Kobach’s hand and the frame of the photos — recommends that "high-risk aliens" be “tracked.”
“The most frightening difference [between the original NSEERS and Kobach’s proposal] is the advanced technology that’s available to the U.S. government now for keeping people under surveillance — facial recognition technology, a gargantuan apparatus for intelligence collection within the United States that didn’t exist nearly on that scale under the Bush administration,” Shah said.
Trump is also reportedly considering Marine Gen. John F. Kelly and former Bush-era homeland security official Frances Townsend to fill the DHS post.“Why can’t I focus on the same task for more than five minutes?”
I keep thinking this to myself.
I’ve stared at this screen for 45 minutes, deciding what I can write that you all will want to read. I’m on a deadline. And the pressure is getting to me. So, instead of doing what I should be doing (writing something you’ll want to read and share), I’ve decided to procrastinate.
I’ve checked Facebook five times, sent six text messages, refreshed my email more than a few times, answered a couple messages on Slack, and decided that I’m going to take up woodworking in the 45 minutes since I’ve decided to procrastinate.
But alas! In my hopeless quest to avoid what I should really be doing (a hobby I know all about), I discovered a video from Google that explains the importance of schedules. According to the folks at Google, this video was inspired by a real email sent by a Google manager to her team.
The entire video can be found here, but they were kind enough to transcribe it (which I found while procrastinating on Reddit).
Read it. Right now.
Now, excuse me while I go write something that you’ll actually want.
To: Everybody Subject: If you don’t have time to read this... read it twice. Stop. Breathe. Now, think about how you’re managing your time. Speaking for myself, I have some room for improvement. It’s been said there are two paradigms to scheduling — the manager and the maker. The manager’s day is cut into 30-minute intervals, and they change what they’re are doing every half hour. Sorta like Tetris — shifting blocks around and filling spaces. The maker’s day is different. They need to make, to create, to build. But, before that, they need to think. The most effective way for them to use time is in half-day or full-day blocks. Even a single 30-minute meeting in the middle of “Make Time” can be disruptive. We all need to be makers. Ok. Great idea. I’ll do that… you know… later… I’m late for a meeting. No. It doesn’t work that way. The only way to make this successful is to be purposeful. Establish an implementation intention. You need to define precisely when and where you’ll reserve Make Time for your projects. Let me tell you a story about a study on this effect: The control group was asked to exercise once in the next week. 29% of them exercised.
Experiment group 1 was given the same ask, along with detailed information about why exercise is important to health (i.e., “You’ll die if you don’t”.) 39% of them exercised.
Experiment group 2 was asked to commit to exercising at a specific place, on a specific day at a specific time of their choosing. 91% of them exercised. Commit to protecting Make Time on your calendar, including the time and place where you’ll be making, and ideally detail on what you’ll be making. That way, you know, it’ll actually happen. So, I can just do this like… last thing on Friday, right… after all of my meetings are over? Actually, no. Many of our meetings could be shorter or include fewer people, and some don’t need to happen at all. Take back those hours for your Make Time instead. But, don’t put it off till the end of the day on Friday — the time you choose really matters. Your energy levels run the course of a wave throughout the week, so try to plan accordingly. Aim to do the following:
Monday: Energy ramps out of the weekend — schedule low-demand tasks like setting goals, organizing, and planning. Tuesday, Wednesday: Peak of energy — tackle the most difficult problems, write, brainstorm, schedule your Make Time. Thursday: Energy begins to ebb — schedule meetings, especially when consensus is needed. Friday: Lowest energy level — do open-ended work, long-term planning, and relationship building. Always bias your Make Time toward the morning, before you hit a cycle of afternoon decision fatigue. Hold the late afternoon for more mechanical tasks. My new challenge to you: create and protect your Make Time, and before you “steal someone’s chair,” consider whether it’ll be disruptive to their Make Time. I have Make Time on my calendar. Please don’t schedule over it, and I promise to do my best not to schedule over yours.
Go on and copy/paste this email and send it to your coworkers. Thank you, Google.After many miscommunications and misunderstandings surrounding the release dates of the Sora, Riku, and Kairi Funko Pop! Vinyl figures, Hot Topic finally resolved the issue by stating that the figures will be releasing on Thanksgiving on November 23, 2017.
As stated, they are out today! They are available to purchase for $12.50 USD each, or you can order all three for $25.00 USD.
You can view pictures of the Sora Pop! Vinyl below. You can order it here.
You can view pictures of the Riku Pop! Vinyl below. You can order it here.
You can view pictures of the Kairi Pop! Vinyl below. You can order it here.
Along with these figures, Hot Topic has also added two new Funko Kingdom Hearts t-shirts to their listing.
UPDATE [Nov. 28, 2017]: The Sora, Riku, and Kairi Funko Pop! Vinyls are now available to purchase at BoxLunch for $10.90 each; currently, the price has been discounted to $9.00 each.
Funko has released other Kingdom Hearts products previously, including a Shadow Funko Pop! Vinyl, a Halloween Town Sora plushie, Halloween Town Donald and Goofy Pop! Vinyls, a Halloween Town Sora Pop! Vinyl, Kingdom Hearts Pocket Pop!, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy plushies, and a Pete Pop! Vinyl.
Funko also has many other Kingdom Hearts releases planned, including an Organization XIII Mickey Pop! Vinyl, a Final Form Sora pop! Vinyl, and Kingdom Hearts Mystery Minis.
Let us know if you'll be purchasing these figures, and don't forget to show us you Kingdom Hearts Funko collection!Neurodegenerative diseases pose an ever-increasing challenge for society and health care systems worldwide, but their molecular pathogenesis is still largely unknown and no curative treatments exist. Alzheimer’s (AD), Parkinson’s (PD) and prion diseases are separate clinical and pathological conditions, but it is likely they share common mechanisms leading to neuronal death. Mice with prion disease show misfolded prion protein (PrP) accumulation and develop extensive neurodegeneration (with profound neurological deficits), in contrast to mouse models of AD or PD, in which neuronal loss is rare. Uniquely therefore, prion-infected mice allow access to mechanisms linking protein misfolding with neuronal death. Prion replication involves the conversion of cellular PrP, PrPC, to its misfolded, aggregating conformer, PrPSc, a process leading ultimately to neurodegeneration6. We have previously shown rescue of neuronal loss and reversal of early cognitive and morphological changes in prion-infected mice by depleting PrP in neurons, preventing prion replication and abrogating neurotoxicity7,8,9. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying both the progression of disease, and those underlying recovery in PrP-depleted animals, were unknown.
To understand these processes better, we now analysed the evolution of neurodegeneration in prion-diseased mice. We examined hippocampi from prion-infected tg37 mice used in our previous experiments7,8,9,10, in which the time course of impairment and recovery are clearly defined. Hemizygous tg37 mice express mouse PrP at approximately three times wild-type levels and succumb to Rocky Mountain Laboratory (RML) prion infection within 12 weeks post infection (w.p.i.)10. They first develop behavioural signs with decreased burrowing activity at approximately 9 w.p.i., after reduction in hippocampal synaptic transmission and first neuropathological changes7,8. This is the window of reversibility when diseased neurons can still be rescued: PrP depletion up to 9 w.p.i., but not later, rescues neurotoxicity, as by 10 w.p.i. neuronal loss is established7,8,9. We measured PrP |
build mappings and conceptual models of the more abstract and esoteric concepts we’re trying to confer. Is that chit really an army? Obviously not. But because you’ve given them an affordance (the chit) they can move within constraints (a hex grid), they’re able to project their desires (conquer their opponent’s city) into the conceptual model “this 5 square feet of cardboard represents the eastern front, c. 1945”.
These things all work together to help a player understand what they are supposed to do. A game can include a vast amount of complexity, but through a consistent and well organized “interface” the player’s experience is facilitated. And affordances, constraints, and conceptual models aren’t in any way limited to the situations I’ve described. It’s a short leap to imagining these considerations applied to: iconographies, color consistency, or the layout of rules; by way of further example: Arkham Horror is vastly complicated, but by stacking smaller conceptual models together… the symbolism of an Elder Sign is introduced early and consistently, and after learning that certain baddies follow white arrows and others follow black arrows on the location network, the player’s larger conceptual model (The Old Ones must be defeated), can quickly filter using these simpler models to make in-game decisions (“do I want to seal the gate here, or just close it?”).
We do a lot of this naturally as designers, because we’ve played a lot of games, and we are steeped in the cultural constraints we’re working within, making it easy to leverage those. However, it’s still possible to fail at board game “UX”: in Caylus, the Bailiff and the Provost are a terrible interface — nobody can remember which is which, because their affordances are almost identical, even though one has no problem culturally constructing an understanding that something will be moving linearly along the path delineated by a constraint made of spaces.
Board games are a unique spot (beyond and because of the fact that they’re physical), since they have many of the flexibilities of digital interfaces, while being able to provide a User Interface and Experience in the real world that players can touch, manipulate, and conceptualize.
“A well designed product teaches users how to use it.” And there’s no excuse for board games not to do the same.
Come back next week for a discussion of noobs, veteran gamers, and some weird thing I’ve termed the “Familiarity Spectra“. And if you haven’t yet, subscribe using the box to the right to make sure you receive every installment of this series as it’s released!
Continue on to the next installment →
[1] Here is a really helpful summary of Norman’s topics. You should also check out his book.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
A YOUNG girl has died after a wall collapsed on to her at a secondary school in Edinburgh - after pupils claimed it had been "wobbly" for months.
Keane Wallis-Bennett, 12, died after being crushed by the wall at Liberton High School in Edinburgh just before 10am.
The Scottish Ambulance Service attended the scene but despite treatment Keane was pronounced dead at the scene.
It's understood the tragedy occurred in the school's PE department.
A Police Scotland spokesman said: "Police in Edinburgh responded to Liberton High School after a wall within the building collapsed, injuring a female pupil at 10:00.
"She was treated by ambulance staff on the scene, but was pronounced dead.
"Inquiries into the full circumstances surrounding this incident are ongoing and we are working alongside our relevant partner agencies."
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One parent explained how the school had sent a text message to alert them to the situation.
He said: "I believe my wife got a text from the school to describe what had happened and to reassure everyone I guess.
"My daughter is in first year so she might know the person involved. It's very upsetting for the children."
Live updates
A large emergency response, involving police and the Scottish Ambulance Service, was prompted by the incident.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service said crews from Tollcross, McDonald Road, Liberton and Newcraighall were sent to a "collapsed structure" at the school at around 10am.
A service spokeswoman said: "Firefighters assisted ambulance personnel to remove a female casualty from a collapsed structure but sadly she was pronounced dead at the scene. Thoughts are with the family at this difficult time."
A spokeswoman for Edinburgh City Council said: "A pupil at Liberton High School has sadly died following an incident at the school.
"Senior education staff and health and safety officers from the council are at the school providing support to staff and pupils."
(Image: PA/David Cheskin)
Edinburgh City Council was fined £8000 in February after a girl at the same school was seriously injured when she fell more than 16ft (5m) as teachers tried to free her from a broken-down lift.
The schoolgirl, then aged 15, suffered three fractured vertebrae, bruising over her lower back and a sprained wrist as a result.
She remained in hospital for two days before being discharged and was unable to return to school for a further two weeks, the Heath and Safety Executive (HSE) said at the time.
The HSE confirmed in February that it had investigated the incident and a prosecution was brought against the local authority for "serious safety failings".
The council was fined at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after pleading guilty to breaching Section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the HSE said.
Edinburgh Southern SNP MSP Jim Eadie, whose constituency covers the school, said: "I am deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic incident, and the thoughts of the entire community are with the family and friends of this young girl.
"Inquiries into the full circumstances of what happened will be under way, and Police Scotland and City of Edinburgh Council will determine exactly what took place."
Councillor Nick Cook, who represents the Liberton/Gilmerton ward, said: "It's tragic and troubling news out of Liberton High School.
"Our thoughts are first and foremost with the family.
"But serious questions need to be asked as to how this incident managed to come about."
A spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive said: "HSE is aware and is liaising with Police Scotland."
The latest incident is the second tragedy to hit the school in recent months.
Jamie Skinner, 13 - understood to be a pupil at Liberton High School - died after collapsing on a football pitch in the city during a match in December.
The teenager was playing for Edinburgh-based Tynecastle FC against Spartans FC when he collapsed on the Saughton Astro pitch in Edinburgh at the end of last year.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: "Awful news from Liberton High. My thoughts & condolences with family & friends."
Local MP Ian Murray also took to Twitter, saying: "Tragic news coming from Liberton High School. My thoughts go out to the family and all at the school. Dreadful news."Developer Summary:
Power of Defense provides a new strategy and defense mix game experience. Defend your world from upoming evil and oil-smelling robots. They come from the platform between both parallel universes you have to fight on by producing own robots to send them back to their native world. You as the last hero on earth and the only one your government could find (and pay), only you can save the world.
3 different arenas
Very replayable game levels
13 individual robots
Combine robots to extend strategical possibilities
Play against other people in multiplayer mode
Upgrade robots to increase their force
New Update 1.1:
new levels with double bridges and traps
9 bonus levels added in single player
7 multiplayer levels added in multiplayer
What We Think:
The use of the word defense in the title of this game is a bit of a misnomer. Sure, it can easily be considered a close cousin of tower defense games, but with the emphasis changed from protecting an area to pumping out wave after wave of robots the title should probably be Power of Offense.
Gameplay is very straightforward. A little factory regularly pumps out stock robots for you and they collect on your assembly line. You can then spend energy to give the robots weapons or other items and send them out on the conveyor belt. Rolling along the conveyor, your ‘bots will pass alongside the opposing robots on their conveyor and blast away at each other. You can also spend energy to upgrade the quality of the items used by the robots. The first person to have ten of their robots get to the teleporter at the end of the belt wins.
Like most tower defense style games, it’s pretty entertaining in short bursts, but becomes very repetitive, very quickly. Every level of the campaign adds new robot types for you to send out, but it seems the best strategy is to stick to the first couple of basic ‘bots and send them out in large groups. There isn’t much for you to do other than sit back and wait till enough units have built up on you assembly line and then send them out again.
Graphically, the game is very rough. The opening splash screen looks like something doodled in an hour, the characters that pop up during play look like they got another half hour of polish. The robots and level design are a relatively crude, but affective 3D pre-render. Animation, while limited, is done well.
The story is, well, incomprehensible. There’s some sort of battle going on between robots and humans, but reading the dialog between the two sides is so painful I skipped it more often than not. It is incredibly stilted and full of spelling and grammatical errors. I know you start off on your world, then go to the robot world, then to Hell, but I’ll be damned if I know why. I certainly haven’t heard people called a sissy this often since 4th grade.
What’s worse, the text comes out in old teletype style, accompanied by the most annoying sound ever to be rendered in a video game. In the version I played, I also encountered a bug wherein the scripted text starts the moment the last set is finished, making characters talk over each other and the ends of sentences disappear before you can read them.
What it boils down to is this: if you like the passive nature of tower defense games, you might enjoy Power of Defense. There may be a lot of options, but they tend to be a waste of time compared to a cheap bulk offensive, so if you’re looking for deep strategy, this game isn’t it. If story is an important part of your gaming experience, look elsewhere. If it isn’t, be prepared to press the close button a lot to skip the poor attempt at it. Still, as a casual time killer, it has its moments.
Purchase Power of Defense for Windows, Mac, or at Steam, D2D or Gamersgate
Rating:Canadian tradesmen from a huge oilsands construction project are waving a red flag about safety hazards and near misses, which they blame on the use of foreign workers who aren't qualified and can't speak English.
"When you bring in a bunch of workers who are unqualified to do this job it's only a matter of time before you kill someone," said Les Jennings, who was an ironworker supervisor at the Husky Sunrise plant until a few weeks ago, when he quit in frustration.
"People are angry and upset," said journeyman ironworker Johnny Demosten, who is still working at the site. He said many of the foreign workers don't know crane hand signals and other safety precautions.
"If they are journeymen, they are supposed to know the signals. It's pretty dangerous."
There are 344 foreigners — skilled tradespeople and others — currently working on site for the Italian-based company Saipem, under contract to build the multi-billion dollar plant 60 kilometres north of Fort McMurray.
The project is over budget and behind its original schedule.
Hazards cited by inspector
"The errors on that site are repetitive and consistent. Mistakes made over and over," said Ryan Slade, a journeyman electrician contracted by Husky last year, as an on-site quality control inspector.
"You used to feel like you were part of something. Now, you feel you are part of the mess."
He said he reported numerous serious concerns about safety and poor workmanship, until, he said, managers told him to stop.
"I keep repeating, 'You are having the same problems over and over' and they said, 'Look, we already know this — don't report it anymore,'" said Slade.
"We will always be vigilant in our safety objectives, and we continue to see steady improvement in results due to stronger alignment amongst all companies on site," Husky spokesperson Mel Duvall said in an email to Go Public.
"We work closely with site contractors on safety, including initiatives for workers to give direct feedback."
"Those [Canadian] guys who do stay up there they are going to save Husky's butt — I guarantee it," said Slade. "They are going to save someone's life by catching poor workmanship before it kills someone."
Blow torch scare
For example, Demosten said, he and other workers were horrified when a foreign worker took a blow torch to a propane tank to defrost it. Others intervened to prevent an explosion.
"That would probably have killed him and hurt people around him. That's the kind of things these people are doing," said Demosten.
The tradesmen also claim several Canadians with better qualifications have been passed over for jobs, while foreign workers from Europe continued to show up.
"We had probably 60 ironworkers come to take the jobs from Canadians," said Jennings.
Saipem said it can't comment on some of the Canadian workers' allegations without evidence, but, overall, it called the claims "misleading".
It points out, 85 per cent of its workers on site are Canadian. It also said its safety record is as good or better than industry standard.
Company refutes claims
"We continue to make safety a priority at the Sunrise site, with continued focus on safety awareness and training of all our workers," said Saipem spokesperson Erika Mandraffino, in an email from Italy.
"We strongly refute any and all claims of any correlation between any alleged safety violations and any group of workers that we have at the project site."
Many of the foreigners did arrive without Canadian-standard trade certification, however. Under government rules, they have a year before they must take their test.
"These workers, in my opinion — because I worked with them side by side — they are not at the same level as a Canadian journeyman. Not even close," said Jennings.
He said he assigned some of them to shovel snow, while earning the ironworker rate of $44 an hour.
"Probably 75 per cent of [foreign] ironworkers on site were only at the level of a labourer."
Jennings is angry with Saipem, because it used his name and red seal certification number on paperwork approving 15 foreigners to take their certification test, after he said he made it clear they weren't qualified.
"When I found out about that I called the industrial training centre and I had [the test approvals] cancelled," said Jennings.
Story continuesBack Pain Causes and Symptoms | Back Pain Causes and Precautions
Today, at least one person of the family must suffer to this disease. Mostly, women suffer to this disease. Man, suffer to this disease when they are not young. Back pain occurs in people after 20 years old, and then it often hurts those who are overweight. If this pain some slight, then goes away immediately afterward.
Types of back pain
There are two types of back pain.
1 Severe pain
This kind of pain is temporary, which lasts a few days. But Its effects are extinguished in a few weeks with the use of natural prescriptions. This type of pain is acute felt a sudden sharp pain which serves as a warning to posed to human disease. Such as surgery, broken bone, erode, real accident, falling, spread, injury or shock, etc.
2 Chronic Pain
Back pain is chronic and permanent and after a significant injury, its signals to remain active in the nerve system for weeks, months or even years. In the same type of pain, the human body having a strained muscle. Due to this, they cannot move quickly. However, the emotional effects of anger, anxiety, frustration and fear remain which affect the daily routines of human life.
Symptoms
Due to back pain back muscles are weak and feeling pain during a walk around. With back pain, legs are also suffering pain, and because of this pain, hip also affected. The patient has severe anxiety. The patient can not easily bend. Fever becomes too in severe pain. Because of back pain also pose headaches and insomnia disorders.
Causes
If joint pain occurs then, the patient will also complain of back pain and patients becomes even slight fever and cough. Back pain also present in particular diseases of women. It may not feel the pain of hunger besides the weight loss, calcium deficiency and blood.
Read AlsoPhysical benefits of exercise, Best bedroom tips
Common reason
Sit without the support of the knees or waist.
Using the high-heel shoes.
Pick heavy-weight.
Weight lifting with one hand.
Exercise incorrectly.
Cautions
Avoid sitting in the same position on knees.
Use support behind the back by wall or pillows.
Use straight-back chairs.
Don’t do exercise which causes of back pain.
Exercising
You can strengthen your back through the very simple and easy exercises and get relief from back pain. These workouts completed in just a few minutes after awakening in the morning.As tourism in Japan increases at an accelerated rate, inns and hotels in the rural areas could face numerous changes in management. It’s difficult to predict the future, as there have been many cases of Japanese owners letting go of their establishments only to be purchased by foreign investors. An increasing amount of large-sum transactions have been made by investors from China, causing more and more changes in management styles.
“I have no other option but to sell, as I have nobody to take my place.” That was a 70-year old inn manager in Okayama Prefecture speaking, as he contemplated selling his establishment.
This particular inn was a secret hideaway that had been around since the good old days, with meals that hold high-acclaim. “Repeaters” accounted for 30% of overall visitors. The turnover rate for guest rooms froze at roughly 60% to 70%, and it remained mostly empty except on Saturdays.
The manager had worked alongside his wife, whose health was deteriorating. “I believe it’s about time to retire,” he said. Profits wouldn’t increase, so it’s impossible to take the plunge to remodel and make drastic changes. His children have all started walking their own paths, too.
Earlier this year, he chose to sell his establishment for 65 million yen.
Risk of Closure
Many traditional inns in rural Japan are at risk of closure due to the owners’ old age, deterioration of establishments, as well as excessive debt.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s “Public Health Administration Report” shows that there are approximately 40,000 inns in Japan as of 2015. Those numbers are at a declining rate, and over 10,000 inns have disappeared between 2006 and 2015.
According to the Teikoku Database census, there were 86 bankruptcies in 2015, an 8.9% increase from the previous year. This is the first increase in four years—the last having been in 2011, resulting from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Over half of these bankruptcies happened to establishments that had been in business for more than 30 years. The majority encountered a decline in management due to deteriorating facilities and money borrowed for repairs.
While all of this takes place, we are experiencing a sudden increase in foreign capital, purchasing Japanese inns and hotels. As rural Japan encounters rapid decline, it could very well be transformed into a hayfield-like state.
Yuji Tsuji, 58, head of the consultancy firm Hotel Management Research Center, says there has been a flood of consultations from foreigners ever since Tokyo was declared the host of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
Of the 30 to 40 inquiries received daily, 90% are from the Chinese. “Contract agreements have risen to 30 to 40 deals every year,” said Tsuji. “By running hotels in regions the Japanese don’t visit as often, the Chinese believe they’re able to earn their income by bringing in a steady number of Chinese tourists.”
Chinese Owners, Chinese Guests
A 54-year-old man who works in real estate was shocked to learn of this business technique after selling an onsen (hot spring) hotel in Osaka to a Chinese.
This hotel was sold because it was experiencing a decline in visitors and inflated debt costs. Upon reconsidering old customs and reducing unnecessary spending, the man decided to sell.
The hotel underwent a complete change after it was sold. A method of theirs is to assemble a large tourist bus with Chinese visitors who are on a tour. They then cram four to five people into each room, despite prices having been lowered to 3,000 yen per night. This “cramming” technique is what makes this hotel stand out.
The man remarks that, according to a person involved in the hotel operations, the guest room occupancy rate has greatly improved. But Japanese guests are keeping their distance.
Aside from lowered accommodation costs and crammed spaces, meals are typically the first to be affected by price cuts. Most onsen hotels serve traditional Japanese kaiseki meals for dinner, whereas this hotel now has an “eat out for dinner” system. What used to be two meals served per day is now simply breakfast-included only.
Scraping off the usual services from onsen hotels “merely makes them feel like staying at a city hotel,” the man said.
Venturing Outside the Golden Route
The Chinese are willing to invest outside the so-called Golden Route of tourist attractions.
Tsuji explained: “The Chinese notice that there are just as many beautiful tourist destinations outside of the Golden Route. They now have an interest in traditional inns and hotels nationwide, with a particular interest in Hakone and Kusatsu as of recently.”
There are a large number of Chinese who seek consultation to begin increasing their investment. “This investment craze will continue even after the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics end,” Tsuji said.
There have been cases where individuals who visit Japan want to summon acquaintances and buy traditional hotels and let them stay at a place with a “guest room” feel. There are also substantial management styles that are entrusted in the Japanese as before. These situations typically maintain a high-class feel and traditional services, bringing in wealthy clientele domestically and internationally.
Hotel and inn owners whose selling points were Japanese omotenashi, or hospitality, have been replaced by Chinese owners. And it looks like more traditional establishments are going that way.
* The images are not directly related to this story.
(Click here for the original article in Japanese.)Tyler Hansbrough proved on Wednesday what kind of impact he can make in the Toronto Raptors’ front court this season. He was Dwane Casey’s first big man off the bench, and provided instant energy and physicality against Atlanta’s one-two punch of Al Horford and Paul Millsap.
This is what Hansbrough has become at the professional level: a second-unit bruiser that won’t back down from a battle. He’s best known for his intense stare and all-business attitude—both on and off the floor. He’s the kind of guy that a lot of coaches love to have in their rotation.
“He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do as far as spacing, rebounding [and] defending,” said Casey. “[He’s] doing all of the other things, other than [just] scoring the ball.”
That may be the case, but make no mistake, Hansbrough can score.
Like many players, Hansbrough has seen his game change quite drastically since he made the jump from the NCAA to the NBA. In his day, he was one of the deadliest scorers in college basketball, and he’s still the leading scorer in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
2006: 18.9 PPG
2007: 18.4 PPG
2008: 22.6 PPG
2009: 20.7 PPG
Hansbrough was a unanimous selection for the ACC’s All-Conference team in each of his four years at North Carolina, and he won Freshman of the Year in ’06 and ACC Player of the Year in ’08. In fact, 2008 also saw him take home the John Wooden Award and National Player of the Year honours.
Following his senior season as a Tar Heel, Hansbrough just missed winning his second-straight ACC Player of the Year award, finishing second to Blake Griffin.
His collegiate resume is one of the most impressive you’ll see. And though he’s no longer asked to be a scorer, Hansbrough believes he can provide a lot more to the Raptors.
“When you can shoot it, you can add value to the court,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not really [about] true positions out there. You see teams using smaller lineups and different guys, so the more you can shoot it, I think you’ll see more teams doing that—adding shooters.”
Hansbrough has no illusions that he’ll suddenly become a go-to guy for Toronto on the offensive end, but he hopes to add some scoring versatility of the bench.
“If you look around the league, I think teams are getting more and more value from the three-point shot—especially from the four man [power forward],” said the Missouri native. “If I want to add value to this team, a corner three is something I could develop and improve and be able to help my team out on the court.”
Some may cringe at that notion, assuming the idea means Hansbrough would set up on the perimeter and not do his usual dirty work under the hoop. However, it’s the mere threat of the shot—the seed planted in the minds of opposing players—that can be a weapon in itself. Patrick Patterson has become that type of player for the Raptors, and perhaps no greater example—of a big man that can threaten from behind the arc—exists in the league than the one now found in Cleveland with Kevin Love.
“It opens up the court for spacing; it’s pretty valuable,” said Hansbrough. “When you’re guarding somebody like that, you can’t sit back in the lane. It opens up the floor for our guards to drive and make penetration.”
Hansbrough has attempted 12 three-point shots during his five-year career. He has made none (though he drained a long-distance bucket in Toronto’s pre-season win over Sacramento in Vancouver earlier this month). But after a summer spent with North Carolina shooting coach, Mike Hollis, the 250-lb. forward hopes he has evolved as an overall player.
“It was a long process, especially for a guy that didn’t shoot threes—I’m definitely not a three-point shooter,” said Hansbrough. “We [the Raptors] really value the corner three, so hopefully me adding that will help our team out in the games.”Articles Articles
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Stories MODINAMA 11 - The Gujarat Lokayukta Controversy Media Peddles Partisan Propaganda Author(s) : Madhu Purnima Kishwar When it comes to Narendra Modi, even the doyens of Indian journalism forget the most elementary norms of ethical journalism. When Justice Mehta wrote a letter refusing to take charge as the Lokayukta and making all manners of allegations against the Gujarat government, every newspaper published his version in full, making him out to be a knight in shining armour and a martyr to the authoritarian whims of Narendra Modi. No newspaper or TV channel reporting this story thought it fit to publish the version of Gujarat Government. Now that I am studying post 2002 Gujarat, I decided to dig out the facts for myself. Here is a summary of what I found: The Partisan role of the Governor: The Congress party has a long tradition of misusing the office of the Governor tocreate trouble for non-Congress state governments—from arbitrarily dismissing duly elected state governments to creating endless hurdles in the day to day functioning of State governments.
Nawal Kishore Sharma
Governor Kamla Beniwal has taken this adversarial role to unprecedented heights. Her predecessor Nawal Kishore Sharma, though a Congressman, had an extremely cordial and warm relationship with Gujarat chief minister and often praised Narendra Modi’s development centric governance. He is remembered for upholding the dignity of the Governor’s office in letter and spirit. However, Governor Kamla Beniwal has been at loggerheads with the Gujarat government from the very day she was appointed on 27 November 2009. She herself is far from an epitome of integrity. Among other things, she has been accused of grabbing land in Rajasthan through a farmers' cooperative society -- Kisan Samuhik Krishi Sahkari Samiti--which is alleged to have committed a lot of irregularities. According to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Jaipur, in 2010, Beniwal pressured the Ashok Gehlot government to drop the proceedings for dissolution of this cooperative society. Constitutional Restraints Expected of Governor: Article 163 of the Indian Constitution mandates that the Council of Ministers is to aid and advice the Governor in the exercise of his/her functions. The Council of Ministers is headed by the Chief Minister and therefore, in all important matters requiring Governor’s participation, she cannot ride roughshod over the views of the Chief Minister and his council of ministers. Nor can the Governor initiate and take arbitrary decisions or make appointments at her will, leave alone of a crucial office such as that of the Lokayukta. The Chief Minister as the Head of the Council of Ministers is an important player in such appointments.
Kamla Beniwal
But Governor Beniwal has acted as the fighting sword of the Congress Party in Gujarat, obstructing any and every move of the Gujarat government—from enactment of new laws or appointments that require her signatures—with a view to making life as difficult as she can for the Narendra Modi government. Several new laws passed by the Gujarat Assembly to streamline administration have been withheld consent of the Governor. The legal position as well as the protocol expected with regard to the appointment of the Lokayukta is that there be effective and meaningful consultation between the executive head of the state, namely the Chief Minister, the Chief Justice of the state and the Leader of the Opposition for selecting a suitable person for this important post. However, the Gujarat Governor acted as though she alone was the appointing authority. The Supreme Court has in fact passed strong strictures against her trying to overreach and step far beyond the powers granted to her under the Constitution. Sequence of events pertaining to appointment of Justice R. A. Mehta as Lokayukta: Modi Bashers have indulged in a systematic misinformation campaign through a pliant media that the Gujarat government has resisted the appointment of Lokayukta for 7 long years. Facts tell a contrary story. Way back in 2006, Chief Minister Narendra Modi himself initiated the process for the appointment of Lokayukta. The State Government wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court eliciting his views on the proposed appointment of Justice K. R. Vyas, former Chief justice of Bombay High Court as the Lokayukta. 1.The then Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court consented to the name. 2. Simultaneously, the Governor was also requested to consider the appointment of Justice K. R. Vyas. Several months later, the proposal was returned back from the Raj Bhavan expressing reservations and seeking clarifications regarding the appointment of Justice Vyas. 3. The clarifications sought for by the Raj Bhavan were provided to her with a request to consider the name of Justice K. R. Vyas for appointment as Lokayukta. However, the Governor turned down the request. 4. Thereafter, the Chief Minister requested the Chief Justice to suggest a panel of three retired Judges of the High Court of Gujarat for consideration for appointment as Lokayukta, on receipt of which, the formal procedure for appointment as stipulated in the Act would be undertaken afresh. The Chief Justice proposed four names: 1) Justice Pravinsingh Motisinh Chauhan2) Justice Babulal Chandulal Patel 3) Justice Ramesh Prabhudas Dholakia4) Justice Jayprakash Ramakant Vora (in no order of preference) Governor Beniwal Exceeds Her Brief & Collaborates with Leader of Opposition: The Chief Minister then requested the Leader of Opposition to participate in the process of consultation for appointment of Lokayukta. However, the latter raised an objection that under the provisions of the Gujarat Lokayukta Act, there is no scope for consultation with the Chief Minister of the State either by the Governor or by the leader of opposition. In blatant violation of her constitutional role, in September 2009, the Governor while turning down the proposal to appoint Justice K. R. Vyas sent a confidential letter to the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court requesting him to suggest a panel of names for consideration for appointment as Lokayukta of Gujarat. Meanwhile Governor Beniwal independently carried out consultation with the Leader of the Opposition without informing the Chief Minister. At this, the State Government requested for a factual clarification of her role. She communicated to the Chief Minister that she had already held meetings with the Leader of Opposition for deciding on the Lokayukta. She further stated that the Lokayukta Act did not provide for Chief Minister holding consultation with the Leader of Opposition and that the CM had no role in the appointment of Lokayukta. The Chief Minister did not accept the Governor’s interpretation of the Lokayukta Act and considering the importance of the institution and the protocol requirements, again requested the Leader of Opposition to attend the next meeting for consultation process to finalize the name of the Lokayukta. The latter declined to participate and requested the Chief Minister to terminate the process of consultation forthwith as the Governor had already held the necessary consultation. Meanwhile the formal process of consultation that had been initiated earlier by the Chief Minister was scheduled on 5th March, 2010 in which the Leader of Opposition chose to remain absent. Thereafter, Governor Beniwal invited the Chief Minister to discuss the issue and this meeting took place on the 8th March, 2010. Following this meeting the Chief Minister made one last attempt to secure the cooperation of the Leader of the Opposition in the consultation process and sent him a letter on 18.3.2010 that a meeting had been convened on 22.3.2010 for arriving at an agreement on the name of the Lokayukta. He also let it be known that it was for the last time that he was making a request to attend the meeting for consultation process in the matter. Chief Minister quoted all the relevant judgments of the High Courts/ Supreme Court including the relevant and operative portion to emphasize the factual, legal and constitutional position in the matter. On 22.3.2010, the CM received a letter from the Leader of Opposition stating that he had already been called for the consultation process by the Governor on 4.3.2010 and since the consultative process was already over and there cannot be two consultations on the same subject-- once by the Governor and second by the Chief Minister and/or the Council of Ministers. At the end of the letter, the Leader of Opposition mentioned that Chief Minister should not persist in undertaking an exercise of consultation by him which lacks legal, moral and constitutional authority. Justice J R Vora(Retd)
Governor Sabotages Justice Vora’s name: The formal meeting chaired by the Chief Minister on 22.3.2010 considered all the four names as recommended by the Chief Justice vide his letter dated 24.2.2010 and found that only Justice J. R. Vora was available for appointment. Since he was found suitable, the CM decided to recommend his name for approval by Council of Ministers. The State Council of Ministers approved the proposal to appoint Justice J. R. Vora as Lokayukta on 31.3. 2010 and his name was forwarded to the Governor for her consent. It is important to remember that Justice Vora’s name had not been arbitrarily picked by the CM; it had come from the Chief Justice. Nearly 5 weeks later, the Governor chose to refer the matter to the Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court without informing the State Government or the Chief Minister. Seven months later, the Chief Justice of the High Court informed the Government that he had given Justice J. R. Vora an alternative appointment as the Director, Gujarat State Judicial Academy even though he had been recommended for appointment as Lokayukta by the State Council of Ministers. It is noteworthy that Justice Vora’s alternative appointment happened without keeping the State Government either informed or taking it into confidence. Arbitrary Appointment of Justice Dave by the Governor: More than one year from the date of the Council of Ministers’ resolution approving the appointment of Justice J. R. Vora, the Governor of Gujarat responded on 7.6. 2011 informing the Government for the first time that some parallel process occurred between the Governor and the Chief Justice following which the name of Justice Dave has emerged as the candidate for appointment as Lokayukta and hence, this matter be expeditiously processed. Responding to this, the State Government, through the Chief Minister responded to the Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court stating that it considers Justice Dave to be inappropriate for the appointment, and that given his age ( 80 years at that time) and state of health, Justice Dave was himself unwilling to assume the responsibility. The CM again requested that the name of Justice J. R. Vora be reconsidered for appointment, especially since Justice Vora had shown willingness to take on the job.
Justice R A Mehta The Chief Justice chose to ignore the request and suggested the name of Justice R. A. Mehta for appointment vide his letter dated 7.7.2011. Responding to this, Chief Minister in his letter dated16.7.2011brought to the attention of the Chief Justice certain valid reasons for objecting to the appointment of Justice Mehta as the Lokayukta.Firstly, Justice Mehta had crossed the age of 75 years and given 5 year tenure of this jobstate government felt that Mehta may not be suitable for the arduous duties of Lokayukta. More importantly, Justice Mehta had provided enough evidence of being openly biased by making public statements on several forums against the state government. Gujarat government argued that given his ideological predilections, open hostility to the state government as well as involvement with NGOs who had been running a vilification campaign against Gujarat Government, he was not really qualified for the job. The CM once again requested the Chief Justice that since Justice J. R. Vora was a part of panel recommended by the Chief Justice himself, his name should be reconsidered. The Chief Justice responded by saying that there was nothing on record which would make Shri Mehta ineligible for the post |
Chelios for Anders Eriksson and two first-round picks in 1999 and 2001.
It took everyone a few days to let it sink in that Detroit's archnemesis was going to be a Red Wing.
For his part, Chelios was looking for a way out of Chicago. The organization had him beginning to believe he couldn't play anymore and even though he had been their captain since 1995, a change of area codes from 312 to 313 was something he embraced.
As soon as he arrived in Detroit he fit right in with the Wings' core of veteran players. He told everyone he was a big fan of Greektown over the years and during his first practice as a Wing he took a run at Sergei Fedorov because "old habits die hard."
It could not have turned out better for Chelios and the Wings. He won two Cups in his ten seasons in Detroit, he was partnered with and mentored a young and promising defenseman named Jiri Fischer; his presence and guidance had a positive impact on all his teammates.
"It's hard to believe it's been almost 18 years I've been here. Again, it could have been a disaster 'cause the fallout I had in Chicago and the fans, being my hometown," Chelios said. "But I always said winning the Cup here, being part of the Red Wings kind of got me into that family, that history, that run we went on.
"For my family, I raised all my kids in Detroit. They're born in Chicago and they still have their ties there, too. But, for something to happen with me, really lucky the way it worked out. I have only the Ilitches and the Wirtz family to thank for what they've done for me."
Someday you're going to read Chelios is off on a new adventure, but adventures come and go, they never last.
What never changes is where you feel at home and for Chelios, a Chicago boy, Detroit is now his home, which may say more about how similar Detroiters and Chicagoans really are, though neither city would ever admit it.
But Chelios is living proof, he is as Detroit as anybodyAn Indigenous MP, who called for the renaming of Ottawa's Langevin Block because of its namesake's role in the creation of the residential school system, said he does not feel the same way about stripping the name of Canada's first prime minister from public schools.
This week the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario kicked off a national debate when delegates revealed they passed a motion that called on school districts to "examine and rename schools and buildings named after Sir John A. Macdonald."
This would be done, the motion said, "in recognition of his central role as the architect of genocide against Indigenous peoples."
"When we start effacing completely that history, and not recognizing it, then people can forget very readily what occurred. And so for me it's always important to have that anchor," Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette told Chris Hall, host of CBC's The House.
"Everyone has warts. That's what makes us human beings"
Macdonald is praised for rousing the support needed for Confederation, making it happen and then keeping the country together, but his legacy is also blemished by his support for residential schools, the Indian Act, and the hanging of Louis Riel.
Ouellette, originally from the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan, said keeping Macdonald's names on schools allows teachers to reflect on the complexity of his character in Canadian history.
Langevin 'one of the smaller minions'
The Winnipeg MP was one of a group of federal Indigenous politicians, including fellow Liberal Don Rusnak, Independent Hunter Tootoo and New Democrat Roméo Saganash, who called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to rename the building housing the Prime Minister's Office so that survivors of residential schools would not be perpetually reminded of a man who "devastated their lives."
Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette was one of a group of federal Indigenous politicians who called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to rename the building housing the Prime Minister's Office. (robertfalconouellette.liberal.ca)
The building was named after Hector-Louis Langevin, a Father of Confederation and a prominent member of Macdonald's cabinet, who was also a proponent of the creation of the schools to assimilate First Nations children, although his role has since been questioned.
"Langevin, when we think about his role, he was more one of the smaller minions," Ouellette said. "Sir John A. Macdonald was actually very important to the founding of Canada and the Canada we know today."
Ouellette said he also pushed for the government to rename the Langevin Block after one of Macdonald's contemporaries, Métis politician Louis Riel, instead of simply renaming it the Office of the Prime Minister and Privy Council.
"I think a lot of Indigenous peoples need to have heroes that we can recognize and see in the most important and symbolic of places," he said.
'How would you feel?'
Perry Bellegarde, the national chief for the Assembly of First Nations, said he supports the teachers' motion.
"How would you feel if you were a young First Nations person going to that school, knowing full well that Sir John A. Macdonald was one of the architects behind the residential school system?" Bellegarde asked in an interview with CBC.
"You wouldn't want to feel good about attending that school, would you? Because I wouldn't."
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called the motion "a ridiculous suggestion."
"I reject the thought process behind it," he told The House. "Instead of trying to erase their names or try to forget their contribution to Canadian society we should use that aspect as teaching moments to say, 'this is how far society has come.'"
Former foreign affairs minister John Baird, who supported renaming the Ottawa River Parkway the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway, called it "political correctness on steroids."This breakdown starts with the Scott Kazmir deal on July 23, but there weren’t any trades from the 16th to the 23rd, so this covers the whole second half of the month, trade-wise, up until now. I count 25 total trades with prospects involved in that span that add together to have 58 prospects on the move. Check out the preseason Top 200 List for more details, but I’ve added the range that each Future Value (FV) group fell in last year’s Top 200 to give you an idea of where they will fall in this winter’s list. Also see the preseason team-specific lists to see where the lower-rated prospects may fall within their new organization.
40 FV is the lowest grade that shows up on these numbered team lists, with 35+ and 35 FV prospects mentioned in the “Others of Note” section, so I’ll give blurbs for the 40 FV or better prospects here. I’ve also linked to the post-trade prospect breakdown for the trades I was able to analyze individually, so click there for more information. Alternately, click on the player’s name to see his player page with all his prior articles listed if I didn’t write up his trade.
I opted to not numerically rank these players now, but I will once I’ve made the dozens and dozens of calls necessary this fall and winter to have that level of precision with this many players. Look for the individual team lists to start rolling out in the next month, with the 2016 Top 200 list coming in early 2016. Lastly, the players are not ranked within their tiers, so these aren’t clues for where they will fall on the Top 200.
55 FV Group (8): Ranged from 29 to 79 in the Top 200
Potential frontline starter is coming off of elbow surgery and isn’t quite back to his previous form yet.
Jorge Alfaro, C, Philadelphia Phillies Hamels Trade (TEX)
Ultra-toolsy catcher has had little feel for the game but made progress with it this year before an ankle injury ended his season.
Nick Williams, LF, Philadelphia Phillies Hamels Trade (TEX)
Ulta-toolsy left fielder had little feel for the game but made some progress on that front this year, though scouts still think he’ll never hit his enormous upside.
Jake Thompson, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies Hamels Trade (TEX)
Traded last year at the deadline for Joakim Soria, Thompson projects as a closer or 3rd/4th starter with a power fastball/breaking ball combo.
Hector Olivera, 3B, Atlanta Braves ATL/MIA/LA Trade (LA)
30-year-old Cuban signed this offseason for $62.5 million and recently got a visa to begin playing in the minors; he should be up soon and could be an All-Star but comes with some age/injury risks.
Brett Phillips, CF, Milwaukee Brewers Gomez Trade (HOU)
Nearly anonymous as a 6th round pick in 2012, the late-rising prospect with a football background has made a huge amount of progress; he projects to hit about.270 with 12-15 homers, above average speed, average defense in center field and a plus-plus arm, possibly getting a big league look in late 2016.
Brandon Finnegan, LHP, Cincinnati Reds Cueto Trade (KC)
The 2014 1st rounder has already found success in the big leagues as a reliever, but some teams think he could be a mid-rotation starter, drawing comparisons to Billy Wagner and Scott Kazmir.
Daniel Norris, LHP, Detroit Tigers Price Trade (TOR)
Athletic lefty with four above average to plus pitches has all kinds of upside and is near big league ready, but has battled consistency and his delivery since back in his high school days.
50 FV Group (9): Ranged from 80 to 142 in the Top 200
Labourt has some risk due to his thick build and command issues that cause some scouts to see a reliever, but he’s up to 97 mph regularly and has an above average slider, so Detroit will try to develop him into a mid-rotation starter.
Jacob Nottingham, C, Oakland A’s Kazmir Trade (HOU)
One of the most improved prospects to be moved at the deadline, Nottingham went from a fringe receiver with contact issues but good tools entering the year to a guy that can probably stick behind the plate that starting tapping into his power in games en route to demolishing both A-Ball levels.
Miguel Castro, RHP, Colorado Rockies Tulowitzki Trade (TOR)
Rushed to the big league bullpen after a promising campaign in A-Ball last year, Castro predictably struggled, but there’s still mid-rotation or closer upside if Colorado can put him at an appropriate level and get him back on track.
Cody Reed, LHP, Cincinnati Reds Cueto Trade (KC)
A prospect whose stock has blown up this year, Reed went from big kid with some arm strength to high-end prospect after his velo spiked to hit 99 mph in the California/Carolina All-Star game, along with a slider that now flashes plus.
Sean Manaea, LHS, Oakland A’s Zobrist Trade (KC)
A typical high risk/reward pitcher, Manaea flashes #2 starter upside at times, but has had at least three notable injuries in the last few years, which will also impact his stuff at times.
Jose Peraza, 2B, Los Angeles Dodgers ATL/MIA/LA Trade (ATL)
Compared to Luis Castillo or Juan Pierre early in his pro career, Peraza’s light has dimmed a bit in 2015 due to offensive questions, but he’s still an elite runner that’s near big league ready and can play multiple positions up the middle.
Zach Davies, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers, Parra Trade (BAL)
Still under the radar, Davies has an average 88-92 mph fastball and curveball along with a skinny frame, but the separators are his plus changeup and above average command, skills that bode well for outperforming his scouting upside.
Rob Kaminsky, LHP, Cleveland Indians Moss Trade (STL)
Seen as a heavy price to pay for Brandon Moss, Kaminsky hits 95 mph at times and also flashes a plus curveball, but has often pitched with more solid average stuff in 2015.
Michael Fulmer, RHP, Detroit Tigers Cespedes Trade (NYM)
I compared him to Joba Chamberlain entering the year and Fulmer has improved since then, improving his delivery, command and slider to where he could turn into a 3rd/4th starter, but is close enough that some sort of meaningful big league career is extremely likely.
45 FV Group (4): Ranged from 143 to 200 in the Top 200
After his velo jumped in his senior year at Oregon State, making him into a decent prospect, the pitchability lefty’s stuff spiked again, out of nowhere this year, making him into more of a 3rd/4th starter than an inventory arm.
Alberto Tirado, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies Revere Trade (TOR)
Tirado has flourished in after a full-time move to the bullpen, sitting 93-95 with a slider that’s a consistent 60 on the 20-80 scouting scale, but will flash a notch or two better on some nights.
Keury Mella, RHP, Cincinnati Reds Leake Trade (SF)
Mella has an easy plus fastball that sits 92-95 and enough stuff to start, but some feel issues that cause scouts to see a reliever long-term.
Jerad Eickhoff, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies Hamels Trade (TEX)
Eickhoff is a near big league ready back-end starter type, though he has enough stuff to be a 7th or 8th inning reliever should that not work out.
40+ FV Group (8)
6’7/190 righty is in High-A at only 20 years old and sits 90-93, hittting 94 with three average to slightly above pitches along with projection and plane, but consistency is still an issue.
Jesus Tinoco, RHP, Colorado Rockies Tulowitzki Trade (TOR)
The 6’4 Venezuelan righty has some projection, hits 97 with his power sinker and flashes a slider and changeup that are average to slightly above at times, so the starter traits are here, but there’s still a ways to go and scouts think he’s more likely to end up a reliever.
Zach Bird, RHP, Atlanta Braves ATL/MIA/LA Trade (LA)
Bird is a high risk/reward righty that’s athletic, projectable and runs his fastball up to 97 mph at times with 3rd/4th starter stuff. He’s still working on his command and consistency, with his velocity at times starting games at 93-95 mph and sliding to 90-92 mph a few innings later.
Domingo Santana, RF, Milwaukee Brewers Gomez Trade (HOU)
Santana is the classic power/power right fielder with big raw power, a big arm and a big frame, but he still hasn’t figured out how to make consistent contact and he’s about to turn 23. Scouts are hoping he turns into a useful platoon guy that may have a good run for a couple years, but very few of this type of player turns into Nelson Cruz.
Josh Hader, LHP, Milwaukee Brewers Gomez Trade (HOU)
Hader is only 21, has already pitched a good bit at Double-A, has solid deception, is left-handed and will run his heater up to 96 regularly as a starter. The problem is that his breaking ball is fringy and his changeup isn’t plus, limiting his upside as a starter or matchup lefty reliever, making him more of an inventory arm unless he can make the adjustment.
Ramon Flores, LF, Seattle Mariners Ackley Trade (NYY)
Flores is 23, big league ready and has five fringy to average tools along with excellent plate discipline, so he’s a near lock to be a solid 4th outfielder or platoon partner, with some chance he can turn meager tools into a low-end everyday player for a stretch.
Jose Ramirez, RHP, Seattle Mariners Ackley Trade (NYY)
Ramirez is an exciting prospect, hitting 100 mph and flashing a 70 changeup at his best, reminiscent of Fernando Rodney’s knockout stuff. The problem is that Ramirez can’t stay healthy which, combined with his fringy breaking ball and below average command, eliminates him from starting contention.
Chih-Wei Hu, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays Jepsen Trade (MIN)
Hu is age appropriate for his level (21) and has three solid average pitches along with solid average command and a solid workhorse frame, making him a lower risk bet to be in a big league rotation at some point than most A-Ball pitchers.
40 FV Group (12)
Lamb was a former top prospect who, after Tommy John surgery in June of 2011, never got his premium stuff back but has reinvented himself as a pitchability arm with improved feel that’s big league ready.
Daniel Mengden, RHP, Oakland A’s Kazmir Trade (HOU)
He isn’t big and doesn’t have a plus pitch, but has good feel, three solid average pitches and athleticism — he was also a pretty good hitter as a a two-way guy in college at Texas A&M — so you’re looking at a lower risk, possibly quick-moving back-end starter type, though the stuff still varies a bit start-to-start.
Nick Pivetta, RHS, Philadelphia Phillies Papelbon Trade (WSH)
He sits 92-94 and hits 96 mph, mixing in a slider that’s slurvy but above average at times, along with a curveball and changeup that are fringy. Pivetta has a durable workhorse frame and low miles on his arm as a later-developing Canadian and has the control (strike throwing) to start, but it still working on the command (quality strikes), with a backup plan in the bullpen.
John Gant, RHP, Atlanta Braves Uribe Trade (NYM)
Gant has a solid average four-pitch mix and solid feel to project as a back-end starter, thought his skinny frame could limit the amount of innings he can throw.
Rob Whalen, RHP Atlanta Braves Uribe Trade (NYM)
Whalen flashes an above average fastball and curveball at times, with enough changeup and command to start, but also with 7th/8th inning upside in the bullpen if he can’t develop all the starter traits.
JaCoby Jones, 3B, Detroit Tigers Soria Trade (PIT)
Jones has had huge tools since back in high school and never quite put them together at LSU, but projects to play third base with above average tools across the board, though he’s 23, just got to Double-A and has plenty of swing-and-miss to his game.
Luis Cessa, RHP, Detroit Tigers Cespedes Trade (NYM)
Cessa will run it up to 95 mph, has a slider, changeup and command that are all average to slightly above and projects as a back-end starter, swing man or 7th inning reliever depending on how the command plays at the big league level.
Yhonathan Barrios, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers Ramirez Trade (PIT)
Barrios converted to pitching in 2013 and will run it up to 100 mph with a slider and changeup that are around average, but he doesn’t get many strikeouts and the command is predictably lagging behind the velocity.
Adrian Houser, RHP, Milwaukee Brewers Gomez Trade (HOU)
Houser has been around for awhile and is just now putting it all together, sitting 94-96 late in to starts and hitting 98 mph, along with a curveball that’s above average to plus, but there’s no projection, the rest is still pretty rough, so he’s likely a reliever. He also needs to be added to the 40-man this offseason to avoid being lost int he Rule 5 Draft.
Jake Brentz, LHP, Seattle Mariners Lowe Trade (TOR)
Brentz had only pitched a few times in his life when he hit 95 mph in October of 2012 at a high school tournament. He’s athletic and projectable with a quick arm and flashes starter stuff, but the command still hasn’t showed up for sustained periods for the 20-year-old.
Nick Wells, LHP, Seattle Mariners Lowe Trade (TOR)
Wells was largely unknown entering his draft spring last year at a Virginia high school as he pitched in the low-to-mid-80’s until March of 2014 when he was regularly getting into the low-90’s. He’s a projectable 6’5/180 that should add more arm speed and flashes back-end starter stuff now that could improve a couple notches.
Jeff Brigham, RHP, Miami Marlins ATL/MIA/LA Trade (LA)
Brigham is a former basketball player that’s athletic on the mound and sits 94-97, hitting 99 mph, but his upside is limited with secondary stuff that’s around average and a delivery that lacks deception.
35+ FV Group (11)
Jimmy Cordero, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies Revere Trade (TOR)
Ivan Pineyro, RHP, Miami Marlins Haren Trade (CHC)
Adam Duvall, 1B, Cincinnati Reds Leake Trade (SF)
Kevin Guzman, RHP, Miami Marlins ATL/MIA/LA Trade (LA)
Alec Asher, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies Hamels Trade (TEX)
Aaron Brooks, RHP, Oakland A’s Zobrist Trade (KC)
Eric Stamets, SS, Cleveland Indians, Murphy Trade (LAA)
Rob Rasmussen, LHP, Seattle Mariners Lowe Trade (TOR)
Eduar Lopez, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays DeJesus Trade (LAA)
Tomas Telis, C, Miami Marlins Dyson Trade (TEX)
35 FV Group (6)
Alexis Tapia, RHP, Tampa Bay Rays Jepsen Trade (MIN)
Elliott Soto, SS, Miami Marlins Haren Trade (CHC)
Victor Araujo, LHP, Miami Marlins ATL/MIA/LA Trade (LA)
Kyle Barraclough, RHP, Miami Marlins Cishek Trade (STL)
Cody Ege, LHP, Miami Marlins Dyston Trade (TEX)1 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, opens the discussion on the second day of the first Army - Air Force Energy Forum in Arlington, Va. (Photo Credit: Rob McIlvaine) VIEW ORIGINAL 2 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Gen. Philip Breedlove, Air Force vice chief of staff, talks about the advances in biomass fuel from plant and animal fat, a 50/50 blend to be used by the entire fleet by 2013. (Photo Credit: Rob McIlvaine) VIEW ORIGINAL 3 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Maj. Gen. Al Aycock, director of Operations, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management, moderates a panel discussion with, from left, Lt. Gen. Howard Bromberg, Army Forces Command deputy commander; Gen. Duncan McNabb, U.S. Transportation Command commander; Gen. Donald Hoffman, U.S. Air Force Materiel Command commander; and Lt. Gen. Guy Swan, U.S. Army North commander. (Photo Credit: Rob McIlvaine) VIEW ORIGINAL 4 / 4 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia and Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado answer questions following the morning session. (Photo Credit: Rob McIlvaine) VIEW ORIGINAL
ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, July 20, 2011) -- The second day of the first joint Army - Air Force Energy Forum became standing room only as they waited for leaders from the military and government to enter.
Sen. John W. Warner, former Secretary of the Navy and five-term senator from Virginia, again joined the audience to hear the vice chiefs of staff of the Army and Air Force give an update on their services' energy efforts from the warfighter's perspective.
"Without energy, the Army stands still and silent," said Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, adding that the Army accounts for 21 percent of DoD's fuel and power consumption.
"Energy powers our tanks, aircraft and battle formations, allows for communication of voice and data directly to Soldiers, and enables our Army to deploy and perform anywhere in the world to accomplish our mission across the full spectrum of operations," he said.
The demand for energy has increased significantly over the past decade, he said. And it continues to grow as the Army modernizes equipment and develops more information communications technology, or ICT systems.
"The challenge we face is how to ensure access to energy that is operational, necessary, and mission critical while remaining fiscally responsible stewards of the taxpayers' dollars.
"One thing we know for sure. Success will require a collaborative, team effort. And that is why this forum, and forums like it, are so incredibly important," Chiarelli said.
Forum discussions Wednesday continued to look to the future of energy as it relates to operational energy, advances in technology, best practices and efficiencies, and potential partnering opportunities, during sessions that continued until 3:30 p.m., following the panel discussion.
"In order to help frame the dialogue, I'd like to take a few minutes to address the Army's operational energy priority," Chiarelli said. "Army energy and sustainability initiatives can be broken down into three areas: Soldier power, vehicle power, and basing power."
Operational energy, he said, is a key enabler across all three. It is the energy and associated systems information and processes required to train, move and sustain the force and systems for military operations.
"As we move to field more operational energy, we've got to ensure we do it in concert with the warfighter. If systems are designed in a way that the warfighter is not brought in early on, I think we're going to have serious problems," Chiarelli said.
Operational energy provides greater mission effectiveness in a number of ways, he said. It lightens the Soldier's load, provides alternative energy sources at the tactical level, reduces dependency on vulnerable resupply operations, and increases stamina and endurance for decentralized operations.
"So how do we effectively and efficiently achieve our operational energy goals? The answer is addressed at length during this two-day forum," he said. "Namely, we must drive efficiency across the enterprise, and not solely within the department or among the military services, but also in partnership with all of you here today, including those representing industry and other government agencies and organizations."
"Together, we must continue to build resilience through renewable and alternative energy sources, strategy and legislation, and policy adjustments. The Army team as a whole will ensure that benefits and efficiencies, gained through our shared focus on operational energy, will contribute to achieving our strategic energy-security goals," Chiarelli said.
Meanwhile, the Army is currently engaging in studies and developing plans designed to help reduce energy consumption, increase energy efficiency, and increase the use of renewable energy.
Projects include ground-source heat pumps, geothermal test wells, solar water heating and solar walls.
Efforts also include research and development of energy from fuel cells, wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. In concert with these and other efforts to improve energy efficiency on installations, the Army remains focused on further improving efficiencies in theater.
"We're also planning additional work in areas such as more efficient generators and power distribution. In fact, the Army has been working on the development of necessary hardware, software and controls to perform field-scale, microgrid implementation for some time now," Chiarelli said.
Microgrids are small, on-site generators, suitable for the integration of renewable energy systems like rooftop solar panels, waste heat generators and fuel cells.
"We're also on tract to field a new family of tactical generators starting in 2012. These generators, the advanced medium mobile power sources, use an average of 20 percent less fuel than the models currently employed in theater," he said.
Across the board, in the science and technology area, the Army, he said, is on the cusp of exciting developments in the power and energy sector.
"We are excited, just last month, to have cut the ribbon on a new base camp Systems Integration Laboratory at Fort Devens, Mass. The laboratory features a pair of 150-person base camps, one set in current configuration, the other to assess new technologies. In fact, the laboratory is currently looking at systems that reduce fuel usage and reuse shower water," Chiarelli said.
According to a June 24, 2011 article, instrumentation on the systems Integration Lab will measure water, fuel and power usage to help increase energy efficiency and base camp commonality. In fact, everything needed for a “Force Provider” 150-person camp can fit into one C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and be set up in theater in less than four hours.
"We must pursue opportunities in forums like this one that promote and foster partnerships between the military, industry, services and others. With a goal to find cost savings and gain efficiencies thereby further improving our ability to meet operational requirements today and in the days ahead," Chiarelli said.
Following the panel on Military Leadership Perspective on Operational Energy, moderated by Maj. Gen. Al Aycock, Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado gave the congressional perspective.
Udall co-authored a bill aimed at helping the military reduce its reliance on fossil fuel, and he also put Colorado at the forefront of sustainable energy development.
In a prepared speech recorded earlier in Kabul, Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, thanked everyone for their continued support.One of the earliest reasons to originally stir my interests in Bitcoin, was the notion of an immutable database or the Block Chain. A single source of shared truth, distributed and available to all to see; secured within a protocol really got my mind spinning. And although there are many novel methods being developed to fully harness the power and potential of Bitcoin, one cannot fully live and work within the Block Chain. The shear number of data structures and services that we depend upon in order to make up our Internet today simply cannot fit, presently.
Then I saw IPFS – and it made total sense.
Data, or content, cannot be lost. Content is parsed out on the network in a distributed fashion, as the Internet was originally envisioned and meant to be.
I suspect if you are reading this blog, you too see the value in this incredible protocol: IPFS. So why a Raspberry Pi (RPi)?
My earliest memories online were with computers that have only a fraction of the computational horsepower contained within a RPi. So I wanted to see if IPFS, which is attempting to re-invent the Internet, could I use this protocol with only a modest computer. Oftentimes, software is made to work by throwing fistfuls of clock cycles until it is made to work. To me, this represents terribly wasteful programming practices.
I’m very happy to report, that this is not the case with IPFS. The code that makes up this protocol is tight and right. It just works.
Another reason for the RPi, IPFS is aiming towards getting the Internet back on track at being truly distributed. Distributed in my mind implies access to all, not just those that can afford a powerful computer. At $35, a RPi can be put into a lot more hands than a computer costing an order of magnitude more.
Ok, lets roll up our sleeves and have some fun.
Table of Content
Materials Needed
Raspberry Pi 2 (Why the 2?) This is the latest edition of this computer No need to worry about reworking memory configuration
Ethernet Cable or WiFi USB dongle
4 GB micro SD card The entire OS, IPFS, and software dependencies can all fit on a standard 4 GB card
Another computer to perform the initial setup of the Raspberry Pi 2 (RPi2)
Raspbian OS - Debian Wheezy
Overview of Steps:
Preparing the Raspberry Pi’s OS Software Installations Node.js GO Language IPFS – Protocol IPFS – WebUI
Getting Your Raspberry Pi Ready
Visit https://www.raspberrypi.org/ in order to procure a copy of the Raspbian OS image file. Whilst you are downloading the image file, read through the install guides to learn how to get the image onto your micro SD card. You will need another computer in order to perform these steps of installing the downloaded image file onto the micro SD card. Once the card has had the OS installed, remove and install into your RPi2. Make sure that your Pi is connected to the Internet, for this tutorial we will assume that the computer is directly connected to a router via an Ethernet cable. Upon booting up for the first time, there are a number of configurations and localizations necessary to make your RPi2 work as your expect it. For the remainder of this tutorial, I will be assuming a RPi2 that will be used in the USA. Please, where needed, make changes to your location. You will be presented on initial startup a window containing various configurations/localizations. Before continuing, select the option to “Expand Filesystem”. This may take some time until you are told that, “Root partition has been resized”. Next comes localization of your RPi2 or “Internationalisation Options”. The RPi2 is configured to UK options that may or may not ideally suit your needs. Under “Internationalisation Options” “Change Locale” De-select the default using the spacebar. Select your option, assuming that you are in the USA – that would most likely be “en_US.UTF_8 UTF_8”. Select using your space bar and then TAB ENTER to save. When presented with “Default locale for the system environment”, select your previous choice. “Change Timezone” The RPi does not have an internal clock, rather it grabs the time off of a server after reading from a configuration file what is the appropriate timezone. Hence, this needs to be set in order for your Pi to operate correctly. “Change Keyboard Layout” This is by far the most important setting; failure to set this correctly may result in improper key mappings. Under “Keyboard layout” -> “Other”; again we want to de-select the default UK settings. Select “English (US)” and defaults are most likely ok. Again, if you are not USA, select the most appropriate settings. “Overclock” Though not needed, I do think that some overclocking is perfectly fine. “Modest” to “Medium” can be, typically, safely applied without stressing the Pi too greatly. “Advanced Options” Enabling of “A4 SSH” will allow for remote log in at a later time. This may be useful if you wish to run a headless system, i.e. a Pi without a monitor/keyboard, using a different computer. To save these configurations TAB to Finish and allow the system to reboot. The Pi will reboot in the command line. We did not configure it to boot into the graphic user interface (GUI), as next steps of updating the system does not require the overhead associated with running the GUI or gooey. The default credentials will be login – “pi” and password – “raspberry”. Within the terminal window enter the following commands and allow for each to fully run: >sudo apt-get update <enter> >sudo apt-get upgrade <enter> >sudo apt-get autoremove <enter> >sudo ldconfig <enter> >sudo reboot <enter> Each of these commands will result in the Pi performing various housekeeping activities. After the computer restarts, you may now want to start in the GUI environment, instead of the command line. To change this setting, enter: >sudo raspi-config The configuration window again appears and you can “Boot into the Desktop”. It is also a great idea at this point to change the default password at this time. Again reboot the computer and you should now have started up in the graphical user interface.
Installing Node.js
Node.js is required for later installation of the IPFS WebUI components. Although this can be installed after the install of IPFS, it doesn’t hurt to perform this install right away to get it out of the way. Use the following guide to installing this software: http://weworkweplay.com/play/raspberry-pi-nodejs/ You will see the initial download as:
After the download, the package must be installed. Within the terminal issue the following command:
>sudo dpkg –i node_latest_armhf.deb
This will begin the unpacking and installation of the software. Double check that node is installed properly by issuing the following terminal command:
>node --version You should see it return the version of node that you have running:
After installation of node, it is best to reboot. ( >sudo reboot )
Installing the Go Language:
The Go language is used by IPFS and its installation is required. There are a number of great tutorials explaining how to install the GO language on the Raspberry Pi, such as: http://dave.cheney.net/2012/09/25/installing-go-on-the-raspberry-pi Great tutorial Complete and useful for troubleshooting. http://blog.meinside.pe.kr/Gogs-on-Raspberry-Pi/ Great resource Also a great troubleshooting tool https://xivilization.net/~marek/blog/2014/07/05/go-1-dot-3-for-raspberry-pi/ This is the tutorial that we will be using for the present tutorial By far the quickest setup towards installing GO on your Raspberry Pi Launch the tutorial on your Raspberry pi, this will permit copying/pasting of commands directly into your terminal window:
Using the mouse, select one line at a time from the website and then right mouse click “Copy”. In a terminal window, right mouse click and select “Paste” to enter the command. Do this for the four lines shown. You will see the RPi begin the process like such:
After this process is complete, verify the install by checking its version. Type in the terminal window:
>go version <enter>
Installing the IPFS (Protocol)
We will be installing the protocol first. Go to IPFS.io and then select the link “Install IPFS”
Download the link for the “Linux ARM” into your Downloads folder (automatic). Once the download is complete, double click on the compressed file in order to extract.
Change the extraction path to your HOME directory:
Once extracted into your HOME directory, open a terminal window: Inside of the terminal window type:
>cd ipfs/dist <enter> (This is assuming that you extracted IPFS into a folder called ipfs in your home directory.) You must now move ipfs in order to be able to use it, type:
>sudo mv ipfs /usr/local/bin/ipfs <enter> Move will only be successful if you perform it as a super user, hence the “sudo” You should now be able to use ipfs from the terminal. To check, type:
>ipfs version |
to 18 extended harvest; reddish green stalks Divinity 78 days 8"-16 rows excellent flavor, tenderness; snow white color; excellent tip cover; tolerant to drought, Stewart’s wilt Pristine 76 days 8 to 9"-16 rows terrific eating quality, tolerant to Stewart’s wilt Seneca Starshine 71 days 7 to 8"-16 rows blocky ears, with pure white kernels; excellent tenderness, flavor, appearance; prefers 50°F or higher soil temperature for germination Seneca White Knight 74 days 8 to 9"-16 rows high quality; attractive ears; great taste Snowbelle 79 days 7 to 8"-14 to 16 rows creamy texture; pretty, compact ears Spring Snow 65 days 7 to 8"-12 rows excellent husk cover; very early; attractive ears; very tender kernels; compact plant Sugar Snow 71 days 8 to 9"-16 rows extremely sweet, snow white kernels; good cold-soil tolerance Telstar 79 days 8"-16 rows vigorous; dark green flag leaves; tasty; attractive ear Ambrosia 75 days 8"-16 rows good spring vigor; fairly large, tasty ears; tolerant to Stewart’s wilt Calico Belle 79 days 8"-16 to 18 rows high yield; attractive; delicious taste; good disease tolerance D’Artagnan 71 days 8"-16 rows superior quality in an early SE bicolor Diamonds & Gold 79 days 8"-18 rows sweet, tender; good tipfill; attractive dark green ears Double Delight 85 days 9"-16 rows large, tasty ears; dark green husk; like a bicolor Incredible Double Gem 74 days 8 to 9"-16 to 18 rows excellent eating quality; blocky ears; usually double ears on stalks Kiss ‘N Tell 68 days 7 to 8"-14 to 16 rows two ears per stalk; good tipfill Lancelot 80 days 8"-16 to 18 rows vigorous, stress-tolerant plant; good yields; high quality ears under adverse conditions Medley 73 days 8"-16 rows dark green flags; good tip cover; tolerant to Stewart’s wilt Peaches & Cream 83 days 8"-16 to 18 rows tasty, poplar home-garden variety; vigorous plant; good ear protection Seneca Brave 73 days 8"-18 to 20 rows husky, excellent quality ears; strong plants Seneca Dawn 69 days 7 to 8"-14 to 16 rows excellent early bicolor; good vigor, eating quality
Supersweet (Sh2)
Yellow Harvest Ear Size Comments ChallengerCrisp ‘N Sweet 85 days 9"-18 rows high yield; excellent disease resistance; good germination, seedling vigor Early Xtra Sweet 70 days 8"-16 rows like the original, but earlier Excel 82 days 8 1/2" - 16 rows exceptionally high yield, easy to harvest Illini Gold 79 days 8 1/2"-16 rows midseason supersweet Illini Xtra Sweet 85 days 8"-14 to 16 rows the original SH2 supersweet hybrid Jubilee Supersweet 83 days 9"-18 rows excellent home garden supersweet Showcase 83 days 8" large ear on short plant, outstanding eating quality
White Harvest Ear Size Comments Aspen 83 days 8 to 9"-16 rows large, attractive ears; high eating quality Camelot 86 days 8"-18 to 20 rows clean, sturdy plants; excellent quality, holding traits How Sweet It Is 85 days 8"-16 rows All-America Selection winner, sensitive to cold soil, holds quality well Pegasus 85 days 8 1/2"-18 rows good cold soil germination, vigor Treasure 83 days 8 1/2"-18 rows good vigor, seedling emergence
Bicolor Harvest Ear size Comments Aloha 82 days 9"-16 rows excellent appearance Dazzle 82 days 8"-16 to 18 rows good looking ear; good disease resistance; creamy texture Honey ‘N Pearl 78 days 8 1/2"-16 rows 1988 All-America Selection winner, stands well, excellent quality Hudson 83 days 8"-18 rows smooth, well-filled ears; superior eating quality, tenderness Phenomenal 85 days 8 1/2"-16 rows excellent eating quality, beautiful ears Radiance 73 days 8"-16 to 18 rows excellent seedling emergence, plant vigor
When to Plant
Sweet corn requires warm soil for germination (above 55°F for standard sweet corn varieties and about 65°F for supersweet varieties). Early plantings of standard sweet corn should be made at, or just before, the mean frost-free date unless you use special soil-warming protection such as clear polyethylene mulch film.
For a continuous supply of sweet corn throughout the summer, plant an early variety, a second early variety and a main-crop variety in the first planting. For example, you may wish to select Sundance (69 days) for the first early variety, Tuxedo (75 days) for the second early variety and Incredible (83 days) for the main-crop variety. Make a second planting and successive plantings of your favorite main-crop or late variety when three to four leaves have appeared on the seedlings in the previous planting. Plantings can be made as late as the first week of July.
Open-Pollinated (SU)
Yellow Harvest Ear size Comments Ashworth 69 days 6 to 7" ears, 12 rows good cold soil germination; good flavor for an early type Golden Bantam 82 days 6 to 7"ears, 10 to 14 rows rich corn flavor, sweet, tender
White Harvest Ear size Comments Country Gentleman 96 days 7" ears, kernels not in rows very tender, shoe-peg type; drought resistant Stowell’s Evergreen 100 days 9"ears, 18 to 20 rows big, juicy, white kernels; ripen over long period Trucker’s Favorite 95 days 8 to 9" ears, 14 rows delicious white kernels, high yields
Bicolor Harvest Ear size Comments Double Standard 73 days 7"ears, 12 to 14 rows first bicolor open-pollinated type; good cold soil germination good flavor, tenderness; traditional corn taste
Black Harvest Ear size Comments Black Aztec 75 days 7"ears, 8 to 10 rows vigorous drought tolerant; sweet white kernels in roasting ear stage, dark blue-black at maturity; good for blue corn meal
Spacing & Depth
Plant the kernels (seeds) 1/2 inch deep in cool, moist soils and 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep in warm, dry soils. Space the kernels 9 to 12 inches apart in the row. Plant two or more rows of each variety side by side to ensure good pollination and ear development. Allow 30 to 36 inches between rows.
All sweet corns should be protected from possible cross-pollination by other types of corn (field, pop or flint). If you plant supersweet or synergistic sweet corn varieties, plan your garden arrangement and planting schedule so as to prevent cross-pollination between these varieties and with any other corn, including nonSh2 sweet corns. Supersweet varieties pollinated by standard sweet corn, popcorn or field corn do not develop a high sugar content and are starchy. Cross-pollination between yellow and white sweet corn varieties of the same type affects only the appearance of the white corn, not the eating quality.
Care
Cultivate shallowly to control weeds. Chemical herbicides are not recommended for home gardens. Although corn is a warm-weather crop, lack of water at critical periods can seriously reduce quality and yield. If rainfall is deficient, irrigate thoroughly during emergence of the tassels, silking and maturation of the ears.
Hot, droughty conditions during pollination result in missing kernels, small ears and poor development of the tips of the ears. Side-dress nitrogen fertilizer when the plants are 12 to 18 inches tall.
Some sweet corn varieties produce more side shoots or "suckers" than others. Removing these side shoots is time consuming and does not improve yields.
Harvesting
Each cornstalk should produce at least one large ear. Under good growing conditions (correct spacing; freedom from weeds, insects and disease; and adequate moisture and fertility), many varieties produce a second ear. This second ear is usually smaller and develops later than the first ear.
Sweet corn ears should be picked during the "milk stage" when the kernels are fully formed but not fully mature. This stage occurs about 20 days after the appearance of the first silk strands. The kernels are smooth and plump and the juice in the kernel appears milky when punctured with a thumbnail. Sweet corn remains in the milk stage less than a week. As harvest time approaches, check frequently to make sure that the kernels do not become too mature and doughy. Other signs that indicate when the corn is ready for harvest are drying and browning of the silks, fullness of the tip kernels and firmness of the unhusked ears.
To harvest, snap off the ears by hand with a quick, firm, downward push, twist and pull. The ears should be eaten, processed or refrigerated as soon as possible. At summer temperatures, the sugar in sweet corn quickly decreases and the starch increases.
Cut or pull out the cornstalks immediately after harvest and put them in a compost pile. Cut the stalks in one foot lengths or shred them to hasten decay.
Common Problems
Corn earworms are a problem in sweet corn every year. Earlier plantings are not badly infested in areas where the pest does not overwinter, but later harvests usually have severe earworm damage unless timely control measures are followed. Corn earworms deposit eggs on the developing silks or on the leaves near the ear. The tiny caterpillars follow the silks down into the ear, where they feed on the tip. Only one corn earworm will be found per ear because the caterpillars are cannibalistic, with the largest devouring any others present. Once the worm is inside the protective husk covering, there is no effective control. Anything that restricts the worm-such as tightening the tip of the husk with a rubber band or clothespin after the silk appears, or inserting mineral oil (1/2 medicine dropperful) in the silk tube-helps to decrease the damage.
Corn rootworm beetles may cause extensive silk damage that interferes with pollination. Later plantings usually suffer the greatest damage, especially where field corn is grown. Beetles multiply in early plantings of field corn, mature and migrate to plantings of young, tender sweet corn. Silk and the young, tender, green leaves are preferred feeding sites. If infestation is sufficient to remove silk before pollination, cobs develop without a full set of kernels. Control measures must be taken as the silk emerges.
European corn borers damage stalks, tassels and ears. As their name indicates, corn borers bore into the plant; and the stalks break over when damage is severe. Corn borers also may bore into the cob and be found after cooking. A suggested insecticide can be applied at 5 day intervals, beginning when eggs hatch in June. Spray applications for earworms usually give adequate control of corn borers.
Flea beetles often attack early in the spring as the corn plants emerge through the soil. Flea beetles can be quite damaging when numerous and they may carry Stewart's bacterial wilt disease.
Stewart's wilt is a bacterial disease spread by the flea beetle. This disease causes yellow streaks in the leaves, stunting and death of young plants of susceptible varieties. The disease occurs more frequently in the southern states and is not severe after cold winters or when resistant varieties are planted. If possible, plant varieties with good resistance.
Smut is caused by a fungus that invades the kernels. It develops as a swollen black pustule (gall) in the ear and sometimes infects the tassel. Some sweet corn varieties are more tolerant to smut than others. Smut occurs most frequently on white varieties and is often severe when extremely dry or hot weather occurs just before and during tasseling. Remove and destroy smut galls while they are moist and firm. Do not discard these galls in or near the garden. Place in the garbage or burn them. The smut is not poisonous, but it is unpleasant to handle. Break off the infected part of the ear. The remainder is suitable for eating.
The immature smut fungus or "maize mushroom" is highly prized in Mexican cooking. Harvest when the fungus is expanded, but before it becomes black and dried out. The time generally is about 2 to 3 days before the sweet corn reaches peak eating quality.
Questions & Answers
Q. How long does it take sweet corn to develop from the first appearance of silks to harvest?
A. About 5 days are required for complete pollination after the first silks appear. Harvest begins about 20 days after first silking.
Q. The germination of my Illini Xtra Sweet is low. How can I get a better stand?
A. The seeds of supersweet varieties are shrunken and do not germinate readily in cold, wet soil. Do not plant too early in the spring. Wait until the soil is warm, preferably 65°F. Sow the seed more thickly and thin if necessary. Fungicide seed treatments may also be helpful.
Q. Why don't my sweet corn ears fill out to the tips?
A. Several conditions can cause poor kernel development at the tip of the ear such as dry weather during silking and pollination; planting too close; poor fertility, lack of potassium; and poor natural pollination. These conditions may be overcome by watering in dry weather; planting at recommended spacing (9 to 12 inches in the row); proper fertilization; and planting short rows in blocks of two or more for more complete pollination.
Q. What is the best way to grow early corn?
A. Choose an early maturing variety, plant early and shallowly (about 1/2 inch deep), and cover the row with clear polyethylene film. Use 1 or 2 mil film 3 feet wide and cover the edges and ends to warm the soil around the seeds. The small plants can be left under the plastic for 2 to 4 weeks. Remove the film, or cut slits and carefully pull the plants through before the weather becomes too hot. It is wise to experiment with this technique on a small scale first. Unseasonable heat can quickly cook and kill young seedlings under clear plastic.
Q. How can I keep raccoons out of my sweet corn?
A. It is virtually impossible to keep raccoons out of garden, although many methods are employed. The most successful seems to be an electric fence made with two wires, one about 4 inches above ground level and the other at 12 inches. The fence must be operating well in advance of the time that the corn approaches maturity. Raccoons prefer to eat sweet corn in the early milk stage, just before it is ready to harvest.
Selection & Storage
Corn is a European word meaning kernel. The corn plant is native American in origin and Illinois is corn country. Driving through the state, you will see endless fields of sweet corn, feed corn, and popcorn. Small plot gardeners know that corn takes up a lot of space, it is greedy for soil nutrients, prone to weeds and disease, destroyed by small animals, wind and frost. So why do we go through all the trouble of growing corn? Because no corn is as fresh and sweet as the corn you grow yourself.
The period of peak freshness for sweet corn is measured in minutes not hours or days. The best corn is simply the freshest corn. Proper timing for harvest is crucial to the quality of sweet corn. Harvest sweet corn when the ears are full and blunt at the tip. The husks should be tightly folded and green. Using your thumb nail, poke an end kernel. It should squirt forth milky white sap. Underripe corn will contain a watery liquid; overripe corn will have a tough skinned kernel with doughy interiors. Also look at the silk, it should be turning brown and dry on the end.
Storing sweet corn for long periods of time will destroy it. The sugar quickly turns to starch, losing flavor, quality and most of all sweetness. If you must store sweet corn, use perforated plastic bags and get it into the refrigerator as soon as possible. Warm temperatures hasten the conversion process. Try to use the corn within 1 to 2 days and do not husk until just prior to cooking.
Nutritional Value & Health Benefits
Sweet corn is high in fiber, niacin, folate and some vitamin A. Folate has been found to prevent neural-tube birth defects and current research suggests that it helps to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. Fiber, of course, helps to keep the intestinal track running smoothly.
Nutrition Facts (Serving size: 1 ear yellow sweet corn )
Calories 83.16
Protein 2.56 grams
Carbohydrates 19.3 grams
Dietary Fiber 2.15 grams
Potassium 191.73 mg
Vitamin A 167 IU
Niacin 1.24 mg
Folate 35.73 mcg
Preparation & Serving
Traditionally, boiling is the way to prepare corn on the cob. However, it can be steamed, grilled, roasted, and even microwaved. When boiling sweet corn, do not add salt to the boiling water as it only serves to toughen the kernels as does overcooking.
To shuck corn, pull the husks down the ear and snap off the stem at the base. Under cold running water, rub the ear in a circular motion to remove the silk or use a stiff vegetable brush. To remove corn from the cob, you will need a sharp paring knife.
Place the shucked ear on a plate, large end down. Starting at the tip of the ear, run the knife straight down to the stem end leaving about 1/4 inch of the kernel on the cob. This prevents cutting off the tough cob fibers. Rotate the ear and cut until all the kernels have been removed. Now, using the back of the knife, gently scrape down the entire cob to remove the milk left behind.
Home Preservation
Freezing is the best method for preserving the quality of sweet corn. Although it cans fairly well, it must be processed in a pressure canner for extremely long periods of time. Corn can also be pickled into corn relish.
To Freeze Sweet Corn
Select only tender, freshly gathered corn in the milk stage. Husk and trim the ears, remove silks and wash in cold water.
Corn on the cob
Water blanch small ears (1 1/4 inches or less in diameter) 7 minutes, medium ears (1-1/2 inches in diameter or more) 9 minutes. Cool in an ice water bath for approximately the same amount of time as blanching. Cool completely to prevent a "cobby" taste. Drain and package in gallon-size zip closure freezer bags. Push excess air from the bags, seal and freeze. Leave space between each bag until frozen. Note: For detailed information on blanching procedures, see Bean.
Whole Kernel Corn
Water blanch corn on the cob for 4 minutes. Cool promptly in ice water for 4 minutes. Drain and cut corn from the cob. Cut kernels from the cob about two-thirds the depth of the kernels. Package in zip closure freezer bags or rigid containers leaving 1/2 inch head space. Note: For detailed information on blancing procedures, see Beans.
Recipes
Smothering corn with butter and salt is the traditional way of serving corn on the cob. Instead, try squeezing on fresh lemon or lime juice or brush with olive oil and sprinkle on your favorite dried herb blend. Fresh herbs, dried herbs and spices used to enhance the flavor of corn include thyme, paprika, chives, lemon balm and chervil. Garlic powder also creates a nice flavor boost as well as freshly ground black pepper.
Boiled Corn on the Cob
Drop shucked, washed, corn into a pot of rapidly boiling water. Boil for 4 minutes. The cooking time will vary depending on the size and age of the corn. Do not over cook the corn or it will toughen. Remove an ear and taste; it should still be slightly crisp. Serve with herbs, lime juice or butter and salt and black pepper.
Dried Herb Blend
(for corn and other vegetables)
4 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon thyme
Combine all ingredients and pour into a shaker. Use on any vegetable instead of salt.
Crusty Skillet Corn
2 tablespoons canola oil
8 medium ears of corn (kernels cut and scraped from the cob)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup flourRecently, the Salvation Army of Canada announced its intention to build a 350-bed facility a literal stone’s throw away from my family home in Ottawa. Given the lack of public consultations that preceded the announcement, it came as a significant shock to both my family and the rest of the neighbourhood.
After the initial shock of the announcement wore off, many of us began researching what this facility would mean for our community. It would be comprised of 140 emergency-shelter beds plus an additional 210 beds for various types of residential treatment. A facility of this magnitude would not only have the typical impacts associated with condo developments, such as added traffic, noise, etc., but would also bring many more people struggling with addictions into the neighbourhood. And as the Salvation Army does not engage in harm reduction programs, such as needle exchanges or supervised injection, drug use, drug dealing, and alcohol consumption in public spaces can be expected to increase.
I initially felt as though commenting on this facility was not in my wheelhouse. My background is in economic and fiscal modelling and forecasting. And, although I have worked on evaluating public policy more than the average Canadian, evaluating models of effective service delivery for the homeless is not an area in which I have any expertise.
However, the more I researched this issue, the more I realized how central funding to support homelessness and addiction is to social policy at every level. And, as such, it has a significant impact on the fiscal frameworks of federal, provincial, and municipal governments.
At the federal level, the previous-Conservative government committed “nearly $600 million over five years (2014-2019) starting in April 2014 to renew and refocus the Homelessness Partnering Strategy (HPS) using a Housing First approach.” Then, the current-Liberal government committed an additional $112 million over two years in Budget 2016 to Housing First initiatives, and a further $2.1 billion over 11 years in Budget 2017.
Housing First, as defined by the federal government, involves “moving primarily individuals who are chronically or episodically homeless from the streets or homeless shelters directly into permanent housing. Permanent housing is complemented by the provision of services to assist clients to sustain their housing and work towards recovery and reintegration into the community.”
The reason for this multi-partisan support for Housing First is due to the results of the federal-government sponsored research project, At Home/Chez Soi. The largest project of its kind in the world, it established pilots in five Canadian cities (Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Moncton) in 2009 to examine outcomes of the Housing First approach. The At Home/Chez Soi Final Report “demonstrated that a Housing First approach can be effectively implemented in Canadian cities both large and small, to rapidly reduce homelessness while alleviating pressure on shelters and health and judicial services. Once stable housing is obtained, the focus shifts to more enduring issues, such as addiction and mental health.” Indeed, in the last six months of the study, “62 per cent of Housing First (HF) participants were housed all of the time … whereas 31 per cent of treatment as usual (TAU) participants were housed all the time …” Further, “Among participants who were housed, housing quality was usually better and more consistent in HF residences than TAU residences.” So, we know from this work that “Housing First rapidly ends homelessness.”
But, while it’s clear that Housing First is much more effective than the emergency-shelter model in combatting homelessness, what is the fiscal impact? Fortunately, this too is a good news story.
According to researchers at McGill, using the data from the At Home/Chez Soi project, “Support services for homeless people with mental illness in Canada’s biggest cities cost more than $55K a year per person on average.” To put that in perspective, the average Canadian earns just shy of $50K annually before taxes.
Meanwhile, researchers in Regina found that Housing First created cost savings of nearly $75,000 per person annually through lower costs of policing, days in hospital, emergency room visits, and detox visits. Further evidence is provided by the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing. In their ‘Housing First Social Impact Bond Feasibility Study’, the authors found that Housing First was consistently cheaper across measures of ‘health and justice use’ as well as ‘overnight stays’ due to lower incidence. Still further research in other jurisdictions, such as Victoria, has confirmed the same thing.
In all, I have been unable to find any evidence that does not support Housing First over emergency shelters, either from a cost or outcome perspective. This begs the question: Why are tax dollars being spent on expensive emergency shelters when we know they are ineffective at combatting homelessness and addiction?
In this case, as in all others, evidence matters, and citizens should demand politicians base their decisions on it. When they do, we are all better off.
Randall Bartlett is the chief economist of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and DemocracyHyperloop Oone, the futuristic tube-based high-speed transportation system, has announced 35 teams from all over the world to actualise the potential of the system in different regions – with one of them being India. If the system finds its way to India, we could potentially see distances like Delhi-Mumbai (~1200 kilometers) being covered in less than one hour.
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The ‘Hyperloop One Global Challenge’, announced by the company in May 2016, was able to attract 2,600 teams of engineers and planners from across the globe, according to a report from Inverse. The 35 finalist teams were announced on Friday, and will be present at three showcases that will be held by the company in New Delhi on February 28, Washington DC on April 6 and London on April 27.
The company will be inviting government leaders to these showcases, to display the potential of the high-speed system in their individual regions. Nick Earle, who oversees global field operations of Hyperloop One has said the feedback from governments will be determining if Hyperloop One is considered for the region.
Among the proposed routes and their feasibility, Hyperloop is potentially looking at five Indian sectors where the system can be built: Delhi-Mumbai, Bangalore-Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai-Bangalore, Mumbai-Chennai and a port connector project. The company has shared a big list of potential routes across the globe. Earle has said that there could be multiple winners going forward, and the company is keeping all options open.
Regions that win will then be checked for feasibility before the company moves forward with any projects. “We want to have three routes in production in the next five years,” said Lloyd to Inverse. This means that Hyperloop will be choosing only three systems to build out of the 35 it has projected.
Miss the big #CES2017 news about our Global Challenge finalists? Check out this piece in @inversedotcom https://t.co/uq6JKpNfOk pic.twitter.com/uVUaxTlPXe
— HyperloopOne (@HyperloopOne) January 13, 2017
The way forward for the vaccum-tube transportation in India could potentially see large hurdles, as with most major infrastructure projects. Land acquisition for building the Hyperloop system and the funding itself will be one of the largest challenges in India. Even though it might sound like a cool concept, the reality of this coming to India might be a little slim at the moment.
Read: Airbus CEO sees ‘flying car’ prototype ready by end of year
Hyperloop is the brainchild of entrepreneur Elon Musk, and was announced by him back in 2013. The system proposes to propel pod-like vehicles through a near-vacuum tube at speeds close to 1200 km/h. It is projected as the fastest way to travel between two places.
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“Hyperloop is a new way to move people and things at airline speeds for the price of a bus ticket. It’s on-demand, energy-efficient and safe. Think: broadband for transportation,” the company says on its website.On the Waiting List
Internally displaced people from the Nagorno Karabakh conflict have spent more than two decades in temporary housing, despite Azerbaijan’s promises of resettlement. From the Caucasian Knot.
27 April 2017
Refugees have been living in the dormitory of a boarding school for deaf and mute children in Baku since 1993. They were forced to leave their homes back then as a result of the conflict in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. An older woman, who calls herself Zarifa, says that the building is barely suitable for living.
"The plumbing is out of order; pipes are leaking almost everywhere. So the floor in the kitchen stays wet all the time,” Zarifa says. “We have no gas. We cook and heat the place with electricity. Since they have installed electricity meters, we are getting huge bills."
Another elderly woman who lives in the dormitory also complains about high electricity costs. "I live alone. My pension is 170 manat ($101),” she says. “I get another 20 manat as food allowance. In January, after they canceled electricity benefits for internally displaced people, I got an electricity bill of 109 manat. How can I pay it? No one cares about us."
One of the dormitories for IDPs in Baku.
In Baku, internally displaced people (IDP) have been asking the authorities to solve housing problems for years. Officials have agreed that the 340,000 internally displaced people need better living conditions. They have promised once again to speed up the resettlement process, but it has been painfully slow.
Dampness Everywhere
For nearly 30 years, the landlocked, mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been frozen in an unresolved dispute between Azerbaijan, in which it lies, and its ethnic Armenian majority, backed by neighboring Armenia. Conflict in the region erupted just before the demise of the Soviet Union in 1988. Officially, Nagorno-Karabakh remains a part of Azerbaijan within its internationally recognized borders, and Baku opposes any international recognition for the territory. Armenia has also not recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state, with the president saying in the past that such a move would derail the ongoing international negotiations about the future of the area.
The refugees living in the school dormitory complain about inconveniences and financial difficulties. At least 17-18 families live on each floor of the four-story building located on Sharifli Street in the Nasimi neighborhood of Baku.
Clothes hanging out to dry in the dormitory.
Afiga Bairamova says that she shares a 16-square-meter (172-square-foot) room with her son, daughter-in-law, and their three children. "A few years ago we renovated our room. But because the plumbing and the sewage in the building are decrepit, everything is damp. All the wallpaper peels off from the dampness. Wallpaper aside, the children are constantly sick because of the high humidity. We have a tiny window, and this place practically does not get any sunlight," Bairamova says.
Bairamova’s financial situation is dire. "I sweep streets and get 180 manat. My son is a manual worker who earns two-three manat a day. My daughter-in-law looks after three children and cannot work. It is hard to find employment anyway, even for the most difficult jobs," she says.
An elderly man named Gasim is an IDP from the Fuzuli region, which is located in southern Azerbaijan, and remains partly under the control of the Nagorno-Karabakh authorities. He also complains of the conditions of the dormitory.
"Look around – the plaster is falling off. The pipes regularly burst, young residents patch them with whatever they have at hand,” he says. “Each floor has just one kitchen and no ventilation system. Due to the lack of space, our women often cook in their rooms on electric stoves, and the steam from the food and kettles increases the dampness. They should either renovate this dormitory or house us in the newly constructed buildings for internally displaced people," Gasim says.
A spouse of another refugee also points to the lack of space and other inconveniences. "Our family of six shares one room. We have a shared toilet with other neighbors – and no heating. In winter, the children always get sick. We are human; we want to live and rest like humans. They could at least offer us reasonable temporary housing until our lands and houses are finally free and we can go home," the woman says.
Many IDPs live on meagre state benefits.
Her husband, Tarlan Alyshov, says that the IDPs have repeatedly asked the State Committee for Refugees and the officials of the district administration to solve their problems – all in vain.
"The government has not even responded to our complaints. Local authorities shift the responsibility to the State Committee for Refugees. And those who work there say they have no money for repairs. They ask us to wait for our turn to receive new housing," Alyshov says.
At the same time, he mentioned that the refugees had not appealed to the commissioner for human rights in Azerbaijan. "To be honest, we have lost hope that someone could help us. It makes no sense to appeal there," Alyshov says.
"No one is interested in us. Before local elections, candidates come to our dormitory. They promise a lot and then forget about us. I don’t even know who our current parliamentary representative is," adds one of the residents, another refugee from Nagorno-Karabakh.
Official Statistics: 35,000 People Need Urgent Relocation
The 2017 budget has no funds earmarked for the relocation of residents living in the dormitory on Sharifli Street, a spokesman for the State Committee for Refugees said.
But he added that all refugees who live in dormitories, hospitals, and kindergartens would be gradually offered temporary housing in newly constructed, apartment buildings or one-story houses. At the same time, the committee spokesman said that the resettlement of these refugees should be accelerated thanks to Mehriban Aliyeva, the country’s first lady and recently appointed vice president of Azerbaijan. She raised this issue at a meeting with officials on 9 March that focused on the problem of IDPs who temporarily live in dormitories in Baku and Sumgait, Azerbaijan’s third-largest city, located near the Caspian Sea.
According to officials, 340,000 refugees need improved housing. In Baku alone, 41,000 families live in urban areas, out of which 14,000 live in dormitories; 5,000 in public buildings; 4,000 in hospitals, boarding houses, and tourist camps; 4,000 in unfinished buildings; and 2,000 in educational institutions and kindergartens. At least 117 of these buildings are not suitable for living, as they are in deplorable condition and long past their lifespan. And yet, 35,000 people still live there.
At the meeting with Aliyeva, the head of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs, Ali Hasanov, said that the building of a settlement for 1,170 families in the Tartar region (located in the south and partly controlled by Nagorno-Karabakh) was under way. He also said that financial problems linked to the construction of four buildings on vacant land in Baku and in the surrounding areas, which are meant to house 260 families, had been solved. Additional land has been allocated for the construction of new residential complexes for 800 families in Baku and its surroundings, including near the Kurdakhani village in the Sabunchi region; within the Pirallakhinsky district for 330 families; and in Sumgait for 1,000 of 2,900 relocated families, the AZERTAC state news agency reports.
In addition to the poor living conditions, the temporary housing facilities are also overcrowded.
As for the huge electricity bills, a representative of the State Committee on Refugees pointed out that state benefits entitling refugees to free electricity had been reinstalled by presidential decree on 14 February. The electricity distribution company Azerigiq clarified, however, that the cabinet had set limits for free electricity consumption by refugees. For example, refugees who live in places without gas – in dormitories, hospitals, kindergartens, and educational institutions – are exempt from paying electricity bills if their consumption is less than 300 kilowatt-hour (KW-h) per person. Everything above that limit should be paid according to tariffs set by the Tariff Council, an Azerigiq representative said.
As for the refugees' complaints about huge electricity bills, a representative of the energy company said that in February "the refugees had received bills for the previous month" [before the presidential decree].
Sakhavat Aliyev is a displaced person from the Jabrayil region, which is located in the south, most of it under Nagorno Karabakh’s control). He lives in the dormitory of the Azerbaijan Technical University and said he was satisfied with the reinstalled benefits.
Sakhavat Aliyev
"Honestly, when the benefits were abolished we were desperate. We didn’t have gas or central heating. In January, we got a bill for 72 manat for using 760 KW-h, which is almost 20 percent of our family budget. But then they told us that the benefits had been reinstalled, and we don’t have to pay the bill. It seems that many are confused by this new system and were frightened by the January bills," Aliyev says.
Falling Oil Prices Affect Refugees
Togrul Juvarli, a business analyst from the Turan news agency, said that, in general, Azerbaijan has managed to ease social tensions caused by the plight of these refugees.
"Azerbaijan faced a humanitarian disaster in the early 1990s with the arrival of 1 million refugees from Armenia, Meskhetian Turks from Central Asia [where they had been deported during the Soviet Union], and internally displaced people from Karabakh,” he said. “ |
for Goku?
What is the March for Goku and where did it come from?
It’s a form of satire with a twist.
Turns out there are a lot of evangelical Christians in Brazil, and they have this annual event called the March for Jesus.
It’s an evangelical march that takes place in over 170 countries where believers “express their love for Jesus by serving their communities and worshiping their Lord in the streets of their cities.”
Christian’s in Brazil celebrated their March for Jesus on May 17 alongside Jesus Day, which was signed into law by President Lula in 2009. Over 300,000 attended and it was the largest public event of the year.
In response, some passionate Dragon Ball Z fans decided to spread the Gospel of Goku.
The March
The March for Goku occurred on Sunday, June 1 in the city of Curitiba.
There was a big lead up to the event. Over 27,000 Dragon Ball Z fans on this Facebook event page said that they would attend the march.
That’s a lot. But when you look at the videos you can see that no more than 200 to 400, showed up (depending on your source).
Even so, they made a lot of noise by singing the Brazilian opening themes to Dragon Ball Z and GT, titled Cha-la Head Cha-la, We Gotta Power, and Dan Dan Kokoro Hikarateku.
Fans dressed up as Goku, Android 18, and other characters to show their support.
Another fan created a cardboard cutout in Goku’s likeness and carried it on high.
They marched through the streets and then stopped at the Universidade Federal do Paraná school building.
There they fired off a group Kamehameha, did a synchronized Fusion, and performed a huge Genki Dama to give Goku their spiritual energy, wherever he may be.
Seems like they had fun.
There was only one problem.
They made the Christians angry.
The Christian Reaction
Some local Christians were offended.
They responded by saying things on this gospel website such as:
“Goku is a demon that inhabits the astral world. … People do not know they are idolizing a demonic entity. … Dragon Ball is one of the most satanic anime.”
One commenter fired back that it is better to worship the pure hearted Goku than the corrupt pastors of the Brazilian church. He said,
“Goku teaches good lessons to children without asking for money or turning them into pawns to achieve extremist goals.”
Other fans argued that the March for Goku showed the Christians their intolerance, since they were just allowed to have their very own March for Jesus and Jesus Day.
Yet some Christians believe it is morally wrong and disrespectful to their Lord.
Are DBZ fans committing a sin?
A commenter named Ernesto said, “At the time of Moses the people made a golden calf to defy God. Today they make Goku and march to defy the gospel, knowing that the March for Jesus is an ancient practice of the evangelical people.”
Another commenter named Rafa said,
“The hero they love does not exist. Mine overcame death, was resurrected, and ascended to heaven in a cloud and promised to come back for his children.”
Is he talking about Jesus or Goku?
Of course, the DBZ fans chanting “Satan! … Satan! … Satan!” for the world’s savior Mister Satan probably didn’t help the situation.
Why March for Goku?
Why would someone want to take part in the March for Goku.
Marcel Bely is one of the organizers and he took a comparative stance by saying, “The character [of Goku] shows the path of becoming a hero and also has a certain relationship with Jesus Christ after he dies, revives, and saves the earth.”
If Goku and Jesus are similar, then what does the March for Goku mean?
Is it held to mock the idea of such marches in general? Does it praise Goku, or is it blasphemous to Jesus?
That depends on who you ask.
Another organizer said they weren’t holding the March for Goku to offend others or even to necessarily promote their spiritual views.
“This event does not have any connection with religion and does not want to disrespect any religion. This event is only a meeting and March of people who like, and or sympathize with the character that marked the childhood of so many people.”
A third organizer said, “Each had their own reason to be there, but overall this March made us return to our childhood and remember those most beautiful moments.”
Why Goku? She answered,
“He represents a good part of our childhood. That moment when we came home from school to watch another episode with our brother, sister, friends, or even our parents to cheer for Goku’s victory.”
“If you still don’t believe me, then look at this picture and note the expression of happiness on this little boy who won a figure of our favorite character. This happy face represents everyone who supported what we lived in those days: Happiness.”
If these are just anime fans remembering their youth, then it seems harmless.
They didn’t demand anything, ostracize anybody, or give bigoted speeches. They just sang some songs and had fun while enjoying their favorite show.
Where’s the sin?
Gokuism
You may remember my breaking news article on The Church of Goku and Gokuism.
These people believe Goku is their personal lord and savior who offers salvation in heaven. Some Gokuists believe that Goku is equal to or superior to Jesus Christ, and they use him as their spiritual role model.
For example, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of Goku.
Here is a bit of Gokuist beliefs. “The DBZ, which is the word of GOKU, was written by prophets divinely inspired. She is the infallible standard by which human conduct and opinions should be tried. All Scripture is inspired by GOKU and available for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the man of Goku may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Krillin 3:16-17).
As far I can tell from my research there are some people who attended the March for Goku that have this belief.
So for them the March for Goku is a holy gathering just like those who March for Jesus.
Meanwhile others seem to use Gokuism as a way to make fun of Christians. They say things like “Praise be to Goku!” and “Kamen!” instead of “Amen.”
It’s hard to know how seriously some fans take this, but even if it’s taken lightly, for anime fans who want someone they can believe in, Goku may be the one.
Christians, such as those in Brazil, may feel that this is offensive, blasphemous, or a false prophet that will lead these people astray.
The Beginning of a Movement
This is not the first March for Goku. In 2011 there was a March for Goku held in Rio de Janeiro. Then in 2012 it was held in São Paulo and another in 2013 in Florianópolis.
Given that it is spreading around the country, I can’t help but wonder if it will spread around the world just like the March for Jesus.
They’re already planning the next March for Goku to take place on May 31, 2015.
In the meantime an artist plans to sculpt Goku’s statue for Curitiba’s Japan Square.
Would You March for Goku?
Would you March for Goku?
Or is this a blasphemous insult to Jesus and his believers?
Whether real or just for fun, Goku’s fans march for him.
Resources
The full March for Goku on YouTube
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After March for Jesus, Curitiba has March for GokuThere are currently eight quarterbacks in the NFL with streaks of 65 starts or more in the regular season: Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan and Matthew Stafford. Of the bunch, Dalton and Flacco are the only ones who have never actually missed a game since being drafted.
Matthew Stafford, Detroit Lions – 65
The number one overall draft pick in 2009, Stafford played 13 games for the Lions in 2009 and 2010, but a shoulder injury in 2010 kept him off the field for most of the season. He returned in 2011 and has started every game for the Lions ever since, helping them making the playoffs (and thus making his streak including the postseason 67 games) twice, losing on both occasions. In his streak, he has completed 60.6% of his throws, posting a 86.6 passer rating with 114 touchdowns and 66 interceptions.
Andy Dalton, Cincinnati Bengals – 65
Dalton was the 35th overall pick in 2011, and has started in every game for the Bengals since they made that pick. Dalton has helped them make the playoffs in each season. Regardless of home or away, the Bengals always lost, with plenty on the blame falling on his shoulders. He has completed 61.7% of his passes for 101 touchdowns and a passer rating of 85.3 once you calculate his 66 interceptions into it. With the postseason, he has a streak of 69 games going.
Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints – 81
The last time Brees didn’t play a regular season game for the Saints was in week 17 of the 2009 season, sitting that one out before going on the Super Bowl run that ended with a win over the Indianapolis Colts. He has started every game since the beginning of the 2010 season, and including the postseason (2009-2010 playoffs as well) he has started in 89 consecutive games. His numbers during his regular season streak? Completing 67.9% of his passes, throwing 195 touchdowns to 85 interceptions with a 99.6 passer rating.
Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons – 83
Ryan hasn’t missed a game since a turf toe injury sidelined him for a couple in 2009. He started in his 83rd consecutive game in week 1 of the 2015 NFL season, posting a 92.8 passer rating during the stretch, completing 65% of his passes, throwing 151 touchdowns passes and 70 interceptions. Including the postseason the streak reaches 88 games.
Tom Brady, New England Patriots – 97
Brady is closing in on his second 100 or more games started streak. The first one, lasting 111 regular season games and 128 including the playoffs, was stopped on the opening game of the 2008 season when Bernard Pollard of the Kansas City Chiefs hitting him resulting in an ACL and MCL tear. He returned a season later, and with the postseason has 109 consecutive starts, two of them in the Super Bowl (winning one of them). In his current 97-game streak, Brady has completed 64.1% of his passes, throwing 199 touchdowns to 57 interceptions and posting a passer rating of 99.4.
Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens – 113
Flacco has started every game for the Ravens since they drafted him in 2008, and with the playoffs, including one Super Bowl victory, the streak reaches 128 games. During his 113-game stretch, he has completed 60.5% of his passes, thrown 148 touchdowns to 92 interceptions while posting a 84.4 passer rating.
Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers – 145
Rivers waited a couple of years before becoming the starter for the Chargers, and hasn’t missed a game ever since. With the playoffs, he’s started 154 consecutive games for San Diego. The numbers? Passer rating of 96, 64.9% completion percentage, 253 touchdowns and 123 interceptions thrown.
Eli Manning, New York Giants – 168
Manning, the number one overall pick in 2004, took over the starting spot for the Giants in week 10 and has never let go. With the postseason it’s been a 179 game ride that has included two trips to the Super Bowl, both against the Patriots, both ending in victory. Manning has completed just 59% of his passes during the streak, throwing 259 touchdowns and 185 interceptions, with a passer rating of 82.4.
Of course, these numbers don’t come close to the all-time record held by Brett Favre, with 297 consecutive regular season starts from 1992 to 2010. Including the playoffs, it goes to 321. Peyton Manning is second on the all-time list with 208 regular season appearances for the Colts, starting in 1998 and ending with the neck injury that kept him out of the 2011 season.0
The most noticeable difference between the superb first season of The Girlfriend Experience and its equally excellent second season is a matter of structure and collaboration. Where creators Amy Seimetz and Lodge Kerrigan worked together on directing and writing much of the first season, they cut the proverbial baby in half for the second, dividing the season into two separate yet vaguely similar storylines. In essence, Kerrigan and Seimetz have each made their own 200-minute movie, each one distinguished by these directors’ personal visual style and tone. The narratives themselves are notably divergent in setting and action but at the heart of each is the aftermath of a partnership that has dissolved over years.
In the case of the “Anna & Erica” storyline, which Kerrigan directed in its entirety, the severance in question is romantic. Behind her hardened exterior as an elite finance director for a Republican super PAC, Erica (Anna Friel) is wounded by her split from Darya (Narges Rashidi of Under the Shadow), a powerful figure in the world of D.C. marketing. In their early interactions, Darya and Erica both seem to be enveloped by the icy glaze of disappointment and hurt, but we eventually find out that the relationship hinged on an extreme imbalance of emotional power. And when Erica begins regularly seeing an escort, Anna (Louisa Krause), that dynamic returns in an unexpected, unpredictable, and unfixed way. This transfer of personal power and control, as well as the untenable ambitions that arise from her new relationship, converge with her professional life as well, just as she is securing millions of dollars from major Republican donors looking less to support a candidate than to control fiscal and social legislation without having their beliefs and personal faults judged by the public.
Kerrigan doesn’t bother getting too expository about the political realm, or at least he doesn’t seem to mind presenting Erica’s work as densely interwoven and reliant on an ever-expanding set of details that’s easy to get lost within. In this, he gives a sense of just how hard it is for Erica to find real control in her professional life, a fact that is underlined when she meets with businessmen who can throw her candidates $25 million without breaking a sweat. The imbalance she feels there is slightly evened out by her relationship with Anna, but when her concrete control over that also seems to falter, she reverts to the cold, insular veneer that is required in her work and lets herself return to a few other defaults as well.
What Kerrigan convincingly gets at here is the impossibility of being a woman in power in professional and personal life simultaneously, using the same tactics and excuses as any given high-powered man in D.C. Where Seimetz’s episodes are replete with color, tricks of light, and close-ups, Kerrigan’s world is marked most notably by a sense of alienation and detachment. His shots often place the characters far off, amidst the oppressive, bland tastefulness of modern design, whether in Erica’s luxurious apartment or the ballroom where she susses out what a billionaire donor wants from tax reform with clinical precision. The perfectly balanced aesthetic of the world Erica helps run and exists in is more important than the furies of feeling that run underneath that we only get brief glimpses of as her own need for control leads her down a catastrophic path. It’s reflective not only of the current political atmosphere, where the tarnished illusion of stability is all that Republicans can hold onto, but also of a tale of powerful women envisioned entirely by a man.
It’s when Erica reveals the brutal, misogynistic nature of one of her colleagues via a sex tape that she is marked for proverbial death, lifting the mask off of a seemingly cool and collected operative. In contrast, the very real threat of death looms over the entirety of Seimetz’s episodes, which follow Bria (Carmen Ejogo) as she enters the witness protection program after she agrees to testify against her crime-lord husband, Donald. Not unlike Erica, Bria seeks out stabilization, though her balance hinges more directly on how she relates to men on a sexual level. To this point, Seimetz makes the connection between death and sex quite literal for Bria, which is the name that Ejogo’s character is given by her handler, Ian, played by TV on the Radio frontman Tunde Adebimpe. When the marshal handling her intake forms asks Bria if her former husband might have killed his last wife, she answers immediately: “Probably.”
If Kerrigan suggests that an element of financial success and power in the year 2017 depends on the ability to act like a commodity and treat others as such, Seimetz’s episodes at once reiterate and complicate that point. Bria sees herself as a high-end purchase meant for a wealthy man, and she hasn’t been relocated for a full day before she begins to build a profile for herself on a site for sugar daddy-sugar baby relationships. The feeling of being liberated from a likely murderer isn’t so freeing for her, especially when she takes a job overseeing an assembly line for canning local beers. Seimetz uses each setting, each activity that Bria engages in to reveal a thread of the character’s inner life, including her interactions with a local self-help guru named Paul, played by Spring Breakers director Harmony Korine. For Bria, having to lead a life marked most notably by a dead-end blue-collar job, alcohol, and a forced, hurtful relationship with her ex’s teenaged daughter, Kayla (Morgana Davies), is like living life as a luxurious piece of designer clothing that never leaves the rack.
Seimetz is more blunt about what is asked of women by American society than Kerrigan. The day job and the bottles of wine might have worked out if the U.S. marshals hadn’t also forced her to become Kayla’s de-facto guardian despite the fact that Donald’s daughter didn’t want to leave and blames Bria for losing her privileged existence. Coming home to someone who communicates with you largely through full-throated screams and talks openly about getting her father to kill you doesn’t give much incentive for Bria to follow Ian’s instructions and act like a family. In essence, Bria is forced to live with a scarlet A on her chest, a constant reminder of her self-involved indulgences as the wife of a wealthy criminal, even as she is asked to leave that life behind. For however understanding Ian is of the bumpy transition, he can’t hide the undercurrent of male pride and sexual resentment that flows beneath his professionalism: what kind of woman is content to live alongside and regularly fuck a known killer, no matter how rich he happens to be?
Seimetz doesn’t excuse that part of Bria but she also doesn’t judge her too harshly for acting the way she does. Kayla works both as a distinct, enraged character and a reflection of Bria in the eyes of her handlers as an ungrateful and spoiled brat, much like Anna eventually comes to represent a part of Erica that she keeps hidden away. The effects of capitalism on personal identity has always been at the heart of The Girlfriend Experience, as much in the last season as in the original film by Steven Soderbergh, who continues to serve as executive producer on the series. What makes the second season of the series so much more knottier and riveting is that the struggle to maintain both an inner life and the outward image of a unique, trustworthy personality is more on the surface, not nearly as elusive as it was when Riley Keough‘s lawyer-escort was at the center. By separating their creative goals, Kerrigan and Seimetz seem to more clearly communicate their ideas in their episodes and storylines but also bounce off of each other in concert between their halves. As a result, they have molded one of the greatest seasons of television that 2017 has produced thus far.
Rating: ★★★★★
The Girlfriend Experience Season 2 returns to Starz on Sunday, November 5th at 10 p.m.The same day that the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 failed in the Senate, the author of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Security Protection Act (CISPA), took the opportunity to push his own cybersecurity bill.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who brought CISPA into the House of Representatives in November 2011, wrote in an op-ed in Politico Thursday that his bill is “the right way to protect America from cyber threats.”
No one, including its authors, claimed the Cybersecurity Act was a perfect bill. But if it had the right amendments, some privacy advocates thought, well, there are worse cybersecurity bills than the Cybersecurity Act.
CISPA is one of those cybersecurity bills seen by privacy advocates as “worse.” Its critics range from to President Obama to Reddit to a whole campaign of activists. CISPA would allow private companies—which have lots of access to lots of citizens’ data—to share that data freely with government agencies in event of a cyber attack. Activists say that their private information should stay private, and the government shouldn’t be given the opportunity to misuse it.
Rogers’s argument is predicated on the fact that everyone in Washington, it seems, agrees a cybersecurity bill is necessary. But while Obama and the Cybersecurity Act’s advocates in the Senate pushed the fear that cyber attackers could cripple American infrastructure, Rogers said the U.S. should focus on protecting its businesses.
“[T]he biggest cyber threat we face today,” Rogers wrote, is “the continual pillaging of nearly every sector of our economy by nation-states like China, who are stealing the core research-and-development secrets at the heart of our innovation economy.”
“The president didn’t mention this threat at all,” Rogers added.
Since the Cybersecurity Act failed, and since Congress is about to break for summer recess, it’s unlikely the U.S. will pass cybersecurity legislation this year.
Because CISPA did make it through a branch of Congress—it passed the House in April—the Cybersecurity Act’s defeat is a failure of leadership on Obama’s part, Rogers said. The President had been clear in his support of that bill, and his advisors have clearly stated he would veto CISPA.
CISPA, on the other hand, is bipartisan, Rogers said, as it passed the House with 206 votes from Republicans and 42 from Democrats. The Cybersecurity Act failed with heavy Republican opposition.
Rogers even mocked the idea of the Cybersecurity Act, which would have encouraged businesses to adopt stricter cybersecurity regulations on their own, though critics said that meant a slippery slope towards government-mandated systems.
“Obama seems to think that if the federal government didn’t mandate door locks, people wouldn’t secure their houses,” Rogers wrote.
Curiously, Rogers never mentioned CISPA by name or by acronym, instead just referring to “ a House cyber intelligence bill’ or “threat-sharing” bills. John McCain’s (R-AZ) Secure IT Act would also fall into this category, though it’s hard to imagine Rogers didn’t have CISPA, which he authored and which is far more well-known, in mind.
“[T]he Senate must drop its failed effort,” Rogers concluded. [S]imply pass a strong cybersecurity threat-sharing bill.”.
Photo via FacebookRory MacDonald Out of UFC 140, Welterweights Shuffled As Replacements
A change has been made to the UFC 140 card with Canadian Rory MacDonald being forced off the show due to injury.
With McDonald’s exit, fellow Canadian Claude Patrick has replaced him and will now face Brian Ebersole on the UFC 140 card in Dec.
Patrick was originally scheduled to face American Top Team fighter Rich Attonito on the card, but now UFC officials are seeking a replacement to step in and face him instead.
The UFC made the switch official late Tuesday evening.
Details about MacDonald’s injury were not available, but obviously with the fight just a month away, he was unable to continue his training in time for the bout.
MMAWeekly.com will have more information on Attonito’s new opponent when it becomes available.By Dylan Trigg.
Freudianism is an explicit and thematized archaeology.
– Ricoeur, Freud and Philosophy
Time Out of Joint
How does a ruin — be it the remains of an industrial factory or the relic of an ancient civilization — fit into the landscape of a city? Beyond its warped mass of broken materiality, a ruin is also a disordering of time. It maligns time, dissolving boundaries between past and present. The question is not where the ruin is located, but when? Not in the present, but neither in the past. Time out of joint, to invoke the spectre of Hamlet.
More than this, the ruin undercuts our attachment to places. If there is sometimes a tendency to become overly attached to our little corner in the world, then where that corner is a ruin, such attachment is overrun by constant change. Becoming overly attached to one’s favourite ruin is likely to result in heartbreak. Impossible, after all, to become nostalgic about something that resists a fixed identity. No matter how much we want the ruin to testify to a past of our own — to be one’s own ruin — in the glance of an eye, it assumes a different past, and wholly disconnected to the one we may have incorporated as our own.
Ruins return. This is one of the great surprises that the ruin presents to us: its persistence in time alongside its disordering of time. Far from the waste matter of culture, the ruin always resists repression, finding ways to fend off the very decay that constitutes the ruin in the first instance.
No wonder, then, given this complex structure that Freud elected the ruin to the principle metaphor not only for the practice of psychoanalysis but also for the mind itself. In the archaeological excavation of the ruin, Freud found the means to articulate a set of themes central to his thinking as a whole, not least the very preservation of the past in the mind.
Why the image of the ruin? What can it tell us about psychoanalysis — and equally, what can psychoanalysis tell us about ruins? And moreover, if Freud’s concern is with the ruins of classical Rome and Athens, then how can psychoanalysis contend with the contemporary ruins of Detroit and Chernobyl?
Ruinlust
Freud’s usage of ruinous and archaeological metaphors shifts through his psychoanalytical thinking, beginning with something broadly equivalent to ruinlust and ending on a note of anxiety and melancholy. At the earliest stages of this relation, he assumes the role of an intrepid adventurer, keen to excavate the buried secrets lurking in the psychic and earthly unconscious. A passage from the 1896 essay “The Aetiology of Hysteria” reads thus:
Imagine that an explorer arrives in a little-known region where his interest is aroused by an expanse of ruins, with remains of walls, fragments of columns, and tablets with half-effaced and unreadable inscriptions… He may have brought picks, shovels and spades with him, and he may set the inhabitants to work with these implements. Together with them he may start upon the ruins, clear away the rubbish, and, beginning from the visible remains, uncover what is buried. If his work is crowned with success, the discoveries are self-explanatory; the ruined walls are part of the ramparts of a palace or a treasure house; the fragments of columns can be filled out into a temple; the numerous inscriptions, which, by good luck, may be bilingual, reveal an alphabet and a language, and, when they have been deciphered and translated, yield undreamed-of information about the events of the remote past, to commemorate which the monuments were built.
With this account, Freud indirectly gives us the foundations of analytic theory. In assuming the role of classical explorer, Freud elevates psychoanalysis to a mode of both retrieval and restoration. The dotted fragments and sketchy remains of a former civilization require careful work in order to bring them back the light of consciousness. Too abrasive, the explorer risks effacing the traces through driving them deeper into the buried earth. But with cautious probing, these same traces point to a past that is accessible through the work of reanimation and reconstruction.
Still in this early phase of his thinking on ruins, Freud expands upon his archaeological analysis, remarking that “This procedure was one of clearing away the pathogenic psychical material layer by layer, and we liked to compare it with the technique of excavating a buried city.” In each account, the ruin is presented as material, which if disorderly, is also lodged in time and thus receptive to the work of excavation, interpretation, before subsequent reconstruction.
From the outset, then, Freud’s relation to ruins is laden with tremendous psychic value. Far from inert matter, devoid of substance, at all times, the materiality of the past assumes a latent meaning. Freud recognises here the value of the ruin as being imbued with a future life, making it clear that the appearance of inactivity is deceptive. In this way, the past in question is one that has an afterlife attached to it, its buried meaning waiting the emergence of a future psychoanalysis to restore it.
This rather uneven relationship between Freud and the ruin gives voice to the latter only by dint of a psychoanalytic intervention. The ruin, to put it in phenomenological terms, speaks less for itself and more through the method of analysis. The ruin does not decipher itself. As a fragment rather than a complete work of materiality, it requires analysis for the ruin to reach a state of reconstructed completion, begging the question of where the ruin ends and the psychoanalysis begins.
The Limits of Ruins
By 1930, Freud was still lingering with the theme of ruins and buried pasts. Only now, he was slightly more cautious about identifying the mind with the ruins of antiquity. In Civilization and Its Discontents, the theme reappears again, this time in relation to the preservation of the past in the mind. He writes: “In mental life nothing which has once been formed can perish — that everything is somehow preserved and that in suitable circumstances…it can once more be brought to light.”
Once more, classical ruins assume a central role in deciphering the role of the past in the present. Situating us in the “Eternal City of Rome,” Freud provides us with an account of the early days of the city before then posting a critical question: “[How] much [will] a visitor, whom we will suppose be equipped with the most complete historical and topographical knowledge, may still find left of these early stages in the Rome of today”? In response to this question, Freud speculates. I quote at length.
Except for a few gaps, he will see the wall of Aurelian almost unchanged. In some places he will be able to find sections of the Servian Wall where they have been excavated and brought to light … Of the buildings which once occupied this ancient area he will find nothing, or only scanty remains, for they no longer exist … Their place is now taken by ruins, but not by ruins of themselves but of later restorations made after fires or destruction. There is certainly not a little that is ancient still buried in the soil of the city or beneath its modern buildings. This is the manner in which the past is preserved in historical sites like Rome.
There are several remarks to make on this rich passage. At first glance, the surface of the city appears unchanged. Fragments of the past remain in place, raised to the light through excavation. Concerning the broader outline, only remnants have survived. Ruins have taken the place of the former city. Yet the ruins discovered do not give us direct access to the past, but instead are mediated as restorations. All of these ruins and fragments, finally, take their place alongside the familiarity of everyday life in the modern city.
So, we have here multiple orders of space and time. Authentic fragments, reconstructions of ruins, and modern buildings all conspire together to produce a complex relationship between the present and the past. Overlapping with this ordering of space and time are the principle themes of Freudian analysis itself; depth and surface, hidden and revealed meanings, latent and manifest content. Each of these pairings, so central to the workings of analysis, finds a counterpart in the ruins of Rome.
Here, Freud takes a step beyond aligning the ruins of Rome with the themes of psychoanalysis and questions if Rome itself can be compared to a “psychical entity.” Pursuing this speculative thought, Freud encounters a dead end. For in imagining Rome as structured by a multiplicity of latent contents, he finds himself contending with the image of two or more different past events occupying the same space simultaneously. This symbiosis of different timescales proves too much for Freud, and thus he withdraws the analogy, remarking that “A city is thus a priori unsuited for a comparison of this sort with a mental organism.” Only the mind, he goes on to say, is truly able to preserve all the earlier stages of development alongside a “final form.”
Disturbance of Memory
By 1936, Freud’s relation to ruins took a final, dramatic and rather telling turn. In an essay titled “A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis,” Freud gives us an autobiographical account of visiting the ruins of Greece with his younger brother. When Freud arrives at the Acropolis, he makes a striking confession to himself: “So this all really does exist, just as we learned in school!” This unexpected disbelief that there is such a place as the Acropolis at all takes the place of joy. In contrast, Freud experiences something like dejection or better rejection. For what Freud contends with in the face of this ruin is an experience that cannot be ingested but is instead taken as “an attempt to reject a piece of reality.”
This rejection of reality is in direct contrast with the relationship Freud developed with ruins in the earlier part of his analytical excavations. This time around, the ruin displaces Freud from his role as intrepid explorer, employing his own past as the means to induce a feeling of melancholic anxiety, which he will term a “feeling of estrangement” or better still, “depersonalization.” In each of these terms, Freud identifies something in the ruin that resists appropriation. The ruin is factually present, yet experienced as being unreal. This paradox in the structure of experience establishes a disorientated atmosphere, in which things become otherworldly, fragmented, and above all, uncanny.
This disorientation of space and time is uncanny precisely because it leaves the world intact. What follows is a disjunction between reality and experience. Doubt intervenes in the reality of the Acropolis and overpowering sense that the same place is bathed in total unfamiliarity overwhelms him. In the tension, unreality protrudes into the world.
And yet, the world remains as it is. Freud’s confrontation with the ruin does not bring about a loss of self or a loss of world. Both remain as they were. Instead of being consumed by nothingness, they lose the quality of being irreducibly real. Here, the materiality of things is not a sufficient condition to attest to their brute existence. Suffering from a lack of phenomenal depth, things become flattened, divested of their dynamism, and now reduced to a simulacrum of reality.
Ultimately, Freud reduces this experience of ruin alienation to an intra-psychic conflict involving the defence of the ego. In particular, he rationalises the experience in terms of an oedipal conflict involving the sense of having travelled “further than one’s father, as though wishing to outdo one’s father.” The guilt that accompanies this thought is held responsible for the disturbance of memory. Given the history of Freud’s relationship to ruins as one of lust and colonization, this retreat from the disturbance on the Acropolis should come as no surprise to us. Yet this hasty justification employed to account for the experience of estrangement is especially disappointing given the richness of content overlooked.
Anxiety in the Ruin
In order to pursue this unthought thought in Freud, we would like to return to the ruin with the mood of estrangement and anxiety in mind. I would suggest, in fact, that the mood of anxiety provides us with the clearest sense in which the ruin can challenge our normative ideas of space and time. The dis-orientation of memory and reality that Freud articulates in the face of the Acropolis carries with it a sense of the ruin’s power as able to overturn our relationship to the material world.
What if this experience of Freud’s was not an ego defence placed in the context of an oedipal drama but an experience of over saturation? There are, after all, certain places in the world that cannot be digested with the senses alone, but instead hover in an anxious space, invoking a ghostly quality that cannot be tied down to appearances.
Elsewhere, I have called this irruption of ghostly matter into the everyday realm an “accident in reality.” The term refers to the sense of inadvertently catching sight of someone/something that belongs in our nightmares or our unconscious but which has somehow made its way to the surface of daylight appearances. A ruin is set aside from the surrounding world in its ability to contort our rational grasp on space and time. It belongs to an undead realm: of the past, yet haunting the present; dead but in ceaseless motion; devoid of life and yet constitutive of life. The peculiarity of the ruin is that it forces materiality to adhere to the logic of unreality. It is a place that cannot be seen, except in a fleeting fashion. Less still, can it be grasped as a concept. With this breakdown in thought and sense, anxiety enters the scene of the ruin.
To put this anxiety in context, consider how Freud’s earlier encounter with the ruin was predicated on the idea of it being defined according to an egocentric account of space and time. As he puts it in a note from 1909:
[The] analytic work of construction, or, if it is preferred, of reconstruction [of the patient’s forgotten years], resembles to a great extent an archaeologist’s excavation of some dwelling place that has been destroyed and buried or of some ancient edifice … Just as the archaeologist builds up the walls of a building from the foundations that have remained standing, determines the number and position of the columns from depressions in the floor, and reconstructs the mural decorations and paintings from the remains found in the debris, so does the analyst proceed when he draws his inferences from fragments of memories, from the associations and from the behaviour of the subject of the analysis. Both of them have an undisputed right to reconstruct by means of supplementing and combining the surviving remains. Both of them, moreover, are subject to many of the same difficulties and sources of error.
This earlier approbation of |
title and that signals something different is going on here and it ends with "The end."
Many viewers felt Vanessa's arc suggested she was doomed at the end of the first season. Do you think this is an example of one great performance shifting the focus of an ensemble show more than anticipated?
Logan: From a writer's perspective, this was always a show about Vanessa Ives for me. That character was the spine of the show.
Nevins: This was not a change. It was clear from John's perspective, the show was about Vanessa Ives' story. I encouraged an ensemble a bit, but its spine and trunk was always Vanessa.
What parting message do you hope viewers take away from Penny Dreadful?
Logan: Love your demons, they're who you are. If there's anything about these characters that I loved, it's that they're all flawed. The more they embrace who they are, the more peace they achieve.
Showtime is ending Episodes, House of Lies and now Penny Dreadful. Was there any conversation about a fourth season or some sort of spinoff to keep the franchise alive?
Nevins: John and I talked about various possibilities. But it didn't go for long. He was resolute that this is the right time. [As for spinoffs,] anything is possible at any time. We're staying close to John [who has an overall deal with Showtime] — he's deep into Just Kids with Patti Smith, which is going to be amazing. It's going to be really singular and an interesting relationship with two great characters at the center of it. That's where TV is. Fortunately we have a very strong core of shows. Penny Dreadful will be missed, but our core is strong and the things that are upcoming are strong. And John is going to be a big part of it. We'll be his television home for a long time.
You were a first-time showrunner with Penny Dreadful. You wrote the first 22 episodes and added new writers for these last handful of episodes. Looking back, what's your biggest lesson here?
Logan: Delegating and looking for support. When I went into it, my experience with auteurs was Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott and this was a filmic version of it, and that's not sustainable in television. That's the biggest lesson I learned. To be able to bring in young writers was something I try to do, and to encourage and bring them into the Penny Dreadful world was thrilling for me and allowed me to sit back and not have to write every word, which was a relief.
Nevins: This story got to its right ending and a very satisfying conclusion. It's a marker of where television is today that there are lots of different ways to do it. Twin Peaks is one fashion, Purity is going to be 20 episodes. You don't have to get to 100 episodes to have a lasting impact or to have business financial success.
What will fill Penny's slot next year? Showtime is making a big push to bow at least one original series a month, and you've got a deep bench of dramas: Purity, Guerrilla, I'm Dying Up Here …
Nevins: I've thought about it. You've got some of them — and Billions. Any one of those, and it won't be one; there will be multiple series. I think you said them all. Add Homeland and Billions and I'm Dying Up Here, and it's going to be some combination of those.President Trump's travel ban is going into effect Thursday at 8 p.m., according to multiple reports.
The Supreme Court granted the Trump administration's request earlier this week to reinstate part of the travel ban meant to temporarily block people from six predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
Foreign nationals can enter the country if they have a "credible claim of bona fide relationship" in the U.S.
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Otherwise, they are temporarily banned for 90 days, or 120 days if they're a refugee coming from any country in the world.
According to The Associated Press, the U.S. will not revoke visas that have already been approved.
People applying to come to the U.S. from the six countries — Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen — need to show they have a relationship with a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, or sibling in the U.S., the AP reported, citing State Department instructions.
Those trying to come to the U.S. for business or professional reasons need to show a relationship that is "formal, documented and formed in the ordinary course rather than for the purpose of evading" the order, the State Department said.
President Trump earlier this week hailed the Supreme Court's decision, calling it a "clear victory for our national security."
Trump said in a statement his "number one responsibility" is to keep the American people safe, adding that the court's ruling allows him to do just that.
“Today's unanimous Supreme Court decision is a clear victory for our national security,” the president said.
“Today's ruling allows me to use an important tool for protecting our nation's homeland,” he added. “I am also particularly gratified that the Supreme Court’s decision was 9-0.”
The court on Monday also agreed to hear the government's appeal of lower courts that had prevented the ban from going into place.
The court will hear the case when it returns for the fall term, which begins the first Monday in October. Arguments have not yet been scheduled.
This report was updated at 7:15 a.m.In this Feb. 27, 2015, file photo, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Md. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Update June 2: Nevada won't be switching to a primary after all.
A couple years ago, Nevada seemed to be Rand Paul's ace in the hole in the 2016 presidential race. That's looking less and less likely now.
For two reasons: First, the Ron Paul supporters who basically took over the state party in 2012 have largely been replaced, and now, the state GOP is moving toward replacing the Paul-friendly caucus process with a regular primary.
Here's David M. Drucker reporting at the Washington Examiner:
There are two bills pending in the Republican-controlled legislature, including one in the Assembly carried by Speaker John Hambrick. If passed and signed by GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval, Nevada Republicans voting in the 2016 primary would pull the lever at the polls as they do in a general election, rather than caucusing in groups similar to how the primary is conducted in Iowa. Republican insiders supportive of the legislation are expressing confidence that it will be enacted. "There are pros and cons to everything," Nevada GOP Chairman Michael McDonald told the Washington Examiner on Friday. But McDonald said he is pushing for a normal primary because he and many other Silver State Republicans are unhappy with how the 2012 caucuses went down. "It was a total disaster the way it was handled. It was an embarrassment for the state," said McDonald, a veteran state GOP activist now in his second term as chairman.
Our own Katie Zezima has more details on the possible changes. Another potential change is opening the process to non-Republicans -- something that would have a less-clear impact on Paul's campaign.
But getting back to the primary question (so to speak), just how does this affect Paul? Let us count the ways.
1) Caucuses favor underdogs
Caucuses favor candidates with more devoted supporters and tend to draw from a smaller pool of voters, allowing for someone with more of a niche base to be more competitive.
The most obvious example here is, of course, Ron Paul, Rand's father. In the 2012 campaign, Ron Paul averaged 12 percent of the vote in primary states. In caucus states, it was about double that: 23 percent.
In 2008, it was even more lopsided. He took 16 percent of the vote in the average caucus and just 6 percent in primaries.
And it wasn't just Ron Paul. Rick Santorum, whose broader appeal in 2012 was certainly limited, put himself on the map with what was belatedly determined to be a win in the Iowa caucuses and then shockingly big victories in Colorado and Minnesota caucuses in early February. And back in 2008, it was Mitt Romney's underdog campaign and Barack Obama's team excelled in caucus settings. (Hillary Clinton actually won more votes in the nominating process but lost because of the caucuses.)
Which brings us to...
2) Nevada is a good state for the Pauls
Nevada has a libertarian reputation.
Ron Paul finished third in Nevada in 2012, at 19 percent. It wasn't quite one of his best states, but that had more to do with the field than with Ron Paul. Namely: There was a Mormon candidate, Mitt Romney, and Mormons have big pull in Nevada caucuses. About one-quarter of GOP caucus-goers in 2012 were Mormon, in fact, and Romney won about nine out of 10 Mormon votes.
Going back to 2008, Ron Paul finished second (again, behind Romney), with 14 percent. But caucuses aren't just about the popular vote, either; there are many more steps to the process, and when all was said and done, Paul won many more delegates than he otherwise would have both times. His team played to the system and won.
Given Romney was running in both 2008 and 2012, we can't know how well Ron Paul would have done in the popular vote without him. But Nevada is certainly the kind of state a libertarian can excel in.
Rand Paul doesn't have the same devoted base his dad did, to be certain, but if he could have activated those existing, committed supporters in a caucus setting, he could certainly have benefited.
3) More casual voters might have an obvious pick
There's no Romney, but come 2016, it's not hard to see someone like Marco Rubio doing well in Nevada. After all, he used to live in the state (he was also a Mormon as a young man) and is Hispanic.
As mentioned above, Mormons are about one-quarter of the caucus process, and Latinos were about one in 10 voters. That might not sound like a lot, but that's a significant base of support Rubio could tap if he can get either or both to coalesce around him.
Rand Paul certainly isn't his father and could potentially have a significantly bigger base of support. But his base suffers more constraints than other Republicans -- and especially Rubio. He could still do well in Nevada, but a primary is far less ideal.
4) Nevada is an early state
Because Nevada didn't really matter in the 2008 and 2012 nominating contests (by virtue of Romney's dominance), some underestimate its importance. But it's one of the first four states, and we would argue that if such a caucus/primary change were taking place in New Hampshire or South Carolina, you can bet we'd be talking about it more than this.
Yes, it's fourth out of four, but the race is still very likely to be competitive at that point -- meaning to the extent that a primary hurts Paul, it hurts him in a key state that will help winnow the field of candidates in the first month.
Of course, it's all very early, and many things have yet to be determined. But keep an eye on what the Nevada GOP does in the coming weeks. It matters.A snapshot posted to the internet shows the Chinese actor standing beside Iron Man himself at one of the city's historic landmarks.
HONG KONG – With Tony Stark’s fans scouring Beijing to get a glimpse of their idol, sneak peaks of the Iron Man 3 shoot in the Chinese capital were bound to appear online eventually. And the first picture of actual actors on set has finally popped up, showing Chinese actor Wang Xueqi, in character as the villainous scientist Dr Wu, standing beside the superhero himself in a scene set in front of the Chinese capital’s southern city gate of Yongdingmen.
It is not clear whether Robert Downey Jr is in that armor – the Chinese blogosphere have been abuzz with speculation about his presence on set ever since filming in Beijing began on Dec. 10. An accompanying caption attached to the photograph explains how Wang’s character was “explaining about Beijing life” to “Iron Man who have just descended to Yongdingmen”.
VIDEO: 'Iron Man 3' Teaser Shows Glimpse of Ben Kingsley as Villain the Mandarin
Marvel Pictures and DMG Entertainment announced Wang’s casting as Wu with two photographs showing the veteran Chinese actor shaking hands with Downey Jr off the set, and filming a scene, in an US hospital, opposite Gwyneth Paltrow (who reprises her role as Stark’s aide-cum-love interest Pepper Potts in the third installment) and Don Cheadle (who returns to the franchise as James Rhodes aka The War Machine).
Wang’s presence has given Iron Man 3 a massive boost in exposure and pedigree in China, where the actor has long been regarded as an institution with his award-winning performances in both blockbusters (such as Bodyguards and Assassins) and arthouse fare (he made his film debut in Chen Kaige’s The Yellow Earth, the 1984 film seen as giving birth to China’s so-called Fifth-Generation Filmmakers). He stars in Chen’s Caught in the Web, China’s Oscar entry this year for Best Foreign Language Film.
Directed by Shane Black, Iron Man 3 is slated for a late April 2013 release around the world before making its bow in the US on May 3.
STORY: 'Iron Man 3' Producer Dan Mintz Reveals China Co-Production Status, Offers Advice to Hollywood (Q&A)Me likey...
The upsides:
Concept - Oddly enough, for all the apocalyptic games we tend to see here on NG (or in the gaming industry, for that matter) don't usually have much dealings with nukes themselves. This is an interesting concept to try for, and oddly, it works.
Progression - I love the diversity of the starting bonuses, although some are a waste of effort. I do like that you have to deal damage to unlock different starting bonuses instead of trying to reach unspoken demands to use them. This isn't a perfect point, however; see below.
The downsides:
Progression - By my experience, the MIRV and Project Thor starting bonuses are more akin to penalties, which is disappointing, almost to the point of insult. While MIRV could be recovered to a serviceable degree, Thor has little of anything; the promised damage improvement is practically non-existent, and that makes makes trying to watch it play itself immeasurably worse. I could have been alright with it if it would at least land marginally center of town, but it does not, and in either case, SAM destroys it long before effective range 98% of the time after the 7th city or so.
Scale - This should have worked wonders for the game, but it works against the experience after the nuke starts to pass sizes above 2000. At this point, you aren't allowed to zoom in far enough to clearly see the city, let alone the incoming SAM. Even if you could, the Nuke's speed doesn't scale to their size, and there comes a point when evading SAM is impossible because of this.
It was still quite fun playing dominoes with the skyscrapers in the end. Gib moar.Born a war baby in Australia while my father was fighting Japanese invasion in PNG and islands, I was still at university doing the long course of Medicine during the reign of the baby boomers with their nihilistic anarchism response to the cold war with the daily possibility of nuclear annihilation. Marxism had a grip on the academic communities of all the major universities. Reading Gulag was a long, long process and the going was tedious but the author was able to give a first hand account of real life experiences and true descriptions of the totalitarian and merciless behaviour of the proletarian dictators. Once and for all my mind was able to resist the drip, drip, drip of the propaganda. No fool, the author describes in excruciating detail a vast spectrum of man's inhumanity to man from prolonged personal experience and recognition of the truth in the the testimony of others. While debunking the plausibility of the mystical ideal New Man touted in the most committed ideological evangelists of Marxism he exposes the old truth in a new way - man cannot perfect mankind as there is a flaw in the fabric of our being. He does not despair as he draws hope from his acceptance of the good news of salvation bringing the necessary power from outside ourselves making it possible to live differently. It is worth noting that as soon as he was exiled to the west he unhesitatingly applied the same insight to the secular culture of the West and quickly lost his status as being a champion of us against them.
favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite
If you read Gulag Archipelago and your take-away was "the bourgeois classes have treasonous ideas," then I don't know what to tell you!
"Marxism had a grip on the academic communities of all the major universities, once and for all I was able to resist the drip, drip, drip of the propaganda" in particular is exactly the kind of thing a Soviet ideologue would have said, although they would not have said Marxism but imperialism or liberalism or something.
One of Solzhenitsyn's themes in this book is not that Marxism had some unique poison in it or that the Soviet Union was a shocking stain on the otherwise spotless behaviour of the human race, but that it all HAD to turn out like that in a state with a perfect ideology, an answer to everything with no holes in it.
p. 173-174 of I-II: "Macbeth's self-justifications were feeble―and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago was a little lamb too. The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespeare's evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology.
"Ideology―that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors. [...]
"Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions. This cannot be denied, nor passed over, nor suppressed. How, then, do we dare insist that evildoers do not exist? And who was it that destroyed these millions? Without evildoers there would have been no Archipelago.
"There was a rumor going the rounds between 1918 and 1920 that the Petrograd Cheka, headed by Uritsky, and the Odessa Cheka, headed by Deich, did not shoot all those condemned to death but fed some of them alive to the animals in the city zoos. I do not know whether this is truth or calumny, or, if there were any such cases, how many there were. But I wouldn't set out to look for proof, either. Following the practice of the bluecaps, I would propose that they prove to us that this was impossible. How else could they get food for the zoos in those famine years? Take it away from the working class? Those enemies were going to die anyway, so why couldn't their deaths support the zoo economy of the Republic and thereby assist our march into the future? Wasn't it expedient?
"That is the precise line the Shakespearean evildoer could not cross. But the evildoer with ideology does cross it, and his eyes remain dry and clear."
And reader, if you think I am lying or distorting this, and that the book is really a broadside against Marxism and only Marxism, why don't you open the book, turn to page 174, and read the part that I replaced by an ellipsis up there?
Well, enough inter-review banter. To summarize the whole seven books of the Gulag Archipelago in a single sentence, I would say that it is a book about men under a total ideology, crushed under it, or crushing other men under it, or just standing at its side and watching, and what it is like, and what it does to you.
(I say "men" intentionally. Solzhenitsyn's detailed portraits of people's inner life are all men as far as I can remember. Women appear in lots of anecdotes but you do not get a very deep picture. If you want to know about women's mental and moral life under a total ideology, you should probably look at a different book.)
Also it is very much a book about religious feeling in the darkness and the way that people need it, although not ever in the sense of religion as an ideology. This is a buried thread in I-II and III-IV and a revealed one in V-VII. For example the throwaway line from p. 435 of V-VII, the story of a friend of his who turned out to be a deserter who had gotten a regiment killed because he had failed to deliver an order to retreat, where Solzhenitsyn says that "the innermost core of our being is religion and not Party ideology."
- December 24, 2016A book about life under a total ideologyIt’s also worth pointing out that everything the right said about why Obamanomics would fail was wrong. For two years we’ve been warned that government borrowing would send interest rates sky-high; in fact, rates have fluctuated with optimism or pessimism about recovery, but stayed consistently low by historical standards. For two years we’ve been warned that inflation, even hyperinflation, was just around the corner; instead, disinflation has continued, with core inflation — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — now at a half-century low.
Photo
The free-market fundamentalists have been as wrong about events abroad as they have about events in America — and suffered equally few consequences. “ Ireland,” declared George Osborne in 2006, “stands as a shining example of the art of the possible in long-term economic policymaking.” Whoops. But Mr. Osborne is now Britain ’s top economic official.
And in his new position, he’s setting out to emulate the austerity policies Ireland implemented after its bubble burst. After all, conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic spent much of the past year hailing Irish austerity as a resounding success. “The Irish approach worked in 1987-89 — and it’s working now,” declared Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute last June. Whoops, again.
But such failures don’t seem to matter. To borrow the title of a recent book by the Australian economist John Quiggin on doctrines that the crisis should have killed but didn’t, we’re still — perhaps more than ever — ruled by “zombie economics.” Why?
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.
Part of the answer, surely, is that people who should have been trying to slay zombie ideas have tried to compromise with them instead. And this is especially, though not only, true of the president.
People tend to forget that Ronald Reagan often gave ground on policy substance — most notably, he ended up enacting multiple tax increases. But he never wavered on ideas, never backed down from the position that his ideology was right and his opponents were wrong.
President Obama, by contrast, has consistently tried to reach across the aisle by lending cover to right-wing myths. He has praised Reagan for restoring American dynamism (when was the last time you heard a Republican praising F.D.R.?), adopted G.O.P. rhetoric about the need for the government to tighten its belt even in the face of recession, offered symbolic freezes on spending and federal wages.
None of this stopped the right from denouncing him as a socialist. But it helped empower bad ideas, in ways that can do quite immediate harm. Right now Mr. Obama is hailing the tax-cut deal as a boost to the economy — but Republicans are already talking about spending cuts that would offset any positive effects from the deal. And how effectively can he oppose these demands, when he himself has embraced the rhetoric of belt-tightening?
Yes, politics is the art of the possible. We all understand the need to deal with one’s political enemies. But it’s one thing to make deals to advance your goals; it’s another to open the door to zombie ideas. When you do that, the zombies end up eating your brain — and quite possibly your economy too.You could be the proud new owner of the Chris Carpenter bobblehead pictured above! All you have to do is support a worthy charitable cause!
Background
May 3 is Give Ozarks Day. During that day, not-for-profits from around the Ozarks will work to fundraise as much as they can. Among those is the Ozarks Literacy Council (OLC). The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is the organizer of the day and has special times throughout the 24-hour period that organizations can earn monetary prizes. This is where the bobblehead raffle comes in.
How To Win
If you donate at the the Give Ozarks page on Tuesday, May 3 between the hours of 12:00 Midnight-1:00 a.m., CST and/or 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. CST and then send me proof of your donation (the donation receipt may not have the donation time on it, but you can send me the timestamp of the e-mail you receive after donating) at either of those time periods to my e-mail (beardpunkbaseball@gmail.com), you will receive an entry to the drawing for the handsome and angry bobblehead. After all entries are received, I will randomly pick one entry. I'll notify that person and get their mailing address to mail the bobblehead free of charge. A few things to note:
Those time periods are Central time. Therefore, if you are in Eastern time, it's 1:00 a.m.-2:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. If you're on the West Coast, the times are 10:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. (on May 2!) and 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Only entries from the correct hours will be eligible for the bobblehead.
If you donate during both time periods, you will receive two entries for the bobblehead.
time periods, you will receive for the bobblehead. The minimum donation is $5, but I highly encourage you to donate more if you can.
The OLC does important work in the community and runs on a tight budget. There's only one full time employee and one part time employee. Together, they coordinate dozens of volunteers and learners for success. To give you some perspective on people that cannot read, check out this story about Spanish translators in baseball. Carlos Beltran's story about waiting to see what other people would order at a food court, then pointing to it is nearly exactly the kind of thing people that can't read have to do. Other difficulties illiterate people face include not being able to read their medicine bottles. They try to remember what their doctor told them, but the older they get, they tend to get more pills and their memory gets less sharp.
About the Chris Carpenter Bobblehead
This was a Busch Stadium giveaway on Aug. 22, 2010. It says "2009 Comeback Player of the Year" on the box, which this prize includes. I'm not sure on the Antiques Roadshow value, but on E-bay, these are going anywhere from $43 to $80.
And if you don't want the bobblehead, but would still like to donate, you are free to do so at anytime throughout the day, but the times I specified would help out greatly.
Here's the donation link again: https://giveozarks.org/2016/ozarks-literacy-council
This is intended to be fun. I will do my best to see that everyone that wants to participate gets a fair chance. If you have any questions, post them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them/may update this post, if necessary.
Good luck! Tell your friends! And most of all, thank you so much.Suspect in Christmas Eve Subway Attack View Full Caption DCPI
LONG ISLAND CITY — Police have released video of a man and woman who pummeled a woman inside Queens Plaza subway station on Christmas Eve.
The suspects kicked, pushed and shoved the 51-year-old woman at the platform for the E train about 3:20 p.m., police said.
The female suspect is also accused of striking the victim in the face with her purse, causing bruising and swelling, the NYPD said.
The victim did not know her attackers and they didn't take anything from her, a police spokesman said. It appeared to be an unprovoked attack, the spokesman said.
The pair were caught walking through a subway emergency exit. The woman, who has dark hair, was last seen wearing a black jacket and purple scarf and the man was last seen wearing a dark jacket with a lighter stripe across the chest.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.The Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades warned the Lebanese security agencies from continuing their war against Sunnis in Lebanon and detaining their youth, considering the apparatuses a direct enemy.
“Any Lebanese security agency that participates in oppressing the Sunnis in Lebanon and Syria will be our direct enemy,” the brigades said in a statement under the title “a message to the Lebanese people, government and army - 2.”
The statement called on the Sunni soldiers to defect the army and join the ranks of the jihadists, warning them that attacks against the military would target them if they didn't.
The brigades also lashed out at Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, describing him as the “actual governor in Lebanon.”
The statement pointed out that Nasrallah “is not concerned with the battle against Israel and claims that the jihadists entrenched along the Syrian-Palestinian border are Jewish agents, while Hizbullah is a loyal guardian for the Zionists.”
Hizbullah has dispatched fighters to battle alongside the Syrian regime against rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.
The conflict, pitting a Sunni-dominated rebel movement against Assad, has raised sectarian tensions in Lebanon and Lebanese Sunni fighters have also been killed while fighting alongside Syrian rebels.
The brigades also accused Hizbullah of all assassinations in Lebanon since 2005, calling on it to hand over the five suspects to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
After the murder of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, assassinations increased in Lebanon with several March 14 figures being targeted.
Five Hizbullah suspects are being tried in absentia by the STL based in The Hague.
H.K.
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EU officials are preparing for a Brexit “no deal”, a key aide to the bloc’s chief negotiator revealed today.
Brussels, like London, is making contingencies for the UK to crash out without an agreement on a future trade deal, Michel Barnier’s adviser Stefaan de Rynck told the Institute for Government.
He said: “It is not something we want to advertise, oversell.
“There is a clear negative impact from no deal… especially for the UK economy, but it not a scenario that we want to work towards.
(Image: PA)
“We are preparing for it, that is for sure, the 27, but it is not something we in the negotiation room want to bring in that negotiation room.”
Earlier this month(OCT), European Council President Donald Tusk claimed the rest of the bloc was not preparing for a no deal outcome.
“EU27 is not working on ‘no-deal’ scenario,” he said.
“We negotiate in good faith and hope for ‘sufficient progress’ by December.”
The UK is due to leave in March 2019 but is still deadlocked with the EU over the size of Britain’s divorce bill.
(Image: South Wales Echo)
Officials on both sides believe they can switch to trade talks after December’s crunch EU summit.
But the EU team insists “sufficient progress” is needed on the price of the UK’s exit, the Northern Ireland border and citizens’ rights.
Both Britain and Brussels hope a trade deal can be struck by October next year before being approved by the European Parliament and British MPs.
But no pact on the future relationship would see tariffs and quotas slapped on imports and exports, hiking prices and piling costs on manufacturers.
(Image: PA)
Mr de Rynck warned: “In a normal negotiation you try to create value on the table and if you don’t take it, if there is no deal, you both walk away and you have the same situation as before you started negotiating.
“That is not the case in this particular negotiation.
“People have to think through the consequences of that.
“If there is no deal as of April 2019, clearly the UK is for the EU what any other third country in the world which is - you don’t have a preferential trade deal and that has serious consequences.
“It means that the international agreements which are now being discussed that Britain falls out of that - not just trade.”
In a slap down to Brexit Secretary David Davis, he called for “serenity and calmness” in negotiations and insisted Brussels would “certainly want to avoid” talks “going to the wire”.
(Image: REUTERS)
He added: “Brexit is a process and we want to manage it in a calm and rational way.
“I don’t think we need to add risk to that progress by postponing, by playing with time.
“We need to use the time available for the best possible outcome.”
His warning came a day after the Brexit Secretary told MPs the EU “like to use time” as a negotiating tactic.
“If there is a time limit on a negotiation the union stops the clock, it assumes that it’s still at 11.59 until it is concluded, sometimes over the course of 24, 36, 72 hours thereafter, and that’s what I imagine it will be,” he feared.
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
“And it will be a lot of pressure, very high stress, very exciting for everybody watching.”
Mr Davis also triggered fresh chaos after suggesting MPs may not get a vote on the final deal until after Britain has left.
Senior Tory MP Nicky Morgan earlier warned she was “deadly serious” about backing plans to give the Commons the final say on the Brexit pact.
The Government’s flagship Brexit Bill, transferring EU law onto the UK Statute Book, returns to Parliament on November 14 with MPs having tabled nearly 400 amendments.
A Brexit Department spokesman said: “We are looking at those with the utmost seriousness.”New Documents Show UK Intelligence Agencies Hacking Computers With Little To No Oversight
from the because-of-course-they-are dept
Privacy International, which has been engaged in legal challenges over GCHQ spying for the past few years, has obtained an oversight document as a result of its litigation. What they show is the agency's broad hacking powers and the reluctance of its oversight to condone these actions.
The Commissioner of the Intelligence Services was slow to respond to hacking. Many of the concerns the Commissioner raised in his 2014 report [published July 2015] are the subject of PI's legal complaint, including whether it is lawful to use broad "thematic warrants" to justify the hacking of people in the UK. The Commissioner questioned this practice in depth. He was concerned that current law "does not expressly allow for a class of authorisation", and therefore the warrants were too broad. As a result, the Commissioner was worried that the Secretary of State was unable to properly assess whether the warrant authorised activity was necessary and proportionate. [ibid, p18] This means that GCHQ could get a warrant in the UK to hack the computer of everyone in Birmingham with little meaningful oversight.
Broad warrants at home -- signed by someone who may not have had any idea exactly what they were authorizing. No warrants, for the most part, for extraterritorial hacking. Testimony on behalf of the GCHQ by its director of cyber-security points out that the Secretary of State (who handles surveillance warrants) is rarely consulted when the target is foreign. The only exceptions are if the GCHQ feels the target may be "sensitive" or "politically risky." Otherwise, the GCHQ grants itself permission to carry out these attacks.
Two other agencies that write their own hacking orders (MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service) also do what they can to eliminate whatever minimal paper trail these actions might generate.
The Intelligence and Security Committee Report in March 2015 called MI5's and SIS's failure to keep accurate records of their overseas hacking activities "unacceptable", [ISC report, p.66] as it makes effective oversight impossible [Witness Statement of Ciaran Martin, 71L].
Arguably, the oversight was never "effective" to begin with. Privacy International's Caroline Wilson Palow points out that Parliament was never notified in the first place by these agencies about their hacking activities. The oversight of three intelligence agencies is pretty much limited to one guy (Sir Mark Waller) who engages in spot checks of warrants periodically. With none of the agencies feeling any particular urge to seek warrants for overseas surveillance, it does cut down on Waller's workload, but it doesn't do much to ensure they aren't abusing their (often) self-awarded privileges.
Filed Under: gchq, oversight, surveillance, uk
Companies: privacy internationalAn interracial couple was brutally attacked in Long Island City early Saturday, leaving each with assorted injuries after three men jumped them as they left a bar.
The pair, along with a friend, were wrapping up celebrating Billie James-Vogel's 40th birthday around 1:30 a.m. at the bar SHI when three men in a nearby car started shouting homophobic and racial slurs. Jacob James-Vogel told NBC that when he attempted to ask why they were shouting, they were jumped, leaving him with a black eye and injured head and his wife with a broken toe and several bruises.
They added that when they attempted to solicit help from the restaurant at which they'd just dined |
them out to dinner.Just as many Asian parents are reluctant to verbally express love, many are also uncomfortable talking in-depth about emotional problems. Because Asian cultures value interpersonal harmony within the family, parents and children alike do not bring up problems in order to avoid conflict. Because many Asian families arent practiced in talking about emotional issues, children often believe that its pointless to discuss problems with their parents.Furthermore, mental health and counseling are unfamiliar concepts to many Asian families. Mental illness is considered shameful and theres little understanding about mental disorders, including depression. Often, Asians attach a stigma to revealing problems or seeking help because doing so would signal personal immaturity, weakness and lack of self-discipline. Or they worry that mental illness could be seen as a hereditary flaw that shames the family. In addition, parents feel guilty because they believe that childrearing contributes a lot to how a person turns out.In contrast to the Western focus on emotional issues, the traditional Asian view of mental health is not based on feelings, but on the ability to work hard and behave properly in ones social roles. For example, a father who can provide for the family is considered mentally healthy. A son or daughter who is doing well in school is considered mentally healthy.Unfortunately, grades are not a good measure of a childs well-being. As we have seen, high achievers can be one step away from killing themselves. Whether the problem is family conflict, romantic breakups, academic failures or a deep-seated sense of inadequacy, young Asian Americans commit suicide when they see no release from intense emotional pain except through death.Psychologists have long known that among the young, suicides are often impulsive. If students can survive their teens and early twenties, their judgment and impulsivity often improve. When they mature and are more able to cope with depression, suicide may no longer seem like the only option. If parents can better understand their childrens emotional needs, especially the need for love, affection, understanding and acceptance, the pain and turmoil in a son or daughter may soften.So how do we heal Asian-American familiesparents and children alikeso that we no longer have to grieve for all the promising young lives lost?(Source added: NYT Magazine cover story from April 28, 2002. Who Was Responsible for Elizabeth Shin? - The New York Times If you have trouble with the link, please Google, "Who Was Responsible for Elizabeth Shin?")Primary Paring: NicoMaki
Hinted Pairings: NozoEli, RinPana, KotoUmi
Words: ~2.2k
Rating: K+
Time Frame: The week between Christmas and New Year, during Maki’s 1st and Nico’s 3rd year of high school.
Story Arc: “First Christmas”
First Christmas
Different
List of all HtHaN scenes
Author’s Note: This scene is a followup to Promoshoot, even if it takes place a number of weeks later.
From a real world standpoint, this entry doubles as one of the gifts the staff of Sukutomo is giving to its amazing community this year for Christmas. Unfortunately, I’m a little late as I let myself get sidetracked writing Nico on Ice and its follow up Sprawled on Ice, so I changed the in-scene date to after Christmas as well, as my own little meta reference. Ironically, NoI and SoI are kinda sorta Xmas’y as well, but they weren’t written with the intention of being a gift with a wider possible demographic.
As this is intended to appeal to more than just my fellow NicoMaki fans, I tried to include more interactions with the other girls. The rest of my favorite ships apply; NozoEli, KotoUmi and RinPana. In the overall world of HtHaN, HonoTsuba is the other pairing involving µ’s members, but at this point in the timeline, there hasn’t been enough interaction for me to include it the way I would want here.
“Alright,” Umi said from her position standing at the head of the clubroom table, “next order of business: our Christmas party.”
“I vote we have it at Maki-chan’s house!” Honoka cried, holding a hand up excitedly.
“Buweeh?” Maki looked up from her music notebook.
“Honoka.” Umi scolded. “We can’t just invite ourselves over to Maki’s house whenever we feel like it.”
“Awwww…” The leader of µ’s whined. “But Maki-chan has a piano and I wanted to sing Christmas carols…”
The group’s composer reached up and started twirling a few strands of her hair around a finger. “I suppose I could ask Papa and Mama…”
“Really!?” Honoka jumped out of her seat, only to trip on her own chair and faceplant on the table. “Owwieee…” she whined, sitting back down while rubbing her nose.
“Are you sure?” Umi inquired of her junior while ignoring her fellow second year. “We wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“I’m sure it will be fine.” Maki said, thinking about how surprisingly easy it had been to convince her parents to let the girls use two vacation homes so far.
“Christmas at Maki-chan’s, nya!” Rin exclaimed, throwing herself easily on the redhead as she lacked a table between them.
“Rin…” The redhead started to protest, but when she saw the excited faces of everyone else, she sighed and gave up the idea of pushing away her fellow first year. “It won’t actually be on Christmas though, right?” She asked instead. “Mama and Papa and I have traditions to follow that day.”
“No, of course not.” The blue-haired girl assured. “I was thinking about after school sometime the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Anyone have a preference of days?”
“Mama has off from her second job the rest of the week after Christmas.” Nico offered. “So, she can take care of the kids and I’ll be free.”
“Alright, anyone else have limitations we need to consider?”
Six heads shook around the table, allowing the date to be set with ease.
“Presents!” Honoka cried, having just finished gorging herself on the heavy hor d’oeurves prepared by the Nishikinos’ servants.
“Presents, nya!” Rin echoed, despite still having food on her plate.
“Presents!” Nozomi chimed in, bringing a stack of neatly wrapped presents out onto the table.
Eli’s eyes widened. “Are those…?”
“You’ll have to open them to find out.” Nozomi grinned. “There’s nine here, so one for each of us.”
“Does it matter which one we take?” Hanayo asked.
“Not really, they’re mostly the same. But feel free to trade once you open them.”
That said, all nine girls took a package and began unwrapping them simultaneously.
“I knew it.” Eli said, staring at the box in her hands. “Would it be rude for me to have one now?”
“Of course not!” Nozomi laughed. “They’re meant to be eaten after all.”
Eli immediately tossed a chocolate into her mouth, savoring the smooth truffle filling.
“We all took them randomly,” Rin observed, “how did you end up with the only one that lacks caramel, Nozomi-chan?”
The purple-haired girl responded with a toothy grin.
“She probably marked them in some way.” Nico guessed.
“Nope.” Nozomi continued to smile.
“Well, she did say we could trade if we wanted,” Hanayo mused, “I would have traded with you if we had to, Nozomi-chan.”
“Thanks, Hanayo-chan but I knew it wouldn’t be necessary.”
“Did the cards tell you that?” Nico deadpanned the question.
“Of course.”
Nico rolled her eyes.
“Well, to continue with the theme of snacks,” Honoka hefted a box of her own onto the table, “my dad and I made these last night. Sorry, we didn’t leave time to box them all individually…” she held a single hand up in front of her face in a decidedly casual gesture of apology. “I was hoping Maki-chan could provide some containers if there are leftovers.”
“I’m sure we can figure out something.” The host said.
“Thanks, Maki-chan!” Honoka grinned. “And now, behold, the Homura Bakery’s latest creation:” She pulled off the container’s lid with grand ceremony, “Christmas Strawberry Daifuku!”
“Isn’t that usually a spring variety?” Umi asked, studying the confections. Certainly, from an external view, they looked Christmas themed, with dyed decorations depicting holly, reindeer, wrapped gifts and the like.
“Eh heh heh… We thought we’d try something a little different this time.”
“Just because?”
“Yeah…”
“Not because you’re sick of anko?”
“Awuuu…” Honoka pouted.
“They look delicious!” Kotori said, taking one with a light blue snowflake and quickly took a bite. “Mmmm… they are delicious!” She held a hand to her cheek.
“Thank you, Kotori-chan!” the leader of µ’s threw herself onto her childhood friend.
“They are indeed very good.” The blue-haired admitted.
“Umi-chan!” the orange-haired girl switched targets.
“H-Honoka…” Umi grunted under the weight of the other girl.
The rest of the girls took their share of the treats and collectively reached the conclusion that a traditionally springtime snack was a nice break from what was normally expected during the winter holiday season.
“Alright, my turn.” Eli said, distributing small packages to each of the other girls.
“Elicchi…” Nozomi uttered after opening hers.
“They’re nyamazing!” Rin cheered, holding up a small accessory.
“Did you make these?” Kotori asked.
“I did.” Eli confirmed with a nod. “And I made one for myself to match.” She held up a light blue Я.
“They’re our symbols…” Honoka said in awe.
“And our colors.” Maki held up her red star. “Thank you, Eli.”
The rest of the group echoed their composer’s sentiment.
“Our turn, nya!” An overly exuberant girl exclaimed as she jumped up to retrieve a set of packages.
“Are those origami bows I see?” Eli asked as the next set of gifts were distributed.
“Amazing detail.” Umi added.
“You’ll have to teach me how to make these sometime, Hanayo-chan.” Kotori said, running a hand across the folded paper.
“There’s also a reindeer on mine.” Nozomi commented.
“Is this Santa-san?” Maki asked.
“Yes.” Hanayo confirmed.
“And I got three snowmen?” Nico questioned.
“I… I thought your siblings might like them…” The sheepish girl explained quietly.
“Like them? They’ll love them!” the third year grinned. “Thanks, Hanayo.”
“Open! Open!” Rin prompted.
Seconds later, Nico snorted. Not long after, Eli stifled a chuckle. Nozomi bit her lip. Even Maki had trouble hiding a smirk.
“What’s wrong, nya?” the orange haired first year asked, suddenly worried. “Do you not like them?”
“Onigiri and ramen.” Umi stated, pulling out one of the packages in question.
“Not just any ramen!” Rin insisted. “NISSHIN Chicken Ramen!”
“And I used Akitakomachi rice for the onigiri.” Hanayo added.
“A very fitting gift.” Kotori said with a gentle smile. “Thank you, Hanayo-chan, Rin-chan.” That said, she stood. “And now for mine.”
Nico responded by handing out the packages from between her and Kotori.
“Nico-chan helped me a lot with these so they’re from both of us.” The ash-haired second year explained.
“Kotori set up the designs and picked out the material.” Nico explained, taking her seat. “But we both spent time on each when we made them.”
“Oooo… this looks warm.” Honoka said, wrapping the scarf around her neck.
“Such pretty colors, nya” Rin said, holding up a primarily yellow muffler with green accents. “And mine’s the opposite of Kayo-chin’s.”
Eli and Nozomi shared a knowing look as they noticed the colors chosen for theirs.
“Blue and grey are a good combination…” Umi thought aloud, taking note of the pattern and beginning to think there was a meaning behind it. Didn’t they pair off like this recently for one of their songs? Was this a tribute to the song’s popularity?
“And mine has all of your colors!” Honoka declared proudly.
“Because you’re our leader.” Kotori explained.
“I love it! Thank you, Kotori-chan!” the energetic leader pounced once again.
“Hold on…” Maki said, staring at hers still in its box. “Mine has pink as its accent. Pink is Nico-chan’s color. Why am I paired with Nico-chan?”
“You don’t want to be paired with Nico?” the raven-haired girl beside her asked.
“Buwehh?” Maki balked when she turned and saw Nico’s well practiced puppy-dog face. “I… Tha-that’s not what I said…”
“Nico-chan worked extra hard on that one, Maki-chan.” The ash-haired designer pointed out as the raven-haired girl put more effort into her pouting.
Maki glanced about for support, but only found expectant eyes staring at her. “Ahhh, mohhh…” She quickly wrapped the garment around her neck. “It’s fine, it’s…” she paused, blinked and placed a hand on the material, “soft… really soft. And warm. It’s… nice…”
“Awww! Maki-chan!” Nico draped herself over the redhead.
“Too warm! Too warm!” Maki complained. “Nico-chan…”
“I think that means it’s time for our gift.” The group’s lyricist spoke up. “Maki, are you ready?”
“Yeah… just… Nico-chan…”
“Fine, fine…” the twin-tailed girl relented before standing up. “You ready too, Eli?”
The blonde smiled. “Of course.”
“Maki and I called in the help of Eli and Nico for our gift.” Umi explained.
“Did you write a song?” Hanayo asked, perking up at the thought of new idol music, her eyes sparkling.
“Indeed we did.” Umi motioned to Maki as she took a seat at the piano as well as Nico and Eli who took positions beside it. “It is my pleasure to present to you, BiBi’s new song, Silent tonight.”
“There’s one gift left, nya.” Rin pointed to a single wrapped package off to the side.
“Don’t worry about that one.” Maki said quickly. “I’ll take care of it later.”
“It says ‘To: Nico-chan’ on the tag.” Honoka read.
“It’s no big deal.” Maki insisted. “I didn’t realize we were only doing group gifts, so, um… what?” She took a step back as all eyes turned to her.
“We don’t mind if you wanna give a special gift just to Nico-chan.” Rin said with a smile.
“And we want to see what you got for Nicocchi.” Nozomi added.
“It’s really not a big deal, but…” She glanced at the other girl in question. “You already got me a gift, so I wanted to get you something in return.”
“What did Nico-chan get you?” a nosy, orange haired second year inquired.
“Do you mean that bear from the photoshoot earlier this month?” Nozomi asked.
“Oh, I remember that, nya.” Rin added. “It was really cute, but I didn’t realize you kept that.”
“Yeah… that one.” Maki confirmed.
“You really like it don’t you.” Nozomi’s voice earned a teasing tone.
“…” Maki just nodded.
“I’ll bet you take it to bed every night.”
“No, I don’t!” the redhead insisted. “A-anyway, Nico-chan, if you want to open it, you can.”
Nico returned a strange look to their flustered host. She also hadn’t anticipated individual gifts, but far be it for her to turn down a present. She knelt beside the sizable package and began to tear away the paper.
“Maki-chan, this is…” she cut off.
The kit before her held a generous selection of products ranging from lipstick and blush to shampoo and conditioner. It was common knowledge that Nico cared about her appearance and took every measure in her meager budget to keep herself as cute as she believed an idol should be. But these were not the generic brands she was accustomed to using, on the contrary, they ranked among the best in the industry, and certainly among the most expensive.
“Wonderful.” Kotori murmured, completing Nico’s thought, though significantly understating it.
“I’ve always wanted to try this one.” Nico found her voice again as she held up the conditioner. “How did you know, Maki-chan?”
“The sales rep’s daughter is a fan of µ’s.” Maki explained. “So, she knew about us…” she shook her head “I mean you, and helped me pick out things she thought would work for you.”
And probably earned a decent commission as well… Nico decided not to vocalize that thought. Still, could she really accept a gift like this? The teddy bear hadn’t been the cheapest, but its price was a puny fraction of the kit she was being given in return.
“Do you like it?”
Nico blinked as Maki’s tentative question reminded her how long she had been silent. “Like it?” She repeated, standing to face the redhead. “This is amazing, I…” Think of something! Think of something! She glanced quickly at the others awaiting her response. “I suddenly want to test that manicure kit. Anyone else want to help me try it out?”
“I do! I do!” Honoka cried, bouncing up and down excitedly.
“Are you sure?” Eli asked, obviously also aware of the hefty price tag associated with the items.
“Of course!” Nico grinned before retrieving the polish kit. “Stuff like this is best when shared with friends, right?”
“So, you do like it.” Maki repeated, though more of a statement than a question this time.
“I see the color I want to use.” Nozomi relieved Nico of the items while discretely placing a hand on the small of her back and giving her a light push.
Caught off guard, Nico stumbled forward, but was quickly caught my Maki. Lavender eyes stared quietly and expectantly into crimson.
“Yeah.” Nico finally confirmed. “I like it. I can’t wait to try everything. Thank you, Maki-chan.”
Maki smiled. “You’re welcome, Nico-chan.”
“So, um, want me to paint your nails?”
“Alright.”
Nico flashed a toothy grin before grabbing Maki’s hand and pulling her towards the other girls who were already planning the unexpectedly added activity of the night.
Author’s Note Continued:
Dear Fellow Denizens of School Idol Tomodachi,
Merry Christmas! (belated)
If memory serves, which granted, it seldom does, I opened my account on Sukutomo sometime in December of 2015, so even though I wasn’t active until February of 2016, this month technically holds my one year mark. In that time I have grown quite fond of the site and its community and checking for new posts has become as ritualistic as burning LP in SIF. I’ve interacted with no shortage of amazing and talented individuals, participated in many discussions and fought a memewar. And somewhere along the lines, I was granted the honor of joining the staff and in doing so was given the opportunity to help beyond just funding.
All said, it’s been a fantastic journey; one I hope to continue for as long as possible. But I can’t do it alone, of course, why would I want to? The community is what makes Sukutomo the wonderful site that it is; it’s so much more than just a card tracking database. I look forward to the possibilities 2017 holds; new denizens, improvements to the site, more fan art and fics, and of course, more memes.
Thank you,
“Grandpa” Ryqo
P.S. A special thanks to rdsathene for helping me with the RinPana gift part.The Mercury level in tuna has been a subject of debate for decades now. Paul Drevnick, Assistant Research Scientist at University of Michigan and his team analyzed data from over the past 50 years and found that mercury levels in Pacific yellowfin tuna, often marketed as ahi tuna, is increasing at 3.8% per year. If 3.8% per year doesn’t seem like much, that translates into a doubling at every 20 years. So in 50 years, mercury levels have increased 6 times.
Mercury is a neurotoxin – it can cause significant damage to nerve tissue. Mercury exists in a number of different compounds, though methylmercury (MeHg+), dimethylmercury and diethylmercury are the only significantly neurotoxic forms. Diethylmercury and dimethylmercury are considered some of the most potent neurotoxins ever discovered. Mercury levels in tuna are now approaching levels deemed unsafe for human consumption by the EPA.
The initial surprise was that high mercury levels were reached consistently throughout the globe, even in pristine areas in Scandinavia or North America. This happens because most of the mercury comes from coal plants; as the coal plants burn coal, mercury can easily travel throughout the globe (even several times) before settling down as dust or rain. As it settles down on water, it is then absorbed by fish. As Drevnik explains, many people have the wrong idea that the world’s ocean is simply too large to be polluted.
“Two manuscripts published in Science in the early 1970s supported this argument. The first stated that mercury pollution could only result in a negligible increase in mercury levels in open ocean water,” he writes.
But new research contradicts that idea. Namely, dillution is not a solution to pollution. Mercury is not something easily eliminated from the body, so if it gets absorbed by a plant or an animal, it pretty much travels throughout the food chain, so that top predators contain much more mercury. The study found that methylmercury levels in predatory fish are about a million times greater than in the water in which they swim. Furthermore, mercury levels continue to rise, at an average of 3.8% a year.
“The statistical comparison indicated mercury levels were higher in 2008 than in either 1971 or 1998. As a result, we concluded that mercury levels are increasing in yellowfin tuna near Hawaii. The rate of increase between 1998 and 2008 of 3.8% per year is equivalent to a modeled increase in mercury in ocean waters in the same location.”
The only question mark is now where the mercury is coming from – and the scientific evidence seems to indicate we are doing it. Coal plants are the main source of pollution, closely followed by cement kilns. Other sources are trash burning and gold mining. We need to find better ways to deal with our mercury pollution, and that’s exactly the aim of the new United Nations Environment Programme’s Minamata Convention on Mercury.
In the mean time, we also have to keep avoid eating too much tuna.
Enjoyed this article? Join 40,000+ subscribers to the ZME Science newsletter. Subscribe now!H ere’s the thing to bear in mind about the ere’s the thing to bear in mind about the Washington Post’s report that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had the FBI execute a search warrant against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in late July: Prosecutors don’t do pre-dawn raids on the home of a cooperating witness.
Manafort has publicly projected cooperation. Of course, we can’t know how cooperative he has actually been. The public has been kept in the dark about what is being investigated, and Mueller and the congressional committees are doing most of their work behind closed doors.
Nevertheless, Manafort did voluntarily testify before the Senate intelligence committee on July 25. It is not a coincidence, I suspect, that the very next morning, in the pre-dawn hours, the FBI showed up at his Alexandria, Va., home with a search warrant. Notwithstanding that Manafort had reportedly been voluntarily producing documents to congressional committees that are probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, the FBI conducted what the Post describes as a “wide-ranging” search for documents. Apparently, the bureau seized voluminous records and other materials.
There are two possible rationales for a search warrant under the circumstances. First, the legitimate rationale: Investigators in good faith believed Manafort, who is either a subject of or witness in their investigation, was likely to destroy rather than surrender relevant evidence. Second, the brass-knuckles rationale: The prosecutor is attempting to intimidate the witness or subject — to say nothing of others who are similarly situated — into volunteering everything he may know of an incriminating nature about people the prosecutor is targeting.
In Monday’s column, I took issue with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s claim (in a Fox News interview on Sunday) that the Mueller investigation is not a fishing expedition. The DAG insists the probe has a finite scope related to Russia’s 2016 election meddling. I counter that there are no real limits on Mueller because (a) Rosenstein failed to follow federal regulations that require him to outline specific crimes the special counsel is authorized to investigate, and (b) the so-called Russia investigation is a counterintelligence investigation, which is really just an information-gathering exercise targeting a foreign power — meaning: Mueller could claim that anything, no matter how tangentially germane to possible explanations of Putin’s motives, is a legitimate focus of his investigation.
Now, a search warrant is issued in a criminal investigation only if a judge finds probable cause that a crime has been committed and that evidence of this crime will be found in the place to be searched. The warrant is granted on the basis of an affidavit — usually drafted by the prosecutor and sworn to by an FBI agent — which tells the court exactly what crimes the agents are investigating and describes for the court the evidence supporting the claim that there is probable cause. Moreover, if agents wish to execute a warrant before 6 a.m., they must show good cause as to why this should be permitted. Generally, the explanation involves danger that evidence will be destroyed, or that agents will be at risk, if people inside the location are awake and alert when the agents knock on the door.
a.m.). A standard federal search-warrant form is available online here. Note that, in addition to a description of the location to be searched, it also requires a precise description of the evidence that the investigators expect to find in the location, based on their probable-cause showing. It also indicates whether good cause has been established to execute the warrant outside of daytime hours (i.e., before 6.).
For what crimes did the Manafort search warrant authorize agents to seize evidence?
I wonder if Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, to whom Mueller reports, would be willing to outline for the public the crimes for which the Manafort search warrant authorized agents to seize evidence. This would go some of the way toward filling in the gap Rosenstein left by ignoring the regulation requiring a factual description of the criminal investigation he has authorized the special counsel to conduct. It would also give us some insight about whether the investigation is tightly related to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, as Rosenstein has intimated, or is more like a fishing expedition.
Moreover, in light of the fact that Manafort has ostensibly been cooperating with congressional committees, and that Mueller has a grand jury that would have enabled him to compel Manafort to surrender evidence by subpoena, I wonder if the Justice Department would shed some light on (a) why it was thought necessary to conduct a raid on Manafort’s home and (b) whether the special counsel and the FBI sought permission to conduct the search before 6 a.m. (i.e., in what the Post reports as the pre-dawn hours).
Finally, I wonder whether the deputy attorney general or the special counsel would inform the public whether the president of the United States is a suspect in a criminal investigation.
— Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior policy fellow at the National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.
BENGALURU: So near and yet so far. That's how one can describe the unsuccessful record attempt by a Bengaluru based company to build a three-bedroom house in 24 hours. After completing 80% of the work on Saturday night, the company, specializing in rapid construction and building innovation technology, thought it would create a world record by dawn.But it was not to be, thanks to some last-minute glitches in fixing the roof of the 2,400sqft house on a plot in T Agrahara, near Stonehill International School in north Bengaluru. “This is not the end of the attempt, there is always a next time,“ said a dejected Paddy Menon, chief disruptor, REBEL Disruptive Building Technologies, hailing his 20-member team's efforts. “We had completed 90% of the house in the record 24 hours, but the remaining 10% took longer than expected. Unfavourable weather conditions too added to our woes.“Menon had set his eyes on the Limca Book of World Records, but failed to complete the work by 6am on Sunday.The team had begun work at 6am on Saturday and toiled round the clock to build the three-bedroom house, but failed to meet the 24-hour deadline to set the record as the fastest to complete such a building in India.“The team had managed to make a seemingly impossible record of constructing a three-bedroom house in barely 24 hours and lived up to the expectation of fixing the foundation and walls but faltered in fixing the roof on Sunday.All their painstaking efforts were undone by a technical glitch in the wee hours. There was not enough time to re-as semble the roof and the record attempt had to be shelved,'' said a technician, who was part of the challenge.The team, after a small break, went ahead with the construction with a target to finish the house in 48 hours, which still would be no small feat.Using precast technology, the project is said to be the first of its kind in the country.Menon was attempting to create the record on a plot belonging to Tyag Uthappa, a businessman and coffee planter from Kodagu, who wants to gift the house to his wife on her birthday. Video cameras were installed to record the unique construction process.Elizabeth May says her Green Party is concentrating its federal election efforts on a key set of ridings across the country where the party has already made inroads.
The party held just two seats in Parliament when the election was called, but is fielding candidates from coast to coast.
However, while campaigning in New Brunswick on Wednesday, May said the party is emphasizing ridings such as like Fredericton where provincial leader David Coon won a seat in the legislature last year.
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"David Coon and his win here in Fredericton has broken through the barrier, just as my win in Saanich-Gulf Islands made a difference. That proved that Greens can be elected in a first-past-the-post system," she said.
"The Green party of Canada hasn't got the resources to run the kinds of campaigns that you seen Mary Lou Babineau running here in every riding across the country.
"We are clearly targeting resources where we see the best opportunity to elect Green MPs," she said.
Don Desserud, a political scientist at the University of Prince Edward Island, said it's smart for the Green party to pick its battles and not spread itself too thin.
"It's an incredibly tough haul to get to the point where you're getting enough votes across the country to see those translate into seats if you're running a national campaign," he said.
However Desserud warns that just because there's local support for provincial candidates like David Coon in New Brunswick and Peter Bevan-Baker in Prince Edward Island, that doesn't necessarily translate into votes federally.
He said a party the size of the Green party needs to look for small victories.
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"Even just holding onto Elizabeth May's seat will be seen as progress. If they were able to get 10 seats across the country this would be a major game- changer for that party and for the party's reputation across the country," Desserud said.
May was in Fredericton to campaign and announce her party's strategy for seniors.
A guaranteed livable income and a national pharmacare program are among the highlights of the strategy.
May said the party supports a call from the Canadian Medical Association for programs that let seniors stay in their homes, allow them to remain active and ensure their quality of life.
She said a guaranteed livable income would supplement pensions to ensure no senior lives in poverty.
Other aspects of the Green plan include increasing the Canada Health Transfer to account for the age of a province's population.
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"We must make sure that the principles and spirit of the Canada Health Act are respected, that Supreme Court decisions are honoured, that the level of care you receive in New Brunswick not be a lesser level of care than if you are in Toronto," she said.
The plan also includes a national dementia strategy which would increase the number of long-term care beds and improve supports for family members.
May said the party would also begin discussion on the thorny ethical issue of assisted suicide and the right to die with dignity.You say it's your birthday? It's California's birthday, too. On September 9, 1850, it became the 31st state in the Union. Let's celebrate with 19 facts about the Golden State.
1. The 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War. The U.S. paid Mexico $15 million for war damages. In turn, Mexico ceded nearly half of its territory, including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Colorado, Nevada, and Utah.
2. California was originally known as the Bear State. As California boomed—and the bear population was wiped out—it became the Golden State.
3. The grizzly bear on California's current state flag is a tribute to Monarch, the last wild California grizzly bear. In 1899, newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst paid a reporter named Allen Kelley to capture the animal. Monarch was sent to San Francisco, where he lived at Woodward's Garden and then Golden Gate Park. He was a star attraction until his death in 1911. The last reported sighting of a wild California grizzly bear was in 1924.
4. But the original Bear Flag had nothing to do with Monarch. It dates back to 1846, two years before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. A group of Americans who'd settled in California, which was then part of Mexico, feared they'd be expelled. They invaded the Mexican outpost at Sonoma and captured the retired general Mariano Vallejo. A few days later they raised the first Bear Flag and called the land the California Republic.
5. The California Republic only existed for 26 days. U.S. Army Major John C. Frémont soon replaced the Bear Flag with the U.S. flag, which takes us back to the beginning of this post and the Mexican-American War.
6. And who designed the original flag? William Todd, nephew of Mary Todd Lincoln. It's a small historical world.
7. The one-word state motto, "Eureka," hearkens back to the exciting days of the Gold Rush. But it doesn't include an exclamation point. The first "Eureka!" is attributed to the Greek scholar Archimedes. According to legend, he had an epiphany as he stepped into a bathtub and watched the water level rise—he realized that the volume of the displaced water was equal to the volume of the foot he'd submerged. And then he ran out of the room to tell others about his discovery... while he was completely naked. (More on whether that ever actually happened here.)
8. In 2013, the states of California and New York tied for the fourth-highest average credit score in the U.S.—653. (Minnesota was the victor, with an average score of 658.)
9. California is the only state that's hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
10. Most of the U.S. athletes competing in the 2012 London Olympics came from California. But take that with a grain of salt—one out of every eight Americans is from California.
11. The first step to getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: Work in entertainment. The second: Pay a $30,000 nomination fee. Living celebrities are required to appear at their star's unveiling. (Barbra Streisand is the only person who got away with missing the event.) All of the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz—122 adults and 12 children—share one star.
12. The fortune cookie was inspired by the Japanese cookie o-mikuji and invented in California.
13. I can haz state recognition? In 1973, the sabre-tooth cat, Smilodon californicus, became California's state fossil. A year earlier, Assemblyman W. Craig Biddle had nominated the cockroach-like trilobite for the honor. Nearly 2000 museum curators and fossil experts backed him, but the bill never made it to a vote. A year later, the sabre-tooth cat made it to the floor and passed. The one no-vote? Senator W. Craig Biddle.
14. Except for Alaska, California contains more forestland than any other state.
15. Despite living in Los Angeles for 78 years, writer Ray Bradbury never learned to drive.
16. California's most famous for its Gold Rush in 1849, but it also had a Silver Rush in the Calico Mountains from 1881 to 1896. By 1904, Calico was a ghost town.
17. The mineral benitoite can be found in California, Japan, and Arkansas, but only San Benito County, California has it in gemstone quality deposits. The California State Gem Mine in Coalinga allows the public to dig and take home a quart-sized bag of treasure.
Wikimedia Commons
18. Thousands of U.S. banks failed after the 1929 stock market crash—by 1933, only 11,000 were left. All of San Francisco's banks survived.
19. The highest point in the contiguous U.S., 14,494-foot Mt. Whitney, is only 76 miles from the lowest point in the contiguous U.S., Death Valley. They're both in Cali- well, you know.Last week, a vehicle parked in a lot not far from the Kansas State University campus was found with virulently racist statements all over it. |
theories and beliefs about global warming" showed that 59% of Americans believed it "at least somewhat likely", with 35% believing it was "very likely".[218]
According to Tim Wirth, "They patterned what they did after the tobacco industry. […] Both figured, sow enough doubt, call the science uncertain and in dispute. That's had a huge impact on both the public and Congress."[73] This approach has been propagated by the US media, presenting a false balance between climate science and climate skeptics.[220] Newsweek reports that the majority of Europe and Japan accept the consensus on scientific climate change, but only one third of Americans considered human activity to play a major role in climate change in 2006; 64% believed that scientists disagreed about it "a lot."[221] A 2007 Newsweek poll found these numbers were declining, although majorities of Americans still believed that scientists were uncertain about climate change and its causes.[222] Rush Holt wrote a piece for Science, which appeared in Newsweek:
… for more than two decades scientists have been issuing warnings that the release of greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), is probably altering Earth's climate in ways that will be expensive and even deadly. The American public yawned and bought bigger cars. Statements by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and others underscored the warnings and called for new government policies to deal with climate change. Politicians, presented with noisy statistics, shrugged, said there is too much doubt among scientists, and did nothing.[223]
Deliberate attempts by the Western Fuels Association "to confuse the public" have succeeded in their objectives. This has been "exacerbated by media treatment of the climate issue". According to a Pew poll in 2012, 57% of the US public are unaware of, or outright reject, the scientific consensus on climate change.[224] Some organizations promoting climate change denial have asserted that scientists are increasingly rejecting climate change, but this notion is contradicted by research showing that 97% of published papers endorse the scientific consensus, and that percentage is increasing with time.[224]
Social psychologist Craig Foster compares climate change denialists to flat-earth believers and the reaction to the latter by the scientific community. Foster states, "the potential and kinetic energy devoted to counter the flat-earth movement is wasteful and misguided... I don't understand why anybody would worry about the flat-earth gnat while facing the climate change mammoth... Climate change denial does not require belief. It only requires neglect."[225]
In 2016, Aaron McCright argued that anti-environmentalism—and climate change denial specifically—has expanded to a point in the US where it has now become "a central tenet of the current conservative and Republican identity."[226]
On the other hand, global oil companies have begun to acknowledge the existence of climate change and its risks.[227]
Manufactured climate change denial is also influencing how scientific knowledge is communicated to the public. According to climate scientist Michael E. Mann, "...universities and scientific societies and organizations, publishers, etc.—are too often risk averse when it comes to defending and communicating science that is perceived as threatening by powerful interests..."[228]
See also
References
BibliographyA crisis that EU leaders have been unable to solve alone.
The UN expects more than one million refugees to arrive in Europe by the end of the year.
So governments have turned to Turkey, which shares borders with Syria and Iraq.
Ankara is now asking that its long-standing membership application to be sped up.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu pledeged that his government and the EU would “work shoulder to shoulder regarding the refugee crisis.”
Turkey will get some three billion euros to help refugees in return for stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.
Visa-free travel for Turkish citizens to the Schengen zone is also part of the deal if Turkey keeps its promises.
Still reeling from the attacks in Paris, the president of France said tougher border checks are needed.
“There is a need for checks on people who pass through the Turkish territory, and we know that there are foreign fighters who have that intention and who use this route, and secondly there are also terrorists who could infiltrate: we have seen that in attacks in Paris,” said French President François Hollande.”
Officials also agreed that there would be two EU-Turkey summits every year from 2016.Clue Band or Artist Initials That'll never get off the ground. L.Z. I really love that woman, I love everything she does M. You've been dunking that for too long. L.B. Don't be selfish - Hand some of it out to your mates C. I'll take that book to the toilet with me. L.R. This little girl is hungry. What shall we do? F. I was in Texas, I tripped and landed on my knees in a puddle. W.H. When I'm ill, I throw up horse food. I.H. You're asked if you want that bit of the egg. You think about it, but decide against it. Y.O. If you put that many in the post I'm surprised I didn't receive one. F.C.
Clue Band or Artist Initials That army has got some well nice trenches. D.W. At the moment I'm in a river full of logs. J.T. If there was a Jamaican fella on the Titanic, he might have screamed this. C.B. Chanel have got another perfume out. N.O. The Australian picks two blokes. E The fella has only got one badge left. E. That fella likes sucking on iron. M. The Buddhists won't be able to get into their temple without these. T.M. Buy it if you want. I'm not that bothered. Think about it, come back. I'm not fussed. S.C. This vegetable started its life down under. K.O.By Angel Irizarry - July 31, 2014
Welcome to my weekly series where I explain different types of website attacks in plain English, steering clear of heavy security jargon commonly found in articles of this nature. Today, I’d like to tackle Cross-Site Scripting, more commonly known by the much scarier acronym XSS.
Modern websites are far more complex than the static pages that used to rule the internet. These days, it is more accurate call them web applications, due to the growing trend of replacing server-side logic with client-side Javascript. While Javascript as a programming language has evolved over the years, the ways that Javascript code is meant to be added to a web page have not. This is why we can still use <script> and </script> tags inside of HTML documents and put any Javascript we want inside of them, and this is the main reason why XSS is still rampant today.
XSS allows malicious users to inject client-side code (mainly Javascript) into web pages to be run by other unsuspecting users. It may be easier to understand with an example. Suppose I’m a web developer creating a hot new search engine: example.com. At its basic level, the search engine requires two pages. The first page, http://www.example.com, only contains a search box.
<form action = " /search " method = " get " > <input type = " text " name = " query " /> </form>
The second page contains the list of search results. As a friendly reminder to the user, it also includes their search term. The server-side code that generates that piece of HTML, here implemented using Sinatra, may look something like this.
require'sinatra'get'/search'do html = " " html += " Here are the results found for: #{ params[ :query ] } " return html end
The Danger
Using typical string interpolation here presents a problem to the user’s browser because it cannot differentiate between HTML intended by my code and any HTML entities that may exist inside the query parameter. As a result, it is easy for an attacker to exploit this by typing the following into the search box:
<script>alert('hacked!');</script>
Our original intent was to remind the user of what her search term was, so we want everything inside the paragraph tags to be treated as plain text:
... <p> Here are the results found for: <script>alert('hacked!');</script> </p>...
Unfortunately, the script tags here get parsed just like any other script tag, and the Javascript code between them gets executed. The browser does not know the difference between the script tag inserted via user input and a script tag inserted by us.
... <p> Here are the results found for: <script> alert('hacked!'); </script> </p>...
At this point you might be thinking, “So what? Javascript is client-side, so the attacker only managed to accomplish hacking himself.” Unfortunately, this is not the whole story. At this point the attacker’s URL bar reads http://www.example.com?query=<script>alert('hacked!');</script>, and she could easily copy this URL and paste it somewhere in an effort to get potential victims to click on it. She could post it to public forums, send e-mails to example.com users that include this link (with a tempting title like “Check out these cat pictures!”) or embed this page on her own site using an invisible iframe. In any case, the malicious Javascript code then runs on the unsuspecting victim’s computer. Notice how this differs from another popular attack, SQL injection, in that XSS is aimed at users of the website, not the website itself.
The worst part is that because Javascript is designed to be a powerful tool to manipulate a web page, this kind of attack can be devastating. An attacker can use XSS to steal users’ cookies and use those to impersonate them at example.com, steal their credit card information, or even trick them into installing and downloading malware. Anything that HTML and Javascript can do, the attacker can do.
The Answer
The main defense against XSS is to escape all user input. Escaping user input is the technique of replacing certain characters with other equivalent characters to remove ambiguity for a browser’s parsers. Doing this properly is a solid defense against XSS, because escaped characters signal to a parser that they are to be treated as text and never as code. To do this properly, we have to identify which characters are safe to display without being mistaken for characters can switch out of the current context. Every character not in this safe list needs to be escaped, so that the browser does not treat them as executable code.
Unfortunately, there is no single tool or algorithm to do this, due to the variety of contexts in which one could insert user input, and the different requirements each of those contexts have for properly escaping text. Typically, however, modern web programming frameworks have libraries devoted to escaping user input in a variety of contexts. I recommend strictly using those libraries and not implementing your own. If you’re curious about how these libraries work, in the following sections I discuss the most common contexts in which you would want to insert user input, and the proper ways to use escaping to prevent XSS.
Between Opening and Closing HTML Content Tag
Inside standard content elements is the safest place to insert user input. HTML content elements include tags such as <p>, <div>, and <li>, essentially any element meant to contain other content elements or plain text. In this case, we want to use HTML escaping to ensure user input is never mistaken for an HTML tag or attribute. This means that we have to convert certain dangerous characters into the form &X;, where X is either a number (preceded by a # ) or, in certain cases, a name. These constructs are called HTML entities, and they tell the HTML parser that they should be interpreted and displayed as text, and never treated as HTML tags. Below is a complete list of the characters that need to be escaped.
Dangerous Character Named HTML Entity Numerical HTML Entity (in hex) & & & < < < > > > “ " "''
In our search engine example above, we wanted to place user input inside of <p> tags, even if the input is an attempt at XSS. This can safely be accomplished by using the HTML escaping technique. The raw HTML with proper escaping looks like this:
... <p> Here are the results found for: < script > alert('hacked!'); < /script > </p>...
HTML Attribute Values
While it is possible to allow user input in HTML tag attributes, it is significantly more dangerous than allowing user input between content tags. Because HTML attribute values don’t have to be quoted, there are many more ways for attackers to escape out of them and inject malicious code. In the following contrived example, we construct a page uses a get parameter to set the width of an image.
require'sinatra'get'/image'do html = " " html += " <img src=image.jpg height=300 width= #{ params[ :w ] } > " return html end
Here, if an attacker constructs the URL http://example.com/image?w=400%20onload=alert('hacked!'), the resulting HTML will cause the malicious Javascript to run with the image is loaded.
... <img src = image.jpg height = 300 width = 400 onload = alert ('hacked!') >...
To ensure safety, we have to escape all non-alphanumeric characters in the user input using HTML entities, not just the five characters listed in the previous table. A complete list HTML entities can be found here. In the above example, properly escaped user input would look like this:
... <img src = image.jpg height = 300 width = 400 & # 32 ; onload & # 61 ; alert & # 40 ; & # 39 ; hacked & # 33 ; & # 39 ; & # 41 ; >...
JSON String Values
If you want to allow user input to be embedded in your JavaScript code, the only safe place is inside of a quoted string, either as a regular string variable or within a JSON string value. Even here, it is still dangerous to allow user input to be inserted unescaped, as the example below illustrates.
<script> var string = " </script> <script>alert('hacked!');" </script>
Even though the red </script> is inside of a Javascript string, it closes the Javascript context and starts a new one. This is because browsers have their HTML parsers run before the Javascript parsers, so HTML elements get highest priority. Even my text editor gets this wrong.
The best solution here is to escape every non-alphanumeric character using unicode escaping. The following table has some examples.
Dangerous Character Unicode escape < \u003C > \u003E " \u0022
There are other dangerous places to allow user input to be inserted, such as CSS property values and URL get parameters, but the solutions for all of them are the same: always escape user input in every context. Rather than trying to remember all of the escaping rules for each context, it’s much safer to use a library for the job. Read the documentation of your favorite web framework and use its built-in tools to ensure you don’t make any mistakes.
As you’ve seen in the examples above, it is all too easy to expose your site to XSS, and these types of vulnerabilities can be incredibly hard to detect for even trained human eyes. As an added level of security, I highly recommend using an automated tool to scan for and detect XSS vulnerabilities in your site. Tinfoil provides the best web application security solution on the market, and it detects XSS vulnerabilities on your website along with many other types of web vulnerabilities.“How you build the future is you motivate people to pay attention and act, to improve their circumstances and run their own lives”, LinkedIn co-founder and philanthropist Reid Hoffman tells me. That’s why his support of microlending platform Kiva’s kiva.org/free program has a double positive impact. He put up $1 million so 40,000 people could try helping the impoverished via microfinance without spending their own money. They get inspired, while those who receive the microloans can start small businesses and become self-reliant.
In an inspiring interview, Reid also told me about how he thinks governments should start microlending, that people need to accept that charities and causes aren’t perfect, and the life philosophy he thinks everyone should live by. Be sure to participate in the kiva.org/free trials before they run out.
Years ago, Hoffman had a revelation that after his success with startups, he “wanted to do the same thing on the not-for-profit side as on the for-profit side.” Namely, create platforms that could “scale impact using techniques from Silicon Valley — marketplaces, innovation, funding.”
He resigned from the boards of some companies he was working with, heard about Kiva.org, and got excited about its mission to deliver microloans so needy people around the world could become entrepreneurs. When they first met and Kiva’s president Premal Shah tried to ask Reid a question, he interrupted, “The answer to whatever you’re going to ask is yes.” Soon Hoffman was joining Kiva’s board.
“I obviously think Kiva is awesome. The pattern you want is to empower people to invest in themselves.” This makes Kiva much more sustainable than traditional charities that “give a man a fish”. Kiva literally makes that old saying come true as it provides the startup capital so people can start to fish or raise livestock, create a farm, or open a general store or clothing business. Personally, he believes everyone should “do something that’s not for yourself every day”.
Reid urges other high net-worth individuals to offer support through development@kiva.org the way he gave $1 million to fund free trials, which I first learned about from social good reporter Christina Farr. “It’s a great thing folks with money can do. It’s highly leveraged capital – you get nearly all your money back” Reid says. Kiva loans now have a return rate of 98.9%, so the risk is very low.
Right now most loans from those in the United States go abroad where the dollar has a greater reach. However, Reid explained, “I don’t see any structural reason why the Kiva model couldn’t work just as powerfully in the U.S., except you have to get comfortable with giving more capital” because it’s more expensive to get a business off the ground here.
Reid tells me he’s bullish on potential for governments in the U.S. and abroad to help their own citizens with Kiva-like programs, “but you’d have to somewhat isolate it from classic problems of the political process. [Otherwise governments would say] ‘we only want to fund entrepreneurs doing hot dogs and apple pie, not sex education'” or other controversial programs.
Other initiatives Reid supports include Donors Choose for bringing school supplies to classrooms, and Endeavor Foundation which fuels macro-entrepreneurship. The Greylock partner understands that all philanthropic organizations have problems, be they overhead or partners or output. What matters though is helping these organizations improve the world. “Perfection is the enemy of good. If something is 100% perfect it usually doesn’t accomplish much.”
Kiva, Reid Hoffman, and TechCrunch need your help to get Reid’s $1 million into the hands of entrepreneurs as fast as possible. Go to kiva.org/free now, choose a needy cause, and give out one of the remaining loans to at no cost to you. Almost $425,000 has already been distributed in just the last few days so get involved before the free trials run out.CHARLOTTE- When Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis hosts an event, his teammates and friends show up, and so do the crowds.
On Sunday, Davis wrapped up a weekend full of fundraising for his Defending Dreams Foundation with a Celebrity Golf Tournament at Olde Sycamore Golf Plantation.
Nearly 190 golfers joined professional athletes like Luke Kuechly, Steve Smith, Jonathan Stewart, Mike Tolbert and Ron Rivera for the event.
Davis also hosted a free football camp on Saturday at Revolution Park for over 400 kids.
"You never know the impact that is has on a kids life, especially now at this early age until you get to watch them grow up and get to talk to them later on in life. I think this camp has been very vital to a lot of kids success," Davis said.
The fundraising started Friday with a Comedy for a Cause event. All in all the events brought in more than sixty thousand dollars for the Defending Dreams foundation.
To find out more about Davis' charity and future events, CLICK HERE.
Copyright 2017 WCNCBRYANT, AR - A family is in shock along with a community and everyone involved as they try to process the death of a 20-year-old woman hit and killed when she was run over in a Target parking lot.
We know more about what led to the fatal accident and what police say the suspect told them after he continued to drive away from the scene.
Authorities say Heather Baker, 20, was on life-support following the accident Thursday (8/21) but she died Friday morning about 10:39 at Baptist Hospital.
It's a case that many of those involved, including the Bryant Police Department (BPD), have struggled with.
"Sadness," Bryant Police Sgt. Todd Crowson described the circumstances. "This one has really umm... This one's been tough."
As the investigation continues, the case of Baker getting hit and killed in the Target parking lot has gripped the entire community.
Police say Baker was walking across the Bryant Target parking lot when a pickup truck going at least 35 mph hit, ran over and dragged her.
Marcus Dorsey, 39, the driver of the F-150 remains in Saline County Jail on a one-million dollar bond facing an upgraded charge of first degree murder.
Dorsey allegedly told investigators he saw the woman crossing the street and that she tried to get out of the way but he "gunned it."
Police say he never stopped.
Dorsey allegedly told investigators he was on a combination of narcotic drugs and alcohol before hitting his victim.
A blood test was taken and an official toxicology report is pending.
Dorsey has a previous arrest by BPD as recently as Tuesday (8/19).
It happened in the same apartment complex he was found in after the hit and run. According to a BPD report Dorsey was arrested for public intoxication. It says when authorities arrived for a welfare check Dorsey came out of his apartment, got on the ground and told officers to take him to jail because he was smoking "sherm."
While the investigation continues into what led to the accident, family, friends and the community has to continue grieving for the loss of Heather Baker.
"Certainly thoughts and prayers of the entire police department - this entire community - is with this family," Sgt. Crowson added. "This poor young girl, she was just getting out to go do some shopping and became a victim like this.... It breaks your heart."Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) shares fell for a second-straight day after the firm's new Ryzen line of desktop processors disappointed gamers.
"The [Ryzen] 1800X lags behind its Intel (INTC) counterparts in gaming, regardless of whether it's running at the same clock speed or higher," Mark Walton wrote in technology review site Ars Technica on Thursday.
PCWorld, PC Gamer also criticized the new processors for poor gaming performance.
Shares of AMD traded more than 5.5 percent lower Friday after falling 7 percent Thursday. Intel shares traded nearly 0.2 percent lower Friday.
John Taylor, a spokesman for Advanced Micro Devices and vice president at Worldwide Marketing, told CNBC: "There are a few gaming oriented sites that have expressed some disappointment over gaming performance at low resolution. This is a matter of optimization by those games on Ryzen. The CPU performance shines through strongly in every CPU test reviewers have run."
AMD released its Ryzen 7 lineup Thursday with 3 models: an 1800x, 1700x, and 1700 whose prices range from $329 to $499. The semiconductor company announced the product line back in December.
Outside of gaming, Ars Technica's Walton said, that "for the most part, Ryzen is highly competitive with Intel's eight-core i7-6900K."
On Jan. 31, the company posted a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter loss of 1 cent per share on revenue of $1.11 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of 2 cents per share on revenue of $1.07 billion.
The company gave high expectations for the first quarter, estimating an 18 percent boost in revenue.
Advanced Micro Devices 12-month performance
Source: FactSetNew York Governor Andrew Cuomo wins a long standing campaign on behalf of natural gas firms and green groups. The climate change battle loses ground.
Two aides to NY Governor Cuomo are charged in a bribery scheme related to a natural gas plant slated to replace power from the reactors. Prosecutors did not charge Cuomo with wrong doing.
The twin Indian Point nuclear reactors, representing more than 2000 MW of carbon emission free electrical power, will cease operations in Spring 2021. An agreement between the State of New York and Entergy, which owns and operates the plants, was negotiated this week.
The reactors have been operating under extensions of their existing NRC licenses as the State of New York refused to issue a water quality permit for the units. They use water from the Hudson River in a once through cooling cycle.
Green groups tried to impose requirements on Energy to spend billions on construction of cooling towers saying the once through system killed fish. Riverkeeper, a green group with members who’s deep pockets provided campaign donations to Cumo’s re-election efforts, led the fight against continued operation of the power station.
The reactors provide about a quarter of the electricity used in the New York metropolitan region. The closure agreement is vague about where replacement power will come from. To that end, it provides for a five year extension of the reactor closure deadline.
Natural Gas Firms Alleged to Have Influenced Cuomo Aides
Michael Shellenberger, the Director of Environmental Progress, said in a statement in response to the report of the closing of Indian Point that his organization has learned that two top former aides to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo worked with a major Cuomo campaign contributor — the natural gas company Competitive Power Ventures — to close the Indian Point nuclear reactors.
The New York Times reported in September 2016 that Joseph Percoco, who had served as Governor Cuomo’s executive deputy secretary, is accused of soliciting and taking more than $315,000 in bribes from 2012 to 2016 from two companies: Competitive Power Ventures, an energy company that was seeking state approval to build a power plant in the Hudson Valley, and COR Development, a major developer in the Syracuse area that ended up with several large state-funded economic development projects.
The indictment suggests that the gas company and the Cuomo administration both recognized that if Indian Point were taken off line, it would be replaced by natural gas, not imported hydro and wind, as an anonymous source told the New York Times.
The bribery charges are laid out in a federal criminal indictment filed by Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, on September 22, 2016.
“Based on my review of publicly available documents and my interviews of witnesses,” wrote the US attorney, “including employees of [Competitive Power Ventures], the importance of the [CPV Valley Energy Center] to the State depended at least in part, on whether [Indian Point] was going to be shut down.”
CPV Valley Energy Center is a 650-megawatt, natural-gas power plant in Wawayanda, New York. It was seeking a $100 million, 15 year power purchase agreement.
The Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) donated $75,000 to Cuomo in 2009, and made bribes to Cuomo’s top aide Todd Howe, according to U.S. Attorney in New York, starting in 2010. CPV executives are under federal prosecution.
The Times Herald Record reported in November 2016 that Peter Galbraith Kelly Jr., a former executive of Braintree, Mass.-based Competitive Power Ventures, is charged with providing $287,000 in bribes. According to the complaint, the energy company hired Percoco’s wife to a $90,000-per-year low-show job in exchange for his assistance in furthering its Orange County project.
According to the indictment, Percoco was able to help CPV with a deal involving one of its New Jersey power plants but wasn’t able to secure the lucrative power-purchasing agreement sought for the Wawayanda plant in New York.
Under a power-purchase agreement, the State of New York would have agreed to buy virtually all of the power generated by the plant for up to 15 years. Based on CPV projections cited in the complaint, the agreement would have been worth about $100 million and would have made it far easier for CPV to obtain financing.
The Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) donated $75,000 to Cuomo in 2009, and starting in 2010, made bribes to Cuomo’s top aide, according to the U.S. Attorney in New York.
“As early as 2010, [former Gov. Andrew Cuomo aide Todd R.] Howe began to seek [Cuomo aide Joseph] Percoco’s assistance in influencing the Former State Operations Director with respect to the Power Plant, most specifically by asking Percoco to advise the Former State Operations Director that the Power Plant was supported by labor unions and to advocate for the closing of [Indian Point].”
In December 2016 both aides to governor Cuomo, and seven others also named in the indictments, pleaded not guilty to the charges which centered in failed economic development plans for a computer chip plant in near Utica, NY.
Prosecutors did not accuse Governor Cuomo of wrongdoing. When the investigation surfaced in May 2016, Cuomo made a point of putting distance between himself and Howe.
This is the third case Environmental Progress has discovered fossil energy interests behind efforts to close nuclear plants. The first was in California and the second was in Illinois.
Shellenberger also said in his statement that in 2010, Cuomo is reported to have accepted $140,000 in donations from energy companies — likely a fraction of what he received from associated law firms and engineering firms with an interest in his energy decisions.
Prior Coverage on this Blog
In November 2010 Gwyneth Cravens and I published an OP ED in the New York Daily News making case for keeping Indian Point going. Our position remains unchanged. Closing the reactors is bad for New York and bad for dealing with climate change.
# # #Fans are exceedingly hopeful that a Power Rangers sequel will happen someday, and the film's Red Ranger recently gave them some encouraging words.
The Red Ranger was played by Dacre Montgomery, who has been making news recently for his phenomenal turn as Billy in Stranger Things. He was recently asked about the possibility of a Power Rangers sequel, and he doesn't seem to think it is such a far-fetched idea.
“I think that cast, we’re like family — we have a little group chat — we all would love to do a sequel,” Montgomery told The Wrap. “I know we’d all be there in a heartbeat and if something does come through the woodwork, which I’m not suggesting it wouldn’t — I actually don’t think it’s out of sight, but if it does, we’d be very excited to do a sequel.”
The entire cast of Power Rangers has shared their enthusiasm for doing a sequel at some point or another, though all are keeping busy with a variety of other projects. Mongomery's words are by no means any official comment one way or another, but they do seem more hopeful than not.
Taking a look at our Power Rangers page reveals similar hope that a sequel eventually happens. While the film certainly has its share of detractors, there are many who really enjoyed the film, and want to see what Lionsgate and Saban could do with that Tommy Oliver tease at the end of the original.
The critical reception was also quite positive, though the biggest hit the original took was in the box office department. It underperformed internationally, only drawing over $56 million from overseas. Coupled with its just over $85 million domestically, the film only brought in just over $142 million worldwide. When you factor in marketing costs and the $100 million dollar budget, it's understandable why Lionsgate and Saban would take their time with a plan for the sequel.
Power Rangers currently has a 73.88 on ComicBook.com's composite ranking, which you can vote on here.
Power Rangers is currently available on digital platforms, Blu-ray, and DVD.
Make sure to follow @MattMuellerCB for all of your Power Rangers coverage!A Shift in Operations
She stood for a moment and bathed in the orange glow from the rising sun. From the plate glass windows surrounding her office on the 45th floor, she watched the city begin to stir. Drones whizzed by. People in the streets below moved like ants around a hill. The morning news feed kicked on over the radio. She fired up a cup of coffee and leaned against her desk, head swimming and groggy from a restless night. She pressed her fingers against her temples and closed her eyes.
Yesterday’s attack had not left her mind. Around 4PM, a hacker had broken into her Cerebral Imaging subsidiary and made off with a Beta Test file from halfway across the world. Security Chief Ryon Knight had reported the incident straight away, but had little information to offer. The terrorist was in and out without a trace, IP location immediately scrambled. Her life and soul were in this company and theft was not something she took lightly.
Beeeeep!
“Director Haas,” her secretary said through the intercom. “You’re guests have arrived. They are waiting for you in the lobby.”
The Director took a moment to savor the aroma of coffee in the air. She inhaled deeply and pressed a button on the monitor behind her. “Thank you Katie. Send them up, please.”
Haas hoped that these consultants would have some solutions. Immediately after yesterday’s theft was flagged, she and Knight had gathered a group of her top level specialists to discuss security options for CI going forward. The impromptu council had identified a number of shortcomings in their cyber-protection suite. Some had suggested adjusting the ice distribution over their central servers. Others proposed an increase in defensive security upgrades. All well and good. Not exactly the most inspired ideas, though, and experienced hackers could navigate around them with little difficulty.
She gave some consideration to the PriSec units that had begun to surface internationally. The ’23-Seconds’ incident and the ensuing chaos had given them the chance to capitalize on an unstable political climate. Now, they dotted the globe like fleas. She liked the idea.
Most promising were the dozens of Mumbad consulting firms that had gone public since the region emerged as a commercial and economic bastion. These were highly skilled teams of professionals that could bridge gaps, secure valuable contracts and solve security problems. Their influence of late throughout the world’s corporate structure was almost ubiquitous. It was to the most prominent of these that Haas and her team decided to reach out.
A soft rapping on the door brought the Director back to the present. “Enter,” she called out, taking her cup of coffee from the machine. She watched Ryon Knight hold the door open to usher in three consultants, as well as one of his own blue-level security specialists. He smiled and raised his biotic right hand to greet her.
“Good morning, Director,” Knight said closing the door behind them. Ever casual, he already had his white sleeves rolled up and his black tie slightly amiss. For years, the handsome blonde man had been the Haas’ most trusted adviser and friend, reinforced especially by situations like these. “I hope you slept well. Our guests here tell me we have a lot to talk about and more to do. This is Ahmad Malhotra, James Chance, and Mahira Kassem.”
They arrived earlier that morning at Hannover and were quickly escorted to Cerebral Imaging by Knight and a full green level security detail. Their alacrity was not lost on Director Haas, who valued speed and efficiency more greatly that anything. Within twelve hours of the previous day’s security breach, they were standing in her office ready to work.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” replied Director Haas, shaking each of their hands in turn. “I hope your flight went smoothly. Our accountants will see that you are compensated for you travel and expenses.”
“The pleasure is ours,” Malhotra spoke for the three. A petite man with skin like auburn sand and a thick black beard, he was exquisitely dressed. He wore a pressed blazer accented by a blue cummerbund and kerchief. The golden turban that smothered most of his head was decorated with a large ruby and his fingers were covered in gold rings. “It’s an honor to finally have the opportunity to work with your company.”
“Likewise,” the Director responded, cordially. “I regret that it couldn’t be under better circumstances.”
“No need for apologies, Director. “Corporations tend to reserve our services until things have gone awry.”
“Very well, then. Please, have a seat.” Haas motioned toward the chairs encircling her desk. “Can I get you anything to drink?”
“Thank you, no,” Malhotra said politely, taking a seat between Chance and Kassem. On his lap he opened a large briefcase and began unpacking a number of odd looking Pads and a PortCom. “Mr. Knight has explained to us that you are having some security issues here at Cerebral Imaging.”
“Regretfully, we have no security to really speak of,” Director Haas replied. “While the world’s most aggressive and experienced hackers are siphoning our accounts and disrupting our internal operations, we have less than nothing with which to defend or retaliate.” She paused to fire up the two terminals behind her desk. She waited for the computers to sync up with the consultants’ devices and took a sip of her coffee. “An accelerated server protection program was stolen without so much as a trace last night. These so-called ‘runners’ never jack in from the same digital location twice, encrypt their IPs and go completely invisible once they jack out.”
As the Director concluded her rundown, Mahira Kassem pulled a Pad from her satchel and turned to address Ryon Knight, who was leaning nonchalantly against a window. “Mr. Knight,” she began, “what specific defense protocols and server upgrades are currently being employed by Cerebral Imaging?”
“Unfortunately, there isn’t much to speak of,” Knight replied. “We’ve been running the same Cyberdex Suite for years. It’s effective for what it does, but it’s outdated and doesn’t solve the bigger problem. Additionally, our funds are funneled through the Crisium Grid. It protects our finances from the most parasitic runners, but the theft of classified projects goes unimpeded.”
Mahira noted everything feverishly into her Pad as Knight ran down the corporations paltry security measures. Director Haas studied her and chewed anxiously on the end or her pen. Kassem looked very much |
. I would go as far as to say that most of it is forgotten by the time your audience return to their desk or car. The memorable ones however are remembered because they are the same words brought to life giving the message and presentation real impact.
Your audience want:
Passion
Belief
Conviction
Examples
Stories/anecdotes
Vulnerability
Vocal variety
Movement
Humour
Authenticity
Honesty
5. What now?
Crafting and delivering a clear and powerful message which has captured the curiosity and interest of your audience whilst being totally relevant and even brought to life is still not enough.
What they need from you now is absolute clarity on what you want them to do next. They like, accept and buy into your message, you’ve engaged and connected with them and everything has gone extremely well from your perspective and theirs.
What do you want them to do now?
When they leave that room what do you want them to think, feel and most importantly do? You’ve just spent the last 20 minutes taking them on a journey of thoughts and feelings whilst delivering the facts, so what do you expect from them when it’s over? If you don’t know then they won’t either and if you do know but you don’t tell them you could argue that you simply wasted your time and theirs because if they do nothing what was the point.
Presenting doesn’t have to be daunting or complex for either us as presenters or our audience. If we keep in mind that they only really want 5 things from us:
Let them know that they are in the right room and will be glad they came as soon as they sit down.
Make sure that everything you say, show and do is personal and relevant to them.
Deliver a message which is clear and compelling making sure that its relevant and personal too.
Don’t just tell them what you have to say. Bring your words and message to life.
Don’t assume they know what you want them to do when they leave the room, make it crystal clear.
I really hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, please feel free to share it through your preferred social media channels below and subscribe to our mailing list so you won’t miss any future posts.
If this article has inspired you to learn a little more about how effective your presentation skills are you may want to take a look at our presentation training and presentation coaching pages to see how we may be able to help you. You will also find a great deal of really helpful ‘free’ information in our Learning Centre.
Image courtesy of: https://unsplash.com/@jasonrosewellConsider, for example, the official GOP response to President Obama's 2015 State of the Union address delivered by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA). Ernst didn't just promise that Republicans would "balance the budget." She also proclaimed:
Let's simplify America's outdated and loophole-ridden tax code. Republicans think tax filing should be easier for you, not just the well-connected. So let's iron out loopholes to lower rates—and create jobs, not pay for more government spending.
And which of those loopholes will Ernst and her Republican colleagues "iron out?" They didn't say, and they never say. That's because the math is hard and the politics even worse.
To see why, start with the numbers. In its most recent assessment for fiscal year 2015, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated federal tax revenue at $3.189 trillion dollars. Discretionary spending—the budget for mandatory outlays on programs like Social Security, Medicare, interest on the debt, etc.—is about $1.1 trillion. Total spending is forecast at $3.656 trillion, yielding a projected deficit of $468 billion. But total tax expenditures, meaning all of the revenue lost to tax breaks, credits and loopholes, is estimated by CBO to reach $1.5 trillion in FY 2015. You read that right. Ernst's mystery "loopholes" add up to more than triple the entire annual budget deficit this year.
Which means if you lower tax rates to just two brackets of 10 and 25 percent, as Paul Ryan first proposed in 2010, you're not only going to produce a huge windfall for the wealthy. You're also going to hemorrhage red ink as far as the eye can see. Unless, that is, you close dozens of tax breaks that cost Uncle Sam hundreds of billions of dollars each year. But identifying even one tax break to limit or end is exactly what Chairman Ryan has refused to do for five years.
Since 2010, Ryan has offered some variant of his "Path to Prosperity" budget providing almost $5 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years with just two rates of 10 and 25 percent, slashing corporate taxes, repealing Obamacare, and gutting social spending. (Starting in 2011, 95 percent of congressional Republicans voted for the Ryan budget three years running.) While almost 70 percent of Ryan's spending cuts come from programs impacting poor and moderate income voters, already starved non-defense discretionary spending as a percentage of the U.S. economy would plummet to its lowest level since 1950. Meanwhile, according to CBPP, over its first decade Ryan's $5.7 trillion in tax cuts would deliver 55 percent of their benefits to the richest 1 percent of Americans. A family earning $1 million a year would pocket $330,000 a year while seeing its effective tax rate plummet to 15.4 percent. Yet even while—and precisely because—it pads the bank accounts of the gilded class, the Ryan budget inevitably drains trillions from the U.S. Treasury. So much for balancing the budget in 10 years.
Get rid of the special interest loopholes, special deductions, lower everybody's tax rates, bring in at least as much revenue to the government but grow the economy and create jobs, and get spending under control so we can pay off this debt.
Thirteen pages dedicated to explaining his vision for revenue-neutral tax reform. And even so he manages to not name a single tax deduction that he's planning to eliminate. Home mortgage interest deduction? I dunno. Electric vehicle tax credit? I dunno. Deductibility of state and local income taxes? I dunno.
We're talking about a lot of loophole-closing. As Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center points out, to make his numbers work Mr. Ryan would, by 2022, have to close enough loopholes to yield an extra $700 billion in revenue every year. That's a lot of money, even in an economy as big as ours. So which specific loopholes has Mr. Ryan, who issued a 98-page manifesto on behalf of his budget, said he would close? None. Not one. He has, however, categorically ruled out any move to close the major loophole that benefits the rich, namely the ultra-low tax rates on income from capital. (That's the loophole that lets Mitt Romney pay only 14 percent of his income in taxes, a lower tax rate than that faced by many middle-class families.)
We want to do this in the light of day and in front of everybody. So the Ways and Means Committee, which is in charge of the tax system, sent us the plan here, which is a 10 and 25 percent bracket for individuals and small businesses, and then they want to have hearings and, in light of day, show how they would go about doing this.
"That's what the Ways & Means Committee is supposed to do. That's not the job of the Budget Committee," Ryan said on Fox News Sunday. "What we're saying is, we want to do this in the light of day, not in some backroom deal. We want to have hearings in the Ways & Means Committee that Chairman Dave Camp has already started that work, to say what tax benefits should go."
You can only stall so long on the details of tax reform. On February 26 the clock ran out. House Ways and Means Committee Chair Dave Camp, R-Mich., provided 194 pages of details, and now tax reform gold has turned to dust. The political damage will mainly be to Republicans who made tax reform part of their brand. Where do we go from here? "I think we will not be able to finish the job, regretfully. I don't see how we can," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. And when asked if he would allow a vote on the Camp draft, House Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, could only respond with what may be the quote of the year: "Blah, blah, blah."
He's a leading voice for Republicans on fiscal policy but Rep. Paul Ryan is noticeably restrained when it comes to his party's new blockbuster tax plan. While applauding Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp's "courage" for releasing a comprehensive tax overhaul on Wednesday, Ryan (R-Wis.) ducked questions on the proposal's substance. He simply said he's excited to start a conversation about rewriting the tax code. "This is the beginning of a good debate," Ryan said in an interview.
Rep. Paul Ryan recently gave up a race for the presidency to devote all his energy to his long-time true passion - tax reform.
Faced with oceans of red ink as large as $6 trillion in the various incarnations of his budget, Paul Ryan offered a magic formula for plugging the mammoth hole. He explained it to MSNBC's Morning Joe in March 2012 But that answer only raises another question: Which of these "special interest loopholes" and "special deductions" would the Republicans' favorite wonk get rid of? Will Ryan call for limiting or ending the $99 billion-per-year home mortgage interest deduction? The $58-billion Earned Income Tax Credit Ronald Reagan called "the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress?" The $52 billion lost annually to the deduction for charitable giving? Almost three years in, it's a question Paul Ryan and his GOP colleagues still refuse to answer.The identities of those mystery tax breaks have always been the problem with Ryan's bragging that his plan will "prevent an explosion of debt from crippling our nation and robbing our children of their future." Matthew Yglesias rightly mocked the 2012 version of Ryan's tax reform blueprint for cowardly avoiding those politically tough choices:If Ryan knew, he wasn't saying. As the Washington Post documented in 2011, the trillion-plus dollars in annual tax expenditures isn't just larger than Uncle Sam's total take from the income tax each year, but the "ever-increasing tax breaks for U.S. families eclipse benefits for special interests."That's right. Much of the estimated $1.3 trillion in annual tax expenditures in 2015 (a figure almost triple the size of the entire 2014 budget deficit and equivalent to about a third of annual federal spending) benefit working and middle-income Americans. For example, the home mortgage tax deduction was worth $89 billion in 2011. Tax-deferred 401K accounts cost the Treasury $63 billion. The Earned Income Tax Credit had a similar $63-billion price tag that same year.So what deductions and loopholes are actually in the mystery meat that is Ryan's budgetary dog food? As Paul Krugman explained in Pink Slime Economics back in the spring of 2012:But the kind of cowardice Krugman, Yglesias, and others highlighted didn't just manifest itself in Ryan's silence. Making those tough calls on tax breaks, the GOP's vice-presidential nominee insisted, wasn't his job. But when host Joe Scarborough asked "Which one of those [loopholes] do you eliminate?" Ryan chickened out Appearing on Face the Nation just days later, Ryan again claimed that "We're proposing to keep revenues where they are, but to clear up all the special interest loopholes, which are uniquely enjoyed by higher income earners, in exchange for lower rates for everyone." But he once again pleaded the Fifth when asked which "special interest loopholes" he would do away with:But much to the dismay of then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, Dave Camp (R-MI) finished his work a year ago. When the going got tough, the current Ways and Means Committee chief made the tough calls on loopholes he'd limit, deductions he would cap, and tax breaks he would end. (Some of them, like further limiting the mortgage interest tax deduction and ending the deduction for state and local taxes, would have disproportionately impacted blue state residents.) But when Camp delivered it in February 2014, it was dead on arrival. And it was the Republicans who killed it. As Forbes reported last year:After years of promising Americans that the Ways and Means Committee would answer the $6 trillion tax break question, Ryan turned his back on Chairman Camp As Politico noted, "Other Republicans haven't shied away from expressing concerns about introducing legislation during an election year that puts in plain view the difficult choices that must be made to overhaul the code." It's no wonder Dave Camp had enough of Congress. And now that Rep. Ryan has picked up Camp's gavel, it's no surprise he's silent on that $6 trillion question. Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal gushed last week:If tax reform is one of Ryan's passions, repealing the Affordable Care Act is surely another. As he put it in his January 6 USA Today op-ed, "You can't fix a fundamentally broken law; you've got to replace it." But for five years, neither Ryan nor his Republican Party have answered the question, "Replace it with what?"
Since Obamacare passed in 2010, various Republicans have kicked around a variety of ideas. Most have boiled down to the same formula: Repeal all of the ACA's patient protections and insurance coverage the CBO estimates will extend to 25 million Americans within a decade, while pocketing the trillion dollars in Medicare savings and new revenue provided by the fully funded Obamacare program over its first decade. Then, resurrecting the same outline Bill Kristol debuted over two decades ago, give people tax credits for buying insurance, offer high-risk pools, let them shop across stateliness, end the tax preference for employer coverage and implement strict malpractice reform.
In one form or another, President Bush, 2008 GOP nominee John McCain, 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and the 2014 Republican midterm playbook dusted off the same tired plan. And while conservatives like Avik Roy and Yuval Levin among others have offered their own alternatives, all the right-wing recipes suffer the same fatal flaw. None of them come close to covering as many people as Obamacare.
But when Ted Cruz stands on stage as he did in Iowa last week and declares, "Repeal every word of Obamacare," he and his Republican allies have another problem. By June, the Supreme Court in King v. Burwell could strike down the ACA's insurance subsidies in the 34 states that opted to let the federal government run their exchanges. If the Roberts Court does as GOP leaders want, millions of Americans—most them in GOP-controlled states—will lose their coverage. And the GOP will have come to up with the "replace" part of "repeal and replace"—and fast.
Yet after five years of virtually every Republican chanting "repeal and replace" in unison, Senate Majority Leader McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner have nothing for their caucuses to vote for (and for President Obama to veto). That's why Speaker Boehner and his second-in-command Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took such great pains on Thursday to announce a GOP healthcare plan was on the way. As Boehner explained, his caucus isn't just going to vote to repeal Obamacare—they are finally starting to think about how to replace it:
"We have 47 new members of Congress on the Republican side who have never had the chance to cast their vote to repeal ObamaCare." But House Republicans are also working on alternatives. Boehner added, "Three committee chairmen who have jurisdiction over the health care policy in our country... are working together to craft what we believe would be a better approach with regard to health care for the American people than ObamaCare.... There will be an alternative, and you'll get to see it."
Health care decisions should be made by patients and their doctors, not by Washington, D.C. We need solutions that reduce costs, give every American more control over their health care decisions, and provide access to world-class care with 21st Century cures and treatments.
It's an opportunity that we've failed at for two decades. We've not been particularly close to being on the same page on this subject for two decades," said a congressional Republican health policy aide who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. "So this idea -- we're ready to go? Actually no, we're not." Republican leaders recognize the dilemma. In King v. Burwell, they roundly claim the court ought to invalidate insurance subsidies in some three-dozen states, and that Congress must be ready with a response once they do. But conversations with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers and aides indicate that the party is nowhere close to a solution. Outside health policy experts consulted by the Republicans are also at odds on how the party should respond.
"Given HHS's responsibilities, we believe it is prudent that the Department plan for the full range of potential outcomes and consequences of the Court's decision," leaders of the committee wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell. The lawmakers are seeking any and all information related to the administration's preparation—starting with "all scenarios considered or evaluated."
End Obamacare, and people could die. That's okay.
So far, all the House can offer is talking points, sound bites which, as ever. ignore the role of insurance companies in the American healthcare system. (Unveiling his Medicare voucher scheme in February 2010, Paul Ryan declared, "Rationing happens today! The question is who will do it? The government? Or you, your doctor and your family?") As McCarthy explained, the House bill that will repeal Obamacare will also provide this guidance to the committee chairmen:Writing at TPM, Sahil Kapur documented how the Republicans have put themselves in a box of their own making. Even if the Supreme Court rules in their favor in, the GOP is a loss about what to do next:To grasp the extent of the GOP panic over the fallout from a Republican SCOTUS victory, look no further than House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI). In a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Upton asked the Obama administration to do the Republicans' homework for them. As The Hill reported:Five years after Mitch McConnell promised voters a replacement for an Obamacare program that's exceeded expectations while coming in under budget, Republicans still haven't come up with one. Well, that's not exactly true. As Michael R. Strain of the American Enterprise Institute put it last week:Okay, he could have added, just as long as they don't get a tax break for it.Myer has acquired two of its most popular brands, Marcs and David Lawrence, which collapsed in February. Credit:Tamara Dean Mr Matthews said the key issue for retailers was that in many cases sales were not keeping up with cost increases. "The problem is you have stagnating sales because of the increasing competition in the market from all the new entrants and the fact there's not a lot of investment in differentiation and brand innovation," Mr Matthews said. "A lot of people have been hanging on with very marginal earnings and effectively on the brink of collapse for some time." No buyer
Controlled by retail veteran Malcolm Webster, who co-founded UK fashion chain Jigsaw, Marcs and David Lawrence have been informally "up for sale" for the last year but this process did not result in any deal. Nine David Lawrence stores will close in the next week. One potential buyer, who would only talk on the basis of anonymity said talks didn't progress because the seller was only interested in a deal for both brands. "But unlike Pumpkin Patch and Payless (Shoes), which were disasters and you knew as soon as they went into administration that no one would buy them... I suspect this will survive in some way, shape or form," he said. Former David Jones chief executive Paul Zahra says local retailers need to adapt to global competition. Credit:Janie Barrett
Insolvency specialist firm Rodgers Reidy has instigated a review of the business, which is likely to lead to job losses even if the administrator can sew up a sale deal. Director Geoffrey Reidy said an outright sale was only one potential outcome from the administration. We've heard a lot about tier-three brands getting into trouble but now it's moved into better known national brands Retail analyst Steve Kulmar "The alternative is for a sale and restructure of the company... and the third outcome is that we can't find a buyer and the company goes into liquidation," Mr Reidy said. "We believe there is real potential to deal with the cost side of things, in terms of the company operation and to enable a consolidation or rationalised business, be it Marcs and, or David Lawrence to be offered to a potential buyer."
Mr Reidy said one of the priorities was to "get in front" of Myer and David Jones to discuss the two brands' concession stores. Rot spreads Retail analyst Steve Kulmar said the rot that beset tier-three brands like Payless Shoes and Pumpkin Patch late last year had spread to well-known national fashion chains. "We're now talking about the tier-two brands, we've heard a lot about tier-three brands getting into trouble but now it's moved into better known national brands," Mr Kulmar said. "There are a number of those tier-two Aussie brands that are going to struggle in the next year or two because they have not kept up with the changing needs of the consumer, they're are now trying to compete on price but they don't have a low cost of doing business so it's an unproductive model."
Former David Jones boss Paul Zahra said the growth of online retail along with the rise of international players such as Zara would drive "ongoing consolidation in the fashion industry and retail more broadly." Mr Zahra, who is now global retail adviser for PwC said Australia used to be "the last horizon for international players" but this was no longer the case. "To be successful retailers need three things, they must be omni-channel, a global entity, and they need a unique point of difference," Mr Zahra said. "Australian retailers that don't tick these boxes are leaving themselves wide open to disruption." Mr Webster's Sydney-based company M Webster Holdings bought David Lawrence from Truworth Ltd South Africa Group in 2000 and four years later took the womenswear brand to New Zealand.
In 2006, Webster Holdings bought womenswear and menswear label Marcs from upmarket fashion retailer Oroton. The Webster Holdings website says the company was working to expand the number of David Lawrence standalone stores and department store concessions, as well expand into "other territories". Do you know more? catie.low@fairfaxmedia.com.auWell, here’s a surprise: at WWDC 2017, Apple officially acknowledged support for external graphics enclosures (also known as eGPUs), devices that allow you to attach a dedicated graphics card to your computer, usually through a Thunderbolt 3 port.
Even more surprising, Apple is selling an external graphics enclosure in the form of a developer kit with an AMD Radeon 580 (we’ll post a link here once available). The kit is uses a Sonnet External GPU enclosure with a 350-watt power supply, and comes with an AMD Radeon RX 580, USB C hub, and $100 Vive discount for $599, which seems like a reasonable price. You should be able to install your own graphics card into the kit as well – though I imagine Apple has optimized performance for the 580.
To be clear, you’ve been able to add existing external graphics enclosures like the Razer Core to the Mac for some time, though it might have required a bit of elbow grease. An official acknowledgement from Apple, however, is a big change of pace. Maybe that’s why Nvidia decided to finally create Pascal drivers for the Mac.
Though Apple posited the announcement as a way for developers to create apps and games running Metal 2, Apple’s newest graphics software standard, it’s clear the company is taking external graphics seriously for consumers now; the company specifically mentioning using external GPUs for powering virtual reality experiences on macOS High Sierra.
And it makes total sense – it’s an easy way for Apple to add graphics horsepower without bulking up its laptops. It’s a welcome move that gives me some hope the company does care a little bit about gamers after all.
If you want to order a dev kit of your own, you can head over to Apple’s developer page.
Follow all our WWDC 2017 coverage here.
Read next: WatchOS 4 lands with improved activity tracker, music, and moreThere’s an intriguing subreddit called /r/trashyboners. (Today you should assume that every link is NSFW.) The tagline is “Maybe a true hot mess?” and the featured content is basically what you’d expect it to be: photos and videos of attractive women who are considered trashy. Think of the stereotypes evoked by the terms “trailer trash” and “white trash” (although women of color do show up occasionally) with a splash of “party girl.”
The sub is classist by default — “trashy” connotes undignified poverty — and often exploitative. You see girls who are passed-out drunk or out of their minds on drugs. You might see a police officer displaying a woman’s genitals under unclear circumstances. (The only reportage on that incident comes from the untrustworthy Daily Mail.) Power imbalances abound.
Interestingly, some readers will defend the women they ogle. In early May there was a topic titled “nasty whores drinking beer off each other.” The commenters complained about this derogatory phrasing. One person wrote, “We know nothing of their background, can’t we just enjoy without the shit talk?”
Not long ago I posted an Instagram snapshot of Bella Hadid and the readers downvoted me for saying that her outfit was trashy. They disapproved because I was perceived as puritanical. Overall, more comments than you might expect are about whether the woman in a given photo actually is trashy. (Here’s an example from a recent post.) It’s an inherently subjective judgment, of course.
By contrast, here’s another thread where the woman in the photo faces constant derision, this time with no protest from the readers. I’m not sure what determines which reaction will dominate. It may be that young, conventionally attractive women are more likely to be championed, but I’m not positive about that being a meaningful trend. There is also a “walking the fine line” element that’s very difficult to articulate. When is skimpy clothing just skimpy, and when is it trashy? It’s the kind of nuance that you can only intuit, not teach.
Either way, /r/trashyboners is a good companion to the Slate Star Codex essay about how class is just as cultural as it is financial. Consider:
[S]uppose a lady comes in with really over-permed dyed curly hair wearing several rings, bracelets, and necklaces. Her name is Sherri and she calls you “darling”; she’s also carrying her lunch, which is KFC plus a Big Gulp. Without knowing anything else about her, you can peg her as working class. Maybe she won the lottery ten years ago and is now the richest person in your state. It doesn’t matter. She’s still working class. Or suppose a thin 25-year-old man comes in wearing glasses, a small close-cropped beard, and a Led Zeppelin t-shirt. His name is Alex and he apologizes for being three minutes late. This guy is probably middle-to-upper-middle-class and college educated, maybe not a great college but still college-educated. And maybe he’s fallen on hard times and doesn’t have a dollar to his name. It still doesn’t matter. He’s still middle-to-upper-middle class.
/r/trashyboners is dedicated to both shaming and celebrating the slutty versions of Sherri.
I’m some flavor of feminist, so you might expect me to be opposed to this subreddit. I have mixed feelings about it. The content is aesthetically fascinating — it’s an inversion of crazy girl chic. And I find the community puzzling, as you may have gathered. I’m not above participating. My opinion isn’t settled yet, I suppose. What do you think?
Header photo by MarkScottAustinTX.This Christian argument looks at innate desires and sees the shadow of God. We feel hunger, so therefore there must be food. We thirst and therefore there’s water; we yearn for companionship and therefore there are companions; we yearn for god … and therefore there is a god.
C. S. Lewis said,
Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. … If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.
Lewis was popularizing a concept that theologians have expressed for centuries. John Calvin referred to the sensus divinitatis, a sense, not of the environment like sight or smell, but of God. Blaise Pascal proposed a “God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man.”
This apologetic is easy to understand and has an intuitive appeal, but it fails under closer inspection.
1. Why do we fear death? If our inclinations are a reliable instinctual pointer to the supernatural, then why the fear of death? If we instinctively know that there is a god and an eternal place for our soul to live after life on earth, humans should differ from other animals in having an ambivalence about death or even a longing for it. We don’t.
2. The puddle problem. Lewis imagined that hunger points to the existence of food, but it’s the other way around. Consider Douglas Adams’ puddle, which marveled at how well-crafted its hole was: “Fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well; must have been made to have me in it!”
Lewis’s error is the same as the puddle’s backwards thinking. We don’t notice hunger and then conclude that food must exist; rather, creatures need food to survive, and evolution selects those that have a hunger to successfully get it.
3. Desire for God isn’t an innate desire. If the desires for food, water, sex and other basics are never fulfilled, the human race dies out. The “hunger” for the supernatural has nothing to do with survival. Lewis doesn’t show that this very different desire for God logically fits in with the rest.
4. This is just a deist argument. If you find this argument compelling, this should point you to deism. Like many other arguments, this one only claims that there is some anonymous clock maker behind the universe. There is nothing here to argue for the Christian god over any other god or supernatural pantheon. (More here.)
If you argue that this god desire actually does point you to the Christian god, you must explain the myriad different ways God belief plays out in practice. (More here and here.)
5. Consider what else comes along with the argument. C. S. Lewis said, “It would be very odd if the phenomenon called ‘falling in love’ occurred in a sexless world.”
And would it also be odd if the phenomenon “belief in magic” occurred in a magic-less world? It’s not odd at all, because that’s the world we’re living in. Belief in magic is still widespread and was even more so a few centuries ago. We in the West shouldn’t be too smug that we’ve largely turned our backs on magic, because our thinking is still influenced by superstitions and evidence-less beliefs in coincidences, fate, and homeopathy.
We don’t need to puzzle over falling in love, because we know that love and sex exist in our world. But, despite Lewis’s efforts, the God belief looks like just another human belief poorly grounded in evidence.
6. The Ontological Argument again? You can imagine perfect justice, world peace, or a loving god, but that doesn’t make them reality. As with the Ontological Argument, thinking of it doesn’t make it so.
7. What is “innate”? Proponents of this argument list fundamental innate physical needs and drives like food, drink, sex, safety, and sleep. They may also throw in higher-level desires for beauty, justice, knowledge, friendship, love, and companionship.
The skeptic can retort with demands for Aladdin’s lamp, Shangri-La, or superpowers. Because they’d be great to have, does that mean that they exist? To avoid this, the apologist distinguishes between innate desires (the first sort—things that actually exist) and contrived desires (the second).
Let’s work with that distinction. In several ways, God desire does not appear to be innate.
7a. The category of innate desires is those things for which there is a clear target of the desire. No one doubts that food and drink exist, but there’s plenty of doubt about superpowers. (Guess which bin God desire fits into.)
7b. Everyone must satisfy the needs of hunger and thirst. Not everyone finds satisfaction for a God desire, and not everyone even has such a desire. The apologist may respond that that might also apply to the higher-level desires such as beauty and justice, but this only makes the innate category seem more arbitrary.
7c. Another way of seeing the innate/contrived distinction is that the innate desires are those we share with other social animals. Since no animal desires God, why call that desire innate?
8. Don’t let your desires run away with you. We must be skeptical of fluffy arguments guided by desires.
Even C. S. Lewis himself argues against trusting too much in desire and Joy because the sane, rational person must be very suspicious of where moods and emotions might lead: “Unless you teach your moods where they get off, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.” The C. S. Lewis of this passage would insist that we regard our inner states, including desires and Joy, with suspicion if not discount them entirely. (Source: About.com)
Searching for the best spin on this argument
If the list of innate desires were 10,000 long, the apologists’ argument would have some weight. They’d say, “Every single item on this enormous list is a desire for which we know that a corresponding target exists! The only question left is our yearning for god. How likely is it that this one thing is a counterexample?”
But even with the cerebral desires (justice, love, etc.), the list of innate desires is maybe a dozen items long. At best, it’s a weak argument. And given the attacks above, the argument has no credibility.
God belief is a poor fit as an innate belief, but here’s a better comparison. Wishful thinking in religion is like wishful thinking in the health and beauty aisle, or in diets, or in end-of-life care. What’s the loss of a little money when you could look better, be thinner, or live longer? Hope springs eternal, in religion as in more mundane areas. It’d be great to look younger or more fit, and it’d be great to have an all-powerful Friend looking out for me. That doesn’t make it true.
As with claims for cosmetics and cure-alls, we must be skeptical.
In the factory we make cosmetics;
in the drugstore we sell hope.
— Charles Revson (founder of Revlon)
Photo credit: Chiara VitellozziLife was so hard in Puritan New England that children who were abducted by Native Americans often refused to come back. Eunice Williams, abducted in 1704 at age 7, refused to leave the Kahnawake Mohawks despite her father’s pleas — he found she had forgotten the English language and adopted Indian clothing and hairstyle. “She is obstinately resolved to live and dye here,” he wrote, “and will not so much as give me one pleasant look.” The Mohawks were much more indulgent to children than the colonists, and women were counted equal to men and played an integral role in society and politics. Eunice married a Mohawk and lived with him for half a century.
A returned captive named Titus King reported that many young captives responded similarly: “In Six months time they Forsake Father & mother, Forgit thir own Land, Refuess to Speak there own toungue & Seeminly be Holley Swallowed up with the Indians.” In 1753 Ben Franklin wrote:
When an Indian Child has been brought up among us, taught our language and habituated to our Customs, yet if he goes to see his relations and makes one Indian Ramble there is no perswading him ever to return. … When white persons of either sex have been taken prisoners young by the Indians, and lived awhile among them, tho’ ransomed by their Friends, and treated with all imaginable tenderness to prevail with them to stay among the English, yet in a Short time they become disgusted with our manner of Life, and the care and pains that are necessary to support it, and take the first good Opportunity of escaping again into the Woods, from whence there is no reclaiming them.
A 14-year-old named James McCullough, who lived with the Indians for eight years, had to be brought back in fetters, his legs tied under his horse’s belly and his arms tied behind his back. Even so he escaped and returned to his Indian family. Children “redeemed” by the English often “cried as if they should die when they were presented to us.” The Indians freed children of the work obligations they faced in the colonies — boys hunted, caught fish, and gathered nuts; and girls cultivated corn but had no master “to oversee or drive us, so that we could work as leisurely as we pleased.”
(From Steven Mintz, Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood, 2004.)“O Fame! Fame! Thou glittering bauble!” Captain Hook cried heartrendingly in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. We laugh; but as every sane person knows, Hook was on to something. The personal price exacted from the famous is punishing, and countless celebrities from Barrie’s day to our own have had misgivings like Hook’s.
One such, certainly, was the late playwright Wendy Wasserstein. Both her career and personal life (if these two can be disentangled in her case) consisted of an uneasy balancing act between her relentless striving for the spotlight and a simultaneous revulsion from its glare. Wasserstein was determined to control her own narrative, seldom an easy task for any public figure. As Julie Salamon observes in her penetrating new biography of the dramatist, Wendy and the Lost Boys, Wasserstein “became a celebrity by turning her life over to the public |
other pressure concepts such as the zone blitz, twists, and stunts are ignored here for simplicity).
I rewatched the game and tracked 72 Stanford offensive plays (I didn’t count things like spiking the ball or kneels as plays). First, I want you to formulate a guess on how many of those plays USC sent in a blitz. Really think about the game and your game plan observations. Have a number ready? Initially, my gut feeling was about 20% blitzes, so 14 or 15 plays with a blitz.
In fact, the real number that I tracked was 43 blitz plays, or 59.7% of defensive plays sending five or more defenders in for the rush. Surprisingly high, I thought. Let’s take a closer look.
Of the 72 Stanford offensive plays, I noted 31 passes and 41 runs (note that I counted QB scrambles, sacks, and screen plays as passing plays whereas most official stats often track these as runs for college). Let’s look at some passing numbers first.
Blitzing the Pass
On the 31 passing plays, 12 were blitzes (38.7%). Against the blitz, Stanford gained 10.0 yards per pass against the blitz and 9.8 yards per pass against a non-blitz. Completion percentage wise, we’re looking at a 66.7% completion rate against the blitz (77.8% if you count the pass that hit the tight end in the hands as a “should have been completed”) versus an 85.7% completion rate against a non-blitz. Lower completion rate against the blitz but slightly higher yards, signifying they are making more yards when completing passes against the blitz.
Now let’s look at pressure against the pass. USC got three sacks but only one sack came from a blitz (9% of blitzing plays against the pass) and two from a non-blitz (11.8% of non-blitzing plays). Sacks aren’t the only end goal of the pass rush though. 54.5% of blitz plays resulted in the QB being pressured versus 35.3% of non-blitz plays. You can see this reflected in the completion percentages. Interestingly enough, “big blitzes” (sending six or more rushers in) resulted in no plays with pressure and no sacks.
Blitzing the Run
Now let’s look at the run. Against 41 running plays, 31 of those plays were blitzes (75.6%). Tracking blitzes on the run is trickier since upon reading a “run”, defenders go into their run fits and start filling gaps. Who is filling a gap and who was blitzing? I keyed in on the first step and initial attack movements of the defender to count the blitzes. There will be some inconsistencies with this method, namely delayed blitzes and zone blitzes may be miscounted for one reason or another, but we’ll just go with best guesses.
Against the blitz, Stanford gained 4.2 yards per carry versus 4.1 against a non-blitz. Sending the pressure did not result in less yards by Stanford. My initial thoughts are that USC’s linebackers were not able to penetrate the bigger Stanford offensive front on the run, regardless if they had forward momentum of the blitz or not. More on this later though.
Successful Plays
A play is considered “successful” for the defense if they hold the offense under 50% of the yards-to-go on 1st down, 70% on 2nd down, and 100% on 3rd or 4th downs. I tracked whether a defensive play was successful or not in relation to the blitz.
Over the 72 plays, USC was successful in defending 33 of them (45.8%). When blitzing, USC was successful on 48.8% of defensive plays compared to 41.4% of non-blitzing plays. Not a huge difference between the two margins (about a 2 play difference). The interesting thing is how unsuccessful big blitzes were. Big blitzes only had a success rate of 15.8%.
So What Did Happen Against Stanford?
So USC blitzed on over half of their plays. Why were we so unsuccessful overall in stopping Stanford? My thoughts after re-watching the game are three-fold.
First, Stanford expected us to blitz. USC blitzed heavily in the week prior against Idaho and Stanford expected us to do the same against them. They utilized a number of techniques to combat the blitz, most notable being the QB rollout and screen passes. Additionally, Stanford would often times keep extra blockers (RBs and TEs) in for protection. On average, Stanford had 5.7 blockers in on each play, keeping at least the running back for protection on 66.7% of their plays. They kept two additional blockers in on 22.2% of their plays. On average, Stanford had 1.3 more pass blockers than we had pass rushers. On only 4 plays did USC have equal numbers of rushers to blockers. Additionally, the only time we had more rushers to blockers were screen plays, which is exactly what Stanford wanted. Against these screen plays, our rushers did not adjust properly towards the screen and we gave up big yards on key plays (10 yards on a 2nd and 15 as well as 19 yards on a 3rd and 7, both which lead to 2nd half Stanford scores). However, keeping extra blockers in means you have less passing options as you only have three or four guys out on routes. Which leads me to my second observation.
Stanford utilized size mismatches effectively. I noted at least two game-pivotal plays which size mismatches played a large role in our defensive breakdown on a blitzing play. The first on a 3rd and 9 on the USC 16 early in the 4th quarter. Here, Stanford expected our blitz (we sent in six) and kept the RB in for protection. They easily found the size mismatch they wanted with Safety Marvel Tell III (6′ 2″, 190 lbs) attempting to cover TE Austin Hooper (6′ 4″ 248 lbs). Hooper just used his body to easily box out Tell. In another notable play, USC sent in a big blitz of seven rushers, leaving one-on-one coverage. Stanford again predicted our blitz and negated this by calling a QB rollout, causing none of our rushers to pose any sort of threat to Hogan. Safety Chris Hawkins (5′ 11″, 190 lbs) attempted to cover Devon Cajuste (6′ 4″, 227 lbs) in the endzone. In this case, the wingspan and size advantage got us. By utilizing size mismatches, Stanford was able to mitigate some of the effects of having fewer receivers out on routes.
Finally, an observation defending the run. USC’s defense was often times in the correct position and gap responsibilities for the play, but would fall short on leverage and execution. What this means is that the USC defenders were getting to the right spots but losing their one-on-one battles consistently. We can quantify this by looking at yards after contact. Stanford gained an average of 4.1 yards per carry. Not great numbers, but it was four yards like clockwork. When you have that type of consistent four yards every rush, it leads to first downs and extended drives. It gets more interesting when you look at yards after contact. Stanford’s rusher made first contact with a defender at 1.6 yards on average. That means that after contact, Stanford would gain an additional 2.5 yards per carry. Much of this was simply the runner always falling forward. Often times, our defenders did not have the size, the leverage, or have their blockers beat enough to stop the runner in his tracks or drive him back and could essentially only trip the rusher. In my opinion, this was the greatest shortcoming of the defense.
Conclusions
Joe Paterno often said: “You’re never as good as you think you are when you win; and you’re never as bad as you feel when you lose.” I think those words ring true here. I’ve rewatched and analyzed a fair share of USC losses over the past few seasons. This one hurt a lot live but on film study it definitely wasn’t one of our worst. The issues I saw seemed fixable.
Furthermore, I think our defense is much more suited towards stopping speed rather than size. Most of the Pac-12 has gone speed, so we won’t need another “size” gameplan of this scale this season unless we have a rematch with Stanford again in the conference championship game, something that I think is completely achievable. There’s a reason why both ESPN’s Football Power Index and the S&P+ Rankings both still have USC in the top 10 and highest rated in the Pac-12. Let’s move forward and prove them right.
And remember, we didn’t need to blitz more…
AdvertisementsPolitico ran a good headline on Friday morning: "Regretful Trump Pivots 107 Days Late." The word "pivot" referred to Trump's appearance in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, where he did indeed express regret about some of the things he has said during his Presidential campaign. He also condemned bigotry. A hundred and seven days is the time that had elapsed between when Trump wrapped up the Republican nomination and when he gave the speech in Charlotte. Some observers hailed this as an important moment.
"This is incredible," CBS News's Sopan Deb tweeted. "For the 1st time - in prepared remarks, Trump expressing regret for some of his campaign conduct." The Washington Examiner's Byron York wrote, "That was new Trump. Very new Trump."
To be sure, Trump's language in Charlotte did represent a change in tone for the candidate, who usually tries to cover up his frailties and insecurities by refusing to give even an inch. But, before buying into the narrative that Trump is suddenly a changed man, it's worth remembering a few things.
For all the fuss over Trump's remarks, they stopped well short of apologies to the subjects of his many offensive statements. "Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't say the right words or you say the wrong thing," he said. "I have done that and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain." If you were Megyn Kelly or Carly Fiorina, or Judge Gonzalo Curiel, or a member of the Khan family, would you have been satisfied with these weasel words? No, you wouldn't. And you'd have been right not to be.
Trump didn't attack the Khans during "the heat of debate." He belittled Ghazala Khan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, in a telephone interview with Maureen Dowd, the Times columnist, on the day after the Democratic Convention ended. Then Trump extended his comments to the dead soldier's father, Khizr Khan, who had criticized him at the Convention, and, despite protests by other Republicans, he kept up his attacks for days.
This wasn't a verbal slip or an instant response. It was a furious lashing out by a politician who realized that the Khans had done him a lot of harm. Now, having allowed almost an entire month to elapse, Trump concedes that he might have said "the wrong thing." A bigger and better man would have issued a direct apology to the Khans, coupling it with similar gestures toward other objects of his ire.
Instead of fessing up properly, Trump continued to blame the media for highlighting what he says. He claimed, "They will take words of mine out of context and spend a week obsessing over every single syllable, and then pretend to discover some hidden meaning in what I said." It wasn't clear which of his many utterances Trump was referring to here. Presumably, it was ambiguous statements like this one: "We have a very hostile judge. Now, he is Hispanic, I believe. He is a very hostile judge to me. I said it loud and clear.” Or perhaps it was this opaque statement: "ISIS is honoring President Obama. He is the founder of ISIS."
The truth, of course, is that there is no "new Trump." But the old one can read the polls, and he knows that he's on a path toward a heavy and ignominious defeat. That's why, this week, he effectively fired his campaign manager, Paul Manafort—who officially resigned on Friday morning—and brought in a new team. That's why he's belatedly reaching out to the black community, where, according to one survey, he's polling at one per cent. And that's why he's making a renewed attempt to mimic Richard Nixon and position himself as the voice of forgotten Americans.
"It’s never been about me," Trump said in Charlotte. "It’s about all the people in this country who don’t have a voice. I am running to be their voice." He added, "There’s a reason the hedge-fund managers, the financial lobbyists, the Wall Street investors are throwing their money at Hillary Clinton. Because they know she will make sure the system stays rigged in their favor."
In rhetorical terms, that's not a bad spiel. Among the many things it ignores, however, are these: 1) Trump has just brought in a wealthy former Goldman Sachs investment banker, Steve Bannon, to run his campaign. 2) The person Bannon's replacing, Manafort, is a prominent Washington lobbyist whose lucrative arrangements with a pro-Russian party in Ukraine had turned into an embarrassing distraction. (Speaking to Fox News on Friday, Trump's son Eric confirmed that's why his dad canned Manafort.) 3) Before making the personnel changes, Trump met with one of the richest and most reclusive hedge-fund managers in the country, Robert Mercer, who has a long record of supporting ultra-conservative causes, including Breitbart, the controversial news site that Bannon runs. While he previously supported the Presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz, it is widely expected that Mercer will now open his wallet for Trump.
"It’s the powerful protecting the powerful—the insiders fighting for the insiders," Trump declared during his speech. In that, at least, he was telling the truth. About himself and his crew.(serves 2)
Before you start, make sure you have already parboiled the potato. You should be able to simultaneously cook your "sauce", fry your potato and cook your polenta if you are organized, this will drastically reduce the time it takes to put this on the table, and in your belly.
Put a medium saucepan on your stove and add the chicken stock or water, turn on high and bring to a simmer.
In the meantime, heat a medium skillet to medium heat, and add one tablespoon of the olive oil. Remove the sausage from the casings and crumble it into the pan. Brown on all sides.
While the sausage is browning, check on your simmering liquid, once it comes up to a summer, slowly whisk in the cornmeal and a pinch of salt. You want to cook the polenta at a gentle simmer and stir regularly, so keep a watchful eye on it, scraping down the sides of the pan every time you stir.
Grab a small frying pan and put it on medium heat. Dice your potato into 1 cm sized chunks. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and the potato to your pan. Fry the potato until crispy on all sides, once crisp drain on paper towels, and then transfer to a rack to keep crisp.
When the sausage is browned on all sides, add the onion, and the chili flakes to the pan, stir regularly until the onion is soft then add the garlic. Allow the garlic to cook for one minute, then add the kale and a pinch of salt. Stir the kale to cook it down, you can also place a lid on the pot to let it steam which will force it to wilt faster. Once wilted, stir in the tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Simmer the mixture until the sausage is cooked through, and the kale is tender. Taste and correct with salt and pepper before serving. This can simmer gently on low while other things finish if needed.
Continue tasting the polenta until there is no feel of grit in your mouth, if you find you need to add more water, you can do so a 1/2 cup at a time. When it is nice and soft, turn the heat down to low and add a tablespoon of butter and the grated cheese. Also taste and correct for seasoning.
Serve the polenta in bowls topped with the sausage stew and the crispy potato along with the parsley to garnish it.i hate sport. we all do. it’s tedious, and joints burns, and hearts race, it’s really quite unpleasant.
but that’s not why I hate sport.
see, when you thin person say ‘you hate sport’, you mean what is said above.
when I say i hate sport, i mean the last time i participated for fun and amusement, i was bleeding and choking and everyone laughed.
it was a short cross-country race around the school. everyone was there, teachers, students, their families, everyone.
i had the bad luck of being fat and slow. short sprints? fine, i’m one of the fastest. weight lifting? i have the weight, strength and patience for it. hockey? i was good. endurance running? not so lucky.
they jeered and laughed and mocked me to run faster. i did. i couldn’t breathe. i panicked. i fell before i could finish the second lap and hyperventilated. all they did was laugh, and shake their heads, and make pig noises and fake crying and comparing me to Tall Thin Kid Three Grades Above Me and insult me. but they probably thought it was encouraging.
i was in a french school abroad, my parents don’t speak french, so they didn’t know what was happening. the words “stand up fatso, don’t be so lazy, stop pretending, do you want everyone to know you’re a fat lazy hippo” were said in an ncouraging tune with a smile on their faces.
and i was still on my knees, which bled and were caked with dirt and leave, unable to breathe, unable to think, panicking, choking, fighting for my life i couldn’t breathe and no one helped.
i broke. i shouted at them to shut the fuck up, why don’t you all go die, i want you dead, i want you burning alive and dead. because that was how i felt. that is how i still feel. i don’t regret insulting them. i don’t regret getting detention. i don’t regret my friends being afraid of me, i don’t regret being left alone for the next two years.
they certainly didn’t regret leaving me in the middle of the crowd having a panic attack. being alone before changing school (and country) was the best thing to happen to me. it’s the only time i got peace.
so you see, when i say i hate sport, and you reply yeah me too, don’t be surprised when i snort, and walk away when you start with yeah but it’s good for you, so i do it.
Sport wasn’t good for me. it was never good for me. and seeing as how i hyperventilate just at the word, it will never be “good for me”.
[while i’m at it: i notice my submissions get more notes than i see. that’s because i blocked those jerks. thanks to new tumblr policy, you may be able to see anything i submit in other blogs/what other blogs reblog, but i’ll never be able to see you. one of the wonderful things that bring me peace.]The Bruins officially reached the mid-point of their season a half dozen games ago when they lost Game 41 of the year 4-2 in Carolina.
But the All-Star break is traditionally seen as the midway mark of the campaign, especially for a team like Boston that has designs on playing a lot more than just 82 games this season.
So while the Bruins, with the exception of Ottawa-bound Zdeno Chara, Tim Thomas and Tyler Seguin, get to enjoy a few days off before the stretch drive commences next Tuesday, the respite provides an opportunity to evaluate how the team has done to this point.
With the exception of a sluggish start in October as the Bruins tried to shake off the Cup hangover and a slight hiccup with some shaky outings just before the break, the Bruins haven’t had much to complain about so far this year. They’re 31-14-2, solidly atop the Northeast Division and just two points out of first place in the Eastern Conference.
So even grading on a curve with high expectations for the reigning Cup champs, there aren’t many Bruins who will be ashamed to put their midseason report cards up on the fridge at home. First up for the midterm exams are the forwards, who have helped the Bruins tally an NHL-best 171 goals through 47 games.
Grades are based on the expectations for the players coming into the season and the fulfillment of their specific roles on the team, and not meant to be used as a direct comparison between players. With that duly noted, it’s on to the evaluations.
David Krejci
After leading the league in playoff scoring, Krejci, like most of the team, got off to a slow start this season. A core injury that cost him three games in October contributed to that sluggish start as much as any effects from the Cup hangover. He had just 5-12-17 totals through 27 games, with seven of those points coming in one three-game burst in early November. That hot streak didn’t last, but it showed his skills were still intact, and he’s been more consistent in displaying them of late. He entered the break with 6-15-21 totals in his last 17 games, putting him third overall on the team with 38 points for the season. He’s also contributed to the club’s success in the faceoff circle, ranking third on the team by winning 53.4 percent of the draws he takes. Krejci does tend to be feast or famine in that category in each individual game though, with nights like Tuesday’s 1-9 performance offsetting days when he dominates on the draw. It’s also concerning that he’s the only Bruins regular that is a minus this season at minus-1, while fellow centers Patrice Bergeron and Chris Kelly are plus-27 and plus-23 respectively. Midseason Grade: B
Milan Lucic
Lucic has had some lulls this season, but overall the production has been there, with his 17-20-37 totals through 46 games showing last season’s breakthrough campaign was not a fluke. He still lacks discipline at times, with a one-game suspension for a hit from behind and another hearing that drew no supplemental discipline for his controversial hit on Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller. That incident put him under the microscope by the league and makes playing his physical a little tougher, but he needs to play with that edge to be effective. It would be nice to see him spend less time in the box, or at least take someone with him when he does go. He has 88 penalty minutes so far, but just three fighting majors. He does lead the team with 107 hits, almost double the total of the second-highest forward (Shawn Thornton with 60). Midseason Grade: B+
Nathan Horton
Horton’s numbers aren’t horrible, as he’s a respectable 17-15-32 through 46 games. But Horton hasn’t quite reached the level he was playing at last postseason for most of this year. He struggled early fighting through the aftereffects of the severe concussion that ended his postseason in Game 3 of the Cup Final. He picked up his play a bit as the team turned things around, but slipped into another bit of a slump until Claude Julien called him out on a recent road trip. Horton responded, and has 8-4-12 totals in his last 14 games, but suffered another concussion, this one fortunately labeled just a mild one, Sunday in Philadelphia, and how he responds to this latest injury will bear monitoring in the second half. Midseason Grade: B-
Patrice Bergeron
No one has been more consistent this season than Bergeron, who contributes in all facets of the game. He provides offense (sharing the team lead with Tyler Seguin with 15-28-43 totals). He is one of the top defensive forwards in the league long overdue for Selke recognition. He is a mainstay on both the penalty kill and power play and is one of the top faceoff men in the NHL (9th in league at 57.0 percent). He should be playing in the All-Star Game in Ottawa this weekend, but will have to settle for top marks here. Midseason Grade: A+
Brad Marchand
Just based on production, there is little to quibble with in Marchand’s first half. He has 17-17-34 totals and is a plus-25 in just 41 games, putting him on pace to shatter his breakthrough totals of 21-20-41 in 77 games a year ago. But it’s the reason he’s only played 41 games that raises concern. He was suspended five games for a low hit on Vancouver’s Sami Salo earlier this month. The punishment was excessive, but Marchand put himself on the league’s radar with his questionable antics before that incident, including a two-game suspension for an elbow to the head last year and a fine for slew-footing this season. Like Lucic, Marchand needs to play on the edge to be effective, but he has to learn how to do it without crossing the line and costing himself — and his team — games. Midseason Grade: B+
Tyler Seguin
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride for the second-year phenom, though the highs have definitely risen higher than the lows ever plummeted. Seguin opened his sophomore campaign on fire, posting 11-9-20 totals in his first 15 games. But he slipped to just 2-4-6 over the next 15 games. He only played in 14 of them though, getting benched for one after missing the team breakfast and meeting in Winnipeg. He’s bounced back to a point-a-game pace with 6-11-17 totals in his last 17 games and while the youngster probably hasn’t seen his last slump and still needs to compete more consistently, there’s no denying his talent or the fact that he’s has begun to harness those skills at the NHL level. Midseason Grade: A-
Chris Kelly
For the first 10 weeks of the season, Kelly had Bruins fans eager to sing his praises, though maybe not quite in this fashion, as he racked up 12 goals through 30 games. Not bad for a guy who’s never scored more than 15 in his first six seasons in the NHL. That surprising production has regressed with just two goals in his last 17 games, but fortunately Kelly contributes much more than just offense. He’s a strong defensive forward who has matched his uniform number with a plus-23, a key penalty killer and steady faceoff man winning 54.5 percent of his draws and solid leader who was given an A in his first full season in Boston. He’s even shown a willingness to stick up for his teammates, dropping the gloves twice after questionable hits against fellow Bruins to match the two fighting majors he had in his entire six-year career coming into the year. Midseason Grade: A-
Benoit Pouliot
Pouliot wasn’t a popular signing this summer as the 2005 fourth overall pick came to Boston after an uninspiring stint in Montreal. Those concerns appeared well founded early as he failed to register a point in his first eight games and was scratched five times in the first 15 games of the year. But after an adjustment period, he proved he could fit into Claude Julien’s system and has posted respectable 8-9-17 totals along with a plus-18. He’s made better use of his 6-foot-3, 199-pound frame with 54 hits and has formed some solid chemistry on a line with Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley, as well as filling in on Patrice Bergeron’s wing when Brad Marchand was suspended. He still takes some undisciplined penalties, but overall he’s provided solid value on Boston’s $1.1-million investment. Midseason Grade: B
Rich Peverley
Peverley proved his versatility last year in the playoffs and has continued to shine in a variety of roles in his first full season in Boston. He can play center or wing, move up and down the depth chart and contributes in all facets as one of the team’s top penalty killers and a regular on the power play, most recently manning a point alongside Zdeno Chara on the first unit. Peverley’s spent most of the season with Chris Kelly and Benoit Pouliot, forming one of the league’s most effective third lines. He doesn’t take as many draws as the team’s four regular centers, but has excelled in the opportunities he’s had (62.8 percent). It would be nice to see Peverley finish a few more chances (8 goals on 84 shots), but he’s dished out 25 assists so the Bruins won’t complain too much about his production. Midseason Grade: B+
Gregory Campbell
After being one of just eight players in the NHL with 10 or fighting majors and 10 or more goals, the dependable Campbell is on pace for another impressive double-double campaign with six fights and six goals at the break. Campbell also has seven assists, a plus-8 rating, 56 hits and has won 52.9 percent of the draws he’s taken while providing toughness and leadership to the team. Midseason Grade: B+
Daniel Paille
Just as he did in Boston’s playoff run, Paille has been providing the Bruins with energy and effort on the fourth line and penalty kill. He doesn’t have the finishing touch to convert all the chances his hustle and hockey sense produce, but he has chipped in eight goals to go along with his strong defensive play. Midseason Grade: B+
Shawn Thornton
Toughness was never an issue with Thornton, nor was his willingness to stand up for his team. It hasn’t been this year either, as he leads the team with 12 fighting majors, virtually every one of which has been well timed to spark the squad in a sluggish stretch or to come to the defense of a teammate. It hasn’t always worked, but the Bruins are 8-3-1 when Thornton has fought, and several of those bouts have turned momentum enough that Boston goals have followed shortly thereafter. Thornton is slightly off the pace from his career-high 10 goals last year, but he does have solid 4-6-10 totals despite averaging a team-low 9:05 of ice time. He’s second among forwards with 60 hits in those limited shifts, and has shown some impressive skill for a tough guy, most notably with his nifty penalty shot goal against Winnipeg. Midseason Grade: A-
Zach Hamill
After struggling for much of his first three pro seasons, the 2007 eighth overall pick was moved from center to wing in Providence this season and the switch paid off. A strong start in the AHL earned him a call-up and he impressed early with two assists and a plus-4 rating in his first three games. He didn’t have another point in his next 10 games before the break though, and has still yet to score his first NHL goal in 16 career games. He has been reliable defensively and has been up long enough to require waivers to be returned to Providence, so barring moves before the trade deadline the Bruins will likely keep him around as the 13th forward the rest of the way. Midseason Grade: C
Jordan Caron
Coming into the year, a spot on the big club was Caron’s to lose with the departures of Mark Recchi (retirement) and Michael Ryder (Dallas), and Caron did earn a spot out of camp and was in the opening-night lineup. He alternated with Benoit Pouliot on the third line early, but after seven games with no points he slowly lost that battle for playing time. Caron, a 2009 first-round pick, still has plenty of time to develop and the size and skill to be an NHL regular, but he’ll likely continue to shuffle back and forth from Providence for the rest of this season, playing in Boston when injuries strike. Midseason Grade: C-
Coming Friday: The midseason report card hands out grades to the Bruins defense.
Have a question for Douglas Flynn? Send it to him via Twitter at @douglasflynn or send it here. He will pick a few questions to answer every week for his mailbag.UCF's highly anticipated War on I-4 matchup with rival USF is set to kick off at 3:30 p.m. on Black Friday.
The game will be broadcast nationally on ABC.
The Knights (9-0, 6-0 American Athletic Conference) are ranked No. 18 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, while the Bulls (8-1, 5-1 AAC) are pushing to get back in contention for the Group of 5 playoff bid after suffering a loss to Houston earlier this season.
UCF Athletics has not announced a sellout, but last week the school said the game was close to being declared a sellout and urged fans to move quickly to snap up single-game tickets.
UCF coach Scott Frost has led a swift turnaround of the Knights football program, helping UCF go from winless in 2015 to a nine-game win streak this season and the best start in school history. Frost has lauded an strong overall team effort, but he also said quarterback McKenzie Milton’s ability to run the Knights’ offense at a high level has played a key role in the team’s success.
USF coach Charlie Strong, who is in his first season in Tampa, inherited a Bulls program projected to win the AAC title. While USF has not delivered flawless performances this season, the Bulls have their own elite dual-threat quarterback in Quinton Flowers.
Both coaches have been linked to high-profile coaching job vacancies at other schools.
If USF doesn’t lose before the War on I-4, the winner of the game would clinch the American Athletic Conference East Division title and advance to the league championship game.
Based on the current College Football Playoff rankings that also feature Memphis at No. 22, the winner of the AAC title game will clinch a New Year’s Six bowl bid and advance to the Peach Bowl being played in Atlanta.Mason Plumlee isn’t ready to give up his spot in the starting lineup.
Continuing his excellent play since moving into the starting five two weeks ago, Plumlee finished with 19 points, 13 rebounds, two assists, two steals and three blocks as he teamed with Joe Johnson to lead the Nets to a 102-96 come from behind victory over the Nuggets in front of 17,080 inside Barclays Center on Tuesday night.
With Brook Lopez making his return to the floor after missing eight games with a strained lower back — he finished with six points and four rebounds in eight minutes off the bench — the question of who the Nets (12-15) were going to play at center was inevitably going to come up. But with Plumlee playing the way he is — including six points, six rebounds and two game-changing blocks in the fourth quarter — there shouldn’t be much of a debate.
“I want to stay in the starting lineup, but we’re starting to have high- quality problems, which is a good way to put it,” Plumlee said. “We need that, because if you have competitions for positions, if you have problems like that, that should mean you have a good team. Instead of being like, ‘Man, we can’t play anybody.’ It’s a good thing for our team to have that competition.
“Nobody got to the NBA by not wanting to start, or not wanting to play.”
Plumlee has been playing like someone who wants to play, and play a lot, since moving into the starting lineup against the Bulls on Dec. 10. Over the past eight games he’s averaging 16.9 points, 10.3 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and shooting 62.6 percent from the floor and has racked up four double-doubles.
“Mason made a conscious decision to go and just play, and not worry about what I say, if I yell at him, if I take him out of the game … just go play,” coach Lionel Hollins said. “His confidence is rising that I haven’t seen Mason do since I’ve been here, and it’s good to see.”
Plumlee had possibly the best stretch of his pro career during the fourth quarter Tuesday, when after Darius Morris made a layup to open the quarter and give the Nets a 78-77 lead, the Nuggets (12-17) reeled off eight straight points to take the lead, the life out of the building and seemingly put the Nets on the ropes.
But that’s when Plumlee energized the crowd with a series of highlight plays, beginning with a dunk off a feed from Jarrett Jack, only to then follow it up with a massive rejection of a Jusuf Nurkic dunk attempt at the other end. He then finished a reverse layup off a pass from Johnson while being fouled by Nate Robinson, letting out a roar as the ball fell through the net to pull Brooklyn within three.
“He’s so athletic that you can put it in various spots where he can score,” said Jack, who had 17 points and eight assists filling in for Deron Williams (strained right calf) for a second straight game. “You can put it by the rim or you can put it where he would only need to take one bounce to put it up.
“All the credit to Mason … he’s done a tremendous job stepping up with guys being injured and playing really well.”
Plumlee later had another massive block, slamming an attempted Alonzo Gee layup in between the rim and the backboard for a jump ball that he later won for the Nets, as Brooklyn went on a 19-4 run — capped off by a fallaway jumper by Johnson, who had eight of his 27 points in the fourth — with 2:41 remaining that gave the Nets a 97-89 lead they’d never relinquish.
“You are just in the moment,” Plumlee said of his fourth-quarter surge. “You just feel like you’re anticipating things on defense, you’re where you’re supposed to be on offense, and things just come easy.”
With the way Plumlee’s playing right now, the only thing that won’t be easy is for Lopez to get his starting spot back.On June 18th, NMB48 members Yamamoto Sayaka (18) and Watanabe Miyuki (18) went to a Kobe department store for a 'Super Coolbiz'�PR event. Coolbiz is a government campaign to get people to wear lighter clothing during the summer and thus conserve energy by having their air conditioners on temperatures that aren�t too low.
The two members of NMB48 are often wearing mini-skirts on stage, but at the event |
his toy tank. “Hey Avi, why do you like guns so much lately?
His reply? “Well, I don’t wanna be a DANCER!” “I wanna be police, or a Army man!, or a Ninja!! yeah.”
What do you mean? I ask.
I don’t wanna be a dancer, I wanna fight the bad guys!”
Oh…. OK…… Well…
Something tells me this has something to do with Michael Jackson’s,”Moonwalker”……
AdvertisementsBy Miguel Rivera
According to Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, he spoke with eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao and the Filipino superstar has agreed to fight Terence Crawford, who holds the WBO junior welterweight world title.
On Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Crawford (28-0, 20KOs) will have the biggest fight of his career in a unification against WBC champion Viktor Postol (28-0, 12KOs). It will be Crawford's first headliner on HBO Pay-Per-View.
To pursue a full-time career in politics, Pacquiao retired from the sport in April after winning a twelve round decision over Timothy Bradley in a trilogy fight. He then won a senatorial seat back home in the Philippines in May.
Top Rank has set aside November 5th at Las Vegas' Thomas & Mack Center for Pacquiao's return. They wanted him to fight in October, but the fight was pushed back after a conflict with Pacquiao's political schedule.
A few days ago, Pacquiao's adviser, Michael Koncz, had stated in an interview that Crawford was never going to be an option for Pacquiao's planned return.
Arum has spoke to Pacquiao directly and says there are no issues with making a deal.
"I've talked to Manny and he is willing to give [Terence the] opportunity," said Arum to ESPN Deportes.
"But first Terence has an important commitment to fulfill before he can receive [that opportunity]. Manny has already said yes."
"We had scheduled his fight for October 15th at the Mandalay Bay. But we were informed that wasn't possible because Manny had to attend, on the week of October 15, a budget meeting with the senate."
Arum said Crawford "has the tools to be" a superstar in the sport.WASHINGTON -- The fast attack submarines USS Virginia (SSN 774) and USS Minnesota (SSN 783) have been selected as the initial two Virginia-class submarines to integrate female officers, announced Oct. 15.
A total of six female officers, two Supply Corps and four nuclear-trained, will report aboard no later than January 2015. Both submarines are homeported in Groton, Conn.
"Female officers serving aboard Virginia-class submarines is the next natural step to more fully integrate women into the submarine force," said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus. "There are many extremely talented and capable women with a desire to succeed in this field and the submarine force will be stronger because of their efforts. Our Navy has proven over the years that one of our greatest advantages is our diversity. This is an advantage we should capitalize on across all platforms, including submarines."
Since the Navy officially changed their policy prohibiting women serving on submarines on April 29, 2010, the submarine force has integrated 43 women onto six Ohio-class ballistic-missile (SSBN) and guided-missile submarines (SSGN). Further Virginia-class integration is being planned in the submarine force.
"My plan is to begin by integrating four Virginia-class attack submarines, with the second set of two units being integrated in Fiscal Year 2016," said Vice Adm. Michael Connor, commander, Submarine Forces. "Since Virginia and Minnesota are both Atlantic Fleet submarines home ported in Groton, Conn., I intend to select two Pacific Fleet submarines home ported in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii early next year."
The female officers will be assigned to the Virginia-class submarines for duty after completing the nuclear submarine training pipeline, which consists of nuclear power school, prototype training and the Submarine Officer Basic Course.
Submarines with women currently serving on board are USS Florida (SSGN 728), USS Georgia (SSGN 729) and USS Wyoming (SSBN 742), homeported in Kings Bay, Ga., and USS Ohio (SSGN 726), USS Louisiana (SSBN 743), and USS Maine (SSBN 741), homeported in Bangor, Wash.Image: YouTube/Jon Tibbets
Update: Turgeon was found not guilty on all counts Thursday evening.
A citizen journalist in Morton County, North Dakota is facing up to seven years in jail for flying a drone over the North Dakota Pipeline protests.
In October, Aaron Turgeon was arrested by Morton County Police and was charged with a felony count of Reckless Endangerment, a misdemeanor count of Reckless Endangerment, and a misdemeanor count of Physical Obstruction of a Government Function, according to court documents obtained by Motherboard. Together, he faces up to seven years in court if found guilty. His court case is Thursday.
For weeks, Turgeon (who also goes by "Prolific the Rapper") documented the North Dakota Access Pipeline protests for several Facebook groups that livestreamed and posted photos and videos about the movement. Several of these aerial videos documented police shooting protesters with water cannons and tear gas canisters.
The case raises important questions about the limitations of the First Amendment and the ability for local and state police to enforce laws against drone pilots. The state laws used to arrest Turgeon are rarely used to pursue a drone pilot, and airspace safety has typically been enforced by the Federal Aviation Administration, not local law enforcement.
In a court document, the state argues that Turgeon's drone is a deadly weapon: "The offenses alleged … are acts of violence, using a [drone] as a weapon, careless of the consequence to the life and limb of officers and protesters alike."
The case hinges of course on whether or not the court believes that Turgeon was flying recklessly. We've seen this discrepancy come up numerous times before: A pilot claims they are in complete control of their aircraft, but law enforcement disagrees. Who a judge decides to believe in this instance will determine whether Turgeon spends years in jail or walks free.
According to an affidavit signed by Sergeant Shannon Henke, Turgeon "operated the drone 25-50 feet above ground over approximately 150-200 protesters that were unprotected."
A screengrab from the state's complaint against Turgeon.
"I approached Turgeon and instructed him to land the drone, he did. I attempted to seize the drone from Turgeon as evidence and was prevented to do so [sic] by a group of approximately 25 protesters," Henke wrote in the affidavit. "The reckless operation of the drone by Turgeon placed the lives of the protesters and law enforcement on the ground in danger of injury and possibly death."
Henke also wrote that Turgeon flew near a North Dakota Highway Patrol aircraft; a video released by the Morton County Sheriff's Department shows the drone and a plane stay a considerable distance from each other. Previously, law enforcement in other states have lied about drone encounters with police aircraft.
In a filing with the court, the state alleges that "if the plane came down as a result of the UAS [drone], it could have killed those below."
In an interview with Indigenous Life Movement, Turgeon said he complied with the officer when he was approached and did not come close to injuring anyone.
"I never endangered anybody and I never tried to do anything wrong," he said. "I never flew my drone toward a plane … having this thread hanging over me is the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life."
There are a few things at issue here: The FAA has made flying over people illegal without a specific waiver under its Part 107 regulations, which were released last year. The FAA has handed out a handful of penalties for pilots operating an aircraft "in a careless or reckless manner," but those have typically been fines of a couple thousand dollars at most; no one has gone to prison yet for flying a drone inappropriately.
An excerpt from one of the state's court documents.
But Turgeon is being charged under North Dakota state law, not under federal law. According to North Dakota state law, "Reckless Endangerment" is defined broadly: A person is guilty "if he creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death to another." As any drone operator will tell you, the risk of bodily injury is largely dependent on the flying skills of the pilot, which likely can't be assessed on the spot by a police officer.
If found guilty, it would be the first time I've heard of a drone pilot going to jail based on the assessment of a police officer on the ground.
The case is particularly contentious because during the height of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests last year, the FAA and local police conspired to create what many legal experts saw as an illegal no fly zone designed to keep media from filming police.
Both local police and federal agencies have been slow to make information about police surveillance and suppression of the protests public: Several Freedom of Information requests filed by Motherboard and other news outlets have been outright rejected, while a FOIA request about the no fly zone has been delayed several times and is now two months past the FAA's self-imposed deadline.In one of his last major speeches of the campaign, Malcolm Turnbull took the opportunity to urge the next parliament to “offload the ideology, to end the juvenile theatrics, and gotcha moments, to drop the personality politics”. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Pity the PM’s call for civility has come about so long after Peter Dutton on “illiterate and innumerate” refugees and Scott Morrison on Labor’s “toxins on growth” and “tax bullets”, not to mention Morrison on the “hate speech” he’d received over same-sex marriage and, well, Morrison on plenty of topics this campaign, actually.
The prime minister told the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday afternoon that Australians want their representatives to focus on “the issues that matter to them”, and that they were “entitled to expect that of their parliament”.
“In these uncertain times, we need to stick together,” he said, in the gently rebuking tone of your favourite high school teacher – not mad, just disappointed.
Turnbull went on to accuse Shorten of “setting out deliberately and dishonestly to fuel fear and division”. By now, you might be picking up on a logical inconsistency at the heart of this presentation.
As Lenore Taylor observed, the call for more mature politics and an end to “division for division’s sake” is quite similar to the speech Turnbull made after seizing the leadership from his predecessor, Tony Abbott.
In his ongoing bid to make himself useful, Abbott told Sky News that this hasn’t been the campaign he would have run, singling out budget repair and border security as two issues that had been in his view overlooked.
But there’s never been a campaign quite like this one before, writes Katharine Murphy, pointing out that the Coalition has managed to do the distance while announcing almost no new policies. If you thought it was impossible to talk about one thing for eight consecutive weeks, well, now we know it isn’t.
Jared Owens (@jaredowens) This is exactly why Australians are being bored to death by #ausvotes. pic.twitter.com/ZsXh949xx4
Speaking of, how much of it can you remember? Test your capacity for punishment with our bumper quiz.
More power to your Albo?
Of course the outcome of the election won’t be known until Saturday, it’s a close-run contest, etc etc – but Bill Shorten is facing questions over his future, assuming a Labor loss.
The Daily Telegraph reported this morning that “key NSW right kingpin Senator Sam ‘Dasher’ Dastyari” is among the “factional powerbrokers” in support of backing a leadership challenge from Anthony ‘DJ Albo’ Albanese. (Dastyari “vehemently denied” the reports.)
The shadow treasurer, Chris Bowen, and the deputy leader, Tanya Plibersek, are among the other names being bandied about.
Shorten was doubtless thrilled to be asked to pick how many seats he’d have to win to ward off a challenge from Albo – sort of like asking someone to take a punt on what distance they could comfortably miss a bullet by.
He said it was a “silly question” and that he was “in this election to win it”, which, well, fair enough. He said Labor had not only “been united for the last three years”, it was “more united now than ever”. Pretty united indeed, then.
Asked whether he was confident Dastyari supported him as leader, Shorten said it had been a “great privilege” to be elected party leader; that he thought Labor had probably exceeded some people’s expectations already; and that there was “not a single member” of his team that he would swap – so he didn’t answer the question, basically, but what’s new there!
Cape of good hope
A hapless election campaign by incumbent David Feeney has fuelled the Greens’ hopes of winning the seat of Batman in Melbourne. The party’s polling two weeks ago even gave candidate Alex Bhathal a commanding lead in the inner-Melbourne enclave.
Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) This man is very excited to get a selfie with Greens candidate for Batman, Alex Bhathal. @murpharoo pic.twitter.com/Myqzpg4oYN
But the Labor powerbroker Feeney might survive – for now. The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, conceded on Thursday. “You will see the Greens vote increase here in this election and if we don’t get it this election we’ll get it in the next one,” he said.
“I mean, we require a 10% swing. That’s a herculean effort. What we need to do now, because the Labor party and the Liberal party have joined together with preferences that might get David Feeney over the line, the challenge for us is to get over the Labor and Liberal vote combined. That’s a hard ask.”
(For more on Batman, here’s Guardian Australia’s Calla Wahlquist’s feature.)
Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) "I definitely need some jam donuts before my next stop. I'll only have two." -Di Natale
Since he was in the clarifying mood, Di Natale also cleared up – sort of – the confusion around his remarks on Wednesday, saying the Greens would be utterly opposed to offshore processing centres, in any negotiations with Labor, then adding that position was merely a “starting point”.
“Let me be absolutely clear,” he said on Thursday. “Our policy will never change. We want those camps closed. That is a bottom line that we will never negotiate on.”
But he added, in what might be interpreted as wriggle room: “That shouldn’t stop us from trying to get the other two parties to change their position”.
Best of Bowers
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian
Mike Bowers captured this moment of Scott Morrison watching Malcolm Turnbull at the National Press Club in Canberra on Thursday afternoon.
Further reading
• Will the most progressive state in Australia cost Labor the election? It is incredible that the Country Fire Authority dispute in Victoria has been allowed to fester in this way, writes Gay Alcorn. The chief officer, Joe Buffone, resigned on Thursday; Victoria’s emergency services minister, James Merlino, said it was because Buffone wanted a pay rise and equal power to the incoming CEO.
• Crumbs from the table: there’s nary a scrap for women in this election Where have been the appeals to the female voter base?
And also...
We shouldn’t laugh, and yet... The Chaser has pranked David Leyonhjelm by making him his own Wicked Camper.
Meanwhile, in the rest of the world...
Parts of a mutilated body have washed up on the sands of Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro just meters from where beach volleyball athletes will compete in the upcoming Olympics.
The discovery is the latest to unnerve the city as it grapples with rising crime, a recession and exhausted state finances at a time when it hoped to be celebrating the first Olympics ever held in South America.
And if today was a pop song...
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘Where is the harmony?’– Malcolm Turnbull
Oh, look – footage of Malcolm Turnbull’s Press Club address!
Never miss another catchup: If you’re reading this in the Guardian app, tap on “Australian election briefing” at the top or bottom of this page, then tap on “Follow series” to get an app notification as soon as the Campaign catchup publishes every afternoon.For the first time since 1970, no Canadian hockey team made it to the NHL playoffs. The absence of Canadian teams from this season’s NHL playoffs has sparked some debate and discussion about the state of Canadian hockey. It also follows a longer trend away from Canadian dominance of the game: the Stanley Cup hasn’t resided in Canada since the Canadiens won it in 1993, something President Obama reminded visiting PM Trudeau about last month.So, in the absence of a Canadian team, who will Canadians cheer for in the playoffs? The answer is the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks: nearly half of Canadians (46%) said they plan to back the Hawks in the Western Conference. In the East, a quarter of Canadians were ready to cheer for the Bruins—but the Bruins late-season collapse will force those fans to look elsewhere.Source: Angus Reid Institute As a Chicagoan, I don’t deny that the Blackhawks are a great team to cheer for. They’ve brought the city three Cups in the last six seasons, an achievement a number of commentators (and the commissioner ) have labeled a dynasty. But I live in Chicago. So why are Canadians cheering for the Blackhawks?It’s not because they have the most Canadian players on the roster: that spot falls to Chicago’s first-round opponent, the St. Louis Blues, who boast sixteen Canadians. The Blackhawks have ten, putting them in the lower range of playoff teams.But there is definitely a local flavor to some Canadians’ support for Chicago. While the Blackhawks support is generally evenly-distributed across Canada, Manitoba is an exception: two-thirds of Manitobans say they’ll be cheering for Chicago in the Western Conference this year. That’s likely because the Blackhawks are captained by Winnipeg native Jonathan Toews. Not only did Toews bring the cup home this past summer, he was recently awarded the province’s highest honor, the Order of Manitoba. And Toews isn’t the only Manitoban on the roster: he’s joined by 2015 Conn Smythe winner Duncan Keith and trade deadline acquisition Dale Weise.Chicago and Canada also have other close ties. There are roughly 200 Canadian companies in the Chicagoland area, and nearly as many Chicago companies in Canada. Chicago also hosts a Canadian consulate and has been Sister Cities with Toronto since 1991. And, of course, the current US ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman, is a noted Blackhawks fan.Hopefully the combined cheers of Canadians and Chicagoans alike will carry the Hawks to another Stanley Cup win this June.Oh, how times have changed. Almost a year ago, Iranian officials claimed the country was suffering from constant internet-based attacks. Now, according to the WSJ, it's Iran -- or hackers working for the Iranian government -- that's allegedly behind a series of digital intrusions on the US Navy's unclassified computers. The report, which cites unnamed US officials, says the attacks these past few weeks targeted computers that the Navy's been using for email and intranet. Since no sensitive information was stolen, the US is reportedly more worried about the digital attacks' implications: Iran is gaining hacking proficiency, and fast. Supposedly, it's because Russian hackers have been extending their help -- true or not, it's clear that the US can no longer view Iran as a non-threat in the cyber arena. The Navy has already patched up its security system, but the US government is reportedly still waiting for what comes out of the US-Iran talks before deciding whether to take action.A typo and a bag of organic kitty litter may end up costing United States taxpayers more than $2 billion in nuclear waste cleanup, according to a new report by Ralph Vartabedian at the Los Angeles Times.
Back in February 2014, a drum of nuclear waste burst open inside the cavernous Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP), which is drilled out of a salt deposit nearly half a mile below the deserts of Carlsbad, New Mexico.
The US Department of Energy (DOE), which funds the company that runs the nuclear waste dump, quickly suspended operations and launched an investigation to figure out the cause.
DOE/WIPP Drum 68660, which burst in WIPP nuclear waste dump.
In their 277-page report, investigators determined the blast vaporized nearly 7.5 lbs of the material inside a single barrel, labelled “Drum 68660.” That material included some radioactive isotopes of americium, plutonium, and uranium — byproducts of Cold War-era nuclear weapons production.
Although no one was inside WIPP when the drum burst, the facility’s air ventilation system spread some of the gases outside, exposing 21 workers to low doses of radiation.
Investigators also discovered the trigger of the “thermal runaway event,” also known as an “explosion”: a dangerous combination of nitric acid and salts, triethanolamine, and “sWheat Scoop” organic kitty litter. (The DOE mentions the brand almost 400 times in its report.)
The cleanup itself will cost hundreds of millions, but that’s not where the mishap’s ledger ends.
A radioactive kitty litter ‘bomb’
DOE/WIPP Workers wrap up drums of nuclear waste.
The “organic” part of the kitty litter in question is crucial.
That’s because wheat, which makes up the pee-absorbing bulk of organic kitty litter, contains plant cellulose that can burn. Standard kitty litter, meanwhile, is inorganic, since it’s primarily made of clay.
So when drum-packing workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) followed instructions to add an organic variety to soak up radioactive fluids, they were unknowingly packing up what Sarah Zhang at Gizmodo called “the ingredients of a bomb.”
Why did they use fancy organic kitty litter instead of plain old clay kitty litter?
According to a Nov. 2014 story by Patrick Malone at the Sante Fe New Mexican, which we first learned about in Gizmodo’s detailing of events, it was likely the most common and mundane of human errors — a typo:
“Even before the waste was treated at Los Alamos, mistakes had been made that could have been instrumental in causing the accident at WIPP. Emails between WIPP contractors involved in the leak investigation indicate that something as simple as a typographical error in a revision of LANL’s procedural manual for processing waste containing nitrate salts may have precipitated a switch from inorganic clay kitty litter to the organic variety.”
A Sept. 2014 report released by the DOE appears to back this up, stating “handwritten notes that called for an organic absorbent to process nitrate salt drums were improperly relied upon to revise the Procedure”.
Expanding cleanup costs
Whether handwritten or typed, that error is going to be costly.
According to Vartabedian at the LA Times, the cleanup costs directly related to Drum 68660 will be about $640 million, per a July 2016 contract modification with the Nuclear Waste Partnership (the company that runs WIPP for the DOE).
Further, he wrote, this “does not include the complete replacement of the contaminated ventilation system or any future costs of operating the mine longer than originally planned.”
The DOE disputed that cost figure with Business Insider, saying direct cleanup costs will be about $244 million — not $640 million.
DOE/WIPP A cutaway diagram of the WIPP facility.
That extra $400 million, it says, comes from a new air ventilation system for WIPP, which may cost between $270 million and $400 million. But the DOE could not confirm by the time this post was published whether or not that (very expensive) project’s approval had anything to do with the mishap.
Whatever the case, WIPP isn’t entombing any nuclear waste while cleanup work continues — which means the US government’s grand scheme to seal it all up has a major wrench in its gears.
The Times reports the facility may need 7 years of additional operation to handle the backup of waste. At $200 million per year, according to the Times’ analysis, that could add up to $1.4 billion in extra costs triggered by the mishap.
The DOE did not immediately dispute that length of time, but said it anticipates WIPP could resume taking in new drums of waste sometime in 2017.
In the meantime, the DOE might also have to pay temporary storage and inspection costs for all of the waste that WIPP can’t entomb until the cleanup work is finished. The DOE couldn’t confirm or deny this, nor the cost.
“The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is critical to the Department of Energy’s mission to cleanup nuclear waste generated by atomic energy activities,” a DOE spokesperson told Business Insider in an email. “WIPP is the nation’s only repository for the disposal of nuclear waste known as transuranic (TRU) waste. The Department is committed to the recovery, and resumption of TRU disposal operations at WIPP when it is safe to do so.”
Business Insider has reached out to sWheat Scoop for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
NOW WATCH: Reindeer are strangely radioactive 30 years after Chernobyl
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Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram."We are worried about these results," Christina Sandström at the agency told The Local on Thursday.
“We have known for a long time that girls have better school results than boys. What is new is that the results are increasing. There has always been a gap, but now it is bigger,” Sandström explained.
On Wednesday, Skolverket published the school results of this summer's ninth-year students. These results showed that girls' school results were an average of 223.8 (out of 320), whereas boys scored an average of 199.5.
The statistics also showed that more girls qualified for high school (gymnasiet) programmes than boys.
Skolverket concluded that though results are improving for most student groups, boys with a foreign background and boys with less educated parents are actually performing worse.
“I do not begrudge any success for the girls, but it would be terribly serious to lose a generation of boys and immigrants,” Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) told the TT news agency.
Christina Sandström underlined that while the difference between the grade point average for girls and boys may seem small in numerical terms, when applied to 100,000 students, a gap of over 20 points is actually very significant.
”It takes a lot to make a major change”.
Meanwhile, Social Democrat Ibrahim Baylan is more worried about the general decrease in students that qualify for high school (gymnasiet) programmes, for the 6th year in a row.
The report indicated that proportion of qualified students decreased from 87.7 percent to 87.5 percent.
“The current school policy has reached the end of the road. The government is simply not doing the right thing,” Baylan told TT.
Sandström recognized that while the change is small, the trend is clear in that the results are getting worse.
“We want results to be better. We have implemented a new syllabus and it is very important that schools take the new goals for education seriously,” she continued.
“We have made changes within school regulations, but it is important that schools also implement these modifications.”
Sandström said that research is ongoing into why girls systematically achieve better results than boys at this level, but there is currently no definitive explanation.
”I don't know if we ever can solve it,” she said.
TT/Sanne Schim van der Loeff
Follow The Local on TwitterWednesday, 4th May, 2016 5:00pm
Story by Jackie Keogh
Marc with his Game of Thrones doppelgänger Kit Harington – aka Jon Snow.
Skibbereen stuntman, Marc Redmond, has been working on Game of Thrones for the last two years. But he’s not just any old stuntman. He was, in fact, the stunt double for Jon Snow, aka Kit Harington.
The success of Game of Thrones is a worldwide phenomenon that has also had a beneficial spin-off for the tourism industry in Northern Ireland. It’s been good for Marc too because it has allowed the 36-year stuntman the best of both worlds – an exciting, action-filled career that takes him all around the world, as well as allowing him plenty of R&R in West Cork, a place that he has only come to truly appreciate in the last five years.
As a younger man – and an out-and-out martial arts fanatic – Marc couldn’t wait to leave West Cork and had, rather hilariously, read and learned by rote almost every line in the The Lonely Planet guide to Hong Kong.
He travelled there at the age of 19, keen to be part of the authentic world of martial arts, and from the moment he arrived he not only knew where everything was, and how to get around, but he also had an immediate sense of being ‘at home.’
Marc went there in the year 2000 and stayed ‘on and off’ for the best part of five years. It wasn’t exactly salubrious. ‘I stayed everywhere including the dreaded Chunking Mansions and even slept in a 24-hour McDonalds because I couldn’t find, or afford, accommodation.
‘But when you are young, it is all part of the adventure,’ said Marc, who experienced it in the company of a lot of other stunt workers – all of whom came to Hong Kong for exactly the same reason and remain, to this day, his very good friends.
‘I learned what I needed to learn, but I’d have to say I did it the hard way because of the nature of Hong Kong stunt work, which is very badly paid and very dangerous because there is very little health and safety when you compare it to stunt work in Europe and America.
‘It gave me the foundation to become a member of Stunt Guild Ireland. That was six years ago and I still count my blessings that I was accepted as a member because it is a notoriously difficult business to crack.
‘I got a foot in the door because I had served my time in Hong Kong and had an extensive number of movie credits, working with the likes of Mila Jovovich on Ultra Violet and Paul Rudd on Gen Y Cops, which was a Jackie Chan production.
‘Meeting Jackie Chan in Hong Kong was probably the highlight of my time there. I mean, I was 19 or 20 and this guy was (still is) a legend to me because there is no one (and I mean no one) who has been so consistently brilliant. He is a martial artist beyond compare.’
Marc has always been dedicated to his fitness and set very high standards for himself. A childhood background in gymnastics stood to him and his training in Tae Kwon Do and kick boxing with his good friend, Ian Kingston, refined his ability – the hallmark of which is his extreme flexibility, his precision in terms of martial arts choreography, and his stamina.
All of these abilities have helped him to become an all-round martial arts stunt performer. Of course, his idiotic sense of humour continues to endear him to his friends. Really, anyone who knows him will know that his self-depreciating humour is what makes time spent in his company memorable.
Marc has a lot of friends in the Stunt Guild and here in West Cork, where he now lives with his partner of the last five-years, the beautiful Britta, who is originally from Augsburg in Germany.
Marc’s mom, Heidi, is also from Germany, but being married to singer-songwriter Des Redmond for 40-plus years means she has a wonderful Dublin accent.
All of them are a close-knit unit. Together they run Driftwood country hostel at Dromig outside Skibbereen, while Marc’s brother, Chris – who previously worked for Russia Today – is now back in Dublin completing his Masters.
At Driftwood, Marc has created his own Dojo training area where he and his mates keep their fitness levels up during the off-season.
Marc is currently ‘resting’ in West Cork having completed filming Game of Thrones in December, Penny Dreadful in January, Vikings in February, and Ripper Street in April. On Sunday, April 24th, the long-awaited return of Game of Thrones had people glued to their TV sets for the first instalment of season six. Of course, fans will already know that the last episode in season five ended with the fatal stabbing of Jon Snow.
Marc, like most movie business types, has taken an oath of silence and cannot be persuaded to comment on what will happen next.
He did, however, say that Kit Harington is ‘a fit, well-able actor, who is up for doing a lot of the action in Game of Thrones himself, but when it comes to some of the more dangerous stunts that is when I stepped in.’
Marc – in that funny way of his – described his job as being ‘a dope on a rope’ and, yes, it is dangerous but he is quick to point out that the danger is mitigated by the fact that they rehearse for weeks and months before filming starts and take every precaution possible.
‘The job is physically demanding – very early mornings (4am) and late knock-off (8pm) – sometimes rehearsing all day, working choreography for fights and preparing stunts including wire work, high falls, or fire work.’
Since he returned to Ireland five years ago, Marc has been in demand for key fights scenes and wire work (hence the dope on a rope remark) including the famous scene from Game of Thrones where a white walker throws Jon Snow off a balcony.
Regardless of who dies on set, Marc will continue to be in demand on Game of Thrones because his skills extend beyond doubling for Kit Harington, having also done stunts as a ‘wildling’ and a ‘nights watch’.
When Vikings is being filmed, Marc can be seen around West Cork looking slightly the worse for wear. ‘They won’t let us cut our hair, or shave, so, yeah, there are times when you do feel a bit like a wildling,’ said Marc, who is currently clean-shaven, coiffed and looking rather fragrant.
Marc recalls that for years he considered West Cork to be small, boring and lifeless. ‘Now,’ he added, ‘I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.’
His Road to Damascus moment was ‘a gradual thing.’ Over time, he said: ‘I have come to appreciate the pace of life and the freedom that you have in West Cork. The people here make it. And the food. Definitely, the food,’ he said with his trademark grin.ABOUT THE REDWOODS TREEHOUSE
The Redwoods Treehouse was commissioned as part of a marketing campaign by the Yellow Pages in 2008. The result is a striking pod-shaped structure built ten metres high in a redwood tree near Warkworth, north of Auckland. Access to the Treehouse is provided by an elevated treetop walkway. The Redwoods Treehouse is now available for hire as a private venue for corporate events, work parties, product launches, intimate weddings and other celebrations. You cannot book for individual dining.
CLICK HERE to see more about how it all came together.
When the campaign was complete, ownership passed to the landowner. The Redwoods Treehouse is now available for hire as a private venue for corporate events, work parties, product launches, intimate weddings and other celebrations.
The Redwoods Treehouse is a unique and versatile venue. The pod itself holds 30 guests at seated tables or 50 guests for a stand-up function.
The venue has a dedicated private road entry. All catering must be organised through one of our three preferred suppliers, to ensure your experience with us is as special as it should be. All you need to do is choose your menu then sit back and enjoy this first-class venue.
Venue hire of the Redwoods Treehouse is $3,000.00 plus GST. Food, beverage and related expenses are additional.
Please note that the Redwoods Treehouse isn’t open for casual restaurant dining.The building blocks of a masterpiece: Hands on - SimCity (PC)
Given an hour to play through beta version of the game
In-depth tutorial mode makes constructing a city a breeze
Stunningly-detailed graphics - 'Sims' visible if zoomed in close enough
In January, Maxis announced that it would be opening its doors to the its highly anticipated upcoming PC title SimCity to fans and gamers through hosting a weekend of closed beta testing.
Daily Mail Games was one of those who enjoyed some early access SimCity enjoyment.
Crash and burn: As mentioned in our interview with Ocean Quigley, there are lots of hazards ranging from asteroid strikes to the more bizarre, alien abductions
We recently interviewed Ocean Quigley about rebuilding the classic series and now thousands of lucky gamers have had a taste of just how far SimCity has come.
Players were invited to experience the games tutorial mode and then given free reign with an hour's maximum gameplay.
If you enjoyed the beta as much as we did, an hour wasn’t nearly enough time.
SimCity have been generous with their gameplay videos and screenshots so gamers have known what to expect when they sank their teeth into this city-building monster.
The tutorial takes you through the basics of gameplay and how to set the foundations for your city including how to manage your power, water, waste and sewage systems – vital attributes if your city is going to flourish.
The game is powered by the GlassBox engine and is visually beautiful. Just by using the mouse, players can tilt the camera angle, zoom in and see ‘Sims’ going about their business and zoom out to admire the growth of the city.
Overlay maps allow players to see better areas to place water towers, areas of high crime or sewage. These feedback views are a great way for city-builders to plan and react to the natural growth of their city.
Whilst some aspects of the game were locked in this build, most players will agree that more than enough fun could be had in the hour given.
Plus, the addition of curved roads is a much demanded aspect missing from previous games.
Release is scheduled for March 5.
NOW WATCH SIMCITY'S GLASSBOX ENGINE IN ACTION:
Follow us on Twitter: @DailyMailGames and on Facebook: Daily Mail Games.Fetuses yawn in the womb, according to new research
Fetus yawning
We know that unborn babies hiccup, swallow and stretch in the womb but new observational research concludes that they also yawn.
The 4D scans of 15 healthy fetuses, by Durham and Lancaster Universities, also suggest that yawning is |
source, you are taking a risk that is not worth it. So before you listen to someone about the hobby, make sure that at the very least they have a tank and even better see that what they are doing is how you want your tank to look. Even simpler just ask how long they have been doing this or doing what they are promoting, but do it in a nice way, as most people in the hobby actually mean well.
This other article by Mark van der Wal is a great read to follow up: Reef Aquarium DemagoguesMy answer is that the current Haskell implementations aren't as fast as the C++ implementations, and it's not tied to abstractions or being high-level at all, as most argue.
In fact, I argue that Haskell code should be typically faster *gasp*, because the more abstract & high-level you are, the more the brutally aggressive optimizations can be performed on your code (there are more semantics for the compiler & optimizer to work with). Brutal enough that you get an entirely different program, and you don't even have to worry about inconsistencies, because your program before and your program after the optimizations are proven to be equal.
We're not there yet, although even now it's safe to say that GHC is just an amazing compiler. For example, in GHC with fusion you can write your algorithm in the pure, high, abstract world of Haskell, and the compiler will generate a completely different algorithm which is much much faster on the machine. I am not kidding. (iirc Don Stewart demonstrated that in his blog).
So why aren't we there yet? well, it's horrifyingly sad to say but Haskell is not very mainstream (if you consider it mainstream at all). There aren't nearly as many people researching, investing money, and optimizing our Haskell compilers, as there is for C++ and its compilers.
But you know what? I think Haskell performance right now (in GHC) are still incredible, because it's easy to find benchmarks in which Haskell code outperformed another language's code with much more support and funding; even a few mainstream languages come to mind.
That tells you something, doesn't it?Woman Who Bragged That She Was 'The Queen Of Tax Fraud' On Facebook Gets 21 Years In Jail
from the seriously,-stop-breeding dept
"Go in after them? No, no, we just wait outside until they come stumbling out looking for a bathroom."
Image source: CC BY 2.0
The stupid never seems to stop when it comes to dumb criminals. Whether it's accidentally dialing 911 during their murder-plotting or jumping on YouTube to make sure grandma knows what a great little bank-robber you are, there's just something about these criminals that make them go internet stupid. How else could you explain when these guys bilk money out of companies and governments, then jump on Twitter to taunt the authorities? Criminals, by and large, are stupid.
Well, let's put another one up on our wall of jack-ass-ery, shall we? Meet Rashia Wilson of Tampa, Florida. Rashia is the self-proclaimed "queen of IRS tax fraud." And she self-proclaimed this everywhere, including on her very personal Facebook page which had her very verifiable name splashed all over it. And, I have to admit, Rashia was very good at IRS tax fraud.
Prosecutors have said Wilson was among the most brazen thieves to commit identity theft tax refund fraud in Tampa. In 2011, she boasted to be Tampa's "queen of IRS tax fraud" in a Facebook post while stealing as much as $20 million, according to court documents.
A prosecutor said Wilson used the money stolen from taxpayers for "personal greed and glorification." Wilson bought a $90,000 car and a $30,000 birthday party for her 1-year-old daughter with the money, according to court documents.
See? Really good. What she was less good at was keeping that hidden. After brazenly posting about how awesome at crime she was on Facebook, the authorities came more quickly than...no, you know what? I'm not going to make that joke. They just got her, okay?In any case, faced with 22 years in the clink, Rashia pleaded guilty and then wrote the court an apology letter and begged for leniency. The judge obliged, knocking a whole year off and saddling her with a measly 21 years in the federal pen. Nicely done, Rashia Wilson! Enjoy your stay!
Filed Under: bragging, criminals, irs, rashia wilson, social media, tax fraudBeginning next year, the RCMP is aiming for the first time to enroll just as many women as men in its training academy in Regina.
Some observers are skeptical whether there’s enough interest among women to reach the 50 per cent recruitment target — especially when a “masculine culture” still pervades the force.
But officials say they are determined to get the makeup of the force to be more representative of the communities they serve.
“It absolutely is ambitious. But in my position as part of this national police force I think it’s important that we’re a leader in employment equity hiring,” said Sgt. Marlene Bzdel, director of the national recruiting policy centre.
Currently, women represent about 21 per cent of sworn officers. Mounties want to increase that to 30 per cent by 2025.
In recent weeks, the RCMP has been highlighting on its website achievements of women over the past 40 years, such as the first female bomb technician and the first female emergency response team member.
The force — which is looking to send almost 1,000 cadets through the training academy during the 2014-15 fiscal year — is rolling out targeted advertising campaigns, women-only career presentations, assistance in preparing for the RCMP fitness test, and an accelerated application process.
Is it enough?
Karen Adams, a member of the RCMP’s first all-female troop in 1974, is a little skeptical. After a 28-year career as a Mountie, she spent another 11 teaching law enforcement at MacEwan University in Edmonton. “At most,” she said, one-fifth of her students were women.
While the force should be pushing for more diversity, Adams worries about pushing it too far.
“I think there needs to be a push, but not to the point where it’s unnatural — to where society doesn’t want or demand it or where young Canadians say we don’t want to be in that field.”
She also worries that standards for women will be lowered.
The RCMP was unable to say what percentage of its applicants are men versus women. Officials have previously said that the labour market availability of women interested in policing is about 27 per cent.
Officials, however, insist that recruitment standards between women and men are the same and will remain so.
“Our target of 50 per cent women (enrolment in the training academy) is a benchmark and not a quota,” Bzdel said. “Merit is important and the people we hire need to be qualified by our standards.”
The force’s female pioneers faced a lot of hostility from their male counterparts in those early days, Adams recalled. One male instructor walked into the classroom on the first day, slammed the door, and said to the female cadets: “What the f*** are you doing here?”
For a time, Adams was the only female Mountie in northern Manitoba. During one promotion party, a male Mountie grabbed her buttocks. She spun around and told him if he ever did that again, she would kill him.
“In my early postings, I had to depend on myself to deal with those situations by letting them know it wasn’t acceptable.”Fines, Pressure Close More San Jose Dispensaries
San Jose is serious about shutting down its legal marijuana industry.
A year ago, there were as many as 80 medical cannabis dispensaries in Northern California’s largest city. Last summer, the City Council passed strict new zoning controls that limited legal marijuana businesses to roughly 1 percent of city limits, according to some estimates, and followed that up in September by approving penalties of up to $50,000 for cannabis clubs that defied the ban.
Eighty became 40 and then 25. By December, the city announced that 19 of the 23 remaining dispensaries were out of compliance, “operating illegally,” and would face serious penalties if they remained open, KCBS reported.
The city has doled out $160,000 in fines to property owners renting to pot clubs, including $75,000 to one landlord, the radio station reported.
Any dispensary lucky enough to meet the city’s new requirements now has to pay an annual fee of $71,000 for a license, by far the most expensive permit in the Bay Area.
Providing a rare moment of sanity, City Councilman Ash Kalra said he’s worried this de facto ban on legal weed will encourage the black market just as “we’re seeing the end of prohibition.”Novelist John Le Carré Reflects On His Own 'Legacy' Of Spying
If John le Carré's espionage novels seem particularly authentic, it may be because the author has first-hand experience. Le Carré worked as a spy for the British intelligence services MI5 and MI6 early in his writing career, and only left the field after his third book, 1963's The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, became an international best-seller.
Le Carré's latest book, A Legacy of Spies, revisits some of the characters from his earlier novels, including his most famous protagonist, George Smiley. It follows a protégé of Smiley's, Peter Guillam, as he re-examines some of his actions from when he was a Cold War spy, including his role in the deaths of another agent and a recruit.
The novel mines the moral tension inherent in espionage — a tension le Carré himself remembers. "I felt I had to suppress my humanity," he says of his time as a spy. "The lies straight into the face, the befriending, the false befriending.... I suppose I've been a lot of people in my 85 years, not all of them very nice people."
He describes his path from spy to novelist as a "zig-zag journey," but notes that, ultimately, fiction writing has helped him understand himself better.
"When you really have to put a character together piece-by-piece, what makes it work is a piece of yourself," he says. "And until that happens, the character doesn't really have a being at all. So the real joining in fiction writing is that sense of finding all the possibilities of your own character and awarding them in an organized way to the different characters of your creation."
Interview Highlights
Enlarge this image toggle caption Sang Tan/AP Sang Tan/AP
On how his characters are less ideologically driven than they used to be, and how that's a reflection of the times
Back then, we had a clear philosophy which we thought we were protecting, and it was a notion of the West — it was a notion of individual freedom, of inclusiveness, of tolerance. All of that we called anti-communism. That was really a broad brush, because there were many decent people who lived in communist territories who weren't as bad as one might suppose.
Now, today, this present time in which these matters are being reconsidered in my novel — we seem to have no direction. We seem to be joined by nothing very much except fear and bewilderment about what the future holds. We have no coherent ideology in the West. And we used to believe in the great American example; I think that's recently been profoundly undermined for us. We are alone.
On his feeling that Brexit is a mistake
I feel most strongly about the timing of Brexit, which is appalling. At the very moment when Europe needs to be a coherent single block able to protect itself morally, politically and, if necessary, militarily, we've left it and we're stuck in the Atlantic and — as George Smiley remarks himself — [we're] citizens of nowhere at the moment.
On whether he looks back on his intelligence career with regret
Yes, I do. I regret in my student days posing as a crypto-communist and trying to attract Soviet recruiters in those days. I was sort of half successful — I got picked up and flirted with by a Russian recruiter in the Soviet embassy in London, and it all came to nothing. Perhaps I wasn't clever enough or perhaps I was compromised by somebody else. But in the course of posing as that person, I had to sign up as some kind of secret communist, and that meant deceiving my colleagues and my fellow students, and looking back on that I feel very queasy about it.
On the compromises he made as a spy
Where I was asking people to do things, I tried to persuade them that they were doing it for the greater good and I was doing it for the greater good. Where I had to deceive people, I felt I was doing that for the greater good, too. But then you get alongside the borderline of how much of this stuff can we do and remain a society that is worth protecting.... I did what I think was probably, in the end, the right thing. We expect intelligence services to deliver, but then when we're asked to get our own hands dirty, we get squeamish about it.
On growing up with a con man dad, and how his childhood prepared him to be a spy
My father was a compulsive liar and in and out of jail, and the people around him were tremendously colorful, amusing people.... I think my own alienation from my environment left me solitary and more reflective; more watchful of other people around me. I think survival, early survival, requires that you have a quick read of people — you can understand them quickly, relate to them quickly, you can scent them in an almost animal way, perhaps sooner, more quickly, than people who had a more settled childhood. So you understand people's defenses better....
At the age of 5, my mother disappeared. And after that, it was living in the wake of this maverick fellow, who often was enchanting, for a long time. That was my world.... I spent a lot of time, if he left the house, going through his pockets and things, trying to figure out what was going on. We were displaced repeatedly by angry debtors. For quite long periods he was on the run. He was on the run in the United States even, wanted by the forces of the law.
He filled my head with a great lot of truthless material, which I found it necessary to check out as a child, with time. Yes, in that sense, these were the early makings of a spy.... His great passion, which he achieved, was to turn me into a seeming gentleman.
Sam Briger and Mooj Zadie produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Nicole Cohen adapted it for the Web.The 42-year-old "struck a deal" with the schoolboys aged 13 and 14 after she was dumped by her boyfriend for another woman, it was alleged.
She is said to have asked them to damage the car of his new girlfriend Stacey Allright in return for sex.
The teenagers went and found Miss Allright's Peugeot 306 which they smashed up and brought Travi the number plate to prove they kept their end of the deal, it was said.
Travi was "as good as her word" and allegedly had full sex with the older boy in the bedroom of her home while her children weren't there before summoning the second one upstairs.
The mother-of-five had sexual intercourse with the younger boy before they both left, the court heard.
She allegedly continued to keep in contact with the teenagers by sending them sexual text messages while they were at school.
The court heard evidence she had been in touch with one of the boys, either by phone call or text, 548 times in the space of several months.
It was said she formulated a secret code with both boys and would text them it if she wanted to have sex. She ended up bedding the younger boy at least one more time, it was claimed.
It was only when the girlfriend of one of the teenagers discovered what had happened that they were encouraged to tell a school social worker five months later.
Travi, from Bournemouth, Dorset, was arrested and charged with sexual assault on the teenagers who are now aged 15 and 16.
Stephen Dent, prosecuting, told Bournemouth Crown Court the boys were part of a group of school pupils who used to visit her house and drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes.
In April 2010 Travi arranged for them to vandalise Miss Allright's car after ex-partner Daniel Burgiss dumped the defendant for her, the prosecuter claimed.
Mr Dent said: "Davina Travi treated children like adults. She was allowing them to drink and smoke in her house.
"That irresponsible attitude came to a peak when she decided to use them to get back at her former boyfriend by bribing them to damage his girlfriend's car for the reward of having sex with her; a reward that she gave them.
"She had a boyfriend, a man named Daniel Burgiss. He had just left her after a three month relationship.
"Davina tried to strike a deal with the boys, saying 'if you go round and smash up Daniel's girlfriend's car I will have sex with you'.
"The (younger) boy said they agreed to it.
"Evidence was to come to light that this car had been smashed up.
"They had taken the registration plate back to Davina to prove they had done it and get sex.
"Davina was as good as her word and had sex with one boy then the other.
"Suffice to say initially Davina led one boy into the bedroom, had sex with him, kicked him out, brought the second boy in and had sex with him.
"As soon as they both finished having sex, both boys got up, left and went home."
The prosecuter said the school later became aware Travi was hosting parties for pupils and warned other parents not to let their children go there.
Mr Dent added: "She had already slept with two of them."
Mr Dent said the younger boy claimed a few days later he went round to Travi's house and had sex with her a second time.
He said: "They agreed that if Davina wanted sex she would text three question marks to them.
"He says that Davina regularly sent that to them both."
Mr Dent said the boys had been willing participants, but were not legally capable of giving their consent.
He said: "At the age of 13 a lot of boys have hormones coursing through their veins and are perfectly capable and willing to have sex but they are mentally immature.
"They are not able to properly decide whether they should have sex and they are unable to deal with the potential consequences."
Miss Allright suspected Travi was responsible for the damage to her car as she had allegedy received a threatening text from her in the past.
Travi denies three counts of sexual activity with a child. She is said to have told police that a medical condition made it difficult for her to have sex.
The trial continues.Posted 05 May 2013 16:03 CET by Wendy Robertson
Page 1 - Introduction Page 2 - Test PC and testing procedures Page 3 - Synthetic benchmarks Page 4 - IOMeter test results Page 5 - Real world tests Page 6 - Final thoughts and the conclusion
Article: Beyond USB3, with UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) Article by: Wendy Robertson
Computer technology moves forward at a frightful pace, and what is new today becomes old hat very quickly. USB has been around for a while, the original USB1 specification being ratified in 1996, and first appearing in PCs around 1998. This original specification of USB was to provide a universal high speed peripheral connection that could be used for anything from a printer, to an optical drive, and a myriad of other things in between. The original USB specification was 12Mbps, and was rapidly found to be too slow for many of the peripherals, supporting a USB connection, that were soon onto the market.
In April 2000 the USB2 specification was announced, and incorporated into motherboards and peripherals alike. The USB2 specification had a maximum bandwidth of 480Mbps and, at the time, could cope with the speed of most of the peripherals that were around. Members here at Myce.com have been using USB2 enclosures to house their optical drives for years, and which up until 16x DVD burners surfaced could cope quite easily with the transfer rate required for burning at maximum speed.
Hard drives of course were another matter altogether with transfers speeds of over 200MB/s, USB2 speeds are just too slow. The great hope was in a much faster USB interface, and in 2010 USB3 (Superspeed USB) appeared. USB 3 has a maximum bandwidth of 5Gbps, which is over 10x the bandwidth of USB2, and it’s not only the bandwidth available that sets USB2 and USB3 apart. USB3 is full duplex whereas USB2 is only half duplex, so at least in theory, USB3 could be 20 times faster than USB2, which is quite a significant upgrade to the specification.
Now let’s fast forward to the present day. Whilst USB3 certainly has the bandwidth to cope with even the fastest of HDDs, things are not so great when you connect an SSD to USB3. Although USB3 has 5Gbps bandwidth, when you take overheads into consideration, then the maximum speed you can expect from USB3 is around 450MB/s. Modern SSDs are capable of transfer rates in excess of 550MB/s. However, it isn’t so much the reduced bandwidth on USB3 when compared to SATA 6Gbps that is the problem for SSDs, it’s the lack of NCQ (Native Command Queuing) that is the real difficulty.
The protocol that USB uses is BOT mode (Bulk Only Transfer). BOT mode is pretty inefficient as it can only deal with bulk transfer requests. It has no provision for queuing commands, therefore each transaction has to be completed, before the next command can be sent to the storage device.
Enter USB3 UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol). UASP allows NCQ over USB, and therefore scalable queue depth performance, which is a definite plus for SSDs. UASP also supports ‘out of order’ commands, and ‘streams’. Commands can be sent to the device buffer, where the host system will receive an acknowledge command that the transfer has been completed, even although the transaction may only be stored in a temporary buffer. This allows the next transaction to be sent or received, and the device is free to commit the transaction when it’s convenient. ‘Streams’ allow a large number of logical streams within an endpoint, further improving efficiency.
UASP is implemented at the hardware, firmware, driver, and operating system level, which are all required for UASP to function. At the moment there are only two USB3 chipsets I know of that support UASP. The Intel Ivy Bridge ‘Panther Point’ platform (Z77) native USB3 controller, and the ASMedia ASM1042 USB3 controller, which is integrated into several Z77 motherboards to give additional USB3 ports.
At the operating system level, the ASMedia USB3 UASP solution is supported under Windows 7 and Windows 8. The native Intel USB3 UASP solution is only supported under Windows 8. To further complicate matters, not all Z77 motherboards support USB3 UASP. A license is required to implement UASP, and not all motherboard manufacturers are prepared to pass on the extra cost of this license to the end user. This is a great pity, as USB3 UASP certainly provides a means to get the very best performance out of an HDD, and especially an SSD when connected via USB3.
In this article I will be putting USB3 UASP through its paces, and examining its performance, so let’s look at the hardware I will be using in this article.
Motherboard
Asus P8Z77 V Deluxe
The Asus P8Z77 V Deluxe is near the top of the Asus range of Z77 motherboards, offering 4x Intel native USB3 ports, and an additional 4x USB3 via the onboard ASMedia ASM1042 USB3 chipset.
USB3 UASP enabled docking station
ThermalTake BlacX 5G ST0019U
USB3 UASP mode supported
The ThermalTake BlacX 5G (ST0019U) uses an ASMedia USB3 to SATA3 bridge, and also supports the UASP standard. The dock can accommodate 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch drives.
USB3 BOT mode (normal USB3) 2.5 inch external drive enclosure
SilverStone Raven SST-RVS02
USB3 BOT mode (normal USB3)
The SilverStone Raven SST-RVS02 2.5 inch external drive enclosure uses the same ASMedia USB3 to SATA3 bridge found in the ThermalTake BlacX 5G, but this time USB3 UASP is not enabled.
Tested SSDs
Intel 520 240GB
For synthetic benchmarks, the Intel 520 series SSD was used for the tests.
Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB
For the real world copy tests, the Corsair Neutron GTX was chosen. The test data used in the real world tests is generally incompressible, and I felt it was important to use an SSD for the copy tests that wouldn’t be affected by having to write incompressible data. After all, it’s not the SSD performance I’m measuring, it’s the speed of the interface that it’s connected to that I’m testing.
Let’s head to the next page where we take a look at our testing methods and the review PC.Hold It Right There!
Can you get stronger by not moving a muscle? According to the scientific literature, yes, you sure can! Isometric or "static" training has been shown to stimulate strength gains in numerous studies. In the real world, I've been using it with success for years in my own training and with my athletes.
But can isometric training increase muscle mass as well as strength? There's very little info out there on this topic. In fact, the literature seems to be telling us that isometrics can lead to strength gains without influencing muscle mass. So, understandably, this form of training never made it into the bodybuilding world. That's too bad because it can be an effective tool for muscle gains!
Isometric Action Training: A New Dimension
An isometric muscle action refers to exerting muscle strength/muscle tension without producing an actual movement or a change in muscle length. Examples of isometric action training include:
Holding a weight at a certain position in the range of motion. Example: Holding a hammer curl statically at about mid-range for a certain amount of time. Pushing or pulling against an immovable external resistance. Example: The iso-pull shown below.
Historically, it's believed that we can produce more strength in a maximum isometric action than in a concentric contraction. While some studies do find a slight difference, Soviet literature concludes "...there is not a statistically significant difference between the maximum strength, as measured in a static regime, and the maximum weight that can be lifted in the same movement." (1)
While probably not as effective as yielding or overcoming training, isometric training can still be of significant benefit to most athletes.
Isometric Action: Muscle Activation Potentiator
One of the most important benefits of isometric action training is that it's the contraction regimen that leads to the greatest activation level. "Activation" refers to the recruitment of the muscle's motor-units.
A recent study comparing the level of muscle activation during isometric, concentric, and eccentric muscle actions found that a person can recruit over 5% more motor-units/muscle fibers during a maximal isometric muscle action than during either a maximal eccentric (lowering) or maximal concentric (lifting) action; that's 95.2% for isometric compared to 88.3% for the eccentric and 89.7% for the concentric. (2)
These findings are in accordance with the body of literature that finds that a person can recruit almost all motor-units during a maximal isometric action. (3) What this tells us is that isometric training can improve our capacity to recruit motor units during a maximal contraction. In the long run, this improved neural drive could greatly increase one's strength production potential!
In the past, isometric exercises have been described as a technique that should only be used by advanced lifters. I beg to differ. One of the biggest shortcomings of lower-class lifters is the incapacity to produce maximum intramuscular tension during a concentric contraction. Isometric exercise can thus be used to learn how to produce this high level of tension, as it requires less motor skills than the corresponding dynamic action. For this reason, I see isometric exercises as very beneficial for all classes of athletes.
A Stimulus for Strength Gains
Isometric action training (or IAT) can lead to significant strength gains, no question about that. In a recent experiment, strength gains of 14 to 40% were found over a ten-week period using isometric training.
However, it's important to understand that the strength gains from an isometric regimen occur chiefly at the joint angles being worked, although there's a positive transfer of 20 to 50% of the strength gained in a 20-degree range (working angle +/- 20 degrees). (5)
Some people might see this limitation as a negative aspect of isometric action training; however, some authors prefer to see this as a benefit because it allows you to exert a greater level of strength at a certain point in the motion, allowing the athlete to stimulate more strength gains at a point where he needs it the most (his sticking point).
So, the three benefits of isometric training can be summed up like this:
Maximum intramuscular tension is attained for only a brief period in dynamic exercises (mostly due to the fact that the resistance has velocity and acceleration components), while in isometric exercises you can sustain that maximal tension for a longer period of time. For example, instead of maintaining maximum intramuscular tension for 0.25 to 0.5 seconds in the concentric portion of a dynamic movement, you can sustain it for around three to six seconds during an isometric exercise. Strength is greatly influenced by the total time under maximal tension. If you can add 10 to 20 seconds of maximal intramuscular tension per session, then you increase your potential for strength gains. Isometric exercises can help you improve strength at a precise point in the range of motion (ROM) of an exercise. This can prove to be very valuable to get past plateaus due to a chronic sticking point. Isometric exercise isn't "energy expensive," meaning that you don't expend much energy by doing isometric training. So, you can get the benefits of IAT without interfering with the rest of your planned workout.
A Stimulus for Muscle Growth
While initial reports on isometric action training hypothesized that this type of training wouldn't lead to significant muscle gains due to the absence of work, recent findings indeed conclude that an isometric training regimen can lead to gains in muscle size!
A study by Kanchisa et al. (2002) found an average muscle cross-sectional area (size) improvement of 12.4% for maximal isometric contraction training and of 5.3% for isometric training at 60% of maximum contraction after a training period of ten weeks. The authors attributed the gain in muscle size to metabolic demands and endocrine activities rather than mechanical stress and neuromuscular control.
It's important to note that isometric action training still has limited applications for an athlete or bodybuilder. Yes, it can help increase strength and size, but without a concurrent dynamic (yielding and overcoming) program, the gains will be slow. In fact, some coaches note that gains from isometric exercises stop after six to eight weeks of use. (6) So while isometric training can be very helpful to work on a weak point or improve an athlete's capacity to activate motor-units, it should only be used for short periods of time when progress has slowed down or when a rapid strength improvement is needed.
Isometric training can also be useful during periods of lowered training volumes. When you have to decrease your training load either due to fatigue symptoms or time constraints, isometric work can help prevent muscle and strength losses.
The "New" Isometric Training
Many studies don't report a lot of muscle growth from isometric training. This is only because the old German model (Hettingter and Müller) of six-second actions was used in the initial experiments. This duration of effort, albeit adequate for strength gains, isn't sufficient to cause hypertrophic changes in the muscles. In other words, it won't make you big.
This form of training is called maximal intensity isometric training and it's similar in effect to the maximal effort method (1-5 reps with 90-100% of your max), which leads to strength gains with little, if any, muscle size gains. However, using sets lasting 20 to 60 seconds will represent an important hypertrophy stimulus, similar in nature to the repetitive effort method (8-12 reps with 70-80% of your maximum).
Another important point is that most studies performed on isometric training were short term, often using an insufficient period to stimulate a significant increase in muscle mass but sufficient to cause neural adaptations leading to strength gains.
Lastly, the fact that isometric training is often associated with programs such as the "Charles Atlas Dynamic Tension" certainly didn't help improve the image of isometrics among hardcore lifters!
Types of Isometric Training
Before I tell you how to use isometrics to gain muscle, it's important that you understand the various types of isometric training. First we have two isometric regimens: overcoming isometrics and yielding isometrics. Understand that this doesn't mean you're combining a concentric (or eccentric) action along with the isometric action. The actual external outcome of the exercise is the same: there's no movement at all. However, the intent during the exercise changes:
Overcoming Isometric: You're pushing or pulling against an immovable resistance (e.g. pushing against the pins in a rack). Thus there's no external movement but your intent is to move the resistance (even though that's impossible). Yielding Isometric: You're holding a weight and your objective is to prevent it from going down. Once again there's no external movement; however, your intent is no longer to move the load but to prevent its movement.
It's important to understand that both techniques won't have the same effect; for one thing, the neural patterns used in both cases will be different. Overcoming-isometrics may have a bigger impact on concentric strength and yielding-isometrics on eccentric strength and muscle mass.
The following figure shows what the various applications of isometric training are. The three types of applications are max duration isometrics (equivalent of the repetitive effort method), max intensity isometrics (equivalent of the maximum effort method), and ballistic isometrics (equivalent of the dynamic effort method). I'll briefly summarize all three of those applications, but for bodybuilding purposes, only the max duration method is useful.
Max Duration Isometric (Repetitive Effort)
With max duration isometric exercises you're pushing, pulling, or holding a submaximal load for as long as possible, going to muscle failure. For maximum effect you want to use sets ranging from 20 to 60 seconds in length. The effect of this type of training on muscle mass can be important as there's a very significant growth stimulus placed on all of the muscle fibers.
With this method you can use both overcoming-isometrics and yielding-isometrics. However, I find yielding isometrics (holding a weight) to be much superior when it comes to max duration isometric training. In this case, a load of 50 to 80% for a duration of 20 to 60 seconds is best.
Max Intensity Isometric (Maximum Effort)
The max intensity isometric method is related to the concentric maximum effort method. You'll try to maintain a maximum isometric action for 3-6 seconds. You can once again use either overcoming-isometrics or yielding-isometric, but in this case overcoming isometrics (pushing or pulling against pins or an immovable resistance) are best suited for that purpose and much safer.
This type of isometric training doesn't have a significant impact on muscle mass, however, it can increase muscle density and myogenic tone (also called "tonus" or the firmness/hardness of your muscles). Its main effect is on maximum strength development. This occurs specifically at the joint angle being trained, so you'll want to use multiple positions. There's also some evidence that maximum isometric training can improve the capacity to recruit and synchronize motor-units (intramuscular coordination) even in dynamic movements.
Even though overcoming-isometrics are best for this method, you can still use yielding-isometrics. In this case you'd use a load of 100 to 110% of your maximum.
Ballistic Isometric (Dynamic Effort Method)
Be careful not to mix up iso-ballistic (or stato-ballistic) training with the ballistic isometric method. Iso-ballistic is a mixed regime method in which an explosive action is preceded by an isometric pause.
The ballistic isometric method refers to pushing against an immovable resistance for a very brief period of time (one or two seconds) while trying to reach peak force output as fast as possible (basically trying to go from zero force to max force in a couple of seconds). You can't use the yielding-isometric method here as it doesn't suit the nature of the exercise – the nature being to produce maximum isometric tension is as little time as possible.
This type of exercise is especially good to develop starting-strength and is very useful for any athlete involved in a sport where explosive starts from a static position are involved. But for bodybuilding purposes, it's basically a waste of time.
Isometric Training for Bodybuilders
We've established that the only application of isometric training that bodybuilders should use is the maximum duration method, with a preference towards yielding-isometrics. That having been said, I personally use three variants of this type of training:
Stand-alone max duration yielding isometrics. Max duration yielding isometrics as post-fatigue. Max duration yielding isometrics as pre-fatigue.
Let's break those down:
1 – Stand-alone max duration yielding isometrics
This is your basic isometric training method. You select one exercise per muscle group and then three positions per exercise. Select a load you'll be able to hold for 20-60 seconds (I personally find 45 seconds to be the optimal duration). A load of 70-80% of your maximum will generally be a good starting point.
Perform anywhere from one to five "sets" per position, three being best in most cases:
Hold statically at mid-range. Hold statically at full contraction. Hold statically a few inches after the starting position.
Perform all the "sets" for a given position before moving on to the next one. Keep the rest intervals short; 60 seconds is a good target. This type of training |
they were significantly healthier. Men benefitted more than women, but for both genders, participation in leisure time physical activity was associated with healthier blood pressure and heart rates and lower risk scores for future cardiovascular diseases.
Few people would be surprised to see exercise associated with better health in yet another study, acknowledged lead author Xiaochin Lin, a doctoral candidate in the Brown University School of Public Health, but measuring the extent of the benefit can matter a great deal to policymakers as they formulate and fund ways to combat obesity, diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Rates of these conditions have been rising around the world, and Brazil is no exception. It is also one of the best examples of a racially diverse, democratic country that has become more urban and more economically developed — both possible corollaries of increasing cardiovascular risk — in the last several decades, Lin said.
“It’s almost common sense that obesity is bad for your health and physical activity is good, but the questions are how and of what magnitude,” Lin said.
A major study
To conduct her research, performed as part of the Brown Brazil Initiative in Global Health at the University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Lin worked with co-corresponding authors and longtime collaborators Dr. Simin Liu of Brown and Dr. Paulo Lotufo of the University of São Paolo, who is the principal investigator of the ELSA-Brasil study. With a total enrollment of 15,105 participants working at six universities around the country, it’s one of the largest public health studies in South America.
“We have a social gradient according to income and formal education,” Lotufo said. “Moreover, ELSA-Brasil assembles a racially admixed population with a mix of European, African and Amerindian ancestries.”
Liu said ELSA-Brasil’s strength is not only in who is participating, but also in what it measures.
“The ELSA-Brasil is the only prospective cohort with comprehensive assessment of socioeconomic, psychosocial, lifestyle, phenotypic and cardio-metabolic outcomes,” said Liu, who studies the complex roots of cardio-metabolic disease and has served on global health advisory boards of both the National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization. “In the long run, it will fill the gap in existing prospective studies and provide unique insights into the design of prevention trials in Brazil. This cohort is ideal for the identification of incident cardio-metabolic diseases and longitudinal changes in clinical and physiological variables as well as assessment of biomarkers for the comprehensive investigation of the biological mechanisms underlying cardio-metabolic health.”
Higher heart health
Lin’s analysis of baseline data from ELSA-Brasil quantified key differences between people who were active and those who were not on a variety of measures and scores projecting their future health risks.
On average, controlling for confounding factors such as age, body-mass index, smoking and alcohol use, women who were active had significantly lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures (1.33 and 0.79 millimeters of mercury respectively) and heart rates (1.96 beats per minute). Their risk of hypertension was 22 percent lower as was their risk of a worrisome prognosis from the Framingham Heart Study risk score for developing cardiovascular disease within 10 years.
Active men, on average, also had lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures (1.08 and 1.71 millimeters of mercury respectively) and heart rates (4.32 beats per minute). Their hypertension risk was 25 percent lower, and their risk of a troubling Framingham Heart Study 10-year risk score was 33 percent lower. Active men also had a significantly (27 percent) lower risk of future diabetes.
Brazil’s government has not been standing still, Lin said. Several recent programs have engaged the public to become more active and eat a healthier diet. The new analysis, and maybe the inspiration of the Olympics, could add further energy to encouraging more exercise.
In addition to Lin, Liu and Lotufo, the paper’s other authors are Sheila Alvim, Dr. Eduardo Simoes, Dr. Isabela Bensenor, Dr. Sandhi Barreto, Dr, Maria Schmidt, Dr. Antonio Ribeiro, Francisco Pitanga and Maria Almeida.
The Ministry of Health of Brazil funded the research. The team also received support from the Brazilian Council of Research, University of São Paolo, American Heart Association and Brown University’s Brazil Initiative.Jim Flaherty, a veteran of provincial and federal politics who steered the country’s economy as longtime finance minister has died. Flaherty, who stepped aside just a few weeks ago after an eight-year run as finance minister, suffered a medical crisis at his downtown condominium in Ottawa.
Jim Flaherty ( Justin Tang / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo )
His family issused a statement about his death, saying their “beloved husband and father passed away peacefully today in Ottawa.” “We appreciate that he was so well supported in his public life by Canadians from coast to coast to coast and by his international colleagues,” the statement said. The family asked for privacy.
Article Continued Below
The tragic news rocked Parliament Hill as the afternoon question period was suspended and MPs of all parties took turns consoling each other. “I'm stunned and saddened by this news. A very decent, honourable man,” tweeted NDP MP Nathan Cullen. Police and paramedics responded to the condo in the Byward Market for a medical call around 12.30 p.m. on Thursday. Ottawa police spokesperson Carole Lavigne confirmed the death of unidentified male in the condo unit. The call came in as “no vital signs available.” “It's a medical call. No foul play suspected. This is not considered a suspicious incident,” she said.
The Ontario Legislature also had a 20-minute recess now out of respect for Flaherty and his wife Christine Elliott, who serves as MPP, the Star’s Rob Benzie reports. Elliott was at Queen’s Park Thursday morning but flew to Ottawa.
Article Continued Below
Flaherty had been in ill health for some time though that was not cited as a reason for when stepped aside from cabinet earlier this year. On his final day in the post, he tweeted a picture of himself walking out his office door, hand raised in farewell. “It has been an honour to serve Canada. Thank you for the opportunity,” Flaherty said in a tweet.We have now concluded our investigation into the events that took place at the ASH event on 20th November.
Goldsmiths SU will be taking the following actions:
(i) We will arrange meetings with the Islamic and Atheist, Secularist and Humanist societies individually and identify actions that will be taken by each society. This may be followed by disciplinary action against individual society members and/or a society.
(ii) We will review our external speaker procedure and safe space policy in line with best practice from other institutions.
(iii) We will arrange a meeting with all our societies to brief them on the reviewed procedure, including our safe space policy. No society will be able to proceed with an external speaker event unless this briefing has been attended.
(iv) We will ensure that there is a comprehensive and compulsory annual training session for clubs and societies who wish to invite external speakers to events delivered as part of the training programme that takes place at the start of the year.
Equality, diversity and respect for others within the Goldsmiths community are core values at Goldsmiths SU and it's important that all of our Societies and Sports Clubs adhere to these values.This article is over 2 years old
Defection of Thae Yong Ho is coup for UK intelligence as diplomat could have useful knowledge of Kim Jong-un regime
A senior diplomat from the North Korean embassy in London has defected in the first case of its kind since official ties were established and the embassy opened 13 years ago.
Thae Yong Ho, who vanished earlier this month with his wife and children, was based at North Korea’s suburban embassy in Ealing, west London.
Seoul’s unification ministry confirmed on Wednesday he had recently defected to South Korea with his family.
Thae is the highest-level North Korean official to have defected to South Korea, Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman at the unification ministry, told a news conference.
He was “sick and tired of the Kim Jong-un regime”, yearned for a liberal and democratic country and was worried about his children’s future, Jeong said.
Jeong suggested that the case showed that disillusionment among North Korea’s ruling class was widespread, with the regime weakening and at “breaking point”.
One of five officials at the embassy in addition to the ambassador, Thae’s job was to keep track of North Korean defectors living in London. He was also tasked with rebutting UK criticism of his country’s human rights record, South Korean media reported.
A self-deprecating figure who speaks impeccable English, Thae appeared on video in 2013, addressing a meeting of the British Communist party.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thae Yong Ho on video in 2013
He also gave an address at a bookshop in King’s Cross in 2014 comparing life in London and Pyongyang.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thae Yong Ho speaking at Housmans bookshop
Thae’s younger son had attended a school in west London, and according to one of his classmates, he vanished in mid-July.
“We were really good friends. He was on Facebook every day and WhatsApp. Suddenly all his social media accounts went dark,” Louis Prior, 19, said.
Prior said his friend had been born in Denmark, where his father was posted. The family returned to North Korea and arrived in the UK four years ago.
Thae’s son had taken his A-levels and was about to take up a place at Imperial College London, studying maths and computer science.
“We have been really worried about him. We all tried his phone. It’s been blocked. He’s a good mate. He just vanished,” Prior said.
The defection is a coup for British and other western intelligence agencies. John Nilsson-Wright, the head of the Asia programme at Chatham House, said the diplomat could have useful insider information on Kim Jong-un’s secretive regime.
The North Korean embassy – would you believe it's here? Read more
“These senior officials are smart, accomplished, well-trained individuals with high levels of English. If sent abroad they don’t spend their time going to cocktail parties. They will be energetic in other activities, including using foul means or fair,” he said.
Intelligence agencies would want to question Thae about Kim’s leadership, the stability of his regime and the fate of senior members of the previous government, some of whom have been purged and executed.
“They would want insight into the last three or four years since he took over,” Nillson-Wright said.
Nillson-Wright described relations between the UK and North Korea as complicated and variegated. Britain has had an ambassador in Pyongyang since 2001. There is an ongoing cultural dialogue, including academic exchanges whereby North Korean students can study at Cambridge university.
North Korea’s foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, is a former ambassador to London, and has close ties with the current incumbent, Hyun Hak-bong.
The original tipoff that an official had fled came from an anonymous source inside North Korea, NK News reported on Tuesday.
Defecting from North Korea is risky. The regime usually exacts revenge on relatives and friends at home. It has also been known to pursue defectors abroad and, if it finds them, to “mete out draconian punishment”, Nillson-Wright said.Share. It's "on the agenda." It's "on the agenda."
Exit Theatre Mode
Microsoft has announced Xbox Live's digital prices may be revised, as the company is planning to reassess how competitive current listings are.
The news comes courtesy of Microsoft's Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb, who jumped into a Reddit thread lamenting how digital downloads are often more expensive than retail offerings.
Exit Theatre Mode
"We are way aware of this and many of the concerns of the community," he said, before reassuring commenters that competitive pricing is "on the agenda."
The company caught some flack in December when it made the decision to raise the price of a number of Xbox One digital titles. Hopefully this means the change could be reversed at some stage in the future.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a radical anti-LGBT event in being held in Orlando this week exactly two months after the Pulse nightclub shooting, according to news reports from Jenna Browder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News.
As we reported last week, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and a host of anti-LGBT extremists are slated to address the “Rediscovering God in America” event, which is sponsored by the American Renewal Project.
Self-described “political operative” David Lane founded the American Renewal Project as a way to mobilize conservative Christian voters and inspire right-wing pastors to run for elected office. He told Jacobs that he intends to quiz Trump on how he plans to fight “homosexual totalitarianism” and the gay rights “militants.”
Lane, a vocal opponent of LGBT equality, has said that “homosexuals praying at the Inauguration” in 2012 would cause “car bombs in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Des Moines, Iowa” as a sign of God’s judgment and that the “pagan onslaught” of the LGBT rights movement will lead to the destruction of America.
According to an invitation posted by the group Liberty Counsel Action, the speakers will also include:
Maine pastor Ken Graves preaches against “militant homofascism” that he says “seeks to take over our land and make it Sodom” and argues that gay people cannot build happy families because they are “depressed.”
Bill Federer, a Religious Right activist and conspiracy theorist, believes that gay rights are bringing about the Islamist takeover of America.
Despite his own anti-LGBT record, Trump depicts himself as a champion of the LGBT community and demands that reporters “ask the gays” how much they support him.
Equality Florida plans to protest the event, citing the extremists addressing the rally, and Florida’s two Democratic senatorial candidates have criticized Rubio for his scheduled appearance.Note: By submitting this form, you agree to Third Door Media's terms. We respect your privacy.
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The news keeps getting worse for Facebook. First, the IPO didn’t do as well as expected, though it made lots of people at Facebook very wealthy. Then came news that Facebook’s underwriters (banks) had to intervene on Friday to keep the stock from falling below the $38 offering price because demand was weaker than expected.
On Monday and yesterday Facebook shares fell (well) below $38, erasing about $40 billion in market value. And today the company is being sued by shareholders for failing to disclose that Q2 revenues were going to be weaker than previously expected: $1.11 billion vs. roughly $1.17 billion estimated.
Apparently this news of weakening revenue growth was disclosed selectively to certain major, institutional investors but not universally to investors according to Business Insider. The report says that someone within Facebook told the big banks involved in the IPO to cut their earnings estimates. Apparently this is uncommon if not unprecedented during an IPO roadshow.
That news is largely what caused demand for the IPO to falter. And while the information about slowing revenue growth was obliquely disclosed in an amended S-1 filing, the information on which it was based was apparently not made universally clear to investors according to several reports.
This is the basis of the lawsuit just filed against CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the company. There are also suggestions that some SEC regulations might have been violated by this selective disclosure or non-disclosure as the case may be. Regulators are now investigating.
The fallout from the IPO “scandal” promises to be a distraction for Facebook for some time. It appears the shareholder suit may have some merit. It also appears that the stock may not yet have settled.
Welcome to life as a public company.A program in Miami-Dade County addressing the social, human services and educational needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community is now available.
Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders (SAGE USA) has launched SAGE Miami, established in partnership with Jewish Community Services of South Florida (JCS).
A celebration of SAGE Miami's launch recently took place at Temple Israel of Greater Miami. The event featured remarks by Donna Lise Dambrot, SAGE Miami's program manager; Fred Stock, JCS' president and chief executive officer; Joan Schaeffer, JCS liaison to the LGBT elder community; and keynote speaker Ruth Shack, who sponsored the 1977 Human Rights Ordinance as a member of the Miami-Dade County Commission.
As the newest member of SAGE USA's national network of 30 affiliates across 20 states and the District of Columbia, SAGE Miami is positioned to rapidly implement and customize local services and programming that can meet the unique needs of LGBT older adults in the Miami-Dade area. Offering programs in both English and Spanish, it provides opportunities for elders to gather, cultivate new friendships, support one another and learn together.
JCS, which has focused on meeting the needs of older adults since it was established in 1920, began offering services specifically to meet the needs of LGBT older adults in 2010. As a result of this new partnership with SAGE Miami, the social services agency has expanded programming to LGBT elders.
CAPTION Rabbi Merle’s Singer’s fight against Parkinson’s disease is the subject of a documentary being aired over the next few nights on WXEL and WPBT. Rabbi Merle’s Singer’s fight against Parkinson’s disease is the subject of a documentary being aired over the next few nights on WXEL and WPBT. CAPTION Rabbi Merle’s Singer’s fight against Parkinson’s disease is the subject of a documentary being aired over the next few nights on WXEL and WPBT. Rabbi Merle’s Singer’s fight against Parkinson’s disease is the subject of a documentary being aired over the next few nights on WXEL and WPBT. CAPTION Israeli police say they have arrested a 19-year-old Israeli Jewish man as the primary suspect in a string of bomb threats targeting Jewish community centers in the U.S. Israeli police say they have arrested a 19-year-old Israeli Jewish man as the primary suspect in a string of bomb threats targeting Jewish community centers in the U.S. CAPTION James Gonzalo Medina's trial is scheduled for August 21 in Miami. He has until May 26 to decide if he wants to plead guilty. James Gonzalo Medina's trial is scheduled for August 21 in Miami. He has until May 26 to decide if he wants to plead guilty. CAPTION Students were evacuated Tuesday, March 7, 2017 from the David Posnack Hebrew Day School on the Jewish Community Center campus because of a telephoned bomb threat. Students were evacuated Tuesday, March 7, 2017 from the David Posnack Hebrew Day School on the Jewish Community Center campus because of a telephoned bomb threat. CAPTION The Cupboard in Davie offers an all-kosher feeding program and what's known as a "choice-market" pantry, where limited-income people can shop for what they want. The Cupboard in Davie offers an all-kosher feeding program and what's known as a "choice-market" pantry, where limited-income people can shop for what they want.
"JCS's affiliation with SAGE is a natural evolution of our mission and of the work we do every day in Miami with the LGBT community and with senior adults," Stock said. "SAGE Miami will enable JCS to reach an underserved community whose members are often isolated with culturally sensitive and much needed programming in a welcoming and inclusive environment."
Stock noted that one of the most significant needs in the local LGBT elder community that they intend to address relates to housing.
"There is a lack of what I would call LGBT friendly affordable housing in this community. Now it's acknowledged there are issues with affordable housing in a general sense, but most of the housing that's available in this particular community is not friendly towards the LGBT community."
Schaeffer said : "Like many communities, the LGBT community has always been very focused on youths, which is not a bad thing, but we're getting older and we need to consider the people who got us here, and they're the seniors."
During her welcoming remarks at the launch event, Dambrot said that "it's time to care for our elders who paved the way for all we have now."
Dambrot also took a moment to thank the driving forces of bringing SAGE locally: Hector Zuazo and Robert Medina of Miami.
"I'm so excited that we finally have SAGE here," Zuazo said. "When you get to be my age, you feel like you're running out of time so this is so exciting and so rewarding."
Shack expressed in her keynote presentation that she's thrilled SAGE is now in Miami and that she's delighted that JCS is a partner.
"I congratulate each of you and I thank you for putting this in place at this time," she remarked.
Visit jcsfl.org/programs/sage-miami/ or call 305-403-4409 for more information.Whoopi Goldberg has plenty of questions about Donald Trump, and she was serious about seeking answers when his campaign manager appeared on The View Thursday.
Sitting across from Kellyanne Conway at the talk show’s famous glass table, the cohosts asked why her boss body-shamed women, refused to appear on the show, and didn’t share specifics about his policy plans. But the most intense moment came when Goldberg asked why Trump isn’t releasing his tax returns to the public. After Conway discussed her belief that Trump has more stamina than his rival Hillary Clinton and avoided cohost Joy Behar’s questions about Trump’s sniffles during the presidential debate, Conway tried to shift the conversation to Clinton’s email scandal. Goldberg wasn’t having any of it.
“Here’s the problem, Kelly. And once you open that can of worms, we have to then open your can of worms,” Goldberg started off. “He said he’ll release the tax returns when her emails are released. Where are his damn tax returns and why don’t we know what he spent? Where is it? Because I know what size Hillary Clinton’s bra cup is, I know how much she spent on her bra — the transparency is insane.”
Conway once again attempted to bring the discussion back to Clinton’s emails. “I don’t want to know that about her,” she responded. “What I want to know is what she was hiding in those 33,000 emails she deleted.”
That didn’t satisfy Goldberg, who continued to pressure Conway into answering the question. Conway began to echo Trump’s argument for not releasing the tax returns while he’s under audit by the IRS.
“It’s bull,” said Goldberg. “What is he hiding?”
Before the other hosts steered the conversation in another direction, Conway responded, “He’s not hiding anything.”
Goldberg later took on a new topic: why Trump himself wouldn’t appear on The View. “I’m glad to see you here,” she said. “It would have been nice if he had showed up, because I noticed he goes to all the shows where the guys are. How come he didn’t come today?”
Conway said she’d share the invitation, only for Goldberg to highlight how he had been invited to appear on the show numerous times. As Conway tried to explain that he’s not often in New York, where The View is taped, Goldberg said, “Honey, I’m a New Yorker. Don’t B.S. a B.S.er.”
Watch Goldberg question Conway in the clips above and below.Trade Agreements Are Designed To Give Companies Corporate Sovereignty
from the above-the-law dept
One of the difficulties of making people aware of the huge impact that investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses in TPP and TAFTA/TTIP are likely to have on their lives, is that the name is so boring, and so they tend to assume that what it describes is also boring and not worth worrying about. And yet what began as an entirely reasonable system for protecting investments in emerging economies with weak judiciaries, through the use of independent tribunals, has turned into a monster that now allows companies to place themselves above national laws, as Techdirt has reported before.
The acronym "ISDS" just doesn't capture any of that, so during a conversation on Twitter with Maira Sutton, Jamie Love and a couple of Techdirters (Mike and me), Joe Karaganis came up with a great alternative: "corporate sovereignty". That, in a couple of words, is what ISDS is really all about. It represents the rise of the corporation as an equal of the nation state, endowed with a financial sovereignty that allows it to claim compensation if its expectation of future profits is somehow diminished by a country's courts or legislative changes.
A link-rich page on Public Citizen's "Eyes on Trade" blog provides a timely introduction to the field. It's based on another interesting, but slightly more academic post by Todd N. Tucker, found on the Investment Policy Hub of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). That organization produces an extremely valuable annual review of the whole area of ISDS/corporate sovereignty, which is recommended if you want to get all the facts and figures.
Here's Public Citizen's summary of perhaps the most blatant attempt to assert corporate sovereignty so far: In one of the Chevron v. Ecuador cases, a three-person tribunal last year ordered Ecuador's government to interfere in the operations of its independent court system on behalf of Chevron by suspending enforcement of a historic $18 billion judgment against the oil corporation for mass contamination of the Amazonian rain forest. The ruling against Chevron, rendered by Ecuador's courts, was the result of 18 years of litigation in both the U.S. and Ecuadorian legal systems. Ecuador had explained to the panel that compliance with any order to suspend enforcement of the ruling would violate the separation of powers enshrined in the country’s Constitution -- as in the United States, Ecuador's executive branch is constitutionally prohibited from interfering with the independent judiciary. Undeterred, the tribunal proceeded to order Ecuador "to take all measures at its disposal to suspend or cause to be suspended the enforcement or recognition within and without Ecuador of any judgment [against Chevron]." As that notes, the tribunal was essentially telling the Ecuadorean government to place Chevron above the country's constitution -- an extraordinary state of affairs: imagine if the US government were ordered to do the same. Unfortunately, Ecuador's situation is one that is likely to become more common if the corporate sovereignty sections of TPP and TAFTA/TTIP make it into the final versions of those treaties.
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Filed Under: corporate sovereignty, investor state dispute, investor state dispute resolution, investor state dispute settlement, isds, tafta, tpp, trade agreements, ttipThe House Veterans Affairs Committee is investigating the beleaguered Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center and will hold a field hearing on Long Island next month, a committee staff member said on Tuesday.
“The scope of the investigation includes, but is not limited to,” the closing of the hospital’s operating rooms for months after sand-size black particles began falling from air ducts, the staff member said, and has been continuing for more than a month. The closing of the operating rooms was reported by The New York Times in May.
In a July 29 letter to the veterans affairs secretary, Robert A. McDonald, Representative Jeff Miller, Republican of Florida and the committee’s chairman, questioned the management of the hospital. In the letter, Mr. Miller noted “a prevalence of sole source and ostensibly competitive, one-bid facilities contracts, with a substantial amount of money going out the door for maintenance, but seemingly poor results.”
“The most troubling aspect of the whole situation,” the letter added, was that the management at the Northport center “reportedly became aware of the problem in mid-February yet took no effort to notify the public or Congress until after the numerous media reports emerged.”According to both their weekly ad, and game section of Target.com Target is running a promotion for the next week of buy two games, get one free on all games both online at Target.com and in store. This promotion last Sunday, April 6th through Saturday the 12th. This deal is good on all games, across all system, and even the next-gen. It will also include games that come out this week, like Kinect Sports Rivals.
If you are looking to pick up some new games for far less costs, this is the time to do. Stores generally open around 8am, and the website should be updated to feature the deal by that time as well, so jump at it early if you want the deal. Target’s policy on this type of sale is that it’s only on the stock they have, no rainchecks. Personally, as I just got an Xbox One, I am picking up Dead Rising 3, Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare and one other game that I’m currently not sure on. Any recommendations? What are you going to pick up? Let me know in the comments below
by, Bobby Marquardt
AdvertisementsAn extraordinary plea for cash has been sent to billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson to plug a $6 million shortfall for the Republican National Convention, according to Politico
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The letter, dated July 12 and addressed to Adelson and his wife Miriam, was reportedly sent by the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee, which wanted the wealthy couple to solve its financial difficulties.
“We would greatly appreciate if you would consider a $6,000,000 contribution to the Cleveland 2016 Host Committee to help us cross the finish line,” the letter said, according to Politico.
The letter reportedly says that the RNC has raised $58 million — $6 million less than the $64 million needed to finance the convention in Cleveland, which begins July 18.
Disclosure of the note could further fray relations between the Trump campaign and the party establishment.
The RNC has been publicly claiming that Trump hasn't been harming fundraising, but the letter reportedly says otherwise.
“Over the past couple months, negative publicity around our potential nominee resulted in a considerable number of pledges backing out from their commitments,” the letter says, according to Politico.
The letter discloses the names of more than two dozen donors and companies who reneged on $8.1 million worth of pledged donations to fund the convention.Facebook has announced a partnership with Uber that will allow users in the US to order taxis through Facebook's own Messenger app.
The new integration wraps all of Uber's features up in Messenger - payment, maps, and alerts when the driver is nearby.
Next month will also see the beginning of an integration with Lyft, a rival taxi app that's currently only operating in the US.
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A typically minimalist video has been released alongside the announcement - in a group chat, one user posts their address and tells the others to come along to their housewarming.
Simply by tapping on the address and selecting'request a ride', the user gets an Uber without having to juggle multiple apps.
It's a simple service, but one that could make planning and transport much easier - and significantly, is another step in Facebook's journey to try and make messenger the all-in-one online communication tool that the rest of your internet experience will go through.
Back in October, Facebook director Julien Codorniou told Wired that Messenger was "one per cent finished".
Explaining his ambitious concept, he explained: "One day there will be companies built on Messenger, and we are at the beginning of that ecosystem."
Facebook is trying to emulate the success of WeChat, a messaging app popular in China. WeChat started off as a simple messenger platform, but expanded hugely, eventually becoming integrated with a number of other companies and services.
Much of the communication that we do online - whether that's talking to friends, making purchases from businesses, or ordering goods, can be done through WeChat.
Now, WeChat users order taxis, takeaways, make purchases and buy film tickets entirely using services located inside the app.
Facebook wants to do the same with Messenger, turning it into an all-in-one portal that will let you connect with friends, local businesses, big companies and everyday services like Uber.
It's an amibitious (and slightly dystopian) vision, but this partnership with Uber is an important step, especially considering that 1 million journeys take place in 290 cities through Uber every day.
To sweeten the deal even more and encourage users to make the switch, Facebook is offering a free ride to people for the first Uber they order through Messenger.
Currently, it's only available in US cities where Uber operates, but given Facebook's amibitions, it wouldn't be surprising if it made it to the UK soon.If you want to claim, as President Trump has, that you are the “least racist person,” it’s a good idea to avoid suggesting that one member of a racial group knows another person of that same group, simply because they share the same racial identity. It suggests you view them as people without individual distinction, personality and experiences, as interchangeable pieces of an unknowable other.
And yet Mr. Trump did exactly that during his press conference on Thursday, while answering a question from April Ryan, a veteran journalist and the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks. Ms. Ryan, who is black, asked the president about his campaign pledge to “fix” inner cities, which prompted Mr. Trump to talk about his performance with African-American and Hispanic voters and remark that people in inner cities are “living in hell.” When Ms. Ryan followed up by asking whether Mr. Trump would be willing to meet and work with the Congressional Black Caucus to address these issues, the president asked her if she wanted to set up such a meeting.
“No, no, no,” she replied. “I’m just a reporter.”
As she spoke, the president pressed on: “Are they friends of yours? Set up the meeting.”Among larger Indian states, Gujarat has the least number of vaccinated children: 50.4%, as of 2015-16 data. The immunisation rate of India’s fourth richest state (as of 2013-14 constant prices) is now worse than that of some of its most backward states — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (UP), clubbed together as BIMARU (‘sick’ in Hindi).
While Gujarat’s current immunisation rate is up 11.5% from the previous decade, it is now 11.6 percentage points below the national average of 62%, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data from 1991 to 2015-16.
In 2005-06, the state’s vaccination coverage, at 45.2%, had been above India’s average of 43.5%. Further, the current numbers are only slightly higher than the figures the state reported 23 years ago, in 1992-93.
Till recently, the BIMARU states, along with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam and Meghalaya, held the worst child vaccination records in the country.
Immunisation is known to be the most cost-effective method to prevent disease and death. Every year, India loses 500,000 children under the age of two due to diseases preventable by vaccination, according to this March 2015 Press Information Bureau report.
Trends In Immunisation Coverage
Source: National Family Health Survey
Across India, the percentage of children who have received full immunisation that includes polio, BCG, DPT, and measles vaccines, has dramatically risen over 40% in the last 10 years — from the 43.5% reported during the NFHS round three in 2005-06 to 62% in the fourth round.
This is mainly due to the significant growth in vaccination coverage in UP, Rajasthan, Bihar and Jharkhand. In the 2005-06 survey, these states recorded dismal percentages of children vaccinated — 23%, 26.5%, 32.8% and 34.8% respectively. They have witnessed a median improvement of 97.45% — with UP registering a 122% jump — in immunisation coverage to now reach 51.1%, 54.8%, 61.7% and 61.9% of the population respectively, as per the latest survey.
The percentage of children immunised in Madhya Pradesh comparatively grew at a slower pace of 33% in the same period.
Other rich states that show a slump — Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttarakhand
Among Indian states, Punjab, Goa, and West Bengal recorded the highest numbers in immunisation of children between the ages of between 12 and 23 months.
While Punjab and Goa registered a negative growth in immunisations of 16.6% and 4.8% in 2005-06, as per the latest NFHS data their rates did grow at 48.3% and 12.5% respectively. West Bengal recorded a 31.3% growth in immunisation, 15.6% points lower than its growth rate in 2005-06.
Meanwhile, Gujarat aside, growth of immunisation coverage in the large prosperous states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu has also particularly slumped.
NOTE: *-Children between 12-23 months of age
Source:National Family Health Survey
Maharashtra, India’s richest state, recorded a decline of 4.3% in the number of children vaccinated in 2015-16 over 2005-06. It now fares worse than Bihar which has witnessed an 88.1% growth in the same period.
While in NFHS round three (2005-06), Tamil Nadu was the state with the highest rate of immunisation at 80.9% of children vaccinated, a decade later the state has recorded a 13.8% decline. As of 2015-16, only 69.1% of children were vaccinated in the southern state with the country’s second largest economy.
Uttarakhand too, carved out of UP in 2000, saw a 3.8% drop in percentage of children immunised from 60% a decade ago. The young state, has been otherwise recording significant growth in its state gross domestic product, per capita income, poverty reduction, and literacy and performing better than its parent state, as IndiaSpend previously reported in February, 2017.
Himachal Pradesh too witnessed a 6.3% decline in immunisation coverage.
While much of India’s north-east showed low immunisation of children in the latest survey — with Nagaland recording the lowest percentage — five of seven states in |
accept the status quo, on the basis that individuals have arrived at their social stations by some other merit or lack thereof.
Understandably, I suppose, the general resistance to discussing race creates a reliance on platitudes when the topic finally does arise. Participants on all sides want to avoid accusations and insensitivity and so stick to played out metaphors and concessions. The discussion needs to move further. It needs to illustrate the extremes and nuance of racism. People of color experience both race-based microaggressions as well as more devastating consequences. It’s precisely the scale, nuance, and pervasiveness of racism that makes it such a compelling and total problem. In my own life, I am constantly aware of my race and worry that something will happen because of it. I always accept the receipt when I go shopping. I “tame” my hair for job interviews, or risk it being the reason I don’t get a job. I am fully aware that people wonder if I deserve my education.[6] I’ve gotten passed over for service in stores and followed through malls. More than once, I’ve seen the concentration on a white service provider’s face as she slows her speech and reaches for small words for me to understand. In indigent communities, immigrant communities, more heavily POC-concentrated communities, race can also be the basis for housing and employment denials, school expulsions, airport searches, detainment, deportation, due process miscarriages, police violence, and even death. That is to say, the problem from this altitude can seem small and discrete, and thus easy to dismiss. But race has a major effect on the daily lives of many, if not most, people of color.
During these conversations, POC should be wary of checking their own privilege. While some aspect of privilege—sexual orientation, education, financial stability, current success, immigrant status—may remove some disadvantage, it does not remove you from your blackness or brownness. “Checking privilege” is meant to acknowledge how a social vantage point can create information gaps. But when talking to white people about race, checking privilege makes room for the conversation to be discredited. We should acknowledge our relative expertise, while avoiding speaking for others.
Which brings us to the importance of Solidarity. You, people of color, will never be white, and you shouldn’t strive to be. The goal is not to create a society where some minorities slowly become more and more white. The goal is to create a society where whiteness isn’t privileged over blackness or brownness. By focusing too much on the possibility of individual ascension into whiteness, you may leave the rest of the minority population behind—bolstering, instead of rejecting, white supremacy. For example, eliminating affirmative action is a policy change that could marginally help Asian Americans gain an even greater share of educational and professional access, but will almost definitely be at the expense of Blacks and Latinos. A solution in the spirit of solidarity would go further and question the metrics for admission, the barriers to meeting those metrics, and the possibility of providing a systemic, rather than incremental, change to college and graduate program admissions. When POC talk about race and seek solutions, we should aim to lift all marginalized groups.
Lastly, learn to harness your anger. Anger should be legitimized as a tool for recognizing unfairness or injury. During these conversations, learn to recognize those triggers and find a way to explain them. Anger should not sit heavy on your heart, rather it should be a flare signal of an injustice and a motivation to explain and correct it.
The slow crawl of inclusion began after the Civil War, and continues, inch-by-inch, today. Our democracy can never reach its greatness without acknowledging and meaningfully discussing race. However uncomfortable, we will see the repetition of injustice as incremental and circular reforms are made by a representative body unconcerned with the effects of their policy or legislation.[7]
At the very least, we need to discuss race as often and as easily as we discuss class, gender, and sexual orientation. Instead of preferring alternative theories of oppression, at the exclusion of race, those discussions can serve as opportunities to discuss race as well.
Higher education will not be enough to protect us from a police chokehold or a racist gunman. Our children will continue to risk physical violence and financial destitution. Without these conversations, investigators will continue to say cops acted reasonably after murdering a child, their victims’ blackness enough reason to fear for their lives. [8]
[1] Remember their names: Tamir Rice, Aiyana Jones, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, John Crawford; Charleston Church Massacre victims: Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Reverend Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lee Lance, Rev. Daniel L. Simmons, Rev. Depayne Middleton, Susie Jackson.
[2] Honestly, by time our colleagues are in power, whites may no longer constitute a demographic majority, but it’s hard to imagine that translating into a redistribution of power. See e.g., gerrymandering, voter ID laws, the Three-Fifths Clause, and post-bellum Southern populations that produced all-white judicial and legislative bodies in majority black jurisdictions.
[3] We see this factual distortion in high school history books, in support of the Confederate Flag, in the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, and in the Columbus Day controversy. It is true that many great things have come out of American innovation. It’s also true that many atrocities have occurred on American soil and in the American name.
[4] My criminal law professor, a scholar on race and the criminal justice system, gave a brief disclaimer on the first day of class about the disparate racial impact of the criminal justice system. After that day, we rarely discussed race again. In property, my professor used a full lecture to describe redlining and racially discriminatory housing policies. A classmate later said that we were being pushed a liberal version of the facts.
[5] A man once explained his color blindness to me. “My Mexican nanny was like family to us,” he said, oblivious to the history of Black and immigrant women providing domestic care to white families, often underpaid, without adequate legal protection, and at the expense of their own families.
[6] As if legacy students deserve their admission any more than beneficiaries of race-based affirmative action.
[7] In our current political circus, we rarely see rights conferred without a careful analysis about the power they may strip from wealthy, white males, in particular, but whites in power, in general. See the continued War on Women, embodied currently in an effort to restrict abortion and to defund Planned Parenthood. See the LGBT movement, in which marriage rights were achieved only after convincing those in power it will not tear apart the fabric of society. See the continued unpunished murders of trans* women of color as politicians struggle to fit them into their rights paradigm. See drug testing for welfare recipients. See the frantic push for cybersecurity and privacy measures as the patrons of Ashley Madison are revealed.
[8] See Darren Wilson’s testimony regarding his encounter with Michael Brown. See the independent investigations that deemed the murder of Tamir Rice “reasonable.”Back in February, Mel Brooks revealed that he was keen on making the long-rumoured sequel to Spaceballs – a.k.a. Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money – and now the official Facebook page for the classic comedy is teasing something “epic” for Friday…
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens slated for a Christmas release, an attempt at rejuvenating Mel Brooks’ cult classic parody from the 80’s is logical. Who would actually star in it, I haven’t the faintest idea since many of the original stars are either retired, old, or dead.
Would you like to see Spaceballs 2? Let us know in the comments below…
UPDATE: Well, after all that, it turns out that the “epic” annoucnement is another Blu-ray release of the original Spaceballs. So, I guess it’s still the search for more money… just not the one we were hoping for.
Robert Kojder – An aficionado of film, wrestling, and gaming. Follow me on Twitter or friend me on FacebookCHICAGO -- The future is looking increasingly bright for a 10-month-old dog thrown earlier this month from an apartment building.
Callie became an internet sensation when the Fetching Tails Foundation posted her story online.
During a domestic dispute, a man allegedly threw the dog from a third-story apartment, CBS Chicago reports. When she hit the alley below, she suffered a fractured pelvis and ribs and a broken neck.
Police Sgt. Michael Tews was called to quell the disturbance and found Callie in the alley.
Tews said that once he determined the dog was still alive, he rushed her in his squad car to Chicago Animal Care and Control. He says that she wagged her tail on the way despite her injuries.
Callie is seen recovering after a man is accused of throwing the pooch from a third-story apartment in Chicago. Fetching Tails Foundation
Those who have encountered Callie call her a “sweet-natured” dog, and the rescue team says Callie is well on the road to recovery.
She’s eating and drinking, has begun to walk and has wagged her tail through it all. The man accused of throwing Callie from the apartment, 22-year-old Melvin Coleman, is charged with animal cruelty.
The Fetching Tails Foundation says it has received countless calls from people who want to adopt her. Chicago Wolves hockey team co-founder Dan Levin has paid Callie’s five-figure hospital bill.
Callie is now with a foster family and will not be adopted out for several months when her recovery is complete.The motion seeks to build on wide-reaching victories won by voting rights activists. | AP Photo Plaintiffs in North Carolina voting rights case target early voting restrictions
A group of plaintiffs in a voting rights case that rocked North Carolina politics earlier this year filed a further court motion on Saturday to peel back remaining restrictions on early voting times and locations in five counties, a person with knowledge of the move told POLITICO.
Filed in the battleground state’s Middle District, the motion seeks to build on wide-reaching victories won by voting rights activists — and cheered by Democrats — earlier this summer when the Fourth Circuit court ruled that the 2013 rules adopted by North Carolina’s Republican-heavy legislature purposely sought to limit the influence of African-American voters there.
Story Continued Below
The suit is led by Marc Elias, the Washington attorney who — in addition to working on high-profile voting rights cases across the country — is Hillary Clinton's campaign lawyer.
Voting by mail-in ballot has already begun in North Carolina, where Donald Trump narrowly leads Clinton in most polls, but where the Democrat’s campaign sees an opportunity to all-but-eliminate the Republican’s path to 270 electoral votes. Both candidates regularly visit the state, which is a top tier priority for both of them.
Allies of Clinton, Democratic Senate candidate Deborah Ross and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper — each of whom is within striking distance in their respective races in the traditionally Republican state — have already seen the summer’s developments as major steps forward, even before Saturday’s motion.
Statewide Democrats expect to rely largely on high turnout from African-Americans in addition to college-educated young white voters in the major cities, and they’ve seen the reintroduction of one-stop early voting — in which voters can register and cast a ballot simultaneously — as a considerable advantage, particularly when it comes to African-American voters in rural areas.
In September, Democrats piled lawyers into Raleigh to work on a set of local early voting proposals after North Carolina’s counties were forced to rewrite their plans as a result of the higher court decisions, including one from the Supreme Court.
Now the new effort — filed by six individuals who were plaintiffs in the original NAACP v McCrory case — highlights five counties where they say the new early voting plans still restrict access in ways that disproportionately affect African-American voters.
Four of the five counties in question voted for President Barack Obama in 2012, when he narrowly lost the state to Mitt Romney, and three went to the then-senator when he won the state in 2008.
The plaintiffs are arguing for longer hours on the final day of early voting in Mecklenburg County — the state’s most populous and the home of Charlotte — where they expect to see a high African-American turnout. In Forsyth County, where Winston-Salem is, they argue the plan to cut early voting on Sundays is discriminatory because of that day’s popularity as a voting day among African-Americans there, and they’re seeking more polling sites during the first week of early voting. They seek Sunday voting in New Hanover County as well, and they’re also looking for more sites in Guilford County, the home of Greensboro. Finally, in Nash County, they say African-American voters are forced to travel further during the first week of early voting because there is no polling site in Rocky Mount, a largely African-American city and the biggest in the county.
After going to Obama in 2008 and Romney in 2012, North Carolina has shaped up as one of the closest battleground states in 2016, its highly partisan atmosphere roiled largely by the controversies surrounding Gov. Pat McCrory in the voting rights fights and House Bill 2, the so-called “bathroom bill” that’s driven businesses and sporting events away from the state.
Early ballot requests there so far appear to show Democrats surging ahead, according to an Associated Press analysis.Baghdad- Kurdish teams Erbil and Zakho announced withdrawal from the Iraqi Premier League following the match between Erbil and Najaf team, Friday.
During the match, the fans were reiterating anti-Kurds calls. Najaf team hosted the match on Friday and won 1-0, however the game was paused for a period of time due to withdrawal of Erbil team players as an objection over the fans’ calls.
These incidents, actually, threaten the Iraqi’s pursuit to raise the embargo imposed on it by the FIFA.
The decision to withdraw from the league was taken due to the sectarian and political slogans which were intentionally used by Najaf fans, according to Erbil Manager Abdullah Majid. “This act is rejected and has nothing to do with sports,” added Majid.
Najaf team fans shouted that Erbil belongs to ISIS in a hint to the fact that ISIS has laid hand over a wide space of the country since 2014.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Iraqi Football Association decried the language used by some of Najaf team fans. “These phrases negatively impacted the country and reflected a foreign culture that contradicts with the history of Iraq,” added the statement.
Despite the apology of the association to Erbil, yet the team’s manager stressed that he will not return to the league unless there is “a political decision from the Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani”.
The association also pledged to impose toughest penalties regarding the irrational behaviors and phrases used in the last match in order to put an end to that.
“We apologize to Erbil management, players and fans,” added the statement.
Asharq Al-Awsat Asharq Al-Awsat is the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, printed simultaneously each day on four continents in 14 cities. Launched in London in 1978, Asharq Al-Awsat has established itself as the decisive publication on pan-Arab and international affairs, offering its readers in-depth analysis and exclusive editorials, as well as the most comprehensive coverage of the entire Arab world. More Posts - Facebook - Google Plus - YouTubeFor his son, the World War II naval aviator, see Edward O'Hare
Edward Joseph O'Hare, aka "Easy Eddie" (September 5, 1893 – November 8, 1939), was a lawyer in St. Louis and later in Chicago, where he began working with Al Capone, and later helped federal prosecutors convict Capone of tax evasion. In 1939, a week before Capone was released from Alcatraz, O'Hare was shot to death while driving. He was the father of Medal of Honor recipient Butch O'Hare, for whom Chicago O'Hare Airport is named.
Early life in St. Louis [ edit ]
Edward Joseph O'Hare, known to friends and family as E.J., was born on September 5, 1893 in St. Louis to first-generation Irish-American parents Patrick Joseph O'Hare and Cecelia Ellen Malloy O'Hare. On June 4, 1912, E.J. O'Hare married Selma Anna Lauth, a native of St. Louis, born on November 13, 1890. She traced her heritage to Germany. E.J. and Selma started their family in an apartment above Selma's father's grocery store in the Soulard neighborhood. They had three children: Edward ("Butch"), born in 1914, Patricia, born in 1919, and Marilyn, born in 1924.
E.J. passed the Missouri bar exam in 1923 and joined a law firm. From 1925 O'Hare operated dog tracks in Chicago, Boston and Miami. O'Hare, as a lawyer, represented the inventor Owen P. Smith, high commissioner of the International Greyhound Racing Association, who patented a mechanical running rabbit for use in dog racing. As a result of this lucrative work for Smith, O'Hare moved his family in 1930 into a new house — with a swimming pool and a skating rink — in Holly Hills. During summers, the O'Hare family had escaped the St. Louis heat to river camps on the Meramec and Gasconade rivers. E.J. had given Butch a.22-caliber rifle. Plinking at cans and bottles tossed in the river, Butch became an able marksman.
It was also during this time that E.J. became fascinated with flying, even hitching a ride in Charles Lindbergh's mail plane. O'Hare took his first job as lead pilot of an air mail route operated by Robertson Aircraft Co. of Lambert Field in St Louis. E.J. then flew commercially whenever possible, and he found chances for his teenage son to briefly take the controls. As a result, his son Butch, the later Medal of Honor recipient, best known for his extreme bravery as a U.S. naval aviator in World War II, became a competent marksman and familiar with planes.
When Owen Patrick Smith died, O'Hare represented the administratrix of Smith's estate, Hannah M. Smith. E.J. began to expand his business interests from the St. Louis levee to Chicago.
One day in the 1920s E.J. came home to find his son, Butch, sprawled on a couch reading books and eating banana layer cake and doughnuts. The father decided that his boy was showing signs of laziness and enrolled him at Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois.
Chicago [ edit ]
Divorced from his wife Selma in 1927, O'Hare moved to Chicago. Selma stayed in St. Louis with her two daughters Patricia and Marilyn, while Butch went to Western Military Academy.
In Chicago, O'Hare met Al Capone, the man who ran Chicago during Prohibition. When Francesco de Pinedo performed his famous transatlantic flight in 1927, Capone was among the first to push forward and shake his hand upon his arrival in Chicago. Capone's Chicago Outfit was the dominant gang in the city.
O'Hare became engaged to Ursula Sue Granata, a secretary, the sister of a Mob-affiliated Illinois state representative. The engagement went on for seven years because they were Catholics, and the Church would not recognize O'Hare's divorce. Thus they could not have a church wedding. However, O'Hare was hopeful that a request for a dispensation from the Vatican would be granted by 1940.
O'Hare and Capone began collaborating in business and in law. O'Hare made a second fortune through his ties to Capone.
But in 1930, O'Hare turned against Capone. He asked John Rogers, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, to arrange a meeting with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which was trying to convict Capone of tax evasion. Rogers organized a meeting with IRS agent Frank J. Wilson. O'Hare subsequently played a key role in Capone's prosecution and conviction. Agent Wilson (also Chief of the U.S. Secret Service between 1937 and 1946) said later:
On the inside of the gang I had one of the best undercover men I have ever known: Eddie O'Hare."[1]
It is believed O'Hare directed investigator Wilson to the Capone bookkeeper who became a key witness at the 1931 trial, and also helped break the code used in the ledgers by Capone's bookkeepers. At the start of Capone's trial in the court of Judge James Wilkerson, O'Hare tipped the government that Capone had fixed the jury. Thus alerted, Judge Wilkerson switched juries with another federal trial before the Capone trial began. (This incident was depicted in the 1987 film The Untouchables.)
Capone was found guilty and sent to prison in 1931.[2][3]
Assassination [ edit ]
Suffering from syphilitic dementia, Capone deteriorated mentally during his imprisonment in Alcatraz. As a result, at the end of 1939, Capone was due for early release.
Assassination of Edward O'Hare
O'Hare was shot and killed on Wednesday, November 8, 1939, while driving in his car at age 46. That afternoon, when he left his office at Sportsman's Park racetrack in Cicero, Illinois, he was reportedly carrying a cleaned and oiled Spanish-made.32-caliber semi-automatic pistol, something unusual for him. O'Hare drove away from the track in his black 1939 Lincoln-Zephyr coupe. At the intersection of Ogden and Rockwell, two shotgun-wielding gunmen in a dark sedan drove alongside and fired a volley of big-game slugs. O'Hare was killed instantly. His Lincoln crashed into a roadside post, while the killers continued east on Ogden and were lost in traffic. No arrest was ever made.
In 2010, Chicago alderman Ed Burke asked the Chicago Police Department Cold Case Squad to re-examine O'Hare's murder in light of a new book, Get Capone, which made allegations about the crime.[4]
In popular culture [ edit ]
In the 2010-2014 HBO series Boardwalk Empire, the character of Mike D'Angelo played by Louis Cancelmi is based on Edward J. O'Hare. In the last season he is shown to be an undercover agent who helped gather evidence to convict Al Capone on Tax evasion.
the character of Mike D'Angelo played by Louis Cancelmi is based on Edward J. O'Hare. In the last season he is shown to be an undercover agent who helped gather evidence to convict Al Capone on Tax evasion. The story of 'Easy Eddie', and his son, are mentioned in the "Payback" chapter of the international bestselling novel Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, by American author Steve Alten, published 1996.PHOENIX – Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has vetoed two controversial bills passed by both the Arizona Senate and House — the guns on campus bill and the ‘birther’ bill.
Guns on Campus Bill: SB 1467
– Would’ve allowed guns to be carried on public rights of way at public university and community college campuses
– Applies only to rights of way — not inside classrooms
– University presidents opposed the bill
“This bill was very sloppily written and drafted, and I believe when it affects not only our education system, all the way from K-12 all the way through the university, and we can’t even find out a definition, what is a right of way? It just wasn’t defined to be able to tell the courts or the policeman how they are going to enforce a law like that,” Governor Brewer told us.
Full Story: Gov. Brewer Vetoes Birther Bill, Guns on Campuspolitical theory about illiberal democracies
The political philosopher Sheldon Wolin coined the term inverted totalitarianism in 2003 to describe what he saw as the emerging form of government of the United States. Wolin analysed the United States as increasingly turning into a managed democracy (similar to an illiberal democracy). He uses the term "inverted totalitarianism" to draw attention to the totalitarian aspects of the American political system while emphasizing its differences from proper totalitarianism, such as Nazi and Stalinist regimes.
The book Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012) by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco portrays inverted totalitarianism as a system where corporations have corrupted and subverted democracy and where economics trumps politics.[2][3][4][5][need quotation to verify] Every natural resource and living being is commodified and exploited by large corporations to the point of collapse as excess consumerism and sensationalism lull and manipulate the citizenry into surrendering their liberties and their participation in government.[6][7]
Inverted totalitarianism and managed democracy [ edit ]
Wolin argues that the United States is increasingly totalitarian as a result of repeated military mobilizations: to fight the Axis powers in the 1940s, to contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War and to fight the War on Terror after the September 11 attacks.[2]
Wolin describes this development toward inverted totalitarianism in terms of two conflicting political power centers, namely the constitutional imaginary and the power imaginary. Wolin speaks of imaginaries to include political tendencies as well as existing political conditions. He explains:
A political imaginary involves going beyond and challenging current capabilities, inhibitions, and constraints regarding power and its proper limits and improper uses. It envisions an organization of resources, ideal as well as material, in which a potential attributed to them becomes a challenge to realize it.
Wolin explains that the constitutional imaginary "prescribes the means by which power is legitimated, accountable and constrained". Referring to Thomas Hobbes, Wolin understands the power imaginary as a quest for power that is rationalized by a fear of collective mortality. The power imaginary may "undermine or override the boundaries mandated in the constitutional imaginary" through fears of a dangerous enemy:
A power imaginary is usually accompanied by a justifying mission ("to defeat communism" or "to hunt out terrorists wherever they may hide") that requires capabilities measured against an enemy whose powers are dynamic but whose exact location indeterminate.
The power imaginary does not only reduce democracy within the United States, it also promotes the United States as "Superpower" that develops and expands its current position as the only global superpower:
While the versions of totalitarianism represented by Nazism and Fascism consolidated power by suppressing liberal political practices that had sunk only shallow cultural roots, Superpower represents a drive towards totality that draws from the setting where liberalism and democracy have been established for more than two centuries. It is Nazism turned upside-down, "inverted totalitarianism." While it is a system that aspires to totality, it is driven by an ideology of the cost-effective rather than of a "master race" (Herrenvolk), by the material rather than the "ideal."
Comparison to the classical totalitarian regimes [ edit ]
Inverted totalitarianism shares similarities with the classical totalitarianism, like Nazi Germany. First of all, both regimes are totalitarian because they tend to dominate as much as possible. Both regimes use fear, preemptive wars and elite domination, but inverted and classical totalitarianism deviate in several important ways:
Revolution – While the classical totalitarian regimes overthrew the established system, inverted totalitarianism instead exploits the legal and political constraints of the established democratic system and uses these constraints to defeat their original purpose.
Government – Whereas the classical totalitarian government was an ordered, idealized and coordinated whole, inverted totalitarianism is a managed democracy which applies managerial skills to basic democratic political institutions.
Propaganda and dissent – Although propaganda plays an essential role in both the United States and Nazi Germany, the role it plays in the United States is inverted; that is, American propaganda "is only in part a state-centered phenomenon". Whereas the production of propaganda was crudely centralized in Nazi Germany, in the United States it is left to highly concentrated media corporations and thus maintaining the illusion of a "free press". [18] According to this model, dissent is allowed, though the corporate media serve as a filter, allowing most people, with limited time available to keep themselves apprised of current events, to hear only points of view that the corporate media deem "serious". [4] [20]
According to this model, dissent is allowed, though the corporate media serve as a filter, allowing most people, with limited time available to keep themselves apprised of current events, to hear only points of view that the corporate media deem "serious". Democracy – Whereas the classical totalitarian regimes overthrew weak democracies/regimes, inverted totalitarianism has developed from a strong democracy. The United States even maintains its democracy is the model for the whole world.
Wolin writes:
Inverted totalitarianism reverses things. It is all politics all of the time but a politics largely untempered by the political. Party squabbles are occasionally on public display, and there is a frantic and continuous politics among factions of the party, interest groups, competing corporate powers, and rival media concerns. And there is, of course, the culminating moment of national elections when the attention of the nation is required to make a choice of personalities rather than a choice between alternatives. What is absent is the political, the commitment to finding where the common good lies amidst the welter of well-financed, highly organized, single-minded interests rabidly seeking governmental favors and overwhelming the practices of representative government and public administration by a sea of cash.
Ideology – Inverted totalitarianism deviates from the Nazi regime as to ideology, i.e. cost-effectiveness versus master race.
Economy – In Nazi Germany, the state dominated the economic actors whereas in inverted totalitarianism corporations through lobbying, political contributions and the revolving door dominate the United States, with the government acting as the servant of large corporations. This is considered "normal" rather than corrupt.
Nationalism – While Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were nationalistic, inverted totalitarianism is a global superpower based on global exchange of jobs, culture and commodities.
The people – While the classical totalitarian regimes aimed at the constant political mobilization of the populace, inverted totalitarianism aims for the mass of the populace to be in a persistent state of political apathy. The only type of political activity expected or desired from the citizenry is voting. Low electoral turnouts are favorably received as an indication that the bulk of the populace has given up hope that the government will ever significantly help them.
Punishment – While the classical totalitarian regimes punished harshly (imprisoning or killing political or ideological opponents and scapegoats), inverted totalitarianism in particular punishes by means of an economy of fear (minimizing social security, busting unions, outdating skills, outsourcing jobs and so on).
Leader – While the classical totalitarian regimes had charismatic leaders that were the architects of the state, inverted totalitarianism does not depend on a certain leader, but produces its leaders who are akin to corporate leaders.
Social policy – While Nazism made life uncertain for the wealthy and privileged and had a social policy for the working class, inverted totalitarianism exploits the poor by reducing health and social programs and weakening working conditions.
Managed democracy [ edit ]
The superpower claims both democracy and global hegemony. Democracy and hegemony is coupled by means of managed democracy, where the elections are free and fair but the people lack the actual ability to change the policies, motives and goals of the state.[29]
Managerial methods are applied to elections:
Managed democracy is the application of managerial skill to the basic democratic political institution of popular elections.
By using managerial methods and developing management of elections, the democracy of the United States has become sanitized of political participation, therefore managed democracy is "a political form in which governments are legitimated by elections that they have learned to control". Under managed democracy, the electorate is prevented from having a significant impact on policies adopted by the state because of the opinion construction and manipulation carried out by means of technology, social science, contracts and corporate subsidies.
Managerial methods are also the means by which state and global corporations unite so that corporations increasingly assume governmental functions and services and corporations become still more dependent on the state. A main object of managed democracy is privatization and the expansion of the private, together with reduction of governmental responsibility for the welfare of the citizens.
According to Wolin, the United States has two main totalizing dynamics:
Reception [ edit ]
Sheldon Wolin's book Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism received a Lannan Literary Award for an Especially Notable Book in 2008.[36]
In a review of Wolin's Democracy Incorporated in Truthdig, political scientist and author Chalmers Johnson wrote that the book is a "devastating critique" of the contemporary government of the United States—including the way it has changed in recent years and the actions that "must" be undertaken "if it is not to disappear into history along with its classic totalitarian predecessors: Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and Bolshevik Russia".[6] In Johnson's view, Wolin’s is one of the best analyses of why presidential elections are unlikely to be effective in mitigating the detrimental effects of inverted totalitarianism. Johnson writes that Wolin’s work is "fully accessible" and that understanding Wolin's argument "does not depend on possessing any specialized knowledge".[6] Johnson believes Wolin's analysis is more of an explanation of the problems of the United States than a description of how to solve these problems, "particularly since Wolin believes that the U.S. political system is corrupt"[6] and "heavily influenced by financial contributions primarily from wealthy and corporate donors, but that nonetheless Wolin’s analysis is still one of the best discourses on where the U.S. went wrong".[6]
Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers expressed the following view:[7]
We are living in a time of Inverted Totalitarianism, in which the tools used to maintain the status quo are much more subtle and technologically advanced... These include propaganda and major media outlets that hide the real news about conditions at home and our activities around the world behind distractions [...] Another tool is to create insecurity in the population so that people are unwilling to speak out and take risks for fear of losing their jobs [...] Changes in college education also silence dissent [...] Adjunct professors [...] are less willing to teach topics that are viewed as controversial. This, combined with massive student debt, are tools to silence the student population, once the center of transformative action.[7]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]About 80 train passengers had to be evacuated by firefighters after getting stuck on a bridge 50 feet above the ground.
It happened on the A Line, near East 78th Avenue and Gun Club Road, just north of Pena Boulevard, by the cell phone lot at Denver International Airport.
DFD airport rigs assisting RTD evacuate 80 train passengers stuck 50 feet above ground. — Denver Fire Dept. (@Denver_Fire) May 24, 2016
The passengers were stuck because a power outage stopped service on the A Line from Denver's Union Station to the airport Tuesday afternoon.
MORE | #TrainToThePlane down again: Power outage stops commuter train from Union Station to Denver airport
The passengers walked along the tracks and fire trucks were used to get them off the bridge. Busses were waiting to take them the rest of the way to the airport, RTD told Denver7.
--------- Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.
Or, keep up-to-date on the latest news and weather with the Denver7 apps for iPhone/iPads, Android and Kindle.The Atlantic goliath grouper or itajara (Epinephelus itajara), also known as "jewfish",[2] is a large saltwater fish of the grouper family found primarily in shallow tropical waters among coral and artificial reefs at depths from 5 to 50 m (16 to 164 ft). Its range includes the Florida Keys in the US, the Bahamas, most of the Caribbean and most of the Brazilian coast. On some occasions, it is caught off the coasts of the US states of New England off Maine and Massachusetts. In the eastern Atlantic Ocean, it occurs from the Congo to Senegal.
Description [ edit ]
Young Atlantic goliath grouper may live in brackish estuaries, oyster beds, canals, and mangrove swamps, which is unusual behavior among groupers.
Atlantic goliath grouper
They may reach extremely large sizes, growing to lengths up to 2.5 m (8.2 ft) and can weigh as much as 360 kg (790 lb). The world record for a hook-and-line-captured specimen is 308.44 kg (680.0 lb), caught off Fernandina Beach, Florida, in 1961.[3] They are usually around 180 kg (400 lb) when mature. Considered of fine food quality, Atlantic goliath grouper were a highly sought-after quarry for fishermen. It is a relatively easy prey for spear fishermen because of the grouper's inquisitive and generally fearless nature. They also tend to spawn in large aggregations, returning annually to the same locations. This makes them particularly vulnerable to mass harvesting while breeding.[4]
Until a harvest ban was placed on the species, its population was in rapid decline. The fish is entirely protected from harvest and is recognized as a Vulnerable species by the IUCN.[1] The US began protection in 1990, and the Caribbean in 1993. The species' population has been recovering since the ban; with the fish's slow growth rate, however, some time will be needed for populations to return to their previous levels.
Goliath groupers eat crustaceans, other fish, octopodes, young sea turtles, sharks, and barracudas. They are known to attack divers, and have even been seen attacking large lemon sharks.[citation needed] [5]
Reproduction [ edit ]
Goliath groupers are believed to be protogynous hermaphrodites, which refer to organisms that are born female and at some point in their lifespans change sex to male. Most grouper follow this pattern, but this has not yet been verified for the goliath.[6] Males can be sexually mature at about 115 centimetres (45 in), and ages 4–6 years. Females mature around 125 centimetres (49 in), and about 6–8 years.[7]
Conservation [ edit ]
In May 2015, the Atlantic goliath grouper was successfully bred in captivity for the first time.[8][9][10] Since Epinephelus itajara are Vulnerable it is important that conservation efforts for the E. itajara are focused on their habitat. Tidal pools act as nurseries for juvenile E. itajara. In tidal pools |
at the address was criticized by Rep. Jim Langevin (D-RI) -- who was paralyzed in a gun accident as a teenager and had urged other members of Congress to invite those touched by gun violence to attend the event -- Nugent said that Langevin "probably has shit for brains." Nugent later said that his presence at Obama's speech was meant to counter "pawns" and "props" of "the president's anti-gun agenda."
In 2007, Nugent created controversy in Texas when he performed at Gov. Perry's inaugural ball while wearing a Confederate flag shirt. A Perry spokesperson defended his choice of attire saying, "If you're going to defend freedom of expression, then you're going to have to defend all freedom of expression." Nugent has criticized opponents of the display of the Confederate flag, stating, "I am going to wear it forever." Press reports alleged that Nugent also insulted non-English speakers while performing at the ball, a charge that Nugent denied.Here are a couple more videos. Quality is not great in spots but it was the live feed through Facebook.
These videos take place at the entrance. I imagine that Ford pays good money to have their offering right up front. In these you’ll see the new Mustang and the Focus RS….both nice looking cars.
In this video you’ll also see the Eco-Boost Ford GT race car and the GT 350!!
There are more videos coming up including a discussion with one of the sellers as his car heads to the stage, a good look at a rear all aluminum Cobra and a clarification on what the stage works kept throwing to the side when the cars came up on stage.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
#BarrettJackson
#ProjectSportsRoof
Barrett Jackson 2017 Walkthrough with Justin Bieber Ferrari … 2 days ago … This my version of the 2017 Barrett Jackson out here in Scottsdale Arizona. Its a mind blowing experience if you’ve never been before! There’s …
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Like this: Like Loading...Czar Peter the GREAT and King Karl XII of Sweden: Ovänner/FROM HIstory for Assholes
How Do You Say That in English?
Three Swedish words that the English language should steal.
Bert Menninga Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 11, 2013
As an expat, bilingualism comes with the territory. Although here in Sweden, it’s easy for English speakers to get by without learning the language. But with much effort and pain, I’ve managed to become fluent in Swedish, a language useless beyond the borders of Sweden (it’s not good to use even as a secret language outside the country — I can’t tell you how many times on the subway in London or New York what look to be natives turn out to be Swedes who can understand every catty comment I’ve made to my husband about our fellow travelers).
It is odd that learning Swedish has been so hard, since the grammar is so like English, with a big chunk of more or less shared vocabulary. But the barrier is the pronunciation, which is a bitch. There’s even a sound found in no other language: an intimidatingly difficult-to -produce cross between a W and an SH.
Learning Swedish has certainly given me a new perspective on language, both my mother tongue and my stepmother tongue. English has so many more words than Swedish, for instance. And Swedish as it is spoken uses a lot of passive tense and can be awfully indirect. For example, Swedes tend to express themselves with the phrase “it feels like” rather than just stating something outright.
There are also an awful lot of recent English words and terms that have slipped into the Swedish language, albeit occasionally spelled differently to maintain the English pronunciation.
But there are three words in Swedish that I wish we had in English:I have written a number of pieces in the past year about conservatives having a “poor little ole me” attitude when it comes to the media. Conservatives are convinced the media is out to get them. They are convinced the media is covering up stories and covering for the Obama Administration.Often, conservatives are flat out wrong. They are so convinced the media is out to get them they do not even make their case to the media. They give up without starting. Each time I write about these things, members of the media retweet the posts glowingly and approvingly. And while I stand by each of those posts I’ve written, the media itself needs to be held accountable because, if members of the media were truly honest, must admit it is biased against conservatives.As objective as the media claims to be, the so called Gang of 500 — the reporters and chattering class who develop the conventional wisdom in politics — is mostly of the left or married to the left. There is a revolving door between the media and leftwing politics that rarely exists on the right. It shapes the world view of the members of the media and necessitates conservatives working even harder to get their opinions, views, and stories heard.I have encountered this bias throughout the media in my professional life and seen it up close over the years.Today comes word that Richard Stengel, Time’s managing editor, is leaving the magazine for the State Department. He is but one in a long line of liberals who have, for years, feigned objectivity when his world view is decidedly of the left.Consider the others.[1] [Update: Over at the Daily Beast, Ben Jacobs notes 15 journalists have moved into the Obama Adminstration]Perhaps most famous is Jay Carney. He is currently the White House Press Secretary. Before that he was in the Vice President’s office. Prior to that, he was Washington bureau chief at Time magazine working with Richard Stengel. Stengel, in 2008, defended Carney’s decision to go into the Obama Administration. Of course he would.When Jay Carney left Vice President Biden’s office, the Vice President went to the Washington Post and hired Shailagh Murray as Carney’s replacement. She is married to Neil King of the Wall Street Journal. King, if you want a window into his world view, thought it controversial that an evangelical church would participate in the 50th anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King’s speech in Washington. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Southern Baptist preacher and this group opposes gay marriage. King’s daughter once said her father didn’t take a bullet for gay marriage. This is all shocking enough to warrant a story.Then, of course, there is Linda Douglass, who left ABC News to work for the White House promoting Obamacare and is now at the Atlantic. She, while at the White House, suggested people report their neighbors for lying about Barack Obama and Obamacare.Jill Zuckman left the Chicago Tribune to be the Secretary of Transportation’s spokesman. She follows in the footsteps of noted reporter David Axelrod who left the Chicago Tribune to help Barack Obama and is now on MSNBC as a pundit.Shailagh Murray is not the only Washington Post reporter to head into the Obama Administration. Douglas Frantz headed to the State Department and Stephen Barr headed to the Labor Department.Over at CNN, their new Chief National Security Correspondent is Jim Sciutto. Sciutto had been ABC News’s Senior Foreign correspondent, then took a job in the Obama Administration as Chief of Staff to Ambassador Gary Locke in China.Many on the left would throw up Tony Snow, who had been the Sunday show host at Fox News and an anchor. But Tony had also been a well known conservative pundit and guest host for Rush Limbaugh before going into the Bush White House. And, even so, for every Tony Show there’s a half dozen liberals doing the same.Let’s keep going though.Chuck Todd at NBC is a former staffer for Democratic Senator Tom Harkin. He is married to a former DNC communicator who left the DNC to start Maverick Strategies, a consulting group designed to get liberals elected.Ruth Marcus, the Editorial Page editor of the Washington Post is married to Barack Obama’s original Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.David Gregory of Meet the Press is married to the former Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary for Fannie Mae.Over at the Politico, John Harris, who asked a host of loaded and ridiculous questions during the NBC-Politico Debate in the 2012 Republican Primary, is married to the former head of NARAL in Virginia. The Politico’s senior Washington correspondent is Jonathan Allen. He left the Politico for a stint in DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s office, before returning to his supposed objectivity at the Politico. Andy Barr of the Politico left to go work for the DNC, then to run communications for various congressional campaigns. He’s now at SKD Knickerbocker, a DC/NYC group that represented Sandra Fluke.Let’s go back to Time. Consider this news:
Managing editor Rick Stengel announced some big changes for Time magazine on Monday: Michael Scherer will be the new Washington bureau chief, while Ben Goldberger is to become the national editor.
Stengel, prior to going to the White House, put Michael Scherer in Jay Carney’s old post as bureau chief. Scherer is a nice guy, but consider his pedigree. He started out at the far left Salon.com, then went to the far left Mother Jones, and suddenly through the blessings and miracles of the Washington Press Corps wound up an objective reporter for Time.This is similar to Ezra Klein, the kid at the Washington Post who is heralded as some sort of expert for having never had a real job. He started out at the really liberal blog Pandagon, then headed over the quasi-communist American Prospect, and now parrots liberal talking points at the Wonk Blog at the Washington Post where he has recruited other liberal and far left writers formerly of the Nation, Salon, and American Prospect.He’s joined at the Washington Post by Greg Sargent who used to write at the liberal Talking Points Memo and now serves as the official mouthpiece for the Democratic National Committee, which, best anyone can figure, has its hand shoved all the way up Sargent’s rear and moves his mouth like a muppet.Over at ABC News we find George Stephanopolous, who used to work for Bill Clinton. He is now, like Michael Scherer, “objective.”My favorite, though, may be Andrew Rosenthal. Andrew Rosenthal used to be a reporter for the New York Times. On February 5, 1992, Rosenthal penned a front page article in the Times about George H. W. Bush looking at a supermarket checkout scanner at the National Grocers Association convention in Florida. In the article, Rosenthal wrote,
The look of wonder flickered across his face as he saw the item and price registered on the cash register screen.”This is for checking out?” asked Mr. Bush. “I just took a tour through the exhibits here,” he told the grocers later. “Amazed by some of the technology.”Marlin Fitzwater, the White House spokesman, assured reporters that he had seen the President in a grocery store. A year or so ago. In Kennebunkport.Some grocery stores began using electornic scanners as early as 1976, and the devices have been in general use in American supermarkets for a decade.
Within a week, op-ed writers across the country had seized on that story to show just how out of touch George H. W. Bush was. There was just one problem. Rosenthal was not present at the event. There was only one pool reporter there who had not even mentioned, in the pool report, the expression on President Bush’s face.Most newspapers who had run the story based on Rosenthal’s “reporting” had to issue retractions. The New York Times was one of the few that didn’t. In fact, the Times stood by Rosenthal even though the reporter who had been present disputed Rosenthal’s story.Andrew Rosenthal is now the editorial page editor of The New York Times.From social issues to fiscal issues, the DC/NYC national press corps leans to the left. Not only does it lean left, but it is able to easily migrate from left wing organizations into supposedly objective roles and back again. There are a few examples of this on the right, but very few. The world view and presuppositions of the American press corps makes it very hard to even give conservatives a fair shake. Their innate biases based on their presuppositions go against conservatives going into the stories.Erin Burnett of CNN and formerly of CNBC is a wonderful person and a great reporter. But I’ll never forget being on air the night of June 5, 2012. John King and Erin Burnett were chatting as Erin promoted what was coming up on her show. A pastor was losing his church because he supported gay marriage. His congregation had left and there was too little money coming in. “It’s a pretty powerful story of conviction and also the bias that is still very prevalent in certain places in this country,” Burnett gravely stated. “Bias … in certain places.”At the top of the seven o’clock hour, Burnett ran a David Mattingly story about Grace Community United Church of Christ in St. Paul, Minnesota. The real story happened seven years earlier. The pastor of the African-American church, way back then, supported gay marriage at the 2005 national meeting of the United Church of Christ over the desires of his congregation. Most of the congregation left his church. The week of June 5, 2012, would be perhaps, in David Mattingly’s words, “the last service before the church closes its doors for good. What I saw was a far cry from the days when the seats were full.”It is not that Erin Burnett and David Mattingly’s report clearly made the pastor who defied his congregation the hero and his congregants who demanded faithful adherence to their scripture the bigots. The media does this all the time. In a nation whose voters routinely tells pollsters they support gay marriage while routinely voting against gay marriage, most of the media is very much in favor of gay marriage. Stories about Christian pastors seem to focus on the bigoted and hateful few contrasted with a few open minded, tolerant Christians whose churches are dwindling as they embrace alternative lifestyles.But we are a nation where a majority of states, through democratic processes, prohibit gay marriage. And the story was cast not as a preacher disobeying his congregation and dealing with the consequences, but as “bias … in certain places” causing a church to close down. The presupposition of the story was against the congregation, not against the pastor who directly disobeyed the wishes of his congregation.From the Gabrielle Giffords shooting as a way to lament the crazy tea party and Sarah Palin’s target list to not devoting nearly as much attention to the shooter at the FRC who used the Southern Poverty Law Center to draw up a target list, the media does have serious bias against conservatives. The Democrat-Left-Media establishment trade stories with each other, help build media narratives, and coordinate their messaging because of their natural biases and affinities for each other.As soon as reporters, producers, and networks are willing to admit that bias — a bias that goes to the very presuppositions of what stories to cover and how to cover them — they might be able to turn the corner and regain trust. But I am quite confident the press corps is quite happy just as they are.Conservatives must work much harder than liberals to cut through the media bias. It is possible. But it is also hard work.(Reuters) - Demonstrators in Oakland, California, broke store windows and vandalized a public Christmas tree during a march protesting police shootings, media reports said.
Vandals who were among about 50 largely peaceful marchers broke store windows in downtown Oakland late on Thursday, looted a liquor store and pulled ornaments and lights off the Christmas tree, the SFGate news website reported.
An Oakland police spokesman said there were no arrests but had no other details about the protest.
The demonstration followed weeks of marches around the San Francisco area after grand juries in Missouri and New York declined to indict white police officers in the killings of unarmed black men.
The San Francisco-area protests have included some looting, rock throwing and property damage. Scores of protesters have been arrested.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Bill Trott)$50,000 to Solve the Most Complicated Puzzle Ever Attempted
November 15, 2011 / By Tiffany Fox, (858) 246-0353, tfox@ucsd.edu
San Diego, Calif., Nov. 15, 2011-- Every few years the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) holds a public competition to stretch the outer limits of what technology can do. Two years ago they dispersed 10 large, red weather balloons at undisclosed locations across the U.S. The celebrated 2009 DARPA Network Challenge to find the balloons was solved in just nine hours by a team from MIT. Now, Manuel Cebrian, a member of that winning team, is aiming for a repeat win — only this time, the challenge is exponentially harder.
Manuel Cebrian was part of the team at MIT that won the DARPA challenge two years ago. This year, he hopes to take a team from UC San Diego all the way to the top, which would mean a prize of $50,000 — and everyone who participates would get a cut.
According to Dr. Cebrian — who is now a research scientist at the University of California, San Diego — instead of just looking for 10 balloons, the new DARPA Shredder Challenge’s ultimate puzzle involves piecing together roughly 10,000 pieces of different documents that have been shredded. “This is almost certainly the most challenging puzzle ever created,” said Cebrian. “A combinatorial number of possibilities makes the problem intractable by computer algorithms alone. A combination of crowd-sourcing and advanced computer-vision algorithms is necessary. This is exactly our approach.”
Crowdsourcing was also Cebrian’s approach with the winning MIT team, but he says that approach won’t be sufficient to win the challenge this time. He admits that it will take many more people in the “crowd” than was necessary to solve the 10-red-balloons hunt last time. “For that, we estimated that we needed a few thousand participants on our side to take up the manual challenge. To complete this new challenge, it could take as many as 100,000 people,” said Cebrian, who is in the Computer Science and Engineering department at UCSD. “We need a collaborative platform to move the puzzle pieces around, and we need computer vision to improve the partial solutions that humans achieve. It has to be a continuous human-computer-human feedback loop.”
Given the multidisciplinary nature of the Shredder Challenge, the core UCSD team reflects that variety: members include game theorist Andrea Vattani, Internet expert Karyn Benson, crypto-analyst Wilson Lian, network scientist Dan Ricketts, and computer vision researcher Sam Kwak. The latter will be running crowd-sourced partial solutions through advanced algorithms for clustering pieces and finding which pieces are likely to go together. This will make subsequent puzzle-solving easier for participants.
The UCSD team spent a lot of time thinking about how to create an incentive structure that will encourage participation. The resulting ‘recursive’ incentives are similar to those used by Cebrian’s team in 2009, particularly the referral-based crowd-sourcing. The insiders on the UCSD team will not get any of the prize money, even if the team wins: if there is money left over after paying out all amounts to participants, it will go to charity.
If UCSD wins, the amount of money an individual will win is based on how many edges they connected in the puzzles. For every edge connected by the participant, he or she would receive $1. The person who recruited that participant would receive 50 cents, and the person above that recruiter would receive 25 cents. Depending on how many people are in the participant’s ‘family tree’, a further fractional amount will accrue all the way up the tree.
“The rationale behind this payment scheme is that the main challenge involves fitting puzzle pieces together,” said Cebrian. “However, it is unreasonable that one person would be able to complete all the puzzles by themselves, so recruiting players is essential to solving all the puzzles, especially as they get bigger. So we created a scheme that rewards the solvers, but the successful recruiters as well.”
The core team, however, would get bragging rights if they win (and Cebrian knows all about the public attention lavished on winners of past DARPA challenges). All other referral-based participants have a financial stake in the outcome, especially if they have large social networks to tap. Even if they don’t solve two edges themselves, they get credit for any of the people below them who do help solve parts of the puzzle. (For details, visit the UCSD Shredder Challenge website at http://shredder-challenge.ucsd.edu.)
If the UCSD-led team wins, the money will be split among the participants who helped reconstruct the shredded documents and the participants who recruited them. If you refer someone who then refers someone else in their social network, that third person gets the biggest prize per puzzle solved (since they solved that pair). Each of the people above them gets prize money too. In all cases, the prize money is rewarded only if the team wins the competition. So there is a strong incentive for participants to go with the team that is best-equipped to go all the way.
DARPA Shredder Challenge’s ultimate puzzle involves piecing together roughly 10,000 pieces of different documents that have been shredded. The challenge is designed to reveal new techniques for reconstructing destroyed documents, which are often confiscated by troops in war zones.
The competition, announced in late October, involves five separate contests. The first two have been solved by a few teams, as they could be solved purely manually. The UCSD team chose to wait during those rounds, because the complexity – and the prize money – grow many times larger with the larger puzzles, which will certainly require some mix of manual assembly and computer vision. The team plans to solve the first two downloadable puzzles in little time --- it can still gain points from this --- and build up towards the 5th and conclusive puzzle.
The staggering of the complexity is purposeful. According to the Pentagon in announcing the Shredder Challenge, “DARPA hopes to gain new insight into which of these or other techniques are quicker and more efficient, and whether wide availability of high-resolution photography, communication and crowd-sourcing strategies offer unexpected advances.”
DARPA also settled on the Shredder Challenge because troops often confiscate the remnants of destroyed documents in war zones, and it’s too costly and time-consuming to reconstruct the documents. Said Dan Kaufman, Director of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office: “The ability to reconstruct shredded documents will potentially yield information that may save lives or offer critical information about an adversary’s plans.”
In general, DARPA’s Shredder Challenge goes far beyond battlefield tactics. The agency is not even sure that anyone can solve the final, 6,000-piece puzzle.
“The UCSD team is using the same financial recursive structure to recruit people to collaboratively solve the problem. But we need more than that,” said UCSD’s Cebrian. “Our MIT approach won't be enough to solve this problem. We need a collaborative platform to move the puzzle pieces around. And we need computer vision to improve the partial solutions that humans achieve. A continuous human-computer-human feedback loop.”
“Ultimately we need a lot of people, more than any experiment of this type before, to help us solve this problem,” concluded Cebrian.
The crowd-sourcing task is tailor-made for potential participants with large, existing social networks. Even if the first participant doesn’t try to solve any of the puzzle, they can still get some of the $50,000 benefit if their friends online do so. The more eyes the team has looking at the puzzle, the better. Even if you don't have time to put the shredded paper back together, perhaps your friends will have time — or your friends' friends.
Interested in participating or to learn more? Visit the UCSD Shredder Challenge Team online at http://shredder-challenge.ucsd.edu.), or contact the UCSD team at shredder-challenge@ucsd.edu.
Related Links
DARPA Shredder Challenge http://www.shredderchallenge.com/
Time-critical social mobilization, G. Pickard, W. Pan, I. Rahwan, M. Cebrian, R. Crane, A. Madan, and A. Pentland, Science 334(6055):509-512 (2011)
Reflecting on the DARPA Red Balloon Challenge, J. Tang, M. Cebrian, N. Giacobe, H-W. Kim, T. Kim, and D. Wickert, Communications of the ACM 54(4):78-85 (2011)
Query incentive networks with split contracts: robustness to individuals' selfishness, M. Cebrian, L. Coviello, A. Vatanni, and P. Voulgaris, UCSD Technical Report (2011)
Media Contacts
Media Contact: Tiffany Fox, tfox@ucsd.edu, (858) 246-0353
Scientific Contact: Manuel Cebrian, mcebrian@eng.ucsd.edu, (858) 534-6441Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the EU of "blackmailing" and “pressuring” Ukraine over its decision to suspend preparations for a trade pact with the bloc. He added that Ukraine’s decision will be clear in the next few days.
"When we heard (I just found out yesterday) that Ukraine has suspended – not canceled but suspended – negotiations with the EU and wants to review everything, we heard a threat from the EU to Ukraine up to the point of holding mass protests. This is pressure and blackmail," Putin said at a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in St. Petersburg.
Putin reiterated Russia's readiness to hold three-way talks with the EU and Ukraine on trade and the economy.
“President Yanukovych suggested that we should have three-way talks on these problems,” Putin said. “We are ready to participate in such talks, and this is in a way a test of how serious our European partners’ intentions are. It’s a test of how ready our European friends are to conduct negotiations on an equal basis, or the absence of such readiness.”
Putin added that there “shouldn’t be any politicizing” of the situation, adding that Turkey has a “big experience of negotiating with the EU” and Russia will ask the advice of Ankara on how to behave in this situation.
Erdogan smiled, and said it “was a not a joke,” as Turkey has 50 years’ experience of trade talks with the EU.
Ukraine’s integration with the EU is not a political issue, but an economic one, Putin added.
At one point in the press conference, Putin lightened the mood with a joke – at America’s expense.
A Russian journalist brought up the question of a phone call between Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his Lithuanian counterpart, Dalia Grybauskaite. Grybauskaite’s aide, Jovita Neliupšienė, claimed that Moscow had warned Kiev off the EU deal, the journalist said.
Putin replied he had no information about what was said in the call, but added, smiling, that maybe the question should be asked instead to the United States.
“I do not know what the president of Ukraine and the president of Lithuania were talking about. Maybe we can ask our American friends and they can tell us. But they haven’t said anything to us yet," Putin said, apparently referring to the latest scandal with the US National Security Agency’s surveillance program and their tapping of EU leaders’ phones.
Ukraine’s government signed a degree Thursday suspending preparations for the association agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Lawmakers said that the decision was taken after Kiev considered the effects of the association on its trade relations with Moscow.
Russia welcomed Kiev’s desire to rekindle ties with Moscow, and Putin said that he wasn't completely against Ukraine's association with the EU. The Ukrainian president however said that his country would continue its efforts towards European integration, despite the “difficulties.”
Putin said Friday that after Ukraine’s decision, the two countries now have a free trade zone agreement.
“It means that in many product groups, very sensitive to both countries, we have zero export and import tariffs. The level of customs protection of our territory in relations with EU partners is very different. We have achieved this status as a result of negotiations within the framework of the World Trade Organization, which were carried out over the past 17 years.”
If Ukraine signs a trade pact with the EU resetting its trade tariffs, then this would automatically affect Russia if it keeps its free trade zone with Ukraine, Putin said, adding that this could destroy entire sectors of the Russian economy.
Putin said that the competitiveness of Russian agriculture and a number of other industries had not yet met the European Union’s requirements. If Ukraine went ahead with its Euro-integration deal, Russia would be forced to cancel preferential tariffs with Kiev, he said.It is a mild, gray April morning as we depart from Donetsk. We are heading around 110 kilometers (70 miles) to the north, to the small provincial city of Sloviansk - the unofficial headquarters of eastern Ukraine's separatist movement.
It's where the "green men" are located, as the heavily armed officers without any insignia here are called.
Blockades for referendum
The asphalted road leads us past blackened fields that seem to go on forever, with smoke billowing from the stacks of chemical plants in the distance. Around 20 minutes into our journey, we encounter the first roadblock. Two rows of stacked tires force cars to divert from the main road. Black, red and blue flags flap in the wind, the colors of the "Donetsk People's Republic." Young men are directing traffic. There are no weapons, only a few Molotov cocktails.
The further east you go, the more barricades you'll see
"We're not interested in any Geneva deal," says one man, who has a dark face and is missing a few teeth. "We're staying here," he says, and takes a drag of his cigarette, "Until we get an independent Republic of Donetsk or are allowed to join Russia." A referendum is scheduled for the start of May.
In eastern Ukraine, there are many people who share these sentiments. The coal-mining region of Donbas has been industrial since Soviet times. Gigantic steel factories and simple one-storey homes are what you can see from the streets. It seems some houses haven't been painted in over 30 years. On some, you can still see the hammer and the sickle.
Fear of jets overhead
Shenya told DW that her son was afraid of fighter jets flying overhead
We arrive in Kramatorsk, a city of around 165,000 people. You can see posters lining the streets with the Ukrainian colors: blue and yellow. "Ukraine is united," they say. On one of those posters, the word "lies" has been scribbled. The center of town is completely abandoned. A few people are taking a walk with their children, past the statue of Lenin, feeding the pigeons. "I'm in favor of joining Russia," says Shenya.
She is in her twenties and is a nurse. She doesn't accept the new Kyiv government. "They used a violent coup to get power," she says, and complains about how Ukrainian soldiers mistreat separatists here. "Fighter jets fly low over our city. My son is afraid."
Shenya would vote to join Russia if a referendum is held - "because Russia is richer," she says.
Wassyl said Ukraine should have more independence
Not everybody here sees it that way. Wassyl, a 57-year-old, cringes at the very word, "Russia," but makes the impression of not wanting to say the wrong thing.
"We would like to remain in Ukraine, but with more autonomy." Andriy, standing next to Wassyl, doesn't want to belong to Russia, either. But the unemployed 30-year-old also doesn't endorse the Kyiv government, and agrees that a referendum is needed. Would they welcome Russian troops? A woman standing nearby, who says she's retired, replies before anyone else. "Sure! They should come," she says with a wide smile.
'Green men' with Russian accents
But Russian troops have already arrived, says the government in Kyiv. Russia denies this. In Sloviansk, around 15 kilometers from Kramatorsk, masked and heavily armed men in unmarked green uniforms have had control for weeks. They have occupied several municipal buildings, and they are known here as the "green men." That's partly because those uniforms were worn by soldiers in Crimea - before it was annexed by Russia.
Citizens seemed to have no fear of the 'green men'
Technically, the uniforms aren't the same here in Sloviansk, but many of these officers appear to be Russian. Three of them face reporters and hold a kind of improvised press conference. "We are former Ukrainian soldiers who can no longer stand to watch how Russia is subordinated here," says one man with a black mask on. His Kalashnikov was given to him by Ukrainian paratroopers, he said, who just days ago gave up their weapons and disbanded.
The way he speaks raises suspicions that he is actually Russian. There's a big difference between the Russian spoken here in eastern Ukraine and that spoken in Russia. And the sandbag barricade outside the occupied municipal building in Sloviansk looks a lot more professional than the one in Kramatorsk. "We're staying here until the referendum," says another soldier. Supplies are unloaded from a car outside the building - munitions and food. One man, in civilian attire, installs a metal screen on the door. "So that nobody can throw a grenade in here," he explains.
Desire for a better life
The scene on the street outside the building paints a more peaceful picture: Soldiers have borrowed skateboards from local kids and ride around the Lenin statue. Parents take walks with their children. The armed men appear not to bother them. "We're not afraid," says one young mom. "They've come here to help us."
You can hear the same from young men sitting next to one of the barricades. Whether it's with Ukraine or Russia, it doesn't really matter. "Russia is wealthier," says one of them, so that's why he would join the neighbor to the east. "We just want a better life here, that's all," says another. He repeats that sentence a number of times. It seems to represent the view of most people here.Who says artificial intelligence doesn't involve humans?
Try telling that to Silicon Valley startup Unanimous AI. After recently achieving the rare "superfecta" -- picking the top four finishers in the Kentucky Derby -- using UNU, a new form of human-based AI using algorithms, the company is ready to share its formula with the public.
After more than a year of testing, the online platform is now available in open beta. UNU relies on an artificial "swarm" of human group intelligence that comes together in real time to make predictions, said Louis Rosenberg, its creator. UNU's goal: to find the right answers through consensus.
"We believe success happens when individuals are working together and filling in the gaps of what they don't know by themselves," he said. "We built this to make it a platform that anybody can jump into."
UNU comes at a time when Rosenberg believes 99 percent of all AI under developmentis geared toward replacing human intelligence. Unanimous AI's algorithm is based on how swarms in nature (think bees, birds and fish) reach collective decisions for survival. Rosenberg cites Cornell University neurobiology professor Thomas Seeley, who spent a decade observing how honey bees use "swarm intelligence" to scout for a new home.
Enlarge Image UNU
The perilous search often involves several hundred scout bees working together to scour possible locations.
"If a swarm is able to negotiate by vibrating their bodies to converge on an optimal decision, then why can't humans?" Rosenberg said. "Why can't we model this type of behavior that nature already came up with?"
Rosenberg feels confident after a group of 20 people correctly chose the top four racehorses (Nyquist, Exaggerator, Gunrunner and Mohaymen) in the Kentucky Derby on May 7, defying 540-to-1 odds. That prediction also made Rosenberg a lot of cash. He won more than $10,000 off a $20 bet.
"We defied the odds because no single person in the group had more than two of the horses right," he said. "Not to sound clairvoyant, but as a collective intelligence, we picked all four as they came in."
Rosenberg said that with UNU's recent success, he's betting the public will benefit from using technology that can predict the outcome not only of sporting events but also of political decisions, such as what Hillary Clinton might do with rival Bernie Sanders if she won the Democratic presidential nomination.
The answer: put him on the ticket as vice president.
Here's how it works: Groups can join a UNU forum via laptop or smartphone. Participants are simultaneously asked a question with a set of possible answers. Each has control of a magnet they can maneuver across the screen to drag a sphere to their choice for the right answer.
The sphere can land on one answer as the group has only a minute to collectively reach a decision. Mind you, it's a consensus and not everyone may agree on the outcome.
Enlarge Image NHL
I was game to see first-hand how UNU works. I recently participated in a UNU group of nearly 30 people to predict which hockey players not only will win top honors in the NHL, but also the final two teams battling for the Stanley Cup -- arguably the greatest-looking trophy in all of sports.
I agreed with the consensus that Chicago Blackhawks' stars Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin will win the Hart Trophy (most valuable player) and the Calder Trophy (rookie of the year), respectively, when the awards are announced on June 22.
I also correctly picked with the group that the Pittsburgh Penguins and the San Jose Sharks would meet in the Cup finals. However, I take exception with the consensus that the Penguins will win Lord Stanley's cup and will do it in seven games.
Game 1 is Monday night and I'm picking the Sharks to raise Lord Stanley's cup in six. And I'm challenging those in my UNU group who live in Silicon Valley to wear Sharks gear on the day of the parade in downtown San Jose in about two weeks.
Stay tuned...Jubilee Debt Campaign (Drop The Debt) is a coalition of national organisations and local groups around the UK, calling for the unjust and unpayable debts of the poorest countries to be cancelled. It has also been known as Jubilee Debt Coalition and focuses on developing countries' debt.[1]
History [ edit ]
The Coalition was formed as a successor organisation to the Jubilee 2000 Coalition.[2] Many campaigners felt that it was necessary to continue working together to monitor the G8's promise to deliver $100Bn of debt relief at Cologne in 1999 |
51%, the Tories on 20%, Labour on 16% and the Lib Dems on 8%. Perhaps the SNP are a little too high and the Tories a touch too low, but the figures are certainly not far off from what we believe to be the true state of play. That adds a bit more credibility to what you're about to see.
How well or badly do you think the government are doing at negotiating Britain's exit from the European Union?
Britain-wide figures : Very or fairly well 20%, Very or fairly badly 57%
Scottish figures : Very or fairly well 8%, Very or fairly badly 69%
In hindsight, was Britain right or wrong to leave the European Union?
Britain-wide figures : Right 47%, Wrong 43%
Scottish figures : Right 31%, Wrong 60%
Do you think Britain will be economically better or worse off after we leave the European Union, or will it make no difference?
Britain-wide figures : Better off 29%, Worse off 37%
Scottish figures : Better off 14%, Worse off 55%
Do you think Britain will have more or less influence in the world after we leave the European Union, or will it make no difference?
Britain-wide figures : More influence 21%, Less influence 36%
Scottish figures : More influence 11%, Less influence 54%
Do you think leaving the EU will have a good or bad effect on British jobs, or will it make no difference?
Britain-wide figures : Good for jobs 28%, Bad for jobs 32%
Scottish figures : Good for jobs 15%, Bad for jobs 47%
Do you think leaving the EU will have a good or bad effect on the NHS, or will it make no difference?
Britain-wide figures : Good for the NHS 30%, Bad for the NHS 25%
Scottish figures : Good for the NHS 13%, Bad for the NHS 36%
Do you think leaving the EU will have a good or bad effect on people’s pensions, or will it make no difference?
Britain-wide figures : Good for pensions 10%, Bad for for pensions 25%
Scottish figures : Good for pensions 4%, Bad for pensions 41%
What I find most extraordinary about those numbers is that, even now, there seems to be a lingering faith south of the border in the Leave campaign's claim that Brexit would somehow magically make the NHS better. A nasty shock is coming to a country near you...
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If you've enjoyed my writing over the last year and feel a sudden inexplicable urge to "buy me a hot chocolate", bear in mind that my 2015 fundraiser remain open for additional donations - you can find it HERE.Careful! The beach you're rushing off to this weekend might actually be a sewer.
Human and animal waste, among other sewage overflow, contaminate the beachwaters of virtually every sandy retreat in the country.
There were over 20,000 closing and advisory days last year at ocean, bay and Great Lake beaches because of high levels of bacteria and pollutants in the waters, according to the annual beachwater quality report - Testing The Waters - released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
The agency also provides 5-star rating guide for 200 of the nation's most popular beaches, based on beachwater quality, monitoring frequency, and public notification of contamination. Beachgoers who swim in polluted waters are at risk of contracting from various types of skin rashes and infections to meningitis and hepatitis.
Coastal cities can implement various green strategies such as green rooftops and permeable sidewalks to reduce and eliminate stromwater runoff, which overflows the sewage systems and dump polluted water in the oceans and lake.Former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun died on Saturday after falling down a mountain while hiking with an aide, Yonhap news agency said, with police investigating whether he committed suicide.
Roh, at the centre of a corruption probe, received severe head injuries and died after being moved to a larger hospital in Busan from his hometown of Gimhae, Yonhap said.
Police are investigating whether Roh committed suicide, the report said.
The corruption probe centred around a payment worth one million US dollars to his wife from a wealthy shoemaker, and a payment by the same man worth five million US dollars to the husband of one of Roh's nieces, Yeon Cheol-Ho.
Roh, elected partly on an anti-corruption platform, served from 2003 to 2008.
He became the nation's third former president to be summoned by the prosecution after Chun Doo-Hwan and Roh Tae-Woo, who were both convicted in 1995 of receiving bribes and inciting mutiny.
Both were sentenced to death but were pardoned in 1997.The 2016 NFL season just ended -- but the 2017 NFL season is coming. As the NFL Scouting Combine nears, NFL.com looks forward by looking backward, grading the 2016 rookie class for each team and identifying what the front office should focus on this offseason. Click below to scroll through each divisional rundown.
Atlanta Falcons
» Round 1: (No. 17 overall) Keanu Neal, S, 17 games/17 starts.
» Round 2: (52) Deion Jones, MLB, 18 games/16 starts.
» Round 3: (81) Austin Hooper, TE, 17 games/4 starts.
» Round 4: (115) De'Vondre Campbell, LB, 14 games/13 starts.
» Round 6: (195) Wes Schweitzer, OG, 0 games.
» Round 7: (238) Devin Fuller, WR, 0 games.
» Notable undrafted FAs: Josh Perkins, TE, 11 games/1 start; Brian Poole, CB, 19 games/11 starts.
Whenever a team can field four rookie starters on a Super Bowl defense, the coaching staff and personnel department deserve serious props for their player identification and development plans. Dan Quinn showed tremendous confidence in his youngsters when he inserted Keanu Neal, Deion Jones, De'Vondre Campbell and Brian Poole into the starting lineup. The young quartet not only energized the unit with energy and athleticism, but these guys added some thump and playmaking ability to a lineup that started to come together down the stretch. Offensively, Austin Hooper flashed big-play potential as a "stretch" tight end. If he continues to progress as a playmaker, he could emerge as a nice complement to a dynamic WR corps on the perimeter. GRADE: A+
Combine/free agency focus: The Falcons need to find a pass-rushing partner for Vic Beasley in the offseason after the second-year pro single-handedly disrupted opponents off the edge with an NFL-leading 15.5 sacks. In a draft full of explosive edge rushers, the Falcons could take long looks at UCLA's Takkarist McKinley, Tennessee's Derek Barnett and Michigan's Taco Charlton to see if they are capable of filling the role.
Carolina Panthers
» Round 1: (No. 30 overall) Vernon Butler, DT, 10 games/0 starts.
» Round 2: (62) James Bradberry, CB, 13 games/13 starts.
» Round 3: (77) Daryl Worley, CB, 16 games/11 starts.
» Round 5: (141) Zack Sanchez, CB, 5 games/1 start.
» Round 7: (252) Beau Sandland, TE, 0 games.
» Notable undrafted FAs: Jeremy Cash, WLB, 8 games/0 starts; Jared Norris, ILB, 14 games/0 starts.
The Panthers' rookie cornerback tandem held its own on the island. James Bradberry and Daryl Worley survived their baptism by fire to emerge as solid starters by the end of the season. Each cover corner experienced some ups and downs during the season, but both were rock-solid performers by the end of the year. Vernon Butler flashed in limited action as a rotational player on the inside. He should be ready to fill a bigger role in Year 2. GRADE: B-
Combine/free agency focus: Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman believes in investing in the big boys on draft day. Carolina could use an offensive tackle or a pass rusher to help the team dominate in the trenches. In a weak offensive tackle class, the Panthers could be forced to consider reaching a bit to nab Utah's Garett Bolles, Alabama's Cam Robinson or Wisconsin's Ryan Ramczyk. Defensively, the team could add a pass rusher like Tennessee's Derek Barnett or Michigan's Taco Charlton to add some sizzle to the defensive line.
New Orleans Saints
» Round 1: (No. 12 overall) Sheldon Rankins, DT, 9 games/0 starts.
» Round 2: (47) Michael Thomas, WR, 15 games/12 starts; (61) Vonn Bell, FS, 16 games/14 starts.
» Round 4: (120) David Onyemata, DT, 16 games/0 starts.
» Round 7: (237) Daniel Lasco, RB, 7 games/0 starts.
» Notable undrafted FAs: Ken Crawley, CB, 15 games/5 starts; De'Vante Harris, CB, 10 games/0 starts; Tommylee Lewis, WR, 12 games/1 start; Wil Lutz, K, 16 games/0 starts.
Despite missing the first half of the season recovering from an injury, Sheldon Rankins showed team officials that he was a potential game-wrecker as an interior defender. He finished the season with four sacks and a handful of pressures that served as a warning shot for opponents gearing up for the Saints' defense in 2017. Vonn Bell was a solid find at safety. The ex-Ohio State standout immediately added some energy, athleticism and playmaking to the unit as a versatile box defender. Michael Thomas quickly emerged as Drew Brees' No. 1 target in the passing game. The big-bodied pass catcher led the team in receptions (92) and ranked near the top of the league among rookies in every receiving category. GRADE: B+
Combine/free agency focus: The Saints' porous defense has struggled against the pass for years without a true CB1 on the island. The team must address the issue to have any chance of closing the gap on the competition. LSU's Tre'Davious White, Alabama's Marlon Humphrey and Florida's Teez Tabor and Quincy Wilson will get extended looks at the combine to see which player is capable of filling the biggest void in the secondary.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
» Round 1: (No. 11 overall) Vernon Hargreaves, CB, 16 games/16 starts.
» Round 2: (39) Noah Spence, DE, 16 games/3 starts; (59) Roberto Aguayo, K, 16 games/0 starts.
» Round 4: (108) Ryan Smith, CB, 14 games/0 starts.
» Round 5: (148) Caleb Benenoch, OT, 5 games/1 start.
» Round 6: (183) Devante Bond, OLB, 0 games; (197) Dan Vitale, FB, 0 games.
» Notable undrafted FAs: Peyton Barber, RB, 15 games/1 start; Alan Cross, FB, 14 games/0 starts; DaVonte Lambert, DE, 11 games/5 starts.
The Buccaneers' three-win jump in 2016 (to 9-7) was fueled by a defense that gradually improved with young defenders in key spots. Noah Spence quietly enjoyed a strong rookie campaign as a designated edge rusher. He finished the season with 5.5 sacks and three forced fumbles as a rotational player. Spence could blossom into a double-digit sack guy if he masters the nuances of pass rushing in his second year. Vernon Hargreaves played well on the island opposite Brent Grimes. He flashed outstanding footwork, movement skills and instincts occupying the CB2 spot on the perimeter. GRADE: B
Combine/free agency focus: The uncertainty surrounding Doug Martin could prompt the Buccaneers to dip into a deep running back pool on draft day. The team could find an explosive three-down back like Florida State's Dalvin Cook or any number of change-of-pace specialists (Stanford's Christian McCaffrey, Tennessee's Alvin Kamara or N.C. State's Matt Dayes) to alleviate some of the pressure on Jameis Winston to carry the offense.
Follow Bucky Brooks on Twitter @BuckyBrooks.Citizens and community leaders converging this weekend in Northern Alberta for the annual "Tar Sands Healing Walk" will likely be quite happy with news that another major European financial institution is dropping their investments in Canada's tar sands.
Norwegian financial services giant, Storebrand, issued an update saying that the company has divested it's financial interests in 13 coal extractors and six companies heavily involved in oil sands extraction.
This follows on the heels of Dutch bank Rabobank announcing four days ago that they have instituted a "no-loan" policy to any company involved in so-called "extreme" fuel extraction, mainly tar sands and shale gas.
Both Storebrand and Rabobank are concerned about the long term financial risk the tar sands and other heavily polluting forms of energy production pose. In announcing their decision to divest of investments in the tar sands, Storebrand's head of sustainability, Christine Tørklep Meisingset said:
“[As] the stated climate goals become reality, these resources are worthless financially, but it is also true that they do not contribute to sustainable development in the extent and the pace we want. Exposure to fossil fuels is one of the industry’s main challenges, and for us it is essential to work purposefully to take our share of responsibility.”
A recent report describes Canada's tar sands, and other extraordinarily carbon intensive energy sources, as "stranded assets" that will likely be worthless in the long term as the world shifts to renewable and carbon-free sources. According to the report, titled Unburnable carbon 2013: Wasted capital and stranded assets, last year alone $674 billion was invested in finding and developing new potentially stranded assets like coal and oil sands.
Lead author of the report, Sir Nicholas Stern stated that:
"Smart investors can see that investing in companies that rely solely or heavily on constantly replenishing reserves of fossil fuels is becoming a very risky decision. The report raises serious questions as to the ability of the financial system to act on industry-wide long term risk, since currently the only measure of risk is performance against industry benchmarks.”
As the financial community begins to wake up to this idea of stranded assets and the citizenry continues to press for reform to the Canadian tar sands industry, we might be in for a very long hot summer.
Image Credit: Emma PullmanLog in with Twitch to play!
Ever wanted to join the Mindcrack Server? Today is your lucky day!
Over the last year, gamer-controlled streams have visited the worlds of Kanto and Johto, and today developers Jason “Guude” Boulderfist and Joe Hills bring you to the world of Mindcrack!
Joe and Jason collaborated on the overall concept and control scheme for Mindcrack Cam and worked closely to integrate and test their portions of the project.
Joe wrote the website you see here, including the code to handle authentication and validate your button presses.
Jason wrote the code to pull from the command queue, apply trigonometry to turn those commands into coordinates Minecraft can process, and execute the teleport commands that move the camera.
What you see today is only the beginning! Jason and Joe have much more planned, and can’t wait to see how you play!Next week when voters in Miami go to the polls, there will be two different Republican Parties on the ballot.
At the top of the slate will be Donald Trump, who’s running on a platform of sympathizing with white grievance, instigating mass deportation, shrinking America’s role in the world, closing borders and reducing trade, ignoring climate change, and warming the cockles of anyone inclined to believe a conspiracy about the global elites.
A few lines down the ballot will be Carlos Curbelo, a 36-year-old Cuban American running for a second term in Congress. Curbelo envisions a Republican Party as diverse as the country and his district, which runs from Key West through Miami-Dade County and Everglades National Park. Curbelo argues for America to continue its role as the world’s most indispensable nation. He values a country that is welcoming to immigrants and oppressed people throughout the world. He supports free trade and has actively campaigned on the need to address the effects of climate change that South Florida residents are seeing up close. In a recent interview, Curbelo cited his grandmother’s wisdom, “Los extremos son malos” — the extremes are bad. In July, he sponsored the DREAM Act, which would allow those brought into America illegally as children to become citizens. In filing the bill, he said:
A far cry from “rapists and murderers.” In fact, if an alien unfamiliar with U.S. politics listened to back-to-back speeches by Trump and Curbelo, you’d be hard-pressed to convince it that these two men come from the same universe, forget the same political party.
So the question that will face us Republicans after the election is clear. Which path should we choose, Curbelo’s or Trump’s?
A two-party system will always face internal factions and disputes, and we Republicans have long had our own internal push and pull between conservative elites and a populist “new right.” Matthew Continetti recently wrote a historical tour de force charting the history of the populist uprising within the party that highlights the roots of this tension.
But as intense as some of these past intraparty fights have been, there has never been a divide as stark as the one there is today about the direction of the Republican Party. In 2012, I was part of the team that wrote the RNC Growth & Opportunity Project — you might be more familiar with the liberal media’s preferred title: the GOP Autopsy. The report’s recommendations were so obvious they bordered on uninteresting. Upgrade the party’s data and digital operations, invest more in diverse communities, and offer a message that appeals to those communities.
The primary suggestion for messaging was to fix the Republicans’ “don’t care” problem and recognize that America looks different than it did in 1950. Trump ran a campaign whose central character trait was insulting others with a motto — “Make America Great Again” — that essentially called for a return to 1950.
In the area of grassroots organizing, we recommended more full-time GOP offices in minority communities, and, to the RNC’s credit, they followed up on that and made strides in an area we Republicans once mocked — “community organizing.” But organizing doesn’t work if the guy at the top of the ticket is rhetorically spitting at those you are trying to recruit.
I have to imagine that a statistician or a management consultant would look at the #twopaths forward for the party and not really understand why there is debate. The object is simple: get a majority share of the market. Curbelo’s path appeals to the growing part of the pie (nonwhite voters, young voters), while Trump’s path is maximizing market share in the shrinking part (white, older voters). No abacus needed.
But as we have seen, Donald Trump looked at the growth route and rejected it, deciding to use the GOP Autopsy as Trump Tower toilet paper. And he has prevailed. So any assessment of the path forward following his inevitable defeat next week has to take into account the factors that led to that success.
But those who are in the shrinking part of the pie — older, culturally conservative white voters who are more likely to respond to a nativist message — have a stranglehold on key parts of the party infrastructure. First, the presidential primary process is made up largely of these voters. The people who vote in the GOP Iowa Caucuses, for example, are overwhelmingly the same demographic year after year. There is always talk of which candidate can bring in new voters, but caucusing is habitual; and the only person in either party who has brought new voters to caucus with success was a uniquely suited candidate — President Obama in 2008.
The later primaries are more likely to include fresh blood, and Trump had some success bringing in new voters to the primary process. But studies of those voters by Politico and the Pew Research Center showed they were largely Republicans and Republican-leaning independents with a history of voting in general elections. Plus, they largely came from Trump’s working class base. When you consider the challenge ahead, remember that Trump and Ted Cruz together earned about 70 percent of the primary vote. A recent poll of Florida showed that if their primary was held today, Trump would still win with 35 percent of the vote — despite the fact it is the home state of Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, and that Trump’s general election performance has been horrible, marked most recently by the tape of him talking about committing sexual assault and a slew of women coming out to say he assaulted them.
The voters who make up the primary electorate are the most engaged in the process, so it should come as no surprise that they are also the core audience for conservative talk radio and Fox News, and the most likely to make small-dollar donations directly to candidates or right-wing organizations. Anti-Trump conservative commentators have seen a drop in viewership over the campaign and some, like talk radio host Mark Levin, took so much heat for being against Trump that they reversed their view and now attack conservatives who hold the same position they held a few months ago. Gotta get those ratings!
So all of the individual, short-term incentives for Republican politicians are meant to appeal to this audience, rather than risk alienating them by trying to attract a broader electorate and increase their chances at winning the general election.
And it’s possible the results next week could further tip the balance against the forces for growth within the party. Trump will perform worst in areas with voters who are younger, more diverse, and highly educated — places that are currently represented by Republicans who want to move the party forward like Curbelo and Mike Coffman, who represents my hometown in suburban Denver. While internal polls show Curbelo and Coffman performing far better than Trump in their districts, there is concern that the “Trump effect” will depress Republican turnout in these districts so much that it will cause candidates like these to lose, leaving a party that has even fewer voices for reform and a greater percentage of elected officials beholden to white working-class interests than we have today.
For Republicans to become a successful national governing party again, we must bridge this gap and find a way to demonstrate that the concerns of the white working-class voters who flocked to Trump are being heard, while presenting a party that is welcoming to the rest of the country. Because as the electorate begins to look more and more like Carlos Curbelo’s America, the Republican Party is going to need to offer more candidates in his vein.
Otherwise we are going to continue to go down a demographic hole that leaves a party that is strong in rural America, the Old South, and parts of the Rust Belt — but not competitive nationally. The options that face the GOP are diversify or die. And many in our party are being drawn to death’s soothing siren song.
Tim Miller is a partner at Definers Public Affairs. He has been a spokesman for Jeb Bush, the Republican National Committee, and a bunch of other Republicans. He tweets a lot at @timodc.All general election candidates have been asked to pledge support for trans rights.
Campaigners for trans rights are calling on all general election candidates to support the three principles underpinning the Trans Manifesto.
The Trans Manifesto was launched in April 2014 to draw politicians’ attention to areas where trans people face inequality. 15 trans groups quickly identified three core principles:
Regard trans individuals as equal citizens with equal rights;
Empower trans individuals to be authorities on all aspects of their own lives; and
Encourage diverse, representative, realistic and positive portrayals of trans individuals.
Helen Belcher, Trustee of the LGBT Consortium, explains, “the unanimity of support behind the three principles was truly amazing, but we need politicians to pledge to support them.”
A new website has been launched today – www.transmanifesto.org.uk – which gives people contact details of candidates in their area and also allows them to log candidates’ level of support.
Paul Roberts, CEO of the LGBT Consortium, continues, “this exciting initiative for the 2015 general election really shows that trans rights are increasing in importance. We’d urge everyone to contact candidates in their constituency and ask them for their support of the three principles.”
Belcher, who also sits on the Parliamentary Forum on Gender Identity, adds, “with an increasing number of politicians aware of the issues that trans people face, this next parliament will be key in reducing inequality. We’d encourage everyone, whether trans or not, to get involved.”
The last couple of years have seen outcries over inappropriate blocking of internet sites and issues around voter registration. Roberts says, “on the face of it, these issues wouldn’t have registered with MPs as issues that would adversely affect trans people. That’s why it’s so important that politicians pledge to uphold the principles, so all legislation should be scrutinised for its effect.”
All parties were asked to include two specific manifesto policies, review of the Gender Recognition Act and encourage positive portrayals of trans people in government documents.
Some parties have already confirmed that they are including specific policies for trans people in their general election manifestos.
The first out transgender woman to openly stand for a major UK-wide party for Parliament, Labour’s Emily Brothers in Sutton and Cheam, has today welcomed the Trans Manifesto launched by the LGBT Consortium. Ms Brothers said: “I welcome the Trans Manifesto launched today by the LGBT Consortium. As a woman with a transsexual history who is standing for Parliament, if elected I’ll endeavour to advance the core principles identified by transgender groups to further our equal rights, empower and positively portray us.
“Labour will build on the introduction of the Gender Recognition Act in 2004 by commissioning a comprehensive review of trans law and policy. That landmark legislation was amazingly powerful for some people like me, affirming our gender as we always felt it. Even though we’ve made some progress on this agenda, its right to look at whether policy in this area is fit for purpose and has kept-pace with developments in other countries.
“As part of this review, we will look at the very specific provisions for trans spouses who wish to go for gender recognition and whether they are fair. The Same Sex Marriage Act included a provision to enable married couples – where one spouse was transgender – to remain married when that spouse receives legal gender recognition. This was very welcome. However, I’m concerned that the procedure still effectively grants a spouse a veto over their partner’s application for gender recognition. Scotland removed this so-called ‘spousal veto’ during the passage of their marriage equality act, so it’s right that as part of the policy review we look again at this procedure for England and Wales.”Punjab is the hub of patriarchy, especially as we move towards the more conservative cities. Jalandhar is no exception to it. But in the disguise of patriarchy lies legal privileges lawmakers gave women to protect themselves. Privileges like the 498a that have been notoriously misused.
When women misuse the law, it creates a social jurisprudence against genuine victims. A debate has always remained open over the issue, but when it comes to the Dowry law, 498a, less could be spoken in favor of the fairer sex.
Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj Jalandhar screening of the Martyrs of marriage documentary.
Ironically, the first major documentary on the cause of the misuse of the act comes from a ‘woman’, Deepika Bhardwaj. She is traveling through the country for screening the documentary and raising awareness. However, after long, something unexpected happened while screening it in Jalandhar.
As reported by Deepika on her Facebook page, the following happened during the screening:
“Something that I never expected happened today after #MartyrsofMarriage screening in Jalandhar. A girl came up on the stage and confessed that she filed false cases against her in-laws and husband and after watching the film and seeing the consequences on husband and his family of these cases, she just couldn't control herself from saying sorry to everyone for what she did. It was an extremely emotional moment. This girl, her mother and her mother in law were all there in the audience as the family is currently trying to sort the differences. Will upload the video later as the woman was okay with anyone shooting her confession. But this was unexpected.....Still thinking what just happened.”Overcoming depression one post at a time.
I have had some troubles with my mind in the past. Sometimes I write or doodle some things about it, and about feeling better. Ceci n'est pas un webcomic though. It does not update regularly, or maybe at all.
I must say some other things, for they are true: I am very happy to talk to you but I am not a therapist or a professional or necessarily a wise person, and I do not think I know what is best for you. Also I am very sorry but I am sometimes very slow at answering people. I will try to do better.
If you would like to send me a message the link is below. If you prefer you can also email me at paralanalysis at gmail dot com.New Delhi: Separate bomb blast incidents hit the states of Assam and Manipur while the 70th Independence Day was being celebrated across the nation on Monday.
Reports said that four low-intensity explosions took place in Tinsukia district while another blast took place in Sivasagar area of Assam.
In Manipur, two medium-intensity IED blasts took place in Imphal West district.
No casualties were reported in all cases.
Tinsukia was in panic grip after ULFA militants shot dead two people and injured seven in the past few days.
Earlier this month, several incidents of explosion have occurred in Manipur. A seven-year old child was injured in a blast targeting a Border Security Force (BSF) camp in Moirang Purel village near Imphal.
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Read MoreYears ago when I was getting some training from an NFL scout, he told me one simple phrase that stands above everything else – write what you see. Simple, but powerful words. So often we want to go off reputation or quick perception. We might check out stats. We see highlights. The scout’s message was to watch a player and write down what you factually see. Then go back and evaluate that information.
With that in mind, let’s talk about what we saw from Nick in the Dallas game. I’ll stay basic and focus on 4 main areas.
Composure – Nick Foles only had a couple of minutes to get ready. He was thrown into the game quickly and without a week of practice. You would not have known this from watching him in the huddle or at the line of scrimmage. He looked like a natural leader on the field. He read the defense and made pre-snap adjustments. The situation wasn’t too big for him. He was calm and cool. He stayed focused.
Physical – Nick certainly looks the part of an NFL QB. Koy Detmer always looked like he had no business being out there. Nick showed at least an average arm, if not better. He didn’t make any dynamic throws, but I don’t think anyone could come away from that game and think “he’s just doesn’t have what it takes to play in the NFL physically”. Nick once again showed better than expected mobility. He was able to move around in the pocket to buy time. He was able to run away from pressure for a second or two. He took big hits and wasn’t phased.
QB Skills – Nick has good mechanics. You’re always curious to see how players react to the speed of the game. Will that hurry up the delivery? Will it cause them to make physical mistakes? Nick wasn’t bothered by any of that stuff. He didn’t look rushed. On the TD to Maclin, he slid to the right, but didn’t run. He moved away from pressure and stayed under control. That allowed him to re-set his feet and get the pass off.
Nick was generally accurate. The TD throw wasn’t a great pass. He under-threw it and it should have been more to the middle of the field, but it was catchable. You sometimes see QBs panic when a player is wide open. Nick didn’t make a good throw, but it was good enough. The pass that hit Avant in the head was a very good throw. Jason just slipped as he came out of his break. There were some passes where Nick was off target. Maclin had to reach for a ball on the right side when Nick made an errant throw. The slant to DeSean was about a foot behind him and that led to the INT/TD. Nick can’t put the ball behind his receiver like that, but I do think timing was part of the problem there. Nick showed this summer that he could be very accurate. I think a week of practice and a full start will lead to better throws.
Nick showed good field vision. He spotted Maclin downfield on the TD. Nick threw the ball right and left. He threw to different players. He went to his right early, but got more balanced as the game moved along.
Nick anticipated routes well. The pass to Avant was thrown as Jason made his cut. That is good QB play. We haven’t had a QB anticipate routes in a while. Garcia? Too many QBs don’t trust plays/players and wait for guys to come open. By the time that happens, rushers can be in the backfield or cover guys can break on the receiver. You want the QB to get the ball out quickly and hit his targets as they come out of their break. Eagles WRs aren’t used to this so there will be some bumps in the road.
I thought Nick’s decision-making was up and down. At first, he was going to the right. A Dallas DB jumped the third pass that way and should have had a TD. Nick will learn you can’t go to one side that much in a row. He threw a pass to the right that was picked off by Anthony Spencer, but erased due to a penalty. The decision was poor, the throw made it look even worse. That was a rookie play. The play where Nick scrambled to the sideline and then threw a ball up in the air to the middle of the field…worked. But it was a bad decision. Maclin made the grab, but you don’t want the QB doing that unless it is a desperate situation that calls for a desperate throw. I won’t chart all the plays where he did the right thing. I’ve already mentioned several of them. Nick has mistakes to clean up, but he wasn’t making bonehead decisions left and right.
Intangibles – This is a lot more subjective, but I did think there were good signs here as well. After an early series, Foles was over on the sidelines talking to his OL. I think that is an excellent sign. A QB is only as good as the guys blocking for him and they did a solid job for him for much of the game. Nick wasn’t sacked until the 4th Qtr.
There were no wasted timeouts by the offense with Foles in the game. Think about that. We’ve had wasted timeouts for years. Vick had one early on (not necessarily his fault). Foles ran things smoothly and efficiently. He was prepared for the moment.
I thought Foles actually looked confident on the field. Felt like the players responded to that as well. He seemed like not only the QB, but the leader. That’s huge. A QB who the players don’t believe in is in big trouble. Felt to me that the players did believe in Nick.
SUMMARY
We saw some good signs on Sunday. There were some things to be concerned about as well, but most of them felt like rookie issues rather than talent issues. We need to see him get coached up and play more to find out what is cleaned up and what remains a problem.
Nick looked the part of an NFL QB. He belonged on the field. There is something to work with. There is too much unknown at this point to make any definitive conclusions, but there is certainly reason for optimism.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to keep this game in context. Foles last played in a game on the Thursday before Labor Day. He’s been on the bench for the last 9 weeks. He hadn’t practiced with the starters in that time. He was thrown into action against DeMarcus Ware and a Top 10 defense and did some good things.
Eagles fans should be optimistic, but definitely cautious. A lot more tape is needed before we’ll know anything for sure.
* * * * *
Jimmy Bama and I talk about Nick Foles. And argue about DeSean Jackson’s quickness. And Jimmy breaks DeMarcus Ware’s i-pad.
_"Oh, Donald — the ratings are in, and you got swamped. Wow. Now you're in the 30s?"
The feud between Donald Trump and Arnold Schwarzenegger continues.
On the heels of a new Gallup poll that put the president's approval rating at a low of 37 percent, the former governor of California tweeted a video in which he mocked Trump. Schwarzenegger also took the opportunity to criticize Trump's recently released budget proposal, which would cut funding for programs like Meals on Wheels and the National Endowment for the Arts.
"Oh, Donald — the ratings are in, and you got swamped," Schwarzenegger said in the video. "Wow. Now you're in the 30s? But what do you expect? I mean when you take away afterschool programs for children and Meals on Wheels for the poor people, that's not what you call'making America great again.' Come on!"
He continued, "I mean, who is advising you? Let me give you some advice: Go to a middle school — the Hart Middle School, right in Washington, six miles away from the White House. I'll take you there, so you can see the fantastic work that they're doing for these children. Let's do it, huh?"
Schwarzenegger also included a link to the website of After-School All-Stars — a nonprofit he founded — which partners with schools to provide afterschool programs for low-income students to keep kids safe and expand their learning opportunities.
Schwarzenegger and Trump have been feuding on Twitter for months. The feud kicked into high gear when Trump became critical of The Celebrity Apprentice's poor ratings after Schwarzenegger replaced the president as host of the show's 15th season, which wrapped in February. The season's ratings were down nearly 42 percent over its seven-week run, in comparison to the last season hosted by Trump.
Earlier this month, Schwarzenegger announced that he would be |
exact word used of Jesus), a great suffering ending in their death that awards them their divine status; all the dying-and-rising gods are resurrected in some fashion, some very similar to Jesus (rising in their own body restored or ascending to and getting a superior body in heaven; note how dishonest Ehrman has been about this before ); and almost all the dying-and-rising gods award their followers a handsome afterlife with a baptism through which the follower emulates the death and resurrection of the savior. To claim this isn’t astonishingly similar to Jesus is simply lying at this point. See OHJ, pp. 96-108 (Christianity has too many similarities with the baptismal mystery cults for this to be a coincidence), and pp. 168-73 (Jesus has too many similarities with the dying-and-rising god-type for this to be a coincidence).
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Argument 17: You can’t be buried in outer space. Score 1. This was another brief undefended assertion, the gist of which was that mythicism requires Jesus to have been buried in outer space, or else 1 Corinthians 15:4 refutes it; so if that can’t happen, ergo, 1 Corinthians 15:4 refutes mythicism.
This was another brief undefended assertion, the gist of which was that mythicism requires Jesus to have been buried in outer space, or else 1 Corinthians 15:4 refutes it; so if that can’t happen, ergo, 1 Corinthians 15:4 refutes mythicism. Outcome: No Effective Reply. Score 0. Price never addressed this. Since we have already buried several machines in outer space, the notion that you “can’t” be buried in outer space doesn’t hold up even on modern cosmology. But on ancient, it was even more explicitly sensible, and in fact established in the literature.
Jewish lore already held that Adam and Eve were buried in outer space ( OHJ, pp. 195-97); and Paul himself says he (or someone he knew…he may in fact have been referencing an early redaction of the Ascension of Isaiah) visited a whole garden in outer space ( 2 Corinthisn 12 ), and a garden is obviously the sort of place where someone could be buried in ( John 19:41 ). In fact, that was the same garden in outer space Jewish lore had Adam and Eve buried in. So Ehrman either is lying, or doesn’t know what he is talking about and is just arrogantly pretending he checked his facts on this, when obviously he didn’t. As noted above, many texts, including Hebrews, say everything on earth has counterparts in the many heavens, one of which was the firmament; and the Ascension of Isaiah explicitly says the firmament (the space between earth and the moon) has its copies, too. So there were places to be buried even there (including, but not only, the moon). Ehrman seemed frequently to mock the idea of things being in and happening in outer space. He doesn’t seem to grasp that he is mocking his own view of how Christianity began. According to Ehrman’s view, Jesus’s best friends, even members of his family, who knew him personally for years, suddenly, almost immediately upon his death, started believing and claiming that he was only briefly a man and was in fact more fundamentally a descended space alien thousands of years old from the beginning of time who only briefly wore a human suit just to get it killed to overturn Satan before flying back into outer space again from where he now sends us psychic signals intelligence. Because Ehrman himself agrees that’s exactly what the very first Christians believed: that Jesus was only briefly a man and was in fact more fundamentally a descended space alien thousands of years old from the beginning of time who only briefly wore a human suit just to get it killed to overturn Satan before flying back into outer space again from where he now sends us psychic signals intelligence. If that’s silly, because “things in outer space” is silly, then Ehrman’s own explanation for the origins of Christianity is even sillier. Because it requires all this to be believed of an ordinary person, by his own friends and family, immediately after even his very public murder. That’s no less bizarre than what the mythicists are proposing: that, instead, people who never knew him as a person, came to believe this very same strange thing from finding it hidden, pesher-like, in scripture ( OHJ, pp. 87-92, with 81-87 and 137-45) and riling themselves up into an ecstasy to have visions confirming this (ibid., pp. 124-37) because it conveniently solved pressing socio-political problems of the time (ibid., pp. 153-59, with pp. 143-45), exactly matching known anthropological models for how pacifist revolutionary apocalyptic cults form and operate (ibid., pp. 159-63), and looking a lot like prior examples of “outer-space savior” ideologies in Jewish literature (e.g., ibid., pp. 73-81, 200-09) and surrounding cultures (ibid., pp. 164-73, and again pp. 96-108).
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Argument 18: The Jews would never invent a messiah who gets killed. Score 1. This is one of Ehrman’s two most typical and predictable arguments (the other being the brothers argument, discussed above). It’s both false and fallacious. But it scores if you don’t say so.
This is one of Ehrman’s two most typical and predictable arguments (the other being the brothers argument, discussed above). It’s both false and fallacious. But it scores if you don’t say so. Outcome: No Effective Reply. Score 0. Price said nothing at all about this. Again.
First, it’s false. The Jews did invent a messiah who gets killed. Explicitly in the Talmud: the Messiah son of Joseph will die, presaging the end times, at which the Messiah son of David would resurrect him, beginning the general resurrection of Israel. The Talmud says Isaiah 53 and Zechariah 12 are about this apocalyptic messiah being killed and resurrected. And before Christianity, Daniel 9-12 says much the same thing: the last messiah will be killed, presaging the end times, at which the Archangel Michael would descend and resurrect Israel (including the killed messiah). There is evidence this scheme was elaborated in the Dead Sea Scrolls literature as well. And Ehrman himself has admitted that “chosen one” was a key-word used by Jews to identify passages about the messiah in the OT (as many experts concur: OHJ, pp. 67-68), and Isaiah 53 says a “chosen one” will die and thus atone for the sins of Israel, and even the Talmudic Jews thus agreed this passage was about the messiah. (See OHJ, pp. 73-81, 137-43.) So the claim that Jews “would never do this” is outright false. Second, it’s fallacious. Hebrews 9 makes perfect sense of a dying messiah on existing Jewish theology. That that can be done entails it could be done. Therefore, the claim that it can’t be done is false. But if we accept it can be done, we can no longer argue “the Jews would never do it because they never did,” because that would declare impossible every innovation in the entirety of Jewish history. Which is absurd. Having the messiah die before returning as “a great warrior king and mighty cosmic judge who would destroy his enemies” (as Ehrman says a messiah must be) was actually a theologically brilliant idea in the context of the time ( OHJ, pp. 153-59), perfectly in line with Jewish thinking about how heroes and powers and victories against evil operate (from exalted martyrs to atonement magic: OHJ, pp. 143-45, 209-14, 430-32, with p. 142; and PH, pp. 131-34, with p. 141). Hence, Jesus is still exactly that messiah Ehrman says a messiah was supposed to be. His playing that part was simply said to be coming any time now, his powers having been gained by first submitting to death, just like all the other dying and rising personal savior Lords of the era; and, incidentally, just like the exalted “chosen one” of Isaiah 53. So when Ehrman says, “You can’t explain the crucified messiah as something that was made up,” he’s flat out, demonstrably wrong. It’s also not a logically valid rebuttal to mythicism. On mythicism, that the crucifixion was a stumbling block for (only some) Jews was because they couldn’t understand how anyone would know an archangel had been crucified in outer space, without a “sign” confirming it ( OHJ, pp. 613-15; compare pp. 610-13). Likewise, the only kind of messiah you can invent is one who isn’t a conquering warrior. Thus it would always entail some cryptic stumbling block the inventors had to overcome with scripture and traveling miracle acts. So would an actually crucified man have entailed. Therefore, the existence of a stumbling block is entailed by both theories, and therefore argues against neither.
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Recap. That concluded Ehrman’s opening. He closed by recapping the assertions that Jesus was the best attested Palestinian Jew in the first century, we have multiple independent sources on him, and the writings of Paul, in which he confirms Jesus was crucified by the authorities there. His final point was that reasonable people base their beliefs on the facts.
. That concluded Ehrman’s opening. He closed by recapping the assertions that Jesus was the best attested Palestinian Jew in the first century, we have multiple independent sources on him, and the writings of Paul, in which he confirms Jesus was crucified by the authorities there. His final point was that reasonable people base their beliefs on the facts. Notably at no point in his opening statement did Ehrman address any critiques of these arguments. He just repeated the same old stuff he always says, just like William Lane Craig does, as if it had never been critiqued before. Also, Ehrman never appealed to any extra-biblical evidence. Although possibly he would have had he more time (it may have been in his skipped section).
Price’s Opening
As I noted before, Price took no notes, and only read a prepared statement at the podium, much of which did not respond to anything Ehrman said in his opening. As with Ehrman, it began with a long time-wasting introduction that made no substantive points of debate. Then moved to critiquing past claims Ehrman made, only some of which aligned with claims he made in this debate. Most of whatever he said that was relevant I’ve already catalogued above in assessing his responses to Ehrman’s opening. What remains is not very useful.
Price tried arguing, a lot, that it makes no sense to say that mundane stories got embellished into the wild stories in the Gospels, because what was wild about them is the only reason they’d have been preserved in the first place. But this was in no way what Ehrman has defended, or defended in this debate, as what did survive in the Gospels as reliable historical data. In short, Price’s argument was completely disconnected here from Ehrman’s actual historical model of the historical Jesus and the actual things he credits as historical and why. Ehrman eventually made essentially that very point—though without explaining further with examples, as he should have done, to advance the debate. Consequently, they completely talked past each other on this, and no progress was made. The audience still wasn’t told which facts Ehrman thinks are historical about Jesus in the Gospels, or why; and we got to see no questioning of whether his reasons for believing those things historical were sound.
For example, Ehrman did assert a list of things in Paul, like crucifixion by the Romans; and one might infer that Ehrman meant when those things were attested in the Gospels, that that counts as independent corroboration of Paul. Ehrman never actually said that, though. And it would be bogus. The Gospels were not independent of the letters of Paul and thus could have been extracting all that data simply from him, and altering them or adding the embellishments they needed for their purpose. And we didn’t get to see any of this question probed further. Ehrman, for instance, does think the Gospels somehow independently corroborate Paul on the historical crucifixion, but the story the Gospels tell about that is wildly implausible as history and cannot be remotely true (PH, pp. 139-41, 153-54). So how does Ehrman deal with that? How does he trust a story in no way historically plausible, as reliable evidence of a historical event? A story, even, that cites no sources, and is written decades later, with obvious mythological intent, built out of stories in no way related to Jesus? (e.g., OHJ, pp. 402-05, 407-08, 422-26, 428-30, 437-38; see also pp. 45-47, 56-58, and PH, pp. 131-34, 141.)
Price never pushed any question this way. Not in his opening; nor in cross. So we never got to find out.
Similarly, Price argued it would be ridiculous to propose all the pagan gods were historical persons. But that’s not what Ehrman is doing. He isn’t just proposing some god was a historical person. He is making a case for that. So this was again a complete disconnect with Ehrman’s actual stated positions. Analogously, if Ehrman were making a case from evidence that Hercules actually existed, the response is to address that case, not to say that it’s simply ridiculous to invent historical origins for gods. If Ehrman were doing that, Price needs to show he is. Otherwise, he still has to address the case Ehrman is making, and not deploy a disconnected argument from incredulity. That’s doing exactly what those historicists do who dismisses mythicism out of hand because “it’s ridiculous.” That’s simply not an argument.
Price then burned a lot of clock on the extrabiblical evidence (Tacitus and Josephus and some second century Christian evidence like Papias, that, again, Ehrman made no mention of). Which was bad debate strategy. Ehrman used no such arguments. So Price should have devoted that time to arguments Ehrman did make. The only potentially useful point Price made in this was to point out how readily Ehrman believes “scholarship of convenience” with the Testimonium Flavianum, just changing the text to say whatever would make sense for Josephus to say, and then declaring that as what Josephus said, and then using that mutant monster you just made up as evidence for Jesus. Price could have hit Ehrman with this when Ehrman accused Price of doing the same thing with the letters of Paul; but he didn’t. Even so, tu quoque is a fallacy. Price shouldn’t be doing that with Paul for the very same reason he said Ehrman shouldn’t be doing it with Josephus.
When Price got to proposing an origin story without a historical Jesus, he argues that the crucifixion of Jesus was imagined to be “a primordial event only recently revealed,” and later “Gnostic” writings show the transition from that, to a phase where the sectarians “historicized their cosmic myths,” and then this evolved into a “docetic version,” and then that “became solidified into orthodoxy.” The process he proposed was somewhat fanciful, inadequately explained, and not at all clear. Most of the audience I am certain was completely lost. Similarly, Price said something to the effect that Paul was reporting revelations when he related commandments from Jesus, but he said it in such obscure terms, it was hard even for me to follow. Only when he covered the Eucharist revelation was that remedied (which I mentioned earlier), where he rightly pointed out that Paul is not there using the phraseology of rabbinical transmission but his own idiom for relating visions. But Price didn’t do anything else with that point, or bring it up again.
He also ran out of time, skipped material, and closed with a quick flourish.
That was it.
The score was 14:2, a sevenfold win for Ehrman. A landslide by any standard. All due not to his having the better case, of course, but to his having an opponent who dropped the proverbial ball. A sad thing to see.
Cross Examinations
Most of what went on in cross was a waste of time. They asked each other a lot of irrelevant questions. But overall, Ehrman performed better. He used his time to bait Price into defending unbelievable positions such as that everything inconvenient could just be assumed an interpolation, that all the letters of Paul were second century forgeries, and that the baptism scene in the Gospels was based on obscure Zoroastrian doctrines. And rather than play smart, and saying adopting these conclusions wasn’t necessary to doubt historicity and thus not relevant to the clocked debate, Price took the bait, and burned clock affirming them, and defending them so horribly it appeared to the audience he had no coherent or credible defense of them.
The net effect was making it seem as though doubting historicity required adopting half a dozen wildly implausible assumptions. For the record, no, we don’t. We don’t need bizarrely late dates for the Gospels. We don’t need the seven core letters of Paul to be forgeries. We don’t need to assume any interpolations that aren’t already widely accepted in the mainstream literature. We don’t need to imagine Zoroastrianism influenced any passage in the Gospels. We don’t need any of the weird claims Price tried to hang mythicism on. For example, the John the Baptist scene in the Gospels can be shown to be probably fictional with entirely straightforward, peer reviewed findings (PH, pp. 145-48). We don’t need weird, unprovable speculations about Zoroastrian influences.
In the end, though, both Ehrman and Price said the same thing about how we should resolve this debate: Price, that “It’s a question of what paradigm makes the most sense of the evidence”; Ehrman, that “It’s a question of what’s more probable.” But we never got to see either test applied properly to the question. Price put forward some of the least probable alternatives to Ehrman’s model, thus violating his own stated principle; as Ehrman himself even pointed out. Ehrman, meanwhile, articulated no coherent theory of probability by which to derive “probable” conclusions from premises—and when given a chance to, he even denounced probability theory as inapplicable. One wonders then how Ehrman can determine what’s more probable, without applying any of the logical apparatus governing probability.
Who Are the Archons of This Aeon?
A paradigmatic example of these problems came up in the debate between Ehrman and Price over the meaning of the phrase “Archons of this Aeon” in 1 Corinthians 2:8. Price correctly mentioned in his opening that this is a bizarre and vague phrase to use to describe the killers of Jesus, and that similar terminology was also known to refer to demons in the sky (literally, in the lowest sphere of outer space, the region between the earth and the moon: see OHJ, pp. 184-93, with p. 63). Ehrman tried challenging him on that in cross, by saying the use of the word “archons” in Romans 13 clearly means ordinary Roman leaders, not sky demons. Neither one of them built a clear paradigm to compare with the other’s for explanatory power; nor did either of them make any logically coherent argument for the probability of either conclusion. It was all just a waste of time as far as the audience was concerned.
Price failed to point out the first problem with this, that Romans 13 never uses the odd phrase “Archons of this Aeon,” an extremely sweeping term that is inclusive of all the powers over the whole of the earth for what was typically a thousand year period or more. That hardly sounds like a good substitute for “Pontius Pilate,” or even “the Romans.” In his letter to the Romans, Paul only uses archon there by itself in the usual manner. He did not tack on the bizarre attribution of those ruling the aeons (or for aeons or this aeon or anything else equally bizarre). Ehrman was hiding this fact in the way he phrased his question. Price failed to call him out on that.
Price did point out that if “archon” means the same thing in both Romans 13 and 1 Corinthians 2, then Paul was contradicting himself, saying in the one place that these archons never disobey god, and in the other that they always do. Ehrman simply bit the bullet on that one and admitted Paul contradicted himself, claiming it was for political convenience. But that doesn’t really make a lot of sense. The disobedience of these archons is fundamental to the gospel. How could Paul persuade his fellow Christians of anything with an argument based on the assertion that these archons always obey God’s will, when the very core of their gospel was based on those same archons being eternally opposed to God’s will? Ehrman’s reply was illogical and unsustainable. It was, in short, paradigmaticaly improbable. Yet Price didn’t challenge him on it.
And that was where that exchange ended.
Why wouldn’t Price bring up any more of the above? Or the even more deeply problematic fact that in 1 Cor. 2 Paul is literally saying that the archons he is there referring to would have stopped the crucifixion had they known it would defeat the power of death in the world. That does not sound like Pontius Pilate. Or the Jews. Or the Romans. None of them would have any such interest; the Romans wouldn’t have even comprehended it. Why would they have moved to stop an arcane act of blood-magic to keep themselves and everyone else mortal? This is simply not an interest any among the earthly authorities had. But it was precisely the driving interest of Satan, the “Archon of the Air” ruling “this Aeon” (Ephesians 2:2), and his dark angelic and demonic subordinates: to keep sin and death in the world (1 Corinthians 15:26, 54, etc.). Paul is saying that’s why God kept hidden from these “archons” who Jesus was, so they would kill him by mistake, thus triggering the resulting blood magic (Hebrews 9, etc.).
As I wrote in OHJ (OHJ, pp. 564-66):
This cannot mean just Pontius Pilate and the Sanhedrin. This is everyone in power: they killed Jesus, and did so only because they were kept from knowing their doing so would save the human race. This entails a whole world order whereby if any of ‘the rulers of this age’ had known what would happen, they would have told their peers and stopped the crucifixion, to prevent its supernatural effect. This does not describe any human world order. This describes the Satanic world order, the realm of demons and fallen angelic powers. … [In fact], this exactly describes what we saw in the earlier redaction of the Ascension of Isaiah: [there,] Satan and his demons kill Jesus only because his identity was kept hidden from them, so they wouldn’t know what his death would accomplish. … It therefore makes more sense to conclude that it is the archons of the sky that Paul is saying God wanted to thwart by keeping all of this hidden, so they would kill Jesus, not knowing it would secure their destruction. For Paul says these archons are ‘being abolished’ (katargoumenôn, a present passive participle). This does not plausibly refer to the Jewish or Roman elite (who were still fully in power, and could still be as saved as anyone by joining Christ). It most plausibly means that those sharing in the sacrifice of Jesus now had power over the demons, to exorcise them and escape their clutches—thereby escaping the power of death. Because it is by his death that Jesus had triumphed over those dark celestial powers (just as Colossians 2:15 would later say). The early Christian scholar Origen agreed: he could only understand Paul here to be saying that unseen powers of darkness were being abolished, not any earthly authorities, and that these demonic powers were the ones who plotted against and crucified Jesus.
So when we compare paradigms to explain the content of 1 Cor. 2:6-8, the historicity paradigm does not do a good job at all. You have to add multiple epicycles of not very probable assumptions to get it to fit. But the mythicist paradigm matches it exactly. It is, in fact, practically a summary of the Ascension of Isaiah, the one known “gospel” that has Jesus crucified by Satan in outer space. Likewise, what’s more probable, that Paul would say something so multiply inexplicable and thus so improbable about mere Roman government officials, or that he would say this if he was just summarizing a demonic narrative instead, like we find embellished later in the Ascension of Isaiah? The latter, surely. Even at best, it’s 50/50. We can’t tell.
This is the kind of discussion that never occurred in this debate.
Why Don’t We Have the Cosmic Gospels?
Similarly, Ehrman smartly asked a very good question: given that no “outer space gospel” survives, but the historicizing gospels do, why are we siding with evidence that doesn’t survive instead of the evidence that does? Price didn’t give any intelligible answer to the question. Why didn’t he mention that an “outer space gospel” does survive? The reconstructed Ascension of Isaiah. Why didn’t he point out that Medieval Christians tried destroying that gospel, by tearing sections out, and forging new sections in their place that agreed with their historicizing doctrine instead? Why didn’t he mention that Medieval Christians destroyed nearly every document of every competing sect, and almost all the documents of the first and early second century, including several letters of Paul, and even some sections of the letters we have? (OHJ, pp. 146-52, 293-08, 349-56.) Why did the prevailing Christian sect rely almost entirely on mass forgery to establish its doctrines and history? (OHJ, pp. 214-22, 315-42) What happened to the gospel quoted by Ignatius that says no one witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus, and that his existence was only known upon his resurrection, by a shining star in the sky? (OHJ, pp. 320-23) Why did historicist Christians have to forge the letter of 2 Peter to denounce other Christians who were claiming the historical Jesus was a myth, and why did that have to be accomplished by forging an eyewitness testimony of Peter meeting Jesus on earth in order to “refute” them? (OHJ, p. 351) Why do we not have a single document from that other sect of Christians? Why don’t we have their Gospels?
Ehrman can’t claim we should have those Gospels if they existed therefore they didn’t exist; clearly they existed—2 Peter was forged to refute them, and Ignatius quotes one; and in fact we do have one of them, the Ascension of Isaiah—after heavy doctoring by later Christians who tried to hide its original content. The reason we don’t have any more than this is thus not that there weren’t Christians arguing Jesus was a myth or preaching his cosmic death instead of an earthly one. There clearly were. The reason we don’t have more of their literature (especially their earliest, which would be the most important for dating their cosmic doctrine) is that the entire existence of those Christians—and the entirety of their literature, their epistles and gospels—was almost completely erased from history by the prevailing historicizing sect. This enormously distorts the evidence we have. We cannot act like we have a random survival of documents, and that what we have is a mostly honest representation of what there was. What survives was crafted by numerous independent agents with a common agenda to convince us of historicity—to “refute” those forgotten Christians who denied it. And that was accomplished with destruction, forgery, and lies.
Ehrman’s Argument from Prestige
I won’t address the Q&A after cross. It got nothing useful out of either Price or Ehrman. But Ehrman’s answer to one question was disturbing: when asked what evidence it would take to change his mind, Ehrman responded by not mentioning any arguments or any evidence. He responded essentially by saying that when someone prestigious enough, who has a fancy enough university appointment, tells him it’s plausible, then he’ll change his mind. When pressed after the debate on this, he doubled down. He would never state any evidence, any reasoning, that would ever change his mind. Only the prestige of whose opinion it is would ever persuade him.
Seriously?
Ehrman basically thus said that his field does not do evidence-based reasoning. It only does prestige. Basically, if you don’t teach at Oxford, you can go fuck yourself. Of course, this means he is spitting on Thomas Thompson, Thomas Brodie, Hector Avalos, Art Droge, and Kurt Noll, as all beneath his contempt. All are fairly prestigious professors with relevant degrees and publication histories, who publicly doubt historicity. But fuck them, I guess. Ehrman doesn’t think their opinions are worth a hog’s ear. Never mind that fairly prestigious professors of the field passed my book through peer review. Because, I guess, fuck all peer reviewed literature, too? Peer review is for punks, apparently. If Oxford didn’t publish it, it’s crank garbage. He can ignore it. Such, it would seem, is how Ehrman thinks. Why do we care anymore about the opinion of someone who thinks like that? Good question.
Conclusion
There are two major takeaways from all this.
First, the biggest loss in this debate was that nothing new got said. Because Price never challenged hardly anything Ehrman asserted. So by the end of the debate Ehrman said everything I already expected him to (because it was the same stuff he always says), and nothing else. This was an opportunity for Price to push Ehrman on any of those standard arguments that Ehrman has been repeating for years (just like William Lane Craig, Ehrman only has the same arguments every time, so it’s super easy to prep for). He would then have gotten Ehrman to elaborate or defend those assertions, which he has consistently avoided doing for years—and now, thanks to Price, he still hasn’t done. So we got no new arguments to evaluate, thus making no progress in the overall history of this debate. We still don’t know why Ehrman thinks his claims and fallacies are valid. And the reason we got nowhere, is that Price just didn’t debate Ehrman. Maybe because Price lacks formal skill at debate or didn’t realize what was happening on stage. He seems to have thought this was just a casual conversation, and not a fact-finding mission. “Why do you believe that, Dr. Ehrman?” is a question that just never got asked, of any claim Ehrman made.
Second, why is Ehrman ignoring the peer reviewed literature in his own field? Why will he not address that, the case for mythicism actually vetted by Ehrman’s own peers, and instead debates Robert Price, whose arguments for mythicism have never passed peer review, many of which are even outright strange? This is a really weird thing to see happen in a supposedly professional academic field. If in any other field a consensus was challenged in its own peer reviewed literature, experts would analyze and respond to it in the peered reviewed literature, and there either publish flaws in it sufficient to warrant not changing the consensus, or they’d change the consensus. But here, everyone in the field is ignoring the peer reviewed challenges to the consensus in their own field (even Craig Evans didn’t read my book when he debated it with me), and fallaciously, circularly, citing “the consensus” as the reason to not even examine or respond to a peer reviewed challenge to that consensus—a methodology that would end all progress in every field were it adopted as a principle. Which is why no sane science would adopt such a principle. In fact, abolishing that principle is precisely what demarcated modern science from medieval and launched the Scientific Revolution. So how can any other field remain credible today, when it is still using the same irrational reasons to reject challenges to its authority as were decisively repudiated hundreds of years ago?
This debate, alas, will not give you an answer. It just re-asks the question.0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
Sen. Bernie Sanders is urging Americans to stand up and come together in a national movement to stop Donald Trump and the GOP’s undemocratic vision for America.
In response to the President-elect’s baseless claims of voter fraud, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said in a statement:
The threat to American democracy under Republican control is two-fold. First, they will likely move to go beyond the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and end all campaign finance limitations. Right now, the Koch brothers and the billionaire class can spend as much as they want only on independent expenditures. The Republican leadership wants more. They want billionaires to be able to contribute directly to the candidate and, in essence, make the candidate a full-fledged employee of wealthy contributors.
Secondly, the Republicans will likely move aggressively to expand their current voter suppression efforts. When Trump talks his disgraceful and unfounded nonsense about millions of people voting illegally, he is sending a very clear signal that the Republicans will move to make it harder for people of color, the elderly, immigrants, young people and poor people to participate in elections.
Our job: State by state and at the federal level, resist all efforts at voter suppression. We must do everything we can to make it easier for people to participate in the political process, not harder. States like California, Vermont and others have already moved effectively in that direction. Others must follow.
For many Republicans leaders, ‘democracy’ means billionaires buying elections and poor and working people being disenfranchised. Too many Americans have fought and died to defend American democracy. The Republican anti-democratic vision is not a future we will allow to happen.
Sanders has perfectly diagnosed what Trump intends to do as president. Under Donald Trump, the Voting Rights Act will cease to be enforced at all. Democracy will be looked at as an entitlement for the wealthy, and everyone who isn’t rich will be disenfranchised.
The Senator from Vermont was also correct that with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell leading the Republican-controlled Congress, Citizens United may look like child’s play compared to what comes next. Republicans and their billionaire backers have been dreaming about getting rid of all campaign finance laws and they are going to get their chance once Trump takes office.
Popular organization at the local, state, and federal level is the best weapon that the majority will have at their disposal to fight back.
Sen. Sanders is calling for a national movement to protect our democracy. Without a Democratic president to act as our firewall, it is up to the American people to make sure that voting rights are protected for all.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:The amount of sexual experience you have (or don’t have) could potentially affect how willing other people are to date or have sex with you, according to a new study published in the Journal of Sex Research. However, what makes for a desirable sexual history depends upon many things, including whether you are male or female and, further, whether we’re talking about desirability for a short-term sexual relationship vs. a long-term romantic relationship.
In this study, researchers in Wales surveyed 188 heterosexual adults (some recruited from a college campus and others through Facebook) regarding their willingness to become sexually or romantically involved with hypothetical persons of the opposite sex. These people varied in the number of sexual partners they had, ranging from 0 to 60+.
Participants also completed a questionnaire about their sociosexual orientation, which captures their degree of comfort with casual sex in general. Someone who scores higher on this scale has an easier time separating sex from emotion, meaning they don’t feel like they need to be close to someone in order to have sex.
So what did they find? Generally speaking, people were less willing to get involved with someone who had zero partners than someone who had between 1-6. In other words, there was a virgin penalty. Those with 7-8 partners were rated about the same as virgins; however, beyond 8, the numbers dropped below virgins and kept dropping as partner count increased.
However, it’s important to note that people rated folks who had 0-14 partners above the mid-point of the scale, indicating that they were more willing than unwilling to get involved with them. It was only when they got to 15 or more partners that ratings dropped below the mid-point and people started expressing some reluctance to get involved.
The pattern was similar when looking at willingness to get involved in short- and long-term relationships separately: having a small number of partners provided an attractiveness boost over having none, but at a certain point, more partners translated to less desirability. However, people had looser standards for short- compared to long-term relationships—in other words, the number of partners people thought was acceptable was higher if they were looking for a one-night stand, but lower if they were looking for a long-term relationship.
Men’s and women’s ratings were pretty similar when they were looking for a long-term partner; however, when rating short-term mates, men were accepting of a larger number of partners compared to women.
Finally, people who scored higher on the sociosexual orientation scale—that is, people who were more comfortable with casual sex—were more willing to get involved with people who had larger numbers of partners across the board. They also applied a heavier virgin penalty.
While these results are certainly interesting, it’s important to note that they focused only on young adults (the average age of the participants was 22). It’s very likely that people’s views on this matter change as they age. For example, older adults may be more accepting of a larger number of partners than younger adults. Also, only heterosexual persons were surveyed. Sexual minorities might have very different views on |
the unfortunate stigma of being a mamzer, unable to marry a kosher Jew.
What is happening is the following situation: A secular couple is forced to marry according to Halacha. They have little sensitivity to Halacha or to its minutiae. If the marriage does not work out, these couples, during their period of separation, date other people and perhaps sleep with them. This would not be considered to be “cheating” by either one of them, as this was during a period of official separation.
Nevertheless, until a get, or bill of divorce, is issued, Halacha sees this couple as fully married, and the woman as guilty of adultery. If she were to get pregnant during this period, the baby would be a mamzer.
A religious couple having marital difficulties would hopefully be sensitive to this fact, and would not sleep with other people. But religious people are already committed to the halachic system. Why are we forcing people who do not commit to such a system to endanger themselves like this? Let me be clear here. The secular couple does not think they are doing anything wrong. And I would dare say that morally, they are correct. They were not cheating.
The writer is a doctoral candidate in Jewish philosophy and currently teaches in many post-high-school yeshivot and midrashot.
No one is hiding anything. Everything is out in the open. But halacha has its own rules, and Halacha sees this as a most serious sin. Why not let this couple be married through a civil service, and if the marriage should end, according to most rabbis it would not necessitate a get.Another issue is conversion. The stories I hear, coming from potential converts, are infuriating. Young people, usually in the army, are seeking to convert to Judaism out of a deep love for God and the Jewish people. They have already committed themselves to Jewish destiny and fate by joining the IDF. They spend years studying for conversion but are being turned away, or are turning themselves away from conversion for not fitting into a haredi interpretation of Jewish law or practice.The rabbinate expects potential converts to be more pious than 99 percent of world Jewry. There are women who scrupulously keep the mitzvot and who are denied conversion for merely wearing pants (which is not a violation of Jewish law); meanwhile the chief rabbi himself is facing charges of bribery.I have gotten to know some of these women and it is our loss that we turned them away. We will yet pay for these mistakes as those denied conversion integrate themselves into Israeli life.Yet another issue is kashrut supervision. Proprietors of kosher restaurants are complaining of stringencies upon stringencies being heaped upon them by supervisors that barely supervise. Recently, a movement has even started of kosher restaurants that are voluntarily giving up their kashrut certificates while remaining kosher, to escape the rabbinate’s clutches. Why has the rabbinate fostered such a situation? Instead of bringing honor to God and Judaism, the rabbinate brings disgrace and frustration to the public it is supposed to serve.It is my hope and prayer that the election this summer of new chief rabbis will be used as a opportunity to clean house.
Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police have arrested a French man suspected of supplying the arms used by an Islamist militant to kill four people at a kosher supermarket and a policewoman in Paris in January 2015, Spain’s interior ministry said on Wednesday.
Antoine Denive, a 27-year-old from Sainte Catherine in France, is pictured in this undated handout photo provided by Spain's Interior Ministry on April 13, 2016. Reuters/Spanish Interior Ministry/Handout via Reuters
Antoine Denive, a 27-year-old from Sainte Catherine in France, was arrested on Tuesday on a European arrest warrant in Rincon de la Victoria, a town close to Malaga on Spain’s southern coast, the ministry said in a statement.
Two other men from Serbia and Montenegro linked to arms trafficking were also arrested during the raid, which was coordinated by French police, the ministry said.
The Islamist gunman Amedy Coulibaly killed a policewoman in a Paris suburb on Jan. 8 last year and attacked the supermarket the following day before being shot dead by police. Two other gunmen shot 12 people at and near the offices of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris on Jan 7.
Neither the ministry nor police said where the weapons were handed over but the ministry said Coulibaly had been in Spain several days before the attacks, which he dedicated to the Islamic State militant group in a video.
The ministry said Coulibaly was in Spain with his wife Hayat Boumeddiene and an unknown third person, before he accompanied Boumeddiene to Madrid’s Barajas airport where she took a flight to Istanbul with the aim of joining Islamic State in Syria.
Denive fled France several weeks after Coulibaly stormed the supermarket, the ministry said, and set up a new base in Malaga where he continued his illegal arms dealing using fake papers and a valid European passport in the name of a different person.
The ministry did not say what weapons Denive supplied to Coulibaly but said Coulibaly was armed with two AK 47 assault rifles, two semi-automatic pistols, 20 sticks of industrial dynamite and a combat knife when he died.
A spokesman for Spain’s High Court said on Wednesday Denive had denied selling arms to Coulibaly but said he was willing to be extradited to France. The judge ordered that Denive be kept in jail but he would be tried in France as long as no other cases against him in Spain were found.
France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve had congratulated his Spanish counterpart Jorge Fernandez Diaz on the success of the operation, a ministry spokesman in Madrid said.How an oil bust robbed Houston of its tallest skyscraper
skyscrapers houston skyscrapers houston Photo: Skyscrapers Houston Photo: Skyscrapers Houston Image 1 of / 57 Caption Close How an oil bust robbed Houston of its tallest skyscraper 1 / 57 Back to Gallery
In 1982, a design competition between several architectural firms resulted in a plan for an 82-story skyscraper called "The Bank of the Southwest Tower." One year later plans for Houston's tallest building were scrapped.
At the time, it would have been the largest building in the world outside of Chicago and New York.
READ MORE: An abandoned 130-year-old skyscraper is now Manhattan's newest luxury hotel
''Our feeling was that Houston had a sculpture garden of magnificent buildings, but somehow they did not all fit together,'' John T. Cater, the chairman to the bank designing the tower, told the New York Times in 1982. Cater said the city needed "something that would enable people flying over the city to say, that's Houston."
In a strange twist of irony, the Federal Aviation Administration found that the proposed 1,402-foot structure was a hazard to aircraft landing and taking off at Hobby Airport. Coupled with a sudden oil bust, the 82-story skyscraper was never built.
READ MORE: Man who climbed Trump Tower inspires epic memes
More than 30 years later, the vacant parking lot is still there, the only visible evidence of the planned $350 - $400 million skyscraper.
In total, seven buildings were canceled due to the oil bust in the 1980s according to a Houston Post article at the time.
It's difficult to mourn something that never existed, but while driving and seeing Houston's skyline in the distance, it's hard not to feel a little disappointment knowing that it came so close.
Check out images of the proposed skyscraper above, as well as other buildings and construction projects that were never built.Buy Photo Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley joins neighborhood leaders and community members at the Winton Hills Recreation Center to listen to their concerns regarding violence and safety in their area Thursday August 13, 2015. (Photo: The Enquirer/Madison Schmidt)Buy Photo
If you’re white and driving through Winton Terrace, chances are, you’re there to buy drugs.
So said Winton Hills residents, community leaders and interested outsiders during a meeting with Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley about the recent uptick in violence citywide.
The point of the meeting – the second of four planned through next week – was to give residents a chance to float crime-fighting ideas to the mayor. “I want to hear what they think are the issues and solutions,” Cranley said before the gathering.
One of the ideas floated: keeping out people who don’t belong in the neighborhood.
“If a caucasian ain’t walking their dog or jogging, they don’t live here,” said Ishaq “Coach” Nadir, who grew up in Avondale and said he plans to attend as many of Cranley’s meetings as possible. “They’re either driving through or they’re getting drugs.”
In Winton Hills, 15 shootings were reported between Jan. 1 and July 26 of this year. That’s more than double the number of shootings through the same period last year, according to data released by the Cincinnati Initiative to Reduce Violence.
The story’s the same in many other Cincinnati neighborhoods: Avondale shootings are up 28 percent; Westwood, 350 percent; East Westwood, 80 percent; and Walnut Hills, nearly 13 percent. The only neighborhood highlighted with a decrease is West Price Hill, which had nine shootings year-to-date in 2014 compared with eight so far this year.
Cranley acknowledged he didn’t have an answer yet, but he pitched an idea: installing a gated entrance to Winton Hills’ public housing developments, complete with armed guards.
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“If you had an armed guard and you lived there or had permission, you’re allowed in,” suggested Cranley, who said the guards would turn away people wanting to enter who weren’t invited. “It’s something worth exploring.”
Nikki Steele, president of the Winton Terrace Resident Council, said they’d pondered the idea before – and decided it was “horrible.”
“I don’t know that putting more gates up around us is going to make us feel secure,” she said. “It may make us feel more imprisoned.”
The meeting didn’t last an hour before Cranley said he had to leave. He promised a follow-up meeting.
His next two meetings are 4 p.m. Wednesday at The Village, 3060 Durrell Ave., and 1 p.m. Aug. 20 at the Price Hill Recreation Center, 959 Hawthorne Ave.
Read or Share this story: http://cin.ci/1TwCYPvIt appears last spring’s flooding that caused half a million dollars in damages to Winnipeg’s new football stadium still hasn’t been completely cleaned up.
The damage to the luxury suites was repaired long ago, but Bombers CEO Wade Miller says who pays for it — and whether the problem has been completely resolved — remains an issue.
Miller made the revelation Friday, when pressed on whether everything is good to go at the stadium for next year’s Grey Cup game.
“Obviously we still have our ongoing insurance issue that’s being worked through right now, with regards to what occurred in the spring,” Miller told reporters at the launch of the Grey Cup Festival logo and slogan.
Last year’s spring thaw revealed a design flaw in the facility, as water from melting snow on the roof ran down onto the seating area and flowed into the suites.
On Friday, Miller was unable to give a final tally on the cost to remedy the problem, or even confirm the problem has been fixed.
“There has been some work done. And it’s something we’re staying on top of,” he said. “We’re going to do the best we can this winter. And it’s still an ongoing insurance claim. I can’t talk any further about it.”
At the time of the flooding, Miller vowed the community-owned football team wouldn’t be responsible for the damage.
"It’ll be covered by the designer of the building and the builder — I can assure you of that," Miller vowed then.
Friday, he couldn’t guarantee it won’t happen again next spring.
“I can’t predict the future,” he said. “I’m going to say we’re going to do everything we can to ensure it doesn’t. And we have engineers that have provided us guidance on that.”
The two-year-old stadium was plagued with design flaws, from lack of field access for concerts to a lack of planning for cold weather.
BBB Stadium, Inc., a board representing the city, province, the Bombers and the U of M, borrowed $10 million to make improvements, while a dispute with the builder was resolved with the help of an additional $1.5 million from the provincial government, the project’s primary funder.
Last March, the day the CFL officially awarded the Grey Cup game to Winnipeg, the province kicked in another $3 million for insulation and other cold-weather improvements.
The Bombers begin paying their share of the stadium’s original cost, in the form of $4.5 million annual loan payments to the province, this year.
paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @friesensunmediaWEST VALLEY CITY — The little black and white kitten already has a fitting name, should he find an owner.
"Lucky would be a good name," Autumn Wagner, community cat coordinator for Best Friends Animal Society suggested Saturday. "He is up for adoption, so he is looking for his new home, and has quite a story."
The male kitten, who is believed to be between 6 and 7 weeks old, was found last month with his feet glued together. His tail has been glued to his feet, Wagner said.
His sister had either been dipped or submerged in a bucket of cement adhesive near where the pair was found in West Valley City, around 3900 West and 3200 South. She was spotted, but it took nearly a week for those who saw her to capture her, which they did successfully Thursday.
She died on Saturday.
"They tried really hard," Wagner said of those who attempted to save the kitten.
At first she said she thought it was plausible that the glue ended up on the cats by accident, because the male kitten had glue only in patches. But once she saw his sister, she felt it had to be intentional because the all- white kitten was totally submerged in the bucket of adhesive.
Wagner said the female kitten's mouth had been open when she was dunked and that the adhesive may have soaked into her skin. The kitten may also have ingested the adhesive as she tried to clean herself.
"I just thought, 'How can anyone take a little creature like this and intentionally inflict them with something so hazardous?'" Wagner said. "I just think we should be taking these guys and trying to help them and not harm them."
Finding the kittens
Jeanette Gilman found the male kitten in the bushes behind her home on June 19. It was crying and she could immediately tell something was wrong.
"It looked like tar," she said of the substance coating the kitten. "In fact, I call it 'tar baby.' It was just thick, gooey stuff."
West Valley resident Jeanette Gillum points to the spot in her yard where she found a female kitten that had apparently been dipped or submerged in a bucket of cement adhesive. Gillum cleaned the cat and tried to nurse her back to health, but she died Saturday. Animal control officers are searching for the person responsible. (Photo: Mike Radice/KSL TV)
For five hours, she tried to clean the kitten with soap and water.
"That little thing laid in my hand like this and just let me scrub and scrub and scrub," Gilman said. "I thought for sure it was going to die."
But eventually, the little cat found the energy to lick Gilman's face. "That made it worth it," she said.
With three cats of her own, Gilman opted not to keep the kitten, but she cared for him and nursed him to health, turning him over to West Valley City Animal Services after several days.
A 5-gallon bucket of cement adhesive was found with its lid broken at Gilman's neighbor's home. It was that neighbor who noticed the female kitten and worked for several days to capture it and help it. Gilman said that neighbor has a large yard and that it would be easy for people to enter unnoticed.
An animal cruelty investigation
Nathan Beckstead, field supervisor for West Valley and Taylorsville animal services, said what had happened to the cats left him "sickened" and his agency is investigating.
"We'll start out by getting the vet report, getting statements from anyone who dealt with the cat," he said, noting that, if caught, the person responsible could face felony charges.
Gilman said she hopes something is done about what happened, if it was intentional.
"Nobody should have to have any animal go through that," she said.
The kittens' mother is a feral cat who is fed and cared for by several people in the area. Since this incident she has been spayed and released.
There were two other kittens in the litter who were unharmed. Those two kittens, and their brother who survived the glue incident, are all available for adoption through West Valley City Animal Services, 801-965-5800.
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PhotosBack in July, it was reported that Google would soon open up a few more slots for folks to enter the Glass Explorers program. Today, they have officially confirmed those plans, and have launched the ability for select Google Glass users. Going forward, each Explorer will have the opportunity to invite up to three friends to the Glass Explorers program, who will then have the ability to purchase the device and will have it shipped to them, no matter where they are.
In addition, as a thank you to current Glass users, Google is offering the one time option to trade-in their current Glass for an updated version of the hardware for free. The new hardware will work with some upcoming prescription lenses and prescription frames that Google will soon unveil.
To top it off, it has been reported that Google is bumping up manufacturing of Glass, as to meet the expected consumer launch of Glass in 2014. We have all been waiting, so it’s about time.
Anyone hoping to get a referral from a friend? We definitely are, so if anyone out there wants to shoot us a referral, we would be extremely grateful.
Via: +Google Glass(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson on Thursday won a reversal by the Arkansas Supreme Court of a $1.2 billion judgment imposed after a jury concluded that the drugmaker improperly marketed its anti-psychotic drug Risperdal and concealed its risks.
A first aid kit made by Johnson & Johnson for sale on a store shelf in Westminster, Colorado April 14, 2009. REUTERS/Rick Wilking
The penalty had been imposed in April 2012, one day after a jury in Little Rock, Arkansas, found that Johnson & Johnson and its Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit violated state laws governing Medicaid fraud and deceptive trade practices.
Arkansas’ highest court, however, said the jury verdict and subsequent award could not stand because Arkansas had relied on the wrong law to sue Johnson & Johnson, using a law covering healthcare facilities rather than drug companies.
“Janssen is indisputably not a healthcare facility and applying for certification or re-certification as described in the statute,” Associate Justice Karen Baker wrote for the court. “Hence, the statutory provision is not applicable.”
The decision was unanimous, though three of the Supreme Court’s seven justices dissented from some of the reasoning. The Arkansas court also threw out an order directing Johnson & Johnson to cover the state’s $181 million in attorney’s fees.
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel in a statement said he still believes the state legislature meant the Medicaid fraud law to apply to companies such as Johnson & Johnson, which is based in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
“I am disappointed that the court viewed the law differently,” he said. “Nevertheless, I will keep working to protect consumers against fraud and the kinds of irresponsible and greedy actions shown by Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals in their marketing of the drug Risperdal.”
Pamela Van Houten, a Janssen spokeswoman, in a statement said the unit is pleased with the decision, and “remains strongly committed to ethical business practices.”
The jury verdict came after a 12-day trial.
In late afternoon trading, Johnson & Johnson shares were up 40 cents at $93.99 on the New York Stock Exchange.
OTHER CHALLENGES
Risperdal was launched in 1994, and is used to treat conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and irritability in people with autism.
The drug and other anti-psychotic treatments have also been linked to side effects such as strokes, diabetes and weight gain. Generic versions are available.
Following the jury verdict, Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $1.19 billion for violating Arkansas’ Medicaid fraud law, or $5,000 for each of nearly 238,900 violations, plus $11.4 million for violating the deceptive trade law.
Johnson & Johnson is awaiting a ruling by South Carolina’s Supreme Court on whether to overturn $327 million of penalties in a similar case. The Louisiana Supreme Court overturned a $258 million award in a similar case in January.
In November, Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $2.2 billion to federal and state governments to settle criminal and civil allegations that it promoted Risperdal and other drugs for unapproved uses.
It was accused in that case of promoting Risperdal for uses including the controlling of aggression and anxiety in older patients suffering from dementia, and treating behavioral disturbances in children and disabled people.
The case are Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc et al v. Arkansas, Arkansas Supreme Court, Nos. 12-1058, 13-468.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chris Buckler: "From the balconies of the Great Hall, they watched devolution fall apart"
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson has stepped aside and other DUP ministers have resigned as a result of the political crisis at Stormont.
He has asked his party colleague Arlene Foster to take over as acting first minister, after the DUP failed to get enough support to adjourn the assembly.
Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "gravely concerned" but it would not be right to suspend the assembly.
The crisis was sparked by the murder of ex-IRA man Kevin McGuigan, last month.
Police said that IRA members may have been involved in the killing.
'To the brink'
The political row escalated on Wednesday, when detectives arrested three senior republicans as part of the murder inquiry, including Sinn Féin's chairman in Northern Ireland, Bobby Storey.
Image copyright Pacemaker/BBC Image caption Bobby Storey (left), Eddie Copeland (centre) and Brian Gillen (right) are leading republicans who were questioned and released in the McGuigan murder inquiry
All three men were released unconditionally on Thursday evening and Mr Storey's lawyer said he plans to sue for unlawful arrest.
With the exception of Mrs Foster, the DUP's ministers have all signed their letters of resignation.
Mr Robinson said: "The failure of the SDLP and Sinn Féin to implement the Stormont House Agreement, together with the assessment of the chief constable of the involvement of the IRA in murder, the continued existence of IRA structures, and the arrests that followed has pushed devolution to the brink," the DUP leader said.
'Gatekeeper role'
"In light of the decision by republicans, nationalists and the Ulster Unionist Party to continue with business as usual in the assembly, I am therefore standing aside as first minister and other DUP ministers will resign with immediate effect with the exception of my colleague Arlene Foster."
The DUP leaded added he has "stepped aside but not technically resigned" and has asked Mrs Foster to play a "gatekeeper role".
"Arlene remaining in post allows us to ensure that no irrational financial decisions are taken by other parties in what might appear to be the last number of days of this assembly," he added.
Mr Robinson said he will not take his salary and will not carry out any departmental work at Stormont while Mrs Foster is in post as acting first minister.
Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly said Mr Robinson's decision to step aside instead of announcing his resignation was intended to avoid an election.
"The DUP are afraid of an election," Mr Kelly said.
Image caption Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly told BBC Newsline that Mr Robinson had not technically resigned because the DUP wanted to avoid an election
A Downing Street spokesperson said the Prime Minister had spoken with Mr Robinson on Thursday afternoon and was "gravely concerned about the situation in Northern Ireland".
'Paramilitary activity'
"While acknowledging the gravity of the situation, the Prime Minister told Mr Robinson that the UK government did not believe it would be right to introduce emergency legislation now to suspend the assembly.
"They discussed options for what more the UK government could do to comprehensively address all remaining paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland.
"The Prime Minister underlined the need for intensive cross-party talks to identify ways to tackle all paramilitary groups and to get on with implementation of the Stormont House Agreement
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Theresa Villiers said today had been a "bad day for the Northern Ireland political process"
'Complete breakdown'
Earlier, Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers told a press conference that she would not suspend the assembly despite the DUP resignations.
She said the latest developments were "a sign of a complete breakdown in the working relationships within the executive".
"There is an urgent need to get the parties together, find a way to repair those working relationships and address the two issues," she added.
"We did not think the circumstances will justify suspension, that has not changed and obviously suspension would not resolve the two big problems we face, implementation of the Stormont House Agreement and the presence of paramilitary organisations."
Analysis: Mark Devenport, BBC Northern Ireland political editor
In some ways the situation is not quite as grave as had been thought earlier today.
The DUP has not pulled out all its ministers as Peter Robinson had said he would yesterday.
Instead he has stepped aside and Arlene Foster will be in place as acting first minister for six weeks - that's how long an acting FM can remain in place.
There will be no suspension as in the words of the Secretary of State "the time is not right".
It would seem that Peter Robinson was left in no doubt that the government was not offering the option of immediate suspension. And despite pressure on the SDLP from the Irish government, they did not offer the DUP the lifeline of voluntary adjournment.
It looks like Mr Robinson has come up with a clever tactic which gives the government six weeks to rescue the situation.
Last month, Northern Ireland's police chief said the IRA still existed and that detectives believed some IRA members had a role in Mr McGuigan's murder.
But Chief Constable George Hamilton added that there was no evidence at that stage that the murder was sanctioned by the IRA, which he said was committed to politics and not engaged in terrorism.
However, Sinn Féin's leadership has insisted that the IRA no longer exists and said the murder was being exploited by enemies of the peace process.The Ardor and Nxt Group (ANG)
Structure
Membership
Other Action Items
With the emergence of Jelurida as a more public entity, the role of the Nxt Foundation has been put into question multiple times by both new and long-time members of the community. This is a valid question since the Foundation was originally created to be a point-of-contact for businesses interested in using the technology, which Jelurida will now be as they themselves are the developers. However, the Foundation has expanded its role in the past few years, such as providing and supporting community tools, such as Nxtforum, the Nxt and Ardor subreddits, and multiple others, in addition to helping users directly as well as working on expanding the community itself through outreach, both online and offline, all in addition to still speaking with the projects interested in using Nxt. With the decline in the role of speaking with interested parties, we believe that the shift to focusing on the community is a natural progression. To reflect these changes, the Nxt Foundation will create a project called the Ardor and Nxt Group, to be called ANG as it is easier to recognize, which will be an initiative to provide the community with a better environment, such as organizing meetups around the world, as well as to provide a better ecosystem for the projects that use Nxt and Ardor blockchain technology or are involved in the community.ANG will initially form as a project under the Nxt Foundation, though it may become its own entity if the need arises in the future. However, it will be the only project of the Nxt Foundation as all current projects will move under ANG. Employees or contractors will also be hired to better address the tasks at hand. With this, all Foundation resources will be dedicated to the development and growth of ANG. To keep ANG sustainable, membership fees will be charged in a similar way to the Supporter Program. However, basic membership will be free for companies until January 15, 2018, as ANG gains traction and Supporters of the Nxt Foundation, both Individual and Corporate, will automatically get relevant membership for at least one year from January 15, 2018, regardless of when their Supporter status ends. More details about these membership tiers, as well as other aspects of ANG are explained below:To provide the users, project owners, and businesses around the Nxt and Ardor ecosystem with a better environment to collaborate, communicate, and utilize Nxt and Ardor blockchain technology and be more active while maximizing the benefits gained by the community.ANG envisions an active Nxt and Ardor community that is constantly growing in terms of users, projects, and businesses and would benefit from a complementary structure that further enables all three to achieve their goals while improving the community as a whole.A full governance structure will be created for ANG with top-level positions elected by its members. However, to begin the structure, the Nxt Foundation will appoint the Preliminary Director of ANG in charge of executing the creation of the structure as well as developing it further and setting other roles. This appointment is given to Travin Keith, the most active Nxt Foundation Board Member at present, and the general architect of ANG. He will have a term as Preliminary Director until January 15, 2018, at which point the first proper Director will need to be in place via an election voted in by Premier Members, General Members, and Business Members who have paid for their membership. Details of this election will be disclosed by November 30th. The Director position will be paid and will be a full time job with the pay level determined during the interim period. However, Travin will keep his Nxt Foundation stipend of EUR 2500/month unchanged during the interim period.All remaining Nxt Foundation funds, such as those acquired from the CFC and the TNSEE fundraising, as well as other donations, will be used for ANG. As all tools and support currently under the Nxt Foundation will transfer to being under ANG, there will be no cessation with these tools and support. However, during the interim period, each of these will be looked into to determine what will be handed over to Jelurida and what will be kept under ANG.As the Director will be unable to handle all tasks alone, they will need to hire people who can help on a regular basis, as well as designated contractors. There may or may not be regular bounties for other community members to claim. However, focus will always on establishing long-term participation within the community.All employees of ANG will need to be known by the public for transparency. However, contractors may choose to remain anonymous to the public, but cannot be anonymous to ANG and the Nxt Foundation, due to security reasons.The interim period will begin immediately and last until January 15, 2018 at 00:00:00 GMT. During this time, changes to this structure may be done by the Nxt Foundation, and users may submit feedback and suggested changes.The business membership program is a membership program that is free until January 15, 2018, for businesses and projects that are using or are interested in using the technologies developed by Jelurida, namely Nxt and Ardor, as well as those that are involved in the ecosystem, including, but not limited to, service providers, news agencies, such as Nxter Magazine, and community tool providers. However, businesses and projects will be categorized appropriately in order for users and other businesses to have a better experience when searching through members, as well as for members to be exposed better.After January 15, 2018, members will either need to pay a yearly fee for the Business Membership or upgrade to the Premium Business Membership. This fee will be determined during the interim period. However, some categories will either remain free or have a nominal charge, and perhaps have a different membership category. These will also be determined during the interim period.The premium business membership category is targeted to larger businesses and projects that qualify for the Business Membership, though is by no means restricted to them nor is this category the only one available for larger businesses and projects. Additional benefits, such as better positioning on the site, as well as potential special press release, will be available for these members. The fee for this category will be considerably higher than the Business Membership, and may or may not take into account the amount of employees of the business.All Corporate Supporters of the Nxt Foundation will automatically become Premier Members and retain this benefit for one year starting January 15, 2018, regardless of their remaining months as a Corporate Supporter. Until the fee for Premier Membership has been announced, no new Corporate Supporters will be accepted at this time.The General Membership program will mimic the Supporter+ program, retain all its benefits, including the choice of emails, as well as other new benefits to be announced during the interim period. At the time of this announcement, no new supporters will be accepted into the program until a proper fee has been set. However, all Supporters, with or without the + attribute, will be given this membership for at least one year from January 15, 2018, depending on their initial contribution. They will also be given this status during the interim period.DisclaimerMembership in ANG does not entitle the Member to an official status within the Nxt Foundation.In order to foster community engagement as well as community growth, ANG will be sponsoring selected meetup groups around the world on a case-by-case basis, though some minimum requirements will be set. Sponsorship will be in the form of assistance with the meetup organizers, payment of the Meetup.com fee, as well as for some of the snacks given to attendees. Templates for materials such as brochures and leaflets for those new to Nxt and Ardor will also be given out, though printed materials may be sent as well as supply allows.There have been some requests in the past regarding the creation of a Nxt Foundation branch in other parts of the world, though things were not able to move forward, for one reason or another. However, with ANG, this will be one of the primary goals as localization can be a great benefit to the community as well as to promote decentralization. Affiliate organizations, perhaps with the ANG name and the extension of the region of the members, will have some set requirements as well as benefits.These Affiliate Organizations should not be confused with the meetup groups that ANG plans to organize. Though larger meetup groups may end up creating an affiliate organization for various reasons, this will not be a requirement.Throughout the past few years, a few Nxt and Ardor community members have spoken publicly about the technology, both to large and small groups. The effect of these public presentations or speeches have been quite beneficial to the community, so ANG will be dedicating resources to providing those interested speaking about Nxt and/or Ardor the necessary tools to do so, such as presentation templates, graphics, templated statements and some training courses, both curated from reputable external resources as well as ones customized for these topics.As attending events related to blockchain have become increasingly important, ANG will dedicate resources to assisting Jelurida with finding community members to provide support at events, such as assisting at the booth, or coordinating with local organizers, especially if a specific community member is around the area of the event itself. Additionally, these members may be called upon to have a presence at an event on their own, though they will be doing so as part of ANG or one of its Affiliate Organizations. Some training resources will also be provided as with the Speakers Corner.Providing educational resources as well as being available for collaboration with educational institutions is an important aspect for community growth. While Jelurida will largely be sought out primarily by these institutions given that they are the experts with the technology, other opportunities may arise where community members who are knowledgeable about the tecnologies can fill in instead. ANG will seek out these opportunities and connect them with appropriate and interested community members, as well as these community members with the resources necessary in order for them to be able to succeed.As mentioned, ANG will also strive to create a better ecosystem for businesses that use Nxt or Ardor, whether they are using the public chain or a licensed private chain, as well as regardless of their size. These will include hosting collaborative projects, such as plugins that are needed by multiple businesses but are not able to be worked on by a single business, as well as hosting roundtable discussions. Businesses that use Nxt or Ardor however are not required to join as doing so is completely voluntary. Additional services to businesses will be explored during the interim period.ClonesFor projects that are clones of Nxt and Ardor, they will only be permitted into the Business Assembly if they comply with the license of the latest non-experimental release by Jelurida of the respective platforms. However, their admission will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Official members of projects complying with older licenses are, however, still welcome to join as General Members.ANG can, on a case-by-case basis, provide emergency funding, if necessary, for essential tools and services in the Nxt and Ardor ecosystem. However, all other funding options must be sought before ANG is considered as ANG will not keep a large reserve for this purpose.Over the past few months, research was put in to decide whether or not creating another organization was ideal. At the moment, it was decided to have ANG as a project of the Nxt Foundation. However, during the interim period, more research will be conducted.Interested parties in Business Membership as well as Premier Membership may contact Travin Keith at travin@nxtfoundation.io. A preliminary website will be created by November 1st that will highlight the businesses and projects that have expressed an interest in joining ANG.The domain name for the website will be ardornxt.group and a preliminary website will be |
as a legendary hero falls from grace.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Collector's Edition includes:
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain game
24cm replica of Snake’s Bionic Arm
Exclusive Collector’s Edition packaging
Original Steelbook
Behind the Scenes Blu-Ray documentary and trailers
Map
Additional Game Content includes:NASA will study over the next month the feasibility of flying astronauts on the first SLS mission, currently planned to fly without a crew. (credit: NASA) The risks and benefits of accelerating crewed SLS missions
It’s a bold change, or a reckless one, depending on your point of view. And it’s not even necessarily a change NASA plans to carry out. On February 15, NASA acting administrator Robert Lightfoot announced that he was directing the agency to carry out a study about whether Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), the first launch of the Space Launch System, should carry astronauts. That mission, currently scheduled for launch in late 2018, is planned to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into cislunar space for more than three weeks. “We’ve been kind of looking along the way of doing things to EM-1 to make it more realistic,” Gerstenmaier said. “They may have gotten the idea for this based on discussions with us.” “I know the challenges associated with such a proposition, like reviewing the technical feasibility, additional resources needed, and clearly the extra work would require a different launch date,” Lightfoot said in an internal memo, distributed at the same time Lightfoot announced the plan at a closed-door session of the SLS/Orion Suppliers Conference in Washington. “That said, I also want to hear about the opportunities it could present to accelerate the effort of the first crewed flight and what it would take to accomplish that first step of pushing humans farther into space.” Since that memo, the space community has speculated on what prompted the study, what it portends for space policy in the Trump administration, and, of course, whether the idea makes sense from technical and other perspectives. It took more than a week before NASA made two key officials available for a half-hour media teleconference Friday to discuss the study. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said that the request came from the White House, but also suggested that NASA might have influenced that request. “The administration team, in concert with Robert [Lightfoot], asked us to go do this feasibility study,” he said. But, he added, “we were looking at this a little bit on our own, to see what we could do to enhance EM-1,” he said. There had already been changes to the EM-1 mission to make it closer to a crewed flight, such as adding crew seats to the Orion spacecraft and flying mannequins in those seats. “We’ve been kind of looking along the way of doing things to EM-1 to make it more realistic,” he said. “They may have gotten the idea for this based on discussions with us, when we showed them what we’re doing and we’re moving forward, and how we’re trying to keep the program on track.” “I had a brief assessment done about a month ago, in anticipation, just to see if it was in the realm of possibility, and we believe it is,” Hill said of putting a crew on EM-1. When the announcement of the study first came out, it wasn’t clear how NASA would study the mission. Under current plans, EM-1 will fly with a placeholder upper stage, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), based on the Delta IV’s upper stage. It would be replaced on EM-2 and subsequent missions by a more powerful upper stage, the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). Congress had provided additional funding for EUS ensure it will be ready for EM-2, and even directed NASA to stop efforts to human-rate the ICPS. Thus, a study looking at putting a crew on EM-1 faced two options: human-rating the ICPS or accelerating the EUS. In the briefing, officials indicated they were focusing on the former option. “We kind of ruled out trying to accelerate EM-2,” said Bill Hill, NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development. That was based on the work needed to modify ground systems being developed now to support EM-1 for the large version of SLS, with the EUS, planned for EM-2. “I had a brief assessment done about a month ago, in anticipation, just to see if it was in the realm of possibility, and we believe it is,” Hill said of putting a crew on EM-1. “Now we have the feasibility assessment ongoing to refine and dig further into what is it really going to take to do this.” Part of that assessment will deal with the SLS, particularly its ICPS, which will now need human rating. Gerstenmaier said that ICPS, despite being less powerful that EUS, will be able to send Orion on the same mission profile planned for EM-2: a concept called multi-translunar injection free minimum mission, where Orion and its upper stage spend a day in an elliptical Earth orbit before flying a free-return trajectory around the Moon, returning to Earth eight to nine days after launch. “We don’t need the full capability of the EUS to do that mission,” he said. “One of the tasks we’ve asked the team to go look at is what changes we need to make to the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage to do the mission we would like it to go do.” That, he suggested, would include adding micrometeoroid debris protection to the stage for the extended time it would spend in Earth orbit. Orion will also require changes. That includes completing a life support system that wasn’t originally planned to be in place until the EM-2 mission. “If we do get asked to do this, or directed to do this, we would have to go back and take some of the equipment out of Orion that we’ve already installed just to get access to certain areas to install the environmental control and life support system,” Hill said. “I felt that if we went much beyond 2019, then we might as well fly EM-2 and do the plan we’re on,” Gerstenmaier said. Also requiring a schedule change is a high-altitude test of the Orion’s abort system, called AA-2. That test was scheduled to take place in 2019, after EM-1 but before EM-2. Hill said that the initial assessment done last month indicated that AA-2 could be moved up so it takes place before the rescheduled EM-1 mission. And when would EM-1 take place? While there’s no formal constraint on schedules placed on the study by the White House or others, Gerstenmaier said he’s limiting consideration only to those concepts that would allow a launch of a crewed EM-1 mission by the end of 2019. “I felt that if we went much beyond 2019, then we might as well fly EM-2 and do the plan we’re on,” he said. “That also makes us decide fairly quickly if we want to go do this.” There is no constrain on budget, but NASA acknowledged turning EM-1 into a crewed mission could be expensive. “From our previous assessment we know it’s going to take a significant amount of money, and money that will be required fairly quickly to implement what we need to do,” Hill said, not giving a specific dollar value. If time is of the essence, that may work against plans to fly astronauts on EM-1. NASA is nearly five years into a 2017 fiscal year where it has been operating under a continuing resolution (CR) that funds agency programs at 2016 levels. A final 2017 appropriations bill may not be completed until late April, when the existing CR expires. There remains the possibility that the CR could also simply be extended for the rest of the fiscal year. The administration is also in the advanced stages of preparing a fiscal year 2018 budget proposal, the outlines of which will be released in mid-March with full details to follow a few weeks later. With the preliminary report of the crewed EM-1 study due in about a month, it will be a challenge to factor that into the budget planning. Further complicating matters are reported plans by the Trump Administration to cut some federal spending. Administration officials said Monday that its 2018 budget proposal will include plans to cut non-defense discretionary spending—which includes NASA—to offset planned defense spending increases. That would make it harder to add funding for exploration programs without slashing science, technology, or other agency programs, a move bound to face some opposition from Congress. A move to put people on EM-1 has other implications as well. One involves safety: can NASA demonstrate that it can put people on the first launch of a new rocket without unduly risking their lives? “We strongly advise that NASA carefully and cautiously weigh the value proposition for flying crew on EM-1,” Patricia Sanders, chair of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), said at the start of the panel’s quarterly meeting last Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center. “NASA should provide a compelling rationale in terms of benefits gained for accepting additional risk, and fully and transparently acknowledge the tradeoffs being made before deviating from the approach for certifying the Orion/SLS vehicle for manned spaceflight,” she added. “We strongly advise that NASA carefully and cautiously weigh the value proposition for flying crew on EM-1,” ASAP chairwoman Sanders said. The idea of flying people on the first flight of SLS stands in contrast to NASA’s approach to commercial crew. At the same ASAP meeting, members noted that NASA and SpaceX have agreed that the company will fly at least seven missions of the upcoming “Block 5” version of its Falcon 9 before NASA will allow its astronauts to fly on the rocket. The meeting also noted that a “top risk” NASA is tracking for Boeing’s commercial crew vehicle is a lack of access to engineering data for the RD-180 engine used on the Atlas V, despite the vehicle’s excellent track record in launching satellites for nearly 15 years. Flying EM-1 with a crew means flying a shorter mission that currently planned, which is intended to push Orion to its limits. “If you put crew on the first mission, you’re not going to go to distant retrograde orbit and push the limits of the vehicle on the very first flight,” said Jason Crusan, director of advanced exploration systems at NASA Headquarters, during a panel last Thursday held by the Royal Aeronautical Society at the British Embassy in Washington. “So do you actually make less progress, or more progress? That’s the trade we have to go through.” Flying a crew on EM-1 could also have downstream effects on the program. Gerstenmaier said that, even if astronauts fly on EM-1, there will be at least a 33-month gap between it and EM-2 because of the work needed to modify the Vehicle Assembly Building and the mobile launch platform to accommodate the upgraded SLS with the EUS. While EM-1 will fly the same profile as EM-2, it will do so without an upper stage that has capacity for additional “co-manifested” payloads. Crusan said one idea for EM-2 was to include the first element of a proposed cislunar habitat on EM-2, or to send to the Moon a robotic rover mission called Resource Prospector. “It does impact potentially impact the follow-on sequence of either habitation or robotic missions we could so in the same time frame,” he said of any decision to fly crew on EM-1. However, effectively carrying out much of the planned EM-2 mission on EM-1 could open up new possibilities. “If we can fly the EM-2 profile mission on EM-1,” said Hill, “that opens up EM-2 to do more.” Neither Gerstenmaier nor Hill said on the telecon that they had any preference about whether or not crew should be added to the EM-1 mission. “I learned throughout my career that it’s better if I don’t have a preconceived decision about what the heck we really want to go do when I go into studies,” Gerstenmaier said. “I would rather let the data drive us.” He added that he found it “encouraging” that he was asked to do the study without any external constraints on the cost or schedule aspects of such a design change. Even if NASA and the administration don’t decide to put crew on EM-1, the study could lead to other changes that improve the mission. “I think it’s great that we get a chance to go look at this,” he said. HomeStefano Domenicali sees Kimi Raikkonen as "a dangerous driver" in the title chase © Getty Images Enlarge Related Links Drivers:
Fernando Alonso
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Stefano Domenicali
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Kimi Räikkönen Teams:
Ferrari
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali sees Kimi Raikkonen as one of Fernando Alonso's most "dangerous" competitors for this year's title.
Alonso leads the drivers' championship by 37 points from Lewis Hamilton, with Raikkonen a further point off and Sebastian Vettel 39 points adrift. Asked which one he saw as the biggest threat, Domenicali said: "I have to respect all of them, and I've always said that Kimi, step by step, is a dangerous driver and he's getting closer and closer.
"For sure Hamilton with the car he has now is very strong, but we have seen in the last two races that anything can happen. So all the drivers that are in the top five and top six need to be taken very seriously. So we need to see the situation race by race to see the competitive situation of the car they are driving and what is there position. That's the only thing that we have to do now."
Domenicali also said Red Bull's double retirement from the Italian Grand Prix has reinvigorated Ferrari's constructors' title hopes heading into the final seven races. Ferrari is now 46 points shy of Red Bull, which has held the top spot since the Bahrain Grand Prix. But after closing in on the reigning champions by 27 points in one weekend, Domencali said Ferrari was in with a good chance of taking both the drivers' and constructors' titles this year.
"It was important for us that because of the retirement of Red Bull [in Italy], the constructors' situation is difficult but still open for the four top teams that are still there," he said. "It is another motivation and motivating factor for all of us because we are performing the best way that we can."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.Senna raced for HRT in 2010 and Renault in 2011
Bruno Senna has emerged as the strong favourite for the vacant seat at Williams this season.
The nephew of the late Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna will fend off veteran Rubens Barrichello and German Adrian Sutil, insiders have told BBC Sport.
The Brazilian impressed when racing for Renault in the last eight races of 2011 and drove in 2010 for new team HRT.
Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, who raced for Williams in 2011, has already been confirmed in one of the team's cars.
Analysis Ayrton Senna once said of the man who is expected to win a drive at his former Williams team this year: "If you think I'm good, wait until you see my nephew Bruno." His uncle's death brought Bruno's fledgling career to a shuddering halt. His family forbid him from racing, and it was not until 10 years later that he was able to return to his chosen path. He missed out on years of experience compared to his rivals. Despite that, he has shown flashes of genuine promise in F1. Whether he is a future Vettel or Alonso looks doubtful, but he certainly deserves a decent chance.
A sponsorship package from Brazil is believed to have eased Senna's route into the seat, but Williams are also understood to have been impressed by the flashes of genuine promise he has showed in 2011, including an impressive seventh place on the grid for his first grand prix with Renault at the demanding Spa-Francorchamps track in Belgium.
Senna's manager Chris Goodwin refused to comment, while Williams were unavailable.
Barrichello, who will be 40 this year, had been hoping to extend his F1 career into a 20th season but it seems his hopes have been dashed despite proving in the last two seasons with Williams that he still has the ability and commitment required.
The only remaining free seat in F1 for 2012 is the second HRT alongside veteran Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa.
But Barrichello is considered unlikely to want to drive for the back-of-the-grid Spanish team.
Veteran Italian Jarno Trulli's tenure at Caterham - who raced as Lotus last year - is also believed to be insecure, but Russian Vitaly Petrov, who drove for Renault in 2010 and 2011, is tipped to get that seat.
There was support among some sections of the Williams team for Barrichello keeping the drive, on the basis that he is a proven talent and because of his renowned technical expertise.
Williams had the worst season in their history in 2011 and are in the middle of a rebuilding process, with a new technical director, chief aerodynamicist and chief engineer, and some in the team felt they could benefit from continuity of drivers and Barrichello's experience.
However, sources close to Williams say the relationship between the driver and the team's management soured over time as a result of the slide in the team's results.
Sutil, who has raced for Force India in their various guises in F1 since 2006, was the early front-runner for the final Williams seat.
But his chances have diminished since it became clear that he could face charges for an alleged nightclub assault on one of the executives of the Renault team - now Lotus - after last year's Chinese Grand Prix.4K Media announced on Friday that voice actors Dan Green and Eric Stuart are reprising their roles as Yugi Muto/Yami Yugi and Seto Kaiba, respectively, for the North American English dub of the Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions film.
The Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions film opened in Japan on April 23 and will open outside of Japan in early 2017. Satoshi Kuwabara ( Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal II ) directed the film.
The film opened on 137 screens, ranking #6 and selling 92,396 tickets, earning 133,010,600 yen (about US$1.2 million) in its first weekend. The film eventually earned over 800 million yen (about US$7.5 million). The film will get 4DX and MX4D screenings in Japan beginning on September 24.
Update: The official Yu-Gi-Oh! YouTube channel posted an English trailer.
[Via WTK]A west-Ottawa family has made the brave decision to go public with their story of bullying.
David Armitage, 17, was in grade 12 at Dunrobin’s West Carleton Secondary School (WCSS) when he became the victim of bullying. He is still reluctant to speak out so asked that his parents speak for him, sharing his story with CTV Ottawa.
“He’s the perfect kid,” says Jim Armitage, describing his son David, as any parent would.
David says the bullying started in November 2015 during shop class at WCSS. He says the bully had continuously teased him, kept asking him if he was Jewish. He is not. David was bothered, but didn’t mention anything to his parents because around the same time his mother Laura was diagnosed with epilepsy, and didn’t want to further stress out his parents.
On November 23, David says the bullying intensified. He says the bully, in shop class, punched him three times in the stomach, “jabbed at him” with a screwdriver and motioned that he was going to slit his throat. David did not fight back.
The teen, while nervous and embarrassed, knew it was time to come forward and report the bullying. He, with the support of his shop teacher, told his parents about the assault.
“David is six-foot-five but he’s a gentle giant and he can be affected by anything just like anybody else,” David’s dad Jim Armitage tells CTV.
After the assault, the Armitage family pressed charges; they say the bully was suspended from school for 21-days. Just days after, the family was the victim of a day-time hate crime, a swastika and the words “greetings bitch” were scratched into the family’s car in their laneway, “It’s broad daylight and someone spends a great deal of time scribing these things into the car, it’s not just a quick hit” says Jim. Ottawa Police told the Armitage’s they could not lay charges because they couldn’t prove who was responsible for the vandalism.
Jim Armitage says he refused to get the car fixed through insurance, “the thought of having a company clean up this up and make it all go away and to have this be forgotten didn’t sit right with me.”
So the family decided to set up a go-fund-me page https://www.gofundme.com/24d5t3g not because they needed the money, but they wanted to raise awareness. “Anybody can be bullied right? That’s the message,” says Jim.
Minutes after CTV Ottawa’s story aired on Tuesday May 17, Maureen Graham with Tony Graham Automotive Group, contacted the Armitage family and told them their collision centre would repair the car for free so that all of the money raised through the go-fund-me page could be donated to David’s charity of choice, PREVnet, http://www.prevnet.ca/ a national network of researchers and organizations working together to stop bullying in Canada.
PREVnet was so impressed by David and his story; they’ve asked the teen to sit as a member of the organization’s youth bullying advisory committee.
David’s bully has since returned to school, even though David and his parents asked the principal and board to re-consider because David didn’t feel safe. David decided on his own that he didn’t feel comfortable going back to school, so he is finishing his final semester of grade 12 through homeschooling, taking his courses online.
“He misses out on this friendships, he misses out on his graduation, he misses out on that final semester in grade 12,” says Jim holding back tears, “I think the system took care of the wrong person in this case.”
CTV Ottawa asked the Ottawa Public School Board to comment on the case, in a statement Communications Officer Sharlene Hunter wrote, “As a matter of practice, we do not speak to issues involving identifiable students. The school district has policies in place to deal with beahviourial issues and a number of resources and supports which are available to assist students in need. We continue to make those supports available.”
David’s dad Jim is proud of his son for coming forward and sharing his story, “it took a lot of guts,” he hopes it will encourage other victims of bullying to do the same.Last Week in Animation: May 1st By: F. Alexander Bonilla-Chacon
Welcome to Overly Animated’s Last Week in Animation! This is a new recurring series where we aggregate the news items most relevant to fans of the shows we cover regularly, as well as interesting tidbits on other animated television and film projects.
Steven Universe Premiere on the CN App: Take 2
Last week it was announced that Cartoon Network would begin airing the next group of Steven Universe episodes on Monday, May 8. As of today, it appears that we will indeed begin the week with “Lion 4: Alternate Ending”, the episode that was leaked onto YouTube a couple of weeks ago. However, according to Animation Magazine, it seems that Cartoon Network has a plan to release all five episodes on the Cartoon Network app on Friday, May 5. This is in line with the network’s recent strategy of releasing batches of new episodes on the app up to a week before it airs. Notable examples of shows released early under this system include We Bare Bears and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.
Many of us remember all too well of what was dubbed by some as the “January Spill”, when Cartoon Network tried this the first time. All five episodes of the Zoo arc (beginning with “Steven’s Dream” and ending with “That Will Be All”) were released onto Cartoon Network’s app without warning on the night of January 2. A couple of days after the network pulled all but one of the episodes off the service, a Cartoon Network representative claimed that the network’s early release was meant to be intentional. But after at least one member of the Steven Universe writing staff called the posting a mistake, and others expressed confusion, it ended up being an all-around fiasco. So we’ll see if this second attempt goes smoother for the network and allows Steven Universe fans to binge on the next step in Steven’s journey towards self-realization.
Young Justice: Outside[Normal Streaming Service]rs
In November, Warner Bros. Animation made big waves when it announced that production had begun on a third season of Young Justice, a show with a cult following on Cartoon Network before it was controversially canceled in 2013 after just two seasons. The good news this week is that we have a release date now: some time in 2018. (Hey, it’s something.) The worrying news is that Warner Bros. has decided to debut Young Justice: Outsiders (in conjunction with a live-action project based on Teen Titans) on a new DC-branded streaming service. This means that fans who were hopeful they would be able to binge the series on their usual streaming sites, such as Netflix, Amazon or Hulu, will have to wait a little longer for the show to reach the traditional destinations for online animated television. In the end, some news is better than no news. [Deadline Hollywood]
The Latest in Animated Movies
Disney fans are glad that months of speculation have finally ended, and we now have confirmation that Frozen 2 is happening. Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel went onto Twitter immediately after the news and confirmed that they would both be involved. Disney plans to release the sequel on November 27, 2019. Jennifer Lee, who directed Frozen, is also expected to direct the sequel, so Disney appears intent on keeping as much continuity as possible. [Telegraph]
In December, Academy Award-nominated director Wes Anderson made public his return to the world of stopmotion animation with his new project, Isle of Dogs. Last week, the first poster for the film was released, along with a release date: April 20, 2018. That puts it very close to the beginning of blockbuster season, which indicates hope by Hollywood that this will be successful. Anderson, whose last animated film was 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, has a strong cast attached to the project, including Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and Yoko Ono. [Animation World Network]
Other News and NotesIt may not be the FIFA World Cup, but an amateur adult soccer team in Charlottesville is gearing up for a major competition on a national level. Aromas Café FC, a team comprised of players who hail from all over the globe, hopes to bring soccer to the forefront in Charlottesville through its participation in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
The Lamar Hunt Cup is the oldest ongoing national soccer competition in the United States, which pits professional, semi-professional and amateur soccer teams against each other, with only 14 slots for amateur teams. Aromas Café FC qualified about a month ago, the first Virginia team to do so in more than two decades, and will be playing its first cup game May 11.
Aromas manager David Deaton hopes to show through his team’s qualification the potential that Charlottesville has as a soccer town, and he cites the large international community as one of its benefits.
“What’s unique about Charlottesville is that we’re one of the few places that’s actually a university town as well as a refugee center,” Deaton says. “So, driven by the university, we have this huge international community, but then thanks to the refugee center we have even more.”
Aromas Café FC is evidence of this diversity, with players from countries such as Colombia, Kenya, Iran and the United States. Aromas’ owner Hassan Kaisoum was orphaned in Morocco at age of 11. He says soccer “saved” him as a child, and he wants to pass on the power of the sport.
“I took out all of my frustration in soccer,” Kaisoum says. “In my country, when it came to 5 o’clock, there was no difference between rich or poor. We’d have people playing from every background. The only thing I used to look at was the shoes.”
Kaisoum played soccer professionally in France and Canada, and when Deaton approached him to be the team’s sponsor, his answer was easy.
“They needed my help, so I did it,” Kaisoum says.
“We told Hassan that we needed a sponsor and he just said, ‘What do you need?’” Deaton adds. He says Kaisoum is a constant reminder of the community spirit that soccer builds.
In addition to the wide range of nationalities on the team, Aromas Café FC also is made up of players who have highly diverse soccer careers. While the majority of the team played soccer at the collegiate level, three are retired professional soccer players.
Despite a local concentration of elite soccer players, Deaton laments that the infrastructure in Charlottesville is not up to par.
“It really needs a very serious look from our community leaders,” he says. “The state average for youth participation in soccer leagues is 10 percent, and we have 20 percent in Charlottesville [according to Soccer Organization Charlottesville Area]. Yet there’s not a single lit, publicly accessible field to play soccer on. There are over eight publicly funded tennis courts here. There’s not a single soccer facility in the community that does that.”
Although the team struggles with field space (games and practices are held at Charlottesville High School), Kaisoum stresses the ability that soccer has to unify the Charlottesville community. When he’s not at Barracks Road Shopping Center running Aromas Café, which he opened 19 years ago, he’s attending the soccer team’s games and practices.
“Soccer is always a way to bring people together, and it’s amazing to have that integration and have people from every background or religion and every ethnicity playing,” Kaisoum says. “When they go to the field, they all become unified and it’s fantastic to see that.”
Deaton adds that although the team is looking forward to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, where it could play against a Major League Soccer team such as D.C. United, the team’s sights remain focused on spreading community spirit in Charlottesville.
“We’re trying to impart a passion of camaraderie—that’s what’s driving this, all of this,” Deaton says. “We’re trying to demonstrate, even to ourselves as much as anyone else, that we can do a lot as a team. But in the end it’s actually the camaraderie of the sport that pushes us toward that level of excellence.”Remember when the Premier League was wide open? When six teams with six distinct styles were gonna all challenge for the title? When we didn’t know who the best player in the league was? Well, it’s only late September, but Manchester City’s perfect, and Pep Guardiola is already telling everyone that Kevin De Bruyne is the best player in the world not named “Lionel Messi.”
He’s always been very good, but the marriage with Guardiola has launched De Bruyne up toward the world’s best playmakers. As a 20-year-old, he signed with Chelsea, but he soon joined the club’s wandering hoard of WhatsApp devotees and was sent on loan to Werder Bremen in Germany. (Chelsea currently has 38 players out on loan. A game-day Premier League roster has 18 spots. European soccer is a ponzi scheme.) De Bruyne scored 10 goals and assisted on nine more in the Bundesliga before returning to Chelsea in the summer of 2013. In what was the first season of José Mourinho’s second stint with the club, De Bruyne started the season opener, scored a goal, notched an assist … and then played one more game before being sold to another Bundesliga side, Wolfsburg, in January of 2014.
Despite the presence of Bayern Munich’s über-team of expensive superstars, De Bruyne won Bundesliga Player of the Year in his only full season with Wolfsburg, scoring 10 goals and assisting on 20 more in 2014–15. He moved to City last summer for a club-record £55 million and immediately produced at a near-elite level:
Except, with then-manager Manuel Pellegrini, the team sometimes felt like a group of disparate stars who were trying to figure things out on the fly once they got near the box. In some ways, that’s the ideal environment for a freelancing, innovating attacker, like De Bruyne’s teammate David Silva, but that’s not De Bruyne. His more straightforward creativity seems to work best when enough options are presented to him and he just has to make the right choice. But last year’s team played under freer attacking guidelines than they are under Guardiola — then again, everyone’s attacking guidelines are freer than Guardiola’s — so the patterns of play weren’t as clear.
Related A Manager Will Decide the Premier League This Season
De Bruyne typically played closer to the wing or directly behind a striker last year, but this season the 25-year-old has been used as something more like a traditional center midfielder, playing as part of a pair in front of Fernandinho, City’s omnipotent defensive midfielder. This gives De Bruyne more space to operate, and the farther back you play, the more options you have in front of you. So far this year, De Bruyne hasn’t made a wrong choice.
As soccer has hurtled toward total efficiency, the romantic ideal of the flawed attacking midfielder has all but disappeared. Gone are the days of Ronaldinho not exercising, (allegedly) having sex close to kickoff, disappearing for 20-minute stretches of game time, and then toe-poking his way back into your heart when you least expect it:
Guardiola got rid of Ronaldinho before his first season at Barcelona, and since then, he has essentially tried to systematize creativity — or at least structure it. There’s less room for, as Bruce Arena once put it, trying shit, and more of an emphasis on doing the right shit. Although he has the face of Dennis the Menace, it’s as if De Bruyne was built in a lab to be The Modern Attacking Midfielder. He’s the creators of old, but sanded down to remove all the ragged edges.
Through five games, he’s scored two goals, assisted on three, created 17 chances, and completed 84 percent of his passes. City have won five out of five, and they’re leading the league in both expected and real-life goals. Even though the assists say “three,” De Bruyne has been involved with nearly every goal his team has scored so far.
Related Pep Guardiola Is Changing the Way Goalkeepers Play
They lead the league in possession and annihilate teams in transition. And De Bruyne is Pep’s point guard. When the space opens up, he’ll get out and run, picking out the perfect pass right after he sees the defender commit:
And if things slow down, he’ll circulate the ball along the perimeter until the defense gets unsettled and someone cuts toward the goal:
That final pass is incredible — but not because it required some kind of ingenious foresight. We can all see Ilkay Gundogan making that run, but De Bruyne directs and weights the ball perfectly. Literally: It slows down, as if it’s been punctured by a nail, just before it reaches either of the Bournemouth defenders, and only Gundogan can get a touch on it.
Basketball watchers often talk about how LeBron James always makes the right play based on what the defense presents to him, and while he doesn’t have LeBron’s tidal wave of athleticism, De Bruyne does always seem to make the most effective decision — whether it’s carrying the ball at his feet, splitting the defense with a pass, or snapping off a shot. He won’t break down a back line with a succession of stepovers, and he won’t shatter the angles of a defense with a pass no one saw coming. In fact, De Bruyne won’t do anything you haven’t seen before. He’s not Messi, and he never will be for longer than random stretches when Messi gets hurt, but he always does what he’s supposed to. Five games in and fully integrated into City’s strategy, that’s been enough to briefly make him better than everyone else.By Timothy Fitzpatrick
The British rock invasion of the 1960s and 1970s culminated in bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, but something fresher and more powerful would be needed heading into the 1980s musical era if the Illuminati’s subversive machine were to remain in high gear.
The up-and-coming British glam rock sensation Def Leppard were ripe for the picking as the next phase of the Illuminati’s subversive music mind-control agenda.
With their melodic riffs and unique digitally enhanced voice-overs, mastered by internationally renowned producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange, Def Leppard had the it factor in a very competitive industry of talented rock musicians.
The little band from Sheffield, England went on to be a huge success for the Illuminati in captivating the minds of millions.
Def Leppard and the Jews
The story of Def Leppard, formerly Atomic Mass, starts with the vision of lead singer, the Jewish Joe Elliot, who would very soon attract the attention of Jewish—Illuminati-run record companies desperate for the next big thing.
So it was that Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch would take over Def Leppard’s beleaguered management and bring the band to America in the early ‘80s.
And they must have been belated to add yet another Jewish frontman to what was then becoming the Jewish-glam-rock era.
In What Does Jewish Rock Look Like?, Dustin Oneman writes:
“But in the ‘70s, Jews really shined. Literally, in some cases, with Jews playing a major role in the glam period, with strong outposts in bands like KISS (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley [note: apparently not], and Bruce Kulick), the New York Dolls (Syl Sylvain and possibly Arthur Kane), T. Rex (Marc Bolan), and early Twisted Sister (John Segal and [half-Jewish] Dee Snider), along with soloists like Lou Reed and Ig |
is now with the Center for a New American Security. "They don't see him as being at the core of their culture. Here is this sort of intellectual guy who doesn't seem to mind the culture of Washington — reporters and politicians. And at a time when they were saying nothing was working, he found a way to work in Iraq."
He did it by building relationships with diplomats, civilian leaders, even the media. And he advocated the COIN strategy at every turn.
Debate Over Legacy
The debate now is whether Petraeus' vision of the Army endures or not. Ricks isn't so sure it will. "I think he ultimately will be a passing figure for the Army, because for whatever reason, he has not been able to reach in and drag the culture of the Army over to his side."
John Nagl disagrees. He helped Petraeus write that counterinsurgency field manual and was in Germany this week, teaching a course for the German military of defense on COIN.
Nagl says over the past few years — the American military has completely changed how it thinks about this kind of war. "It's become a force that understands COIN, that understands enemy networks and can attack them directly and precisely. And I think he's created a true learning organization that's going to live on after him," he said.
As Petraeus retired, there was an understanding that his battles may be over — but the wars he led are still going on. Watching today's ceremony from the front row was Petraeus' son, Stephen, a first lieutenant in the Army — with one tour in Afghanistan already under his belt.Antarctic base in Ukraine
The Vernadsky Research Base (Ukrainian: Академік Вернадський) is a Ukrainian Antarctic Station at Marina Point on Galindez Island in the Argentine Islands, Antarctica. It is named after Soviet and Ukrainian mineralogist Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945).
History [ edit ]
Map of Gerlache Strait region, Cartographic base: Antarctic Digital Database www.add.scar.org/
Station F [ edit ]
The station was established by the British Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey as Station F,[2] or "Argentine Islands", on Winter Island in 1947.
The main hut, built on the site of an earlier British Graham Land Expedition hut, was named "Wordie House" after Sir James Wordie, a member of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition who visited during its construction.[3]
Wordie House has been restored and is designated as Historic Site and Monument No. 62.[4] The base moved to the present site on adjacent Galindez Island in May 1954 where the main building was named "Coronation House".
The base was renamed Faraday Station in August 1977 in honour of British scientist Michael Faraday.[2]
Ukraine [ edit ]
Ukraine took over the operation of the base in February 1996,[2] which was sold by the UK for a symbolic one pound. The cost of disassembling the base with good environmental practices and standards would be too costly. The National Antarctic Scientific Center of Ukraine continues a programme of meteorology, upper atmospheric physics, geomagnetism, ozone, seismology, glaciology, ecology, biology and physiology research.[5]
The building [ edit ]
The station consists of nine buildings standing on rock foundations. A 1961 extension at the east end of the hut provided living quarters for 15 people. Major alterations in 1980 updated the living and working accommodation. A two-storey extension provides sleeping accommodation for 24 people, a clothing store, boiler room and reverse osmosis plant on the ground floor. Upstairs are a lounge, library, dining room, gift store and kitchen. The lounge is considered the southernmost public bar in the world, where visitors could purchase $3 shots of horilka (made on the premises) up until 2016. The old part of the building is now mostly laboratories and work rooms, together with the surgery and washrooms. The generator shed was erected in 1978-79, with the old one now used as a frozen food store and a carpenter's workshop. Other buildings include two non-magnetic buildings, a balloon launching shed (now skidoo garage), and a general store.[3]
Staff [ edit ]
During 2013-14, Vernadsky Station is staffed by 12 Ukrainians who make up the XVIII Ukrainian Antarctic Expedition.[1]
Climate [ edit ]
The climate of the base is classified as marine subantarctic.[6] The climate is strongly influenced by the surrounding Pacific Ocean, moderating winter and summer temperatures.[6] Thus, winter temperatures rarely fall below −20 °C (−4 °F) owing to the warmer waters while in summer, the cool waters and snow cover causes temperatures to rarely reach above 0 °C (32 °F).[6] The mean annual temperature is −4 °C (25 °F) although within the last decade, temperatures have risen with much of it in winter and autumn.[6]
Being located in the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, the climate is dominated by the low pressure systems that develop over the Pacific Ocean and move eastwards towards the peninsula mountain range.[6] This process leads to frequent precipitation and strong winds in the base.[6] Unpredictable and short snowfalls and snowstorms occur often.[6] On average, the base receives 300 days with snow per year.[6] Anticyclone weather patterns caused by high pressure systems in the interior of Antarctica or from the north are rare.[6] In the cases that they occur, when the weather is influenced by the high pressure system from the interior of the continent, cold air masses from the south moves northwards.[6] This can occasionally lead to foggy conditions and hoarfrost.[6]
Statistics [ edit ]
Climate data for Vernadsky Research Base Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C (°F) 10.0
(50.0) 11.7
(53.1) 7.8
(46.0) 7.2
(45.0) 6.7
(44.1) 6.1
(43.0) 4.4
(39.9) 7.2
(45.0) 5.0
(41.0) 6.1
(43.0) 6.7
(44.1) 11.4
(52.5) 11.7
(53.1) Average high °C (°F) 2.6
(36.7) 2.4
(36.3) 0.9
(33.6) −0.9
(30.4) −2.4
(27.7) −4.7
(23.5) −5.0
(23.0) −5.8
(21.6) −4.1
(24.6) −3.4
(25.9) 0.2
(32.4) 1.3
(34.3) −1.8
(28.8) Daily mean °C (°F) 1.4
(34.5) 1.1
(34.0) −0.4
(31.3) −1.9
(28.6) −3.8
(25.2) −6.5
(20.3) −7.0
(19.4) −8.1
(17.4) −6.5
(20.3) −5.1
(22.8) −1.7
(28.9) −0.1
(31.8) −3.3
(26.1) Average low °C (°F) 0.3
(32.5) 0.4
(32.7) −1.3
(29.7) −3.1
(26.4) −4.8
(23.4) −7.7
(18.1) −8.5
(16.7) −9.9
(14.2) −8.5
(16.7) −7.2
(19.0) −2.8
(27.0) −1.1
(30.0) −4.5
(23.9) Record low °C (°F) −10.6
(12.9) −12.2
(10.0) −16.1
(3.0) −34.4
(−29.9) −34.4
(−29.9) −36.5
(−33.7) −40.6
(−41.1) −43.3
(−45.9) −38.9
(−38.0) −28.9
(−20.0) −22.2
(−8.0) −11.7
(10.9) −43.3
(−45.9) Average relative humidity (%) 87 84 81 84 81 79 80 81 84 83 84 86 83 Source: Deutscher Wetterdienst[7]
Climate research [ edit ]
As one of the longest operating bases in Antarctica, Vernadsky Station has been the subject of scientific research studies on long-term temperature trends that indicate global warming. A study published in the April 2013 issue of the International Journal of Climatology examined the daily observed temperature at the Faraday/Vernadsky station from 1947 to 2011. It concluded that “Faraday/Vernadsky is experiencing a significant warming trend of about 0.6°C/decade (1.1°F) over the last few decades. Concurrently, the magnitude of extremely cold temperatures has reduced.”[8]
Services [ edit ]
Vernadsky Station operates several services for visiting tourists. A post office accepts postcards at a cost of US$2 each. This is one of only a few post offices where visitors may send mail from Antarctica. Stamps for letters cost $6. Mail will take several months to be delivered.[8] In addition to selling postage and accepting outgoing mail, the post office sells commemorative postcards and envelopes for $2 to $3 each.
Gallery [ edit ]
Wooden dock at Vernadsky Station.
Welcome sign at Vernadsky Station.
A signpost at Vernadsky Station displays distances to various cities.
Tourists visit Vernadsky Station.
Fuel tank at Vernadsky Station.
Faraday Bar inside Vernadsky Station.
The souvenir shop inside Vernadsky Station (Ukraine) is open when tourists visit.
See also [ edit ]The House Republican tax plan would upend a longstanding measure, known as the Johnson Amendment, that prohibits politicking from the pulpit, and critics say it could turn churches into new conduits for political money.
Under current law, churches, charities and other 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations are prohibited from endorsing political candidates. The bill released Thursday would allow churches to make statements about political campaigns and candidates in the course of religious services and activities, according to section 5201 of the measure.
A pastor, for example, could endorse a candidate for office, or oppose one, during Sunday service.
That type of politicking would not compromise a church’s nonprofit status, so long as its expenses related to such matters were considered de minimus, the bill summary said.
The liberal group Public Citizen said it was fighting the proposal.
If enacted, the move could favor wealthy political donors “who want a new avenue to funnel their secret cash, and want to do so while receiving American tax dollars in the form of a deduction,” said Public Citizen’s Lisa Gilbert.
“These groups must be allowed to pursue their missions, and should not be subjected to unrelated and divisive partisan politicking,” she added. “The change proposed in the House bill would lay waste to a space in which Americans join together to gain spiritual guidance, work to improve lives, and solve issues we face as a country.”
The House bill’s summary says that the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the provision would cost taxpayers $2.1 billion from 2018 to 2027. A Ways and Means spokeswoman and a Joint Committee on Taxation staffer did not immediately explain how the committee had calculated the cost.
The release of the tax bill was not the first time the Johnson Amendment has grabbed the spotlight this year. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in May saying religious organizations could engage more in elections without fear of losing their tax-exempt status.
James Bopp Jr., a well-known conservative lawyer, said in May that he, like other social conservatives, opposes the Johnson Amendment because it provides the IRS with loosely defined standards that can give the government an excuse to target certain groups based on their political agenda.
“Those kind of vague standards allow arbitrary enforcement and political viewpoint discrimination,” said Bopp, who favors campaign finance deregulation.The German chancellor was held up as she flew overnight for a meeting on Tuesday with Manmohan Singh, the Indian prime minister. Her plane was forced to circle for two hours over Turkey before receiving permission to cross Iran.
The Iranian ambassador in Berlin was summoned by Guido Westerwelle, the foreign minister, who said hindering Mrs Merkel's route was "absolutely unacceptable".
The reasons for the delay were not immediately known and a second plane with four of Merkel's ministers and other delegation members was not held up.
German government sources in Berlin said Mrs Merkel's plane was only able to enter Iranian airspace after "intensive diplomatic intervention in Berlin and Tehran."
They said permission to fly over Iran had been granted by Tehran initially and it was "still unclear" why it was later withdrawn.
Germany is one of six world powers attempting to convince Iran to abandon sensitive nuclear work, which they fear is a front for a drive to develop an atomic arsenal. Tehran denies such intentions.
Berlin has repeatedly backed UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme and this month the European Union added a Germany-based Iranian-owned bank to its sanctions list.Pasadena Eats, The Dining Blog
11 Pasadena Restaurants Serving Christmas Dinner
From STAFF REPORTS
Published: Tuesday, December 20, 2016 | 1:27 PM
Top Row L-R: Roy’s Pasadena, Buca di Beppo, Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, The Terrace at The Langham, Pasadena, The Raymond & 1886 Bar. Bottom Row L-R: Arroyo Chop House, Parkway Grill, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Bistro 45, King’s Row Gastropub, Red White + Bluezz Jazz Club
Give yourself a break this year and enjoy dinner out at one these Pasadena restaurants and leave the cooking and cleaning to someone else – consider it a holiday present to yourself. Be sure to make reservations to ensure your group gets a table.
Roy’s Pasadena
The start of a new holiday tradition! Join us on Christmas Day from 12-8PM for an exclusive 3-course holiday menu for only $59.95! We will also offer a Children’s Menu and a limited version of our Classic Menu.
Enjoy a Three-Course Prix-fixe Dinner served 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve
$125 per person without wine, $170 per person including wine; $55 per child under 12. Prices exclude tax and gratuity.
Enjoy an elegant three-course prix-fixe Dinner on Christmas from 4-9pm, priced at $125 per person without wine, $170 per person including wine; $55 per child under 12. (Prices excl. tax and gratuity).
Street: 641 E. Colorado Blvd.
Phone: (626) 356-4066
Website: roysrestaurant.com/locations/ca/pasadena
Buca di Beppo – Pasadena
We take the stress out of your holiday planning, book your holiday party today! Open at 11am on Christmas Eve. Don’t get your tinsel in a tangle! Celebrate with your family or book your holiday office party at Buca! Open at 11am on Christmas.
Street: 80 West Green Street
Phone: (626) 792-7272
Website: www.bucadibeppo.com/restaurants/ca/pasadena
Kabuki Japanese Restaurant – Pasadena
We’re open on Christmas Eve! Celebrate the season with your friends and family at your neighborhood Kabuki! We’re open 11 am to 10 pm on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! Celebrate the season with your friends and family at your neighborhood Kabuki! We’re open 11 am to 9 pm on Christmas Day, offering our full menu.
Street: 88 W Colorado Blvd. / 3539 E. Foothill Blvd
Phone: (626) 568-9310 / (626) 351-8963
Website: www.kabukirestaurants.com
The Terrace at The Langham, Pasadena
Enjoy a Three-Course Prix-fixe Dinner with Live Entertainment served 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
$75 per person without wine, $110 per person including wine; $30 per child under 12. Prices excl. tax and gratuity.
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Indulge in a Dim Sum Brunch with Sparkling Wine from 10am-2pm – $68 per person, $34 per child under 12; or enjoy a 3-Course Prix-fixe Dinner with Live Entertainment served 4p-9p – $75 per person without wine, $110 per person including wine; $30 per child under 12. Prices excl. tax & gratuity.
Street: 1401 South Oak Knoll
Phone: (626) 585-6218
Website: www.langhamhotels.com/en/the-langham/pasadena/dining/the-terrace/
The Raymond & 1886 Bar
Christmas Eve Dinner
Baby Kale Salad
Leek and Celery Soup
Columbian River Salmon
Ethiopian Roasted Chicken
Artichoke Ravioli with French Green Olives
Soy Marinated Prime Hanger Steak
White Chocolate Cheesecake
White Christmas
Street: 1250 South Fair Oak Avenue
Phone: (626) 441-3136
Website: theraymond.com
Arroyo Chop House
Will serve Christmas Eve dinner, call for details.
Street: 536 S. Arroyo Parkway
Phone: (626) 577-7463
Website: www.arroyochophouse.com
Parkway Grill
Will serve Christmas Eve dinner, call for detials.
Street: 510 South Arroyo Parkway
Phone: (626) 795-1001
Website: www.theparkwaygrill.com
Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Outpost of upmarket steakhouse chain known for sizzling, butter-topped beef in an elegant setting / we’re open Christmas Eve at 2pm and Christmas Day at noon
Street: 369 E Colorado Blvd
Phone: (626) 583-8122
Website: www.ruthschris.com
Bistro 45
Open on Christmas Eve 11:30AM to 9:00PM
Street: 45 S Mentor Ave
Phone: (626) 795-2478
Website: bistro45.com/#main
King’s Row Gastropub
No Band will be playing on Christmas Eve but the bar and restaurant will be open all night Street: 20 E. Colorado Blvd
Phone: (626) 793-3010
Website: www.kingsrowpub.com
Red White + Bluezz Jazz Club
Christmas Eve Performance by Yuko Mabuchi at 7:00PM
Street: 37 S. El Molino Avenue
Phone: (626) 792-4441
Website: www.redwhitebluezz.comManflu
A man has made the odd decision to live in one of the UK’s most haunted houses and claims he goes to bed every night holding onto a crucifix.
The author, Micky Rawlings chose to live in the spooky house while researching a documentary about the supernatural.
To get to grips with the ghouls, he’s set up home in a sinister property called ‘The Cage’ in St Osyth, Essex. The house is said to be home to poltergeists responsible for attacking, scratching and even biting past residents.
While Micky has been praised for his bravery, he admitted that he does get spooked by his surroundings.
Speaking about some of the unusual phenomena he claims to have seen, he says:
I’ve seen books flying off shelves in the upstairs hallway, I’ve watched doors open on their own, and I’ve even seen a shadow person with my own eyes. I’m not a religious man and yet I go to bed every night clutching a crucifix for my own safety. After a few days, I got to learn the natural noises of the house. Now the non-natural noises keep my awake at night.
Micky claims that most people think he’s a bit ‘bonkers’ for choosing to live in the property labelled one of the ‘UK’s most haunted houses’ by TV series Great British Ghosts.
christopherfowler.co.uk
So far he’s heard children banging, men growling and most weirdly, a tiny piano playing late at night, which he described as ‘pretty intense’.
He’s also worried that the supposed ghosts may try and kill him, saying:
I’d argue that the place is dangerous – I’m convinced it could end up killing someone one day.
‘The Cage’ became famous in 2012 when its owner Vanessa Mitchell, 40, claimed she was forced to flee the house when she saw black shadowy figure standing over the cot of her son, Jesse.
The house does have a spooky history, having served as a prison for 13 women who had been accused of witchcraft, and chained there prior to their execution by hanging.
The vengeful ghost of one the accused witches, Ursula Kemp, is believed to still roam the house.IOWA CITY — Iowa is one win from the College Football Playoff final four, but so is Michigan State and that will be what Saturday night’s Big Ten championship game is all about.
Win and you’re in.
The Hawkeyes (12-0) held on to their No. 4 spot in Tuesday night’s CFP rankings, with Michigan State (11-1) right behind at No. 5. And then right behind the Spartans was Ohio State (11-1).
Iowa is in a “win and it’s in” situation and, rest assured, that head coach Kirk Ferentz has his team pedal to the metal toward that goal Saturday night at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium.
There’s also the what if and Iowa athletics director Gary Barta has to consider that.
“I’m laser focused on our next game as a competitor, but as athletics director I have to make sure I’m aware of every potential circumstance,” Barta said Tuesday.
The Big Ten is a lock to land at least one team in the CFP final four. That selection will be announced 11:30 a.m. Sunday on ESPN. And so with that in mind, what happens to the loser of the B1G title game and what’s up with the Rose Bowl?
Rose Bowl management committee chair Scott Jenkins released a statement Monday that said the Rose Bowl is working under the “strong presumption” that it will pick the school that’s ranked highest in the final CFP poll if the Big Ten lands a final four team.
That’s exactly what that means. It’s not set in stone, but it is the working presumption.
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“The strong presumption is we’ll take the next highest ranked team, which can work for you or against you, depending on where you’re ranked,” Jenkins told The Gazette. “If you’re ranked ahead of Ohio State, assuming Iowa loses, you’re going to like that.”
There was another part to his statement Monday that left room for interpretation. “The strong presumption is that we will select the next highest CFP ranked team in that conference. Only in extraordinary situations will we deviate from that presumption.”
Jenkins offered an “extraordinary situation.” It involved a Big Ten team in the CFP playoff, another B1G team that had made consecutive Rose Bowl appearances and a Big Ten team that hadn’t been to Pasadena, Calif., in a lifetime.
“It was several years ago Wisconsin was in our game three years in a row,” Jenkins said. “Let’s assume we had that situation. Let’s say Iowa is ranked No. 1 and we give up Iowa to go to the semifinal game and ranked No. 12 is Wisconsin, but ranked No. 13 is Minnesota.
“Minnesota hasn’t been in our game since 1962. Everyone agreed that we could jump Wisconsin and take Minnesota in that example. Everyone agreed that was an extraordinary circumstance. That’s one example that we tried and everyone said, yeah, that works.”
The “everyone” in this scenario is bowl officials and Big Ten and Pac-12 athletic directors.
Asked if the fact that Ohio State was last in the Rose Bowl six years ago and Iowa’s last appearance was 25 years ago, Jenkins said there’s no easy “who’s been there last” equation.
“There really isn’t,” he said. “It’s one of those things you put in a pot and stir around.”
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The highest CFP ranking is a metric that’s easily explained. It takes politicking, ticket sales and whatever else out of the decision. Jenkins believes the amount of time the 12-person CFP committee spends on this deserves respect.
“You’ve got semiprofessional selection committee members,” he said. “These people are really working hard to come up with these rankings. It’s not just sportscasters, sports media folks or coaches.
“This selection committee that the CFP uses, far from perfect, spends a lot of time on this. They really do look at a lot of video and statistics. I think the rankings the CFP comes up with are entitled to a presumption of validity. And there’s no doubt that between a 7 and an 8 they’re pretty close, but that’s what all of our partners agreed, that we should try to go with those rankings.”
“Partners” in this statement is bowl officials and Big Ten and Pac-12 athletic directors. The Rose Bowl will make the decision, but everyone had a say in the parameters.
“They reserve the right to make the final decision,” Barta said. “That’s how it works.”
l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.comImage: Chris Young/Flickr
AT&T must pay its mobile customers $80 million and cough up an additional $25 million in fees, the FCC has ruled, due to its long history of "cramming" hidden charges into its customers' cell phone bills. It is the largest Federal Communications Commission fine in history.
This year, the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission cracked down on cramming, the practice in which a third party sells ringtones, cell phone wallpapers, games, horoscopes, and the like through subscription services that are then recurrently billed by AT&T, T-Mobile, and other wireless carriers. The cell phone companies got kickbacks, while companies like Jamster (you might remember the commercials) got rich.
Thing is, customers didn't really know what they were signing up for. More than 40 percent of customers who signed up for the services asked for a refund.
This is how fees were hidden in AT&T bills. Images: FTC
According to the enforcement order (embedded below), AT&T was fined for "engaging in an unjust and unreasonable practice of billing consumers for products or services they had not authorized and failing to provide a brief, clear, non-misleading, plain language description of the third-party charges on the telephone bills sent to consumers."
The fees were often lumped in with others in a phone bill: On T-Mobile bills, for instance, the fees were called "Usage Charges." On AT&T bills, they were called "Variety Texts" or had names associated with the third party, such as "Mobizzo.com," according to the order.
"We now know that wireless companies profited while their customers were fleeced by unscrupulous third parties who added millions of dollars in unauthorized charges to consumer phone bills," Travis LeBlanc, the FCC's enforcement chief, said in an emailed statement.
Unlike T-Mobile, however, which was hit by the FTC with an investigation back in July, AT&T apparently copped to the practice and reached this settlement with the FCC, FTC, and all 50 states' attorney generals. Under the deal, the company's AT&T Mobility division will have to pay $80 million in refunds to customers who were affected, a $20 million fee to state governments who were involved in the settlement, and a $5 million fine to the US treasury.
"Carriers should be on notice that we will not tolerate any business practice that saddles consumers with unauthorized charges on their phone bills," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said.
That T-Mobile case is still ongoing, but, as part of this AT&T deal, the company can no longer offer "premium SMS" charges and have to promise to revise its customers' bills to make them easier to understand.
Since the beginning of the year, the FCC has taken six cramming enforcement actions, totaling roughly $20 million—this one obviously dwarfs that.
This is not likely to be the last enforcement action, fine, or settlement: "Stat tuned for other wireless providers," Wheeler said at a press conference.
AT&T Enforcement DocTrump should be tried and imprisoned for treason
“Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.”
US Constitution, Article III, section 3
What is “Adhering to” defined as?
Black’s law dictionary defines this as: “Joining, leagued with, cleaving to; as, ‘adhering to the enemies of the United States.’ ”
Applying the element…..
Do ‘enemies of the United States’ include Russia? This is not even a question to some. It is a question to others, but this careful and thorough look at relations between Russia and the U.S. since the end of the Cold War and Yeltsin’s resignation, make it seem clear that Russia is averse to America and to democratic ideals. See http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/06/trump-putin-and-the-new-cold-war.
But, say you disagree; you think Russia is not the enemy of the U.S, because Russia is not always our enemy in international affairs (only sometimes). Even so, if: as was reported by the CIA, the FBI, the Department of State, and many news outlets, Russia interfered in our democratic political process, surely Russia is the enemy of America for that?
The interference with the Presidential election happened while we were all watching. It was not covert. It was televised. Trump promised Putin aid and comfort many times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/us/politics/trump-russia-election-meeting.html
One man, the former CIA director, James Clapper, finally reminded us that Trump’s friend Vladimir Putin was a KGB state officer, and that they recruit assets, and that Trump was an asset for Putin. Clapper did mollify the CNN journalist by saying he meant that ‘figuratively’ (but only on the third round of the same question did he offer to thus turn down the volume on his scathing perception of the leader in the White House.)
http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/12/18/james-clapper-trump-putin-russia-asset-intv.cnn
What is the definition of “aid and comfort”?
“Help; support; assistance; counsel; encouragement.”
Applying the element…
As an element in the crime of treason, the giving of “aid and comfort” to the enemy may consist in a mere attempt. It is not essential to constitute the giving of aid and comfort that the enterprise commenced should be successful and actually render assistance. Young v. United States, 97 U. S. 62, 24 L. Ed. 992; U. S. v. Greathouse, 4 Sawy. 472, Fed. Cas. No. 15,254.
If, a few hours of being elected, sanctions were promised to be lifted against Russia that the previous government of the United States and the President had enacted, such a promise is “encouragement” now, and overt help and comfort later, when it actually occurred, in February 2017. (Sanctions against Russia were lifted. This occurred despite Trump explaining that sanctions were in place for a reason; Russia’s occupation of Crimea and interference in our elections, which Trump was briefed on.
So, too, America was briefed, by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which released an unclassified report expressing the conclusion of the CIA, FBI and NSA about Russian election interference:
“We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election. Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. We have high confidence in these judgments. We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.” From https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/ICA_2017_01.pdf
Quote also found in this Timeline by Politico: https://www.politico.com/trump-russia-ties-scandal-guide/timeline-of-events
Trump’s administration lifted sanctions. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-relaxes-u-s-sanctions-on-russia-imposed-under-obama/.
This was an overt act of aid and comfort.
Who are the “two witnesses to the overt act” which the statute requires to convict?
Trump’s decision to lift sanctions could be anyone who follows the news…. but, if it had to be a state official in case all news is fake news; one witness, who may know even more specifically that Trump himself directed lifting sanctions against Russia, would be Daniel Fried, who knew enough about sanctions being lifted that he urged Congress to make such a reality more difficult.
That story was broken by Yahoo News a year ago.
See https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-administrations-secret-efforts-ease-russia-sanctions-fell-short-231301145.html.
And see http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-wanted-to-lift-russia-sanctions-days-after-taking-office-2017-6
Another witness to the overt act could be Michael Flynn. Flynn could easily be guilty of a similar charge of treason, and has pleaded guilty to others already.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/flynn-promised-that-russia-sanctions-would-be-ripped-up.html. Flynn would make a good inside witness and may find such a prospect wise maneuver.
Conclusion
All the elements of the Constitutional clause are met for Trump to be prosecuted for treason.
Someone else will have to prosecute this… a storyteller… someone who can draft a theory of the case and woo the jury with the telling. And I? I see the elements of treason and see each element is met. I haven’t dragged in rhetorical devices or narrative to help persuade you. Do you see it? Maybe you do. A trial lawyer is needed.
But I believe:
Trump should be tried and imprisoned for treason.
AdvertisementsPrisoner of war Jeremiah Denton declared his loyalty to the U.S. government during a 1966 interview for what was supposed to be a propaganda film. But his enraged captors missed his more covert message: "T-O-R-T-U-R-E," blinked into the camera in Morse code, a dispatch that would alert the U.S. military to the conditions he endured.
Denton, who would survive 7 1/2 years confined in a tiny, stinking, windowless cell at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" and other camps before his release in 1973, died of heart problems Friday in Virginia Beach, Va., at age 89, his grandson Edward Denton said.
The elder Denton later became the first Republican from Alabama elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, though the iron will that allowed him to persevere in captivity gave rise to criticism he was too rigid a politician.
In this May 19, 1999 file photo, Retired Admiral Jeremiah Denton is interviewed at his home on Fowl River, Ala. AP Photo/Mobile Register, Bill Starling, File
In July 1965, a month after he began flying combat missions for the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, the Mobile native was shot down near Thanh Hoa. He was captured and recalled his captivity in a book titled "When Hell Was in Session."
"They beat you with fists and fan belts," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1979. "They warmed you up and threatened you with death. Then they really got serious and gave you something called the rope trick." The use of ropes - to cut off circulation in his limbs - left him with no feeling in his fingertips and intense muscle spasms, he said.
Some of the most severe torture came after the 1966 interview, in which he confounded his captors by saying that he continued to fully support the U.S. government, "and I will support it as long as I live."
"In the early morning hours, I prayed that I could keep my sanity until they released me. I couldn't even give in to their demands, because there were none. It was pure revenge," Denton wrote.
The tape was widely seen, and U.S. intelligence experts had picked up the Morse |
no pun intended!), but even you may not have been up to executing this steamy, and technically challenging, carnal fantasy. In this triple X rated experience (one X for each week the couple has been celibate prior to this encounter), a co-sleeping couple stealthily sneaks out of their bed while baby is still sleeping in it, and, so as not to disturb him, either has sex on the floor near the bed in a nest of bedding, or adjourns to a different room of the house, such as the living room. During this episode of unbridled passion, both partners are sure to be quick and silent so as not to wake baby or, worse, to fail to hear him pick this moment to learn how to roll out of the bed. This entire episode is so transcendentally sexy that it’s hard to even type it without becoming excited (for the day that we have all our kids in their own beds).In the twelve hours of Car Seat Headrest music available on Bandcamp, a world of Toledo’s making slowly comes into focus, that of an oldies-obsessed pop prodigy perfecting his Beatles and Beach Boys melodies, mostly playing all the instruments himself. Friendships and ambitions bloom from album to album. Parental relations improve. Riffs and choruses are revisited and reworked with new language to reflect changing times. Anxieties, particularly the pains and miscues of sexual self-discovery, rise to the surface, moving from subtext to song title. It’s like following a character through a series of inward, angsty novels, as if Elena Ferrante’s formative environment had been suburban parking lots, dorm rooms, and the Potomac River. On “You Have to Go to College,” one of his first songs, Toledo runs through a series of classic high-school preoccupations, from losing touch with friends to what it means to grow up and become a “decent human being.” Now we are entering the mid-twenties chapter of Toledo’s story, marked by a different calibre of worry.
There are probably more efficient ways to find fans. But the site has allowed Toledo to work unencumbered by expectation, hidden in plain sight. The Internet is often considered a distressingly permanent space, where one’s youthful mistakes are preserved forever, but it can also be transparent and emboldening, hospitable to a casual, low-risk approach that allows an artist to explore and edit his personality, and to be prolific in the process. The rapper Lil B, for instance, owes his cult fame to the hundreds of earnest, contemplative songs he released on multiple MySpace pages.
The major online music providers, like iTunes and Pandora, attract the most listeners, because their inventories are virtually limitless and grow by the day. But these giants also succeed by imposing a gentle hierarchy on their vast libraries, offering friendly curatorial touches that ease users deeper and deeper into this digital infinitude. In contrast, Bandcamp is a charming alternative, largely bereft of editorial guidance or heavy-handed gatekeeping. Browsing Bandcamp can feel thrilling or frustrating, depending on how much time you have on your hands. It’s a music store that thrives on randomness—I’ve recently found some of my favorite new artists by peering at the wishlists of other users, including some of my former students at the college where I teach. Earlier this year, Bandcamp announced that, through the site, fans had given its artists more than a hundred million dollars. But individual success stories are fairly modest. (They include the bedroom-pop musician Alex G, whose breakout album was released earlier this month.)
When Will Toledo was in high school, he read an article about a New York indie band that was commanding the attention of the music industry. It seemed as if all the group had done was upload its songs to Bandcamp, a largely unregulated online store where people can sell their music and merchandise at any price. Inspired, Toledo began parking his family’s car in different places in his home town, Leesburg, Virginia, and recording songs on a laptop in the back seat, his only audience being the car’s headrests. In 2010, he uploaded a collection of these wobbly, fairly traditional pop songs under the name Nervous Young Men, told people at his high school about his music, and waited. It didn’t take long for him to realize that his plan was not going to get him a record deal. But this reality proved to be liberating. He began to experiment with longer, stranger, more intimate songs, incorporating squiggly electronics and psychedelic squalls, and, after renaming himself Car Seat Headrest, began releasing a succession of albums on Bandcamp. Last year, at the age of twenty-two, Toledo released his eleventh album, which can be streamed for free on the site.
For instance: his career. This week, Toledo and his newly assembled band will release “Teens of Style,” on Matador Records. Intended as an introduction to Toledo’s daunting back catalogue, it features new, self-recorded versions of his old material. Next year, he will release “Teens of Denial,” his first proper studio album. When Car Seat Headrest began, Toledo was drawn to outsider musicians such as Jandek, the once reclusive experimental folk-and-blues artist, who has self-released more than sixty albums. As Toledo explained to me, he saw himself as making music “for the Internet,” where his songs could exist free of backstory, without reference to time, place, or persona. He was scattering treasures to be discovered by chance. But, after he uploaded his first four albums, he began to receive attention from blogs and message boards, and decided that reclusiveness no longer suited him.
The original versions of the songs on “Teens of Style,” all of which can be found on Car Seat Headrest’s Bandcamp page, borrow heavily from nineties indie rock, with Toledo’s blissfully slack vocals resting on top of frizzy, grungy textures. They are the kinds of perfect, instantly familiar pop songs that echo in the background of your dreams. Over time, Toledo’s technique has become more refined. He spends less time hiding behind reverb. Good hooks have grown into full-fledged songs. He’s begun shading in more of his own identity. In the new version of “Times to Die,” he adds a line about Chris Lombardi, the Matador executive who first circulated Toledo’s music to his co-workers: “Got to have faith in the one above me / Got to believe that Lombardi loves me.” On “Beach Life-in-Death,” a twelve-minute song on the excellent “Twin Fantasy,” from 2011, he thinks back to the songs he wrote for a failed love: “I wrote ‘Beach Death’ when I thought you were taken / I wrote ‘Beach Funeral’ when I knew you were taken,” he laments, referring to songs from “3,” released the previous year.
The most arresting moments in Toledo’s music occur when a pop song begins to feel tragic and insufficient for real life. Writing songs may stave off boredom, but some voids remain. It’s an appealing irony that runs through Toledo’s albums: he can write songs so well formed, with such a divine lilt and of such sturdy beauty, while flailing at the words that might make someone fall in love with him. He’s confident enough to casually scat “Shabba de bop bop be shibby day oh yeah” but too shy to say it cleanly. “I pretended I was drunk when I came out to my friends,” he confesses, on “Beach Life-in-Death,” before admitting, “I never came out to my friends / We were all on Skype / And I laughed and changed the subject.” A pop song can take you higher, but it can’t take you out of Leesburg fast enough.
One of Toledo’s gestures toward self-promotion has been a Tumblr he has maintained during much of Car Seat Headrest’s existence. It features his latest press, responses to fans’ questions, photographs of his friends and himself, and brief entries about recently discovered bands. In this context, his songs begin to reveal themselves as a way of revisiting and revising everyday life. His fans are drawn into his world, too, using his Tumblr to wish him well and send him fan art, or ask him for guitar tablature, lyrical exegesis, and music recommendations. They thank him for being an inspiration. Mostly, they beg him to play more all-ages shows.
Toledo’s career thus far is a modern, indoorsy version of what it means to be young, testing your limits and pursuing ambitions in public, leaving the rough-draft version of yourself available for all to see. At its core is a sense of discovery, especially when it comes to the entrancing, soul-saving effects of other people’s music. His lyrics are studded with references to musicians he loved or copied, bands and artists he grew out of—Wolf Parade, Xiu Xiu, Brian Wilson, Leonard Cohen. On “Strangers,” from “Teens of Style,” he sings of his affection for R.E.M.: “Car Seat’s nervous and the lights are bright / When I was a kid I fell in love with Michael Stipe / I took lyrics out of context and thought / ‘He must be speaking to me.’ ”
Now Toledo is the one who is speaking. When you think you’ve heard it all before, you hear a melody that bends just the right way. He moves without the anxiety that it’s all been done before. Rather, there’s a confidence that it can be done again—better, catchier, more perfect, more honest. ♦This glossary covers terms found in the psychiatric literature; the word origins are primarily Greek, but there are also Latin, French, German, and English terms. Many of these terms refer to expressions dating from the early days of psychiatry in Croatia.
A [ edit ]
Abreaction [ edit ]
Abreaction is a process of vividly reliving repressed memories and emotions related to a past event.[1] Sigmund Freud used hypnosis to rid their patients of pathological memories through abreaction.[1]
Abulia [ edit ]
Aboulia or Abulia, in neurology, refers to a lack of will or initiative. The patient is unable to act or make decisions independently. It may range from subtle to overwhelming in severity.
Achromatopsia [ edit ]
Acquired agnosia for color. This term includes color blindness.
Affect illusion [ edit ]
Illusions (Misperceptions) associated with or based on changes with mood; for example, at midnight a person may take a shadow as a ghost, but in the early part of night this may not be the case.
Akataphasia [ edit ]
Akataphasia (Kraepelin 1896) refers to disorder of thought expression in speech and results due to dissolution of logical ordering of trains of thought..
Akathisia [ edit ]
Akathisia refers to a subjective feeling of restlessness in the lower limbs that is related to abnormal activity in the extrapyramidal system in the brain, often due to antipsychotic medication.[1] It tends to manifest as an inability to sit still.[1]
Alexithymia [ edit ]
Alexithymia refers to an inability to identify and describe emotions in the self.[2]
Alice in Wonderland experience [ edit ]
In Alice in Wonderland experience, individuals perceive objects (including animals and other humans, or parts of humans, animals, or objects) as appearing substantially smaller than in reality. Generally, the object appears far away or extremely close at the same time. Alternate term for this is somaesthetic aura. Also see #Lilliputian hallucinations
Alliteration [ edit ]
Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighbouring words. For example, "When I struck and slapped my humble horse, he began to run rapidly."
Alogia [ edit ]
Literally, this term means "not having words". The term may refer to either "poverty of speech" or "poverty of thought". In the former, speech, though adequate in verbiage, conveys very little information and may consist of stock phrases or vague references. In poverty of thought, by contrast, there is a far-reaching impoverishment of the entire thinking of the patient, who, as a result, says very little. It is typically a negative symptom of schizophrenia,[1] although it may also be seen in advanced dementia.
Amok [ edit ]
The phrase "running amok" describes the behavior of an individual, who is very agitated and can become a danger to others and himself.[3][4] The syndrome of "Amok" is found in the DSM-IV TR.[5]
Anhedonia [ edit ]
Anhedonia refers to an inability to experience pleasure, and may be described as a feeling of emotional emptiness.[1] It can be a negative symptom of schizophrenia.[1] It also may be seen in severe depressive states and schizoid personality disorder.
Anosognosia [ edit ]
Anosognosia is a condition in which a person who suffers certain disability seems unaware of the existence of his or her disability. Hemiasomatognosia is a subtype of anosognosia in which the person suffering from hemiplegia neglects one half of his body.
Anton's syndrome [ edit ]
Anton syndrome, occasionally known as Anton-Babinski syndrome, is a form of cortical blindness in which the patient denies the visual impairment. The patient may attempt to walk, bumping into objects and injuring himself. Anton syndrome is caused by damaging the occipital lobes bilaterally or from disrupting the pathway from the primary visual cortex into the visual association cortex.
Anwesenheit [ edit ]
Anwesenheit refers to the feeling of presence of something or some person. It can be seen in normal grief reaction, schizophrenia and some emotionally arousing situations.
Apophanous perception [ edit ]
This is an alternate term for delusional perception. It is one of the Schneiderian first rank symptoms and is defined as a true perception, to which a patient attributes a false meaning. For example, a person may see written "No Trespassing" on a board and may infer from this that intelligence agencies are spying on him.
Aphemia [ edit ]
Aphemia is the alternate term for mutism. Mutism is absence of speech with apparently normal level of consciousness. Mutism can be dissociative (hysterical) in which an individual (commonly a child or adolescent) stops speaking at once without involvement of any neurological or physical contributing factor; or it can be elective (selective) in which a child does not speak at all in certain situations (such as in school) but speaks well in other conditions (like at home or at play). A rare cause of mutism is akinetic mutism which results due to a lesion around 3rd ventricle of brain.
Apperception [ edit ]
Apperception is a normal phenomenon and refers to the ability to understand sensory inputs in their context, to interpret them and to incorporate them into experience. Failure of apperception is seen in delirious states.
Astasia-abasia is a form of psychogenic gait disturbance in which gait becomes impaired in the absence of any neurological or physical pathology. The person usually walks in a bizarre manner. He staggers and appears as if going to fall but always manages to catch hold of something in time. Sometimes these people cannot even stand but on the other hand they are well able to move their legs while lying down or sitting. Often associated with conversion disorder or somatization disorder.
Asyndesis [ edit ]
Alternate term for loosening of association. A milder form of derailment of thought, it is marked by the patient leaping from topic to topic which have only the most tenuous, if any, connection with each other. This is in contrast with flight of ideas, whereby the patient's successive ideas may be linked and "understandable" to the listener. See also #Entgleisen term introduced by (Cameron).
Autism [ edit ]
From aut ="self" and -ism = state or orientation. Originally, Eugen Bleuler used this term to describe schizophrenia. In general, it refers to any (pathological) tendency to be self-absorbed to such a degree that the feelings, thoughts and desires of a person are governed by his internal apprehension of the world and not by an external reality shared with others.
Today the term is used most often to refer to a specific developmental syndrome (see autism spectrum).[6]:p. 76
Autistic thinking [ edit ]
Autistic thinking is a term used to refer to thinking not in accordance with consensus reality that emphasizes preoccupation with inner experience. See also #Dereistic thinking. More generally, it means thinking that is guided by internal wishes and desires regardless of external real-world factors.[6]:p. 76
Autochthonous delusion [ edit ]
Jaspers defined this as a delusion arising without apparent cause. For example, suddenly, without apparent cause, having the delusional belief that you are an alien.
Autokabalesis [ edit ]
Autokabalesis is a term for committing suicide by jumping from a very high place.[7]
Automatic obedience [ edit ]
Automatic obedience is an exaggerated co-operation with an examiner's request, as if the patient were an 'automaton' robotically obeying a command. It is usually a sign of catatonia.
Automatism [ edit ]
Automatisms are sequences of activity that occur without conscious control. They may be simple and repetitive (tic-like) or complex, and are usually natural-looking but purposeless; for example, repeatedly going through the motions of buttering a piece of bread when there is no bread there. Automatic behaviour is not usually recalled afterwards.
Autoscopy [ edit ]
Autoscopy is the reduplicative hallucination of "seeing one's own body at a distance" and the person sees it from the place where he or she is located. Autoscopy is sometimes used synonymously with out-of-body experience.
Avolition [ edit ]
Avolition is an inability to initiate and complete goal-directed behaviour.[1] It can sometimes be misinterpreted as laziness, but it is actually a negative symptom of schizophrenia
B [ edit ]
Belle indifference [ edit ]
Belle indifference or la belle indifférence is characterized by a lack of concern and/or feeling of indifference about a disability or symptom.[1] It can be seen in conversion disorder.
Bouffée délirante [ edit ]
Bouffée délirante is a French term used in the past for acute and transient psychotic disorders (F23 in ICD-10). In DSM-IV, it is described as Brief Psychotic Disorder (298.8). The symptoms usually have an acute onset and reach their peak within two weeks. The symptoms start resolving in a few weeks and complete recovery usually occurs within 2–3 months.[8]
Brain fag syndrome [ edit ]
Brain fag syndrome[9] is an example of a culture-bound syndrome. "Brain fag" was once a common term for mental exhaustion. Today, the syndrome describes students (predominantly males, particularly in West Africa) experiencing symptoms including somatic, sleep-related and cognitive complaints, head and neck pains, difficulty in concentrating and retaining information, and eye pain.
Brain Fog [ edit ]
Brain fog is another term for #Clouding of consciousness.
Bruxism [ edit ]
Bruxism refers to teeth grinding behaviour that is usually seen in children.
C [ edit ]
Capgras' syndrome or Illusion des sosies [ edit ]
In Capgras syndrome, the patient feels that a person familiar to him, usually a family member has been replaced by an imposter.[1] This is a type of delusion that can be experienced as part of schizophrenia. Capgras Syndrome and several other related disorders are referred to as delusional misidentification syndrome.
Catalepsy [ edit ]
Catalepsy is the term for catatonic rigidity of the limbs which often results in abnormal posturing for long intervals.
Cataplexy [ edit ]
Cataplexy involves a sudden loss of muscle tone, and is generally precipitated by a sudden emotional response.[1]
Catatonia [ edit ]
Catatonia involves a significant psychomotor disturbance, which can occur as catalepsy, stupor, excessive purposeless motor activity, extreme negativism (seemingly motiveless resistance to movement), mutism, echolalia (imitating speech), or echopraxia (imitating movements).[1] There is a catatonic subtype of schizophrenia.[1]
Cerea flexibilitas [ edit ]
Cerea flexibilitas, meaning "waxy flexibility", refers to people allowing themselves to be placed in postures by others, and then maintaining those postures for long periods even if they are obviously uncomfortable.[1] It is characterized by a patient's movements having the feeling of a plastic resistance, as if the person were made of wax. This occurs in catatonic schizophrenia, and a person suffering from this condition can have his limbs placed in fixed positions as if the person were in fact made from wax.
Chorea [ edit ]
Chorea is manifest by abnormal involuntary movements. The term comes from Greek word "choreia" as meaning dance, since large groups of muscles are usually involved, which leads to writhing dance-like movements.
Circumstantial speech [ edit ]
Circumstantial thinking, or circumstantial speech, refers to a person being unable to answer a question without giving excessive, unnecessary detail.[10] This differs from tangential thinking, in that the person does eventually return to the original point, circling back on-topic.
Clang association [ edit ]
Clang associations are ideas that are related only by similar or rhyming sounds rather than actual meaning.[10] Example: "He ate the skate, inflated yesterdays gate toward the cheese grater."
Claparede's paradox [ edit ]
Claparede's paradox refers to retention of non-verbal and implicit memory in sufferers of Korsakoff's syndrome.[11]
Clouding of consciousness [ edit ]
Clouding of consciousness, also known as brain fog or mental fog, is a global impairment in higher central nervous functioning. All aspects of cognitive functioning are affected. On mental status examination it is manifest by disorientation in time, place and person, memory difficulties caused by failure to register and recall, aphasia, and agnosia. Impaired perception functioning leads to illusions and hallucinations often in the visual sensory modality. This then causes agitation and distress and secondary delusions. The term 'confusion state' is sometimes used to mean clouding of consciousness, but should be avoided if at all possible because it is ambiguous.
Coenestopathic state [ edit ]
A patient in a coenestopathic state has a localized distortion of body awareness.
Confabulation [ edit ]
Confabulation is the confusion of imagination with memory, and/or the confusion of true memories with false memories.
Conversion disorder [ edit ]
Conversion disorder involves the unintentional production of symptoms or deficits affecting motor or sensory function that are not fully explained by a neurological or medical condition.[1] This can manifest as paralysis, for example. It generally involves psychological factors, and symptoms may worsen in the context of situational conflict.[1]
Coprolalia [ edit ]
Coprolalia is the involuntary utterance of socially inappropriate phrases. It is a phonic tic associated with Tourette syndrome, although less than 15% of persons with Tourette's have coprolalia.
Cotard delusion [ edit ]
Cotard delusion involves the belief that one of the person's own bodily organs has changed in a bizarre way, has ceased functioning, or has disappeared.[1] It is a type of delusion that can be experienced in schizophrenia.[1]
D [ edit ]
Defenestration [ edit ]
Literally jumping out of window. Usually used in context of attempted or completed suicide. Also see #Autokabalesis.[12]
Déjà vu [ edit ]
In Déjà vu, a person feels undue familiarity to an event or a person. For example, he feels that the same thing has happened before or he or she has met this person before, etc.
Déjà pensé [ edit ]
In Déjà pensé, a completely new thought sounds familiar to the person and he feels as he has thought the same thing before at some time.This feeling can be caused by seizures which occur in certain parts of the temporal lobe and possibly other areas of the brain as well.
Dementia praecox [ edit ]
Dementia praecox refers to a chronic, deteriorating psychotic disorder characterized by rapid cognitive disintegration, usually beginning in the late teens or early adulthood.
Dementia pugilistica [ edit ]
Dementia pugilistica, also called "chronic traumatic encephalopathy", "pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome", "boxer's syndrome", and "punch-drunk syndrome", is a neurological disorder which affects career boxers and others who receive multiple dazing blows to the head. The condition develops over a period of years, with the average time of onset being about 16 years after the start of a career in boxing.
Derailment [ edit ]
Derailment, also known as loosening of associations, refers to disorganized thinking that jumps between ideas that seem entirely unrelated.[10] It can be seen in patients with schizophrenia, as well as those experiencing mania.[1]
Dereistic thinking [ edit ]
Dereistic means: Away from reality, undirected fantasy thinking.[13] Jung wrote “This is the basic activity of psychic life, this fantasy making", and he used the term “image” not from afterimage, something you’ve experienced or seen, but he says he takes it from poetic usage.[14] Dereistic Thinking: An old descriptive term used to refer to thinking not in accordance with the facts of reality and experience and following illogical, idiosyncratic reasoning. This term is also used interchangeably with autistic thinking though they are not exact synonyms: dereistic emphasizes disconnection from reality and autistic emphasizes preoccupation with inner experience.
Dermatozoenwahn [ edit ]
Alternate term for organic hallucinosis and delusional parasitosis, the continuous belief on the part of the patient that their skin or body has been infested by parasites or insects. This state cannot be diagnosed if the hallucinatory state is produced while the patient is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or if the patient fulfills the criterion for delirium. In general, if a patient is under the influence of a drug, or experiencing the symptoms of withdrawal from that drug, this condition is not psychiatric but medical, and termed formication.
Dhat [ edit ]
In Dhat syndrome there is a complaint of premature ejaculation or impotence and a belief that semen is being passed in the urine.
Doppelgänger [ edit ]
The Doppelgänger is a phenomenon in which the person feels that his exact “double” is present alongside him every time and goes with him wherever he goes.
E [ edit ]
Écho de la pensée [ edit ]
In écho de la pensée, meaning "thought echo" in French, thoughts seem to be spoken aloud just after being produced. The patient hears the 'echo' of his thoughts in the form of a voice after he has made the thought. See also #Gedankenlautwerden and #Thought sonorization.
Entgleisen [ edit ]
Literally means jumping off the rails.[dubious – discuss] Alternate term used for derailment of thought (a morbid form of loosening of association or asyndesis). A Schneiderian term by origin. In this form of thought the patient jumps from one topic to another during conversation and both topics have literally no connection with each other. This is in contrast with flight of ideas where connection is present between one topic and another.
Extracampine [ edit ]
Extracampine hallucinations are hallucinations beyond the possible sensory field, e.g.,'seeing' somebody standing behind you is a visual extracampine hallucination experience.
F [ edit ]
Fantasy [ edit ]
Fantasy is imagining that expresses desires and aims.
Fatuous affect [ edit ]
The moods of a patient with fatuous affect resemble the moods of a child. This condition is seen in hebephrenic schizophrenia.
Flight of ideas [ edit ]
Flight of ideas describes excessive speech at a rapid rate that involves causal association between ideas. Links between ideas may involve usage of puns or rhymes.[10][15] It is typical of mania, classically seen in bipolar disorder.[10]
Folie à deux [ edit ]
Also called induced psychosis, folie à deux is a delusional disorder shared by two or more people who are closely related emotionally. One has real psychosis while the symptoms of psychosis are induced in the other or others due to close attachment to the one with psychosis. Separation usually results in symptomatic improvement in the one who is not psychotic.
Folie communiquée, folie imposée, folie induite, and folie simultanée are the four subtypes of folie à deux.
Folie communiquée
Folie communiquée, or subtype C of folie à deux, occurs when a normal person suffers a contagion of his ideas after resisting them for a long time. Once he acquires these beliefs he maintains them despite separation.
Folie imposée
Folie imposée, or subtype A of folie a deux, is the most common form in which the dominant person imposes a delusion into a person who was not previously mentally ill. Separation of the two results in improvement of the non-dominant person.
Folie induite
In folie induite, or subtype D of folie a deux, a person who is already psychotic adds the delusions of a closely associated person to his own.
Folie simultanée
In folie simultanée, or subtype B of folie a deux, a delusional system emerges simultaneously and independently in two closely related persons, and the separation of the two would not be beneficial in the resolution of psychopathology.
Fregoli delusion [ edit ]
In Fregoli delusion, the person has a delusional belief that various different people are in fact a certain other person, even if there is no physical resemblance.[1]
Fregoli syndrome is considered a form of delusional misidentification "in which the false identification of familiar people occurs in strangers".[16]
G [ edit ]
Gedankenlautwerden [ edit ]
In Gedankenlautwerden, a patient hears thoughts spoken aloud. Thoughts are heard in the form of a voice at the same time as they are thought, not afterwards. See also Écho de la pensée and Thought sonorization
Gegenhalten [ edit ]
Gegenhalten is a catatonic phenomenon in which the subject opposes all passive movements with the same degree of force as applied by the examiner. It is slightly different from negativism in which the subject does exactly the opposite to what is asked in addition to showing resistance.
H [ edit ]
Hemiasomatognosia [ edit ]
Hemiasomatognosia is a subtype of Anosognosia in which the person suffering from hemiplegia neglects one half of his body.
Hyposchemazia; Aschemazia [ edit ]
Hyposchemazia is characterized by the reduced awareness of a patient's body image and Aschemazia by the absence of it. These disorders can have many varied causes such as physical injuries, mental disorders, or mental or physical states. These include transection of the spinal cord, parietal lobe lesions (e.g. right middle cerebral artery thrombosis), anxiety, depersonalization, epileptic auras, migraines, sensory deprivation, and vertigo (i.e. "floating on air").
I [ edit ]
Idée fixe [ edit ]
Idée fixe is an alternate term for an overvalued idea. In this condition, a belief that might seem reasonable both to the patient and to other people comes to dominate completely the patient's thinking and life.
Ideas of alienation [ edit ]
Thoughts that one's own body part or action is not of one's own.
Ideas of influence [ edit ]
Thoughts that one's own action is caused by someone else's will or some other external cause.
Ideas of reference [ edit ]
Ideas of reference are a delusional belief that general events are personally directed at oneself.[10] For example, someone might believe that he or she is receiving messages from the TV that are directed especially at him or her.
Illusion [ edit ]
An illusion is a false perception of a detectable stimulus.[1]
J [ edit ]
Jargon aphasia [ edit ]
Jargon aphasia is characterized by incoherent, meaningless speech with neologisms (newly invented words). These are unconscious thoughts that find expression when one is off one's guard and must be consciously repressed.
K [ edit ]
Klüver–Bucy syndrome [ edit ]
In Klüver–Bucy syndrome, a patient will display placidity, hyperorality, hypersexuality, and hyperphagia. This condition results from bilateral destruction of the amygdaloid bodies of the limbic system.
Knight's Move thinking [ edit ]
Knight's move thinking is a complete loosening of associations where there is no logical link between one idea and the next. Imagine a knight on a chessboard where the movement can be any L shaped direction, making it difficult to track.[17][citation needed]
Koro [ edit ]
Koro is a culture-specific syndrome usually seen in Chinese people. It involves a panicked feeling that one's genitals are retracting into the abdomen, and that this will result in death.[1]
Kuru [ edit ]
Kuru (also known as laughing sickness due to the outbursts of laughter that mark its second phase) was first noted in New Guinea in the early 1900s. Kuru is now known to be a prion disease, one of several known transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.
L [ edit ]
Latah [ edit ]
Latah is a culture-specific syndrome usually seen in Southeast Asia and involves startle-induced disorganization, hypersuggestibility, automatic obedience, and echopraxia (a tendency to mimic examiner’s or other person’s actions). It is usually associated with women. There is controversy over whether Latah is a real psychiatric condition, or merely a display of exhibitionism that would otherwise not be socially acceptable.
L'homme qui rit [ edit ]
In l'homme qui rit, meaning "The man who laughs" in French, a patient displays inappropriate laughter accompanied by release phenomena of the frontal subdominant lobe.
Lilliputian hallucinations [ edit ]
Lilliputian hallucinations are characterized by abnormal perception of objects as being shrunken in size but normal in detail. Usually seen in delirium tremens.
Logoclonia [ edit ]
In logoclonia, the patient often repeats the last syllable of a word. Symptom of Alzheimers or Parkinson's Disease.
Logorrhoea [ edit ]
Logorrhoea, also known as "volubility", is characterized by a patient's fluent and rambling speech using numerous words.
M [ edit ]
Mania a potu [ edit ]
Mania a potu is an alcohol intoxication state with violent and markedly disinhibited behavior. This condition is different from violent behavior in otherwise normal individuals who are intoxicated.
Mitgehen [ edit ]
Mitgehen is an extreme form of mitmachen in which very slight pressure leads to movement in any direction, also called the "anglepoise" effect or "anglepoise lamp sign". This is done despite instructions that the patient resist the pressure, as the patient often views the slight pressure as forcibly grasping and moving the patient.
Mitmachen [ edit ]
In mitmachen, the patient's body can be put into any posture, despite instructions given that the patient resist.
Moria [ edit ]
Moria is the condition characterized by euphoric behavior, such as frivolity and the inability to act seriously. In addition, there is a lack of foresight and a general indifference. It is found in frontal lobe lesions, often along with Witzelsucht, particularly when the orbital surface is damaged. Recent research has shown its presence in frontotemporal dementia.
N [ edit ]
Negativism [ edit ]
Negativism is found if, on examination, a patient resists attempts to move him and does opposite to what is asked. It is usually a sign of catatonia. It may progress to (catatonic) rigidity. It is slightly different from gegenhalten, in which the patient resists movement but does not perform the opposite movement. Also see: Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD).
O [ edit ]
Omega sign [ edit ]
The omega sign is the occurrence of a fold (like the Greek letter omega, Ω ) in the forehead, above the nose, produced by the excessive action of the corrugator muscle. It is sometimes seen in depression.
Oneiroid state [ edit ]
From Greek "oneiros" as meaning 'dream'. In the Oneiroid state one feels and behaves as though in a dream. Also known as Oneirophrenia as described by Ladislas J. Meduna.
Oneirophrenia [ edit ]
See #Oneiroid state or article on Oneirophrenia.
P [ edit ]
Palilalia [ edit ]
Palilalia is characterized by the repetition of a word or phrase; i.e., the subject continues to repeat a word or phrase after once having said. It is a perseveratory phenomenon.
Palinacousis [ edit ]
Palinacousis refers to a phenomenon in which the subject continues to listen to a word, a syllable or any sound, even after the withdrawal of stimulus. It is a type of #Perseveration.
Palinopsia [ edit ]
In palinopsia a visual image persists after the stimulus has gone (similar to an afterimage seen after looking into a bright light).
Parapraxis [ edit ]
A Freudian slip, or parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory or physical action that is believed to be caused by the unconscious mind.
Paraprosopia [ edit ]
A delusion in which a person believes he or she has seen a face transform into a grotesque form - often described as a'monster', 'vampire', 'werewolf' or similar. This is very rare and most likely to be described by people suffering from schizophrenia.
Paraschemazia [ edit ]
Paraschemazia is characterized by a distortion of a patient's body image. It can be caused by hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD and mescalin, epileptic auras, and sometimes migraines.
Pareidolia [ edit ]
In pareidolia a vague or random stimulus is mistakenly perceived as recognizable. A common example is perceiving the image of a face in clouds. Pareidolia is a type of illusion and hence called pareidolic illusion.
Perseveration [ edit ]
This term refers to uncontrollable repetition of a particular response, |
creates more problems than it solves.
“If systemd will be substituting sysvinit in Debian, we will fork the project and create a new distro. We hope this won't be necessary, but we are well prepared for it,” the putative forkers' post concludes.
Game on! ®D,C, Breaks Ground With Transgender Campaign
Washington, D.C., has put together the nation's first government-funded campaign to fight discrimination against transgender people.
The District of Columbia Office of Human Rights is launching a campaign to combat antitransgender discrimination, the first government-funded one in the nation, the Washington Blade reports.
The agency will place five different ads, featuring trans men and women as well as a self-identified “genderqueer” person, in various parts of the city this fall. They will highlight the need for respect for all people and the fact that antitransgender discrimination is illegal in D.C., and encourage anyone who experiences discrimination to contact the agency.
“I’m very happy that they are actually doing some preventive education things,” transgender activist Ruby Corado told the Blade. “This city really needs a lot of understanding and the city really needs a lot of education, so having something like this … is really exciting.”
Several LGBT and transgender-specific rights groups worked with the Office of Human Rights to develop the campaign, and various groups continue to work toward reducing the number of hate crimes in the city. There have been numerous crimes against transgender people in Washington in the past few months.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
GRETNA, La. (WGNO) – A Gretna police officer was fired and arrested after a video showed the officer kicking and dragging a handcuffed suspect.
According to Gretna Police, the incident happened in April 2016 when officers responded to a burglary in progress. The suspect came out of the business and surrendered.
The officer in question, Robert Wallow, then took the handcuffed suspect to the side. Video that later surfaced shows Wallow repeatedly kicking the suspect, then later dragging him across the sidewalk while he’s handcuffed.
The internal investigation into Wallow started immediately after the video surfaced, Gretna Police said.
“The actions were not pretty,” Gretna Deputy Police Chief Anthony Christiana said during a Friday afternoon press conference.
Wallow was booked into the Jefferson Parish Jail this morning. He had been with the department 18 months, and this was Wallow’s first infraction, police said.
A second officer is on administrative leave in connection with the incident.
The suspect never sought medical attention, nor did he file a use of force complaint, police said.ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador will trim government jobs and cut the size of the premier’s cabinet in a $7.6-billion budget tabled Tuesday as the province faces a deficit of $563.8 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year.
The deficit is on top of a shortfall of almost $431 million for this fiscal year as net debt grows almost $1 billion to $9.5 billion next year.
The numbers are better than recent warnings that the province was facing cumulative deficits that could total almost $4 billion as world economic troubles cut demand for the province’s oil and minerals.
Instead, the province is forecasting a deficit of $650.5 million in 2014-15, for a total of just over $1.2 billion in the next two fiscal years.
Increased oil production, cost-cutting and a higher-than-expected sales tax refund from Ottawa helped reduce the shortfall.
The province is trimming about 1,200 government jobs through layoffs and cutting vacant positions, and has approved another 200 early retirements.
The budget does not raise personal or corporate income taxes and predicts a return to surplus of just over $230 million by 2015-16.
“It’s a tough situation,” Finance Minister Jerome Kennedy said of the job cuts. “It’s not one that I particularly like, it’s not one that any of us like. But it’s something that we have to do in order to ensure that we can reduce the deficits and return to surplus in three years.”
Opposition critics have accused the majority Progressive Conservative government of poor planning and reckless spending.
“We’ve made great investments in the past,” Kennedy told a news conference. “We’ve rebuilt the province, for lack of a better term, and the economy is strong. But, unfortunately, we’ve reached a point where our revenues don’t equal our expenditures.”
We’ve rebuilt the province, for lack of a better term, and the economy is strong. But, unfortunately, we’ve reached a point where our revenues don’t equal our expenditures
Kennedy outlined a 10-year sustainability plan to control spending and keep it in check. The first two years focus on eliminating the deficit through public sector cuts, reviews of Memorial University of Newfoundland and College of the North Atlantic, and an effort to rein in the runaway costs of unfunded public pension liabilities.
The third year of the plan projects a surplus in 2015, the same year the next provincial election is set. The fourth to 10th years focus on debt reduction and economic diversification.
The government has sunk about $3 billion into government pension plans but unfunded portions still account for about 70 per cent of net debt, Kennedy said. Premier Kathy Dunderdale has warned the plans could go bankrupt unless public sector unions compromise with the province.
The budget is anchored on what Kennedy called a “conservative” Brent crude oil price of US$105 a barrel. That price was reached after consulting several experts and is far lower than the US$124 on which last year’s budget was based, he said.
It’s a tough situation. It’s not one that I particularly like, it’s not one that any of us like. But it’s something that we have to do
Prices hovered closer to US$109 for much of the year, taking about $25 million from government coffers for each $1 it fell below the budgeted amount.
The province relies on offshore oil for about one-third of its revenues.
Some analysts have predicted oil prices could dip far lower but Kennedy said they’re “out to lunch.” He said global supply and demand, along with the fact that Saudi Arabian producers have said they need at least US$100 a barrel, will keep oil prices from dipping too low.
Dunderdale will take on intergovernmental duties as she cuts one cabinet minister and blends Labrador and aboriginal affairs into one post.
A range of new fees and a higher tobacco tax will bring in $19.3 million in the next fiscal year.
Historic sites around the province will increase admission rates and stop offering one free day a week as of April 1. The cost of each cigarette will go up by 1.5 cents as of Wednesday.EAST VILLAGE — Northbound 4, 5 and 6 trains were delayed Tuesday afternoon after an unauthorized person was reported on the tracks of the Astor Place train station, according to the MTA.
A person was seen on the northbound 6 train tracks around 1:35 p.m., according to the MTA and FDNY.
@dub_savvy There is a customer injury at Astor Pl. n/b 6 trains are express. — NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) September 20, 2016
When investigators arrived, the person could not be found, fire officials said.
As of 2:14 p.m., some northbound 4 trains were terminating at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center, while 5 trains were running on the 2 line between Nevins Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse, according to the MTA's website.
There was no 6 train service between Grand Central-42nd Street and Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall in both directions, while some southbound 6 trains were terminating at 86th Street or Grand Central, the MTA's site said.
Customers could expect delays on the 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 lines, according to the agency.
More information on service changes can be viewed on mta.info.Breaking down the New York Jets' roster, unit by unit, in preparation for training camp:
Position: Wide receiver
Projected starters: Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker
Projected backups: Jeremy Kerley, Devin Smith, DeVier Posey, T.J. Graham
Notables on the bubble: Quincy Enunwa, Shaquelle Evans, Saalim Hakim, Chris Owusu, Walter Powell.
Player to watch: Quite frankly, Marshall is one of the keys to the entire season. If healthy and in the right frame of mind, he will be the Jets' first legitimate No. 1 receiver since Santonio Holmes, circa 2010. Marshall reeled off seven straight 1,000-yard seasons before injuries slowed him down in 2014, resulting in his worst numbers since his rookie year in '06. The Jets, who gave up a fifth-round pick for Marshall, expect him to be highly motivated. In a way, it's similar to the Holmes situation in 2010: They get a talented player who wore out his welcome on his previous team. The difference is Holmes was 26, Marshall is 31. All eyes will be on Marshall, waiting to see if (when?) he lives down to his reputation as a combustible personality. Will there be public displays of frustration when Geno Smith sails a pass over his head?
Top storyline: My, how times have changed. A year ago, the big story was the battle for the No. 2 spot, the starting position opposite Decker. Now the first three jobs appear to be solid, with Marshall, Decker and Kerley, meaning the competition starts at No. 4 -- an indication of how much the talent level has improved. Smith (second-round pick) will be somewhere in the mix, which means there will be six returning players angling for one or two spots. Special teams could be the deciding factor, which helps Graham, Owusu, Powell and Hakim. Posey has something else in his favor -- he's a Mike Maccagnan favorite from their days together in Houston.
Training camp will be a success if...: Marshall and Decker are healthy for Week 1. Everybody knows what they can do as players, so they don't need to strut their stuff in the preseason. Both dealt with injuries last season and preserving them for the regular season is imperative.
Wild card: Smith is a textbook example of a "wild card." Despite his draft status, he will arrive at his first pro camp with a big question mark: Can he take his college game to the NFL? At Ohio State, he blew past cornerbacks and racked up an FBS-leading 28 yards per catch. Smith could fill the team's void as a deep threat, but he'll have to expand his repertoire because you can't run past corners on a consistent basis in the NFL. There will be growing pains for Smith, who will be behind after missing minicamp due to the birth of his first child.
By the numbers: Only three players have more receptions than Marshall (279) over the last three seasons -- Andre Johnson (306), Antonio Brown (305) and Demaryius Thomas (297). Over the same span, Marshall is tied with tight end Jimmy Graham for the most drops -- 24.City Interactive has announced 'Lords of the Fallen', a "hardcore" third-person action-RPG due for release on PC and next-generation consoles in 2014.
Development on Lords of the Fallen is being led by The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings' senior producer Tomasz Gop, and sees players take on the role of a human named Harkyn on an adventure across a rich, fantasy world.
The game features a branching storyline, City Interactive suggests, and players will be forced to make a series of decisions that alter both the world and their character.
"Our team is building Lords of the Fallen specifically for players who enjoy taking on huge challenges, where the odds are stacked against them," said Tomasz Gop, executive producer at City Interactive.
"From the very beginning, Lords of the Fallen will intrigue and satisfy players' hunger to explore each corner of a brand new world, freely customize and build their own character and take down some of the most epic enemies ever seen."
Lords of the Fallen appears to be the new name for "Project RPG", a title revealed during April 2012 that had initially been due for release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC later this year.
A gameplay demo of Lords of the Fallen will be revealed at E3.
Source: City Interactive press releaseOver the past couple weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to design and build Harvest’s 2012 Year In Work, which afforded me a chance to try out something new: the rem unit of measurement.
You’re probably already familiar with em units – they’ve been a common feature of CSS for the past decade – but a crash course: elements specified using em units are sized relative to the font-size of their parent element. For example, if a paragraph has a specified font-size of 2em, and the div it’s inside of has a font-size of 10px, then the effective font-size of the paragraph is 10px × 2em, which is 20px.
.parent { font-size: 10px; }.parent p.child { font-size: 2em; /* outputs to 20px */ }
“Rem” stands for “root em”. Similar to em units, they calculate size based on an ancestor element’s font-size, except rem units always calculate against the html/root element’s base size. So if the html element has a font-size of 16px, then a paragraph with font-size of 2rem will always be 32px, regardless of the its parent div or any other element.
html { font-size: 16px; }.parent { font-size: 10px; }.parent p.child { font-size: 2rem; /* relative to html - outputs to 32px */ }
This is incredibly compelling, particularly because…
I try to avoid Em Units
Em units are useful for a variety of reasons, the most important being that they’re flexible and scalable. You can set the highest parent element, html, to have a relative font-size specified with an em value or a percentage, and it will calculate a specific value based on the browser’s default font-size. This is great for printed documents (the typical default browser print size is 12px vs. 16px for screen display), and it allows your site to scale with the user’s preference, especially in older browsers that have a harder time with page/text zoom.
However, em units have their drawbacks as well, particularly for web-apps or teams where many people touch the CSS. Consider Harvest, a web-app with thousands of lines of CSS code. We use modularized CSS for various designs and extensions used in various places throughout the app (like our calendar pop-over). If any of our styles were set in ems, then there’s a possibility that the pop-over would get added to too many different parent elements in too many different places with various font-size s, causing it to look different each time and ruining the consistency.
As both a product designer and an HTML/CSS developer accustomed to decently-sized dev teams, I’ve learned to avoid em units for the bulk of app development. On smaller and less complicated sites, these issues are less apparent, but still necessary to keep in mind and design around.
Enter the Rem unit
I first heard about rem units a few years ago, but haven’t seen much talk or use since. I’m not sure why, though, as they have always seemed incredibly well-suited for web design – they behave much more predictably like pixels, but retain the flexibility of ems. If an element is always supposed to have a font-size of 16px at base size, regardless of the parent element, then rems make more sense than ems. It’s much easier to convert design comps into code without worrying about parent elements. The same goes for width, height, padding, margin, and all other style attributes that specify size.
I decided to try rem units for Harvest’s 2012 Year In Work to learn their strengths and weaknesses first-hand in a real world environment. I found them to be very useful, and a joy to use for a variety of reasons.
##What you should know about Rem units
They help with Responsive Design
Since all rem units are relative to a single number – the html font-size – you need only set the breakpoints on this number for a simple responsive layout. Here’s the code used in the Year In Work’s Sass file:
While this isn’t appropriate for every design, being able to set a base size for your entire layout for every breakpoint can be incredibly useful.
Pro-tip: While I used pixel values, you could use % values as well.
Great for Rapid Prototyping
I’ve signed on to the theory of prototyping a design directly in HTML/CSS, and avoiding Photoshop altogether (sometimes). When experimenting with a design right within the browser, the last thing you want to worry about is getting the sizes exactly right.
Set the html font-size to 16px, or whatever you want, and then quickly estimate the sizes for everything else and run with them. The h1 is probably 2.5x that size, h2 probably 2x, h3 probably 1.75x… etc. It’s fast. While you can use em units for this as well, using rem units avoids the issue of having to resize the h3 after putting it inside a div with a font-size on it – which is more likely as you tend to move things around quickly during rapid prototyping.
This is how I designed the Year In Work actually… there were no layout PSDs.
Pro-tip: Just like with ems, you’ll find you need to use fractions like 2.25 for some values. I always stuck to.25,.5, or.75 when not using a whole number, since my base size is 16px. However, as you can see in the screenshot above, the base size can change to 13px, which at 2.25rem is 29.25px. Since you can’t have a quarter pixel, some browsers render this as 29px, others as 30px. I found this to be a minor trade-off (but something to keep in mind) for the ease of the responsive layout that I explained above.
All sizes should be in Rem units
Some developers prefer a mix of pixels, percentages, and ems for different styles on different elements, all within the same page. Personally, I think this makes development confusing, but it can work.
This doesn’t work well when using rem units, though. Using rems on only some styles doesn’t offer any advantage – you might as well just use pixels. You have to commit to replacing all pixel values with rem units if you want the responsive advantages.
Pro-tip: You can use ems and rems together, though. Check out the h3 on slide 3 of The Year In Work – I didn’t feel like calculating the size of the “21”, so I gave it a font-size of 1.25 em.
They can influence your design style
Sometimes you need an element to be only 3px – this translates to 0.1875rem… not very conducive to simplified design code. However, you can allow this to influence your design, and decide to just use 0.2rem (or 0.25rem, like I mentioned above). Often the difference isn’t important.
Or, if that 3px is a border-radius, maybe you decide to remove it entirely. Those are design decisions you have to make. I increasingly found that I prefer numbers to end in 0 or 5, or at least an even number. If an element was 9rem wide, I would just make it 10rem and see how that felt. The majority of the time it worked out just fine, and psychologically I felt like my code and design was clearer, cleaner, and easier to work with.
It’s because of this reason that rem units probably aren’t the best for sophisticated web-apps. They worked great for the Year In Work, but I don’t see us using them in Harvest anytime soon – that would probably slow down development rather than speed it up. There are just too many small pixel sizes in various places for rem units to be useful.
However, if you put the last two points together, and you fully use rems from the start while allowing yourself to design around the strengths and weaknesses of rem units, you could end up with a nice web-app that scales nicely between browser and tablet sizes and page zooms.
They do not work in IE8
This may be the biggest reason why we don’t hear about rem units too often currently, as many sites (especially web-apps) still need to support IE8. Luckily, that was not a requirement for the Year In Work, which we decided should be a showcase of some forward-thinking design and techniques.
If you’re working on a personal or small site, I doubt this will be a big issue for you.
Final Thoughts
Rem units aren’t great for every occasion, but for some sites they can be a great tool. They are worth trying regardless of what you’re normally comfortable with:
If you’re coming from a background that always uses pixels, rems are virtually the same thing, but they add the responsiveness that was missing in your old designs.
If you’re coming from a background that always uses ems, rems can solve your issues of elements-within-elements becoming inconsistent and having to add multiple definitions in your stylesheet.
Either way, I hope to see more rem usage in the future. I don’t feel like it’s been fully explored yet, and think there’s some still use cases that haven’t been discovered.With less than an hour before the Buffalo Sabres season commences, here are 10 things to watch for during the 2011-2012 campaign:
1. The play of Ryan Miller. Make no mistake, where this team is headed in April depends very much on the play of the Sabres All-Star goalie. Ryan Miller has been the rock of this team
since 2005 and the time is nigh for him to rightly claim his spot in NHL history. The Buffalo defense is stronger this year and the offense seemingly more potent, so that should bode well for Miller. He has been a workhorse these past few years, and since the 2006-2007 season he has played 333 games. Other top-tier goalies like Tim Thomas and Marc-Andre Fleury have only played 277 and 296 in that same period of time. Even Roberto Luongo has played less at 331. We’re not even counting post season appearances and his epic Olympic run in 2010. How long can Miller carry the weight of the Sabres?
For the first time since Martin Biron left for the Philadelphia Flyers, Buffalo’s former Vezina Trophy winner has a competent backup goalie in Jhonas Enroth. Enroth should help Miller lighten his load and still give the Sabres a very strong chance of winning any game he’s starting. Enroth proved his mettle last season by going 9-2-2-1 with a.907 save percentage and a 2.73 goals against average in Miller’s stead. Most of those games came late in the season, as Enroth played a key role in securing the Sabres a playoff spot. With Miller’s health becoming a lingering concern lately, it’s assuring to know that Enroth can step in and give his team a chance to get 2 points. That was missing with Patrick Lalime. Still, I want to see Miller run this team. Jason Pominville may wear the “C,” but we all know Ryan Miller is the heart and soul of the Buffalo Sabres.
2. Jason Pominville as team Captain. This was an interesting move by Lindy Ruff. It would seem the days of the rotating “C” are finally over in Buffalo, and I have faith in Pominville that he will don this role with success. Pominville could be dubbed “Mr. Buffalo,” and he’s very much a fan favorite. How that translates onto the ice is that Pominville’s one of three guys you’d look to when this team needs a boost, and he has a strong track record of delivering. He finished last season with 22 goals in 73 games, and rebounded nicely after a scary injury suffered early last season. Although, his 52 points last year were his lowest since 2005-2006 when he only played in 30 games. Regardless, there’s no doubt about it, when Pominville is producing on the ice, the Sabres are a much stronger team. Plus, he’s known to make clutch plays, and now that he’s the leader of this team, I want to see him take control of his destiny.
3. The remaining veterans from the 2005-2006 season. The players who remain from the 2005-2006 team that broke so many hearts throughout Western New York, after the Carolina Hurricanes ended their Cinderella season, are few remaining. Sabres fans still feel a swift kick in the pants when that series is brought up in conversation, and you wonder if the players who are still around from that year do, too. Paul Gaustad, Jochen Hecht, Derek Roy, Thomas Vanek and Miller and Pominville are all who remain from that exciting time in Buffalo Sabres History. You could even toss Drew Stafford into that mix since he joined the club a season later. Are these guys still able to produce like they did 6 years ago? Has their prime come and gone? We already talked about Miller and Pominville, but can Vanek score meaningful goals when his team needs them most? Is Derek Roy able to produce early on like he did last year? When will Jochen Hecht play again? Is Paul Gaustad still the tough 4th/3rd liner we love him for being? Will Stafford continue his shocking surge? Remember “One team, one goal?” Well, the old guard is running out of time to prove they can win it all, despite the fans pulling for them year in, year out. These guys need to really step it up this year and play like there’s no tomorrow, because lingering injuries and old age are things they can’t slow down.
4. Ville Leino, Christian Ehrhoff and Robyn Regehr- worth the hype? Acquiring these three guys made the most buzz surrounding the Buffalo Sabres in the offseason since Daniel Briere and Chris Drury left the team that horrendous day in the summer of 2007. They didn’t come cheap, but they come with great potential, experience, and winning vibes. In Ville Leino we have a winger who is on the cusp of blooming into a 20+ goal scorer. He had his best season ever last year, scoring 19 goals and 53 points. Sabres fans already know of Leino’s skill from game 6 of their first round playoff series with the Flyers last year. Leino scored the game winning goal in OT for the Flyers, sending the series back to Philly for game 7, which they won 5-2. The talent surrounding Leino mirrors that of what he had in Philly, so hopefully he blows it open this year for Buffalo. Christian Ehrhoff and Robyn Regehr add some grit, veteran leadership and firepower to the blue line- the first two were seriously lacking last season, and maybe even since the Lockout. The soft defense has resulted in many amazing displays of Ryan Miller’s acrobatic ability, but I think all Sabres fans would be ok with Miller’s job being easier, and these guys can make that happen. Dubbed “Errorhoff” by critics, Ehrhoff has proven them wrong with his strong play and scoring ability the last two seasons (+/- rating of 19 and 36, scored 14 goals in both and a total of 94 points). Regehr’s toughness and leadership ability mirrors what Sabres fans hoped Craig Rivet would bring to the club a few years back. It’s easy to see the holes these two guys filled in the roster, now we need to see them deliver on the ice and not just on paper.
5. Can Tyler Ennis, Tyler Myers and Nathan Gerbe claim this team as their own? When Sabres fans think of their team’s future, this trio is usually in the forefront of our minds. Ennis and Gerbe have established themselves as legitimate 2nd liners, putting up 20 and 16 goals last year. When you hear about how the Sabres have depth and can roll 4 lines, these guys are major reasons as to why; especially now with Leino and a more productive Brad Boyes (more on that later). While Myers may have suffered a minor slump from his rookie season, there’s no reason to doubt him this year. Look for all three to play key roles on the team during this campaign and beyond.
6. Lindy Ruff- still badass. I love Lindy Ruff, and if you’re under the age of 30, it’s tough to even remember what the Sabres were like before him. I have so many great memories of Ruff standing up for his players in the heat of the moment, getting in the face of the other team’s coach, a ref, or even a fellow Sabre for making a bonehead move. This one is still my all-time favorite:
“Go after Peters! Go after Peters! Don’t go after our ******* Captain!”
His energy is intoxicating and his anger motivates, and his 438-352-112 career record speaks for itself. Lets not even talk about how he’s in the top 10 all time for wins with one team and just the 23rd coach in NHL history to make it to 400 wins. But how much gas does Ruff have left in the tank? Can he keep going on like this, year after year? Isn’t the risk of a heart attack imminent? Well, I’m no doctor, but Lindy Ruff as we know him isn’t going anywhere. He’s obsessed, sometimes possessed, and I don’t expect him to cool off or wimp out anytime soon. The day he does will be a dark, dark day for the Buffalo Sabres franchise.
7. Brad Boyes. This guy needs to earn his keep this season, because while he had a pretty good start to his Sabres career, he was a dud in the playoffs. I really, really don’t want to add Boyes to the list of failed trade deadline acquisitions made by the Sabres in recent history. A list that includes Dainius Zubrus (19 games, 4 goals, 8 points), Steve Bernier (17, 3, 9… he was -14 last season with the Panthers) and Raffi Torres (14, 0, 5). Well, Boyes has already outworked all of them (granted with more time to do it in), playing in 21 games and scoring 5 goals and 14 points. Unfortunately, none of that showed up in the post season, and that’s worrisome. Sabres fans don’t want history repeating itself, and are hoping for more production from Boyes given how the excuse for his lack of production in the past was that he played for a crappy team. Well, he’s not now, so lets see him step it up.
8. How much longer can Pat Kaleta last? Kaleta, a WNY native, is the enforcer Sabres fans love and everyone else absolutely loathes. He’s been nicked and dinged over the years, but holy hell, he’s like Rob Ray Jr. on the ice. However, Kaleta has never played more than 55 games in a season, and he dropped from 10 goals in 2009-2010 to just 4 last year. When he gets going, Kaleta’s an entertaining guy to watch, but only when his presence adds to the intensity of the game and he’s not providing the other team with scoring opportunities. He’s taken a beating over the years, but has also dished that out double to his opponents. Depending on Kaleta’s health status throughout the year, Zack Kassian may get to see some playing time. I can’t think of any Sabres fan who wouldn’t relish the thought.
9. Just how deep are Terry Pegula’s pockets? The new owner in shining blue and gold armor has already opened his wallet and dug deep for his team in the last 7 months; not only in the free agent market, but also by purchasing the Rochester Americans of the AHL, keeping the farm team close to home. But just how much more can he offer this team? Is he willing to make the moves necessary if the Sabres fail to deliver come April and make an early playoff exit? Or when in February we’re looking at a bunch of injuries, or even worse, a crappy record. Does Pegula turn to his bank account in order to buy the team’s problems away? We all know Pegula is for real, Buffalonians wish Ralph Wilson would take notes, but my history of being a Buffalo sports fan keeps telling me one day we’ll wake up and Pegula will have had enough. He’s said otherwise, and I certainly wish it so, but until our city is able to bring home a Championship, my skepticism prevails.
10. Schadenfreude. Hockey Nation, I openly admit this one isn’t nice, but I need to get it off my chest. If Tim Connolly doesn’t play at all this season, that would be… wow. I can’t even put the euphoria I would experience into words. Ok, not really. Wishing ill will on an athlete for purposes of spite is wrong, and I won’t take part in that. I wish Tim Connolly a speedy recovery from his ailments. However, to bear witness to him being a lame duck for Toronto would be highly entertaining. The Maple Leafs overpaid for him in the offseason at $9.5 million for two years, and his bald, glassy body is already proving why he’s a bust as he missed the season opener last night against Montreal. In his 8 seasons with Buffalo, Connolly never scored 20 goals. Why? Because he was always broken. Always! Add to the pile 28 straight post season games without a goal dating back to 2007, a -10 rating last year, and how he’s generally regarded as not the nicest guy in the room, and Toronto’s move doesn’t look so good. I only hope for the worst. Speaking of Schadenfreude, it’s worth noting that in the 2009-2010 playoffs, the Sabres were eliminated by the Bruins who then suffered one of the worst meltdowns in sports history against the Philadelphia Flyers. Last season, the Sabres were eliminated by the Flyers, who went on to get swept by the Bruins, who then won the Stanley Cup. The moral of this story? Don’t eliminate the Sabres in the post-season.
Tonight Buffalo takes on the Anaheim Ducks in Helsinki, Finland. Rumor has it the Sabres are the away team, as Anaheim has three players who have strong ties to the region. Hopefully Buffalo can ride the momentum of a successful preseason, and start showing right away that they’re expecting to still be playing in June.
Sources: NHL.com, WGR550.com. All photos courtesy of Micheline (synergymax@aol.com)View print quality image A volunteer creates an ancient Acheulean hand axe wearing a cap designed to measure brain activity. Shelby S. Putt
By using highly advanced brain imaging technology to observe modern humans crafting ancient tools, an Indiana University neuroarchaeologist has found evidence that human-like ways of thinking may have emerged as early as 1.8 million years ago. The results, reported May 8 in the journal Nature Human Behavior, place the appearance of human-like cognition at the emergence of Homo erectus, an early apelike species of human first found in Africa whose evolution predates Neanderthals by nearly 600,000 years. "This is a significant result because it's commonly thought our most modern forms of cognition only appeared very recently in terms of human evolutionary history," said Shelby S. Putt, a postdoctoral researcher with The Stone Age Institute at Indiana University, who is first author on the study. "But these results suggest the transition from apelike to humanlike ways of thinking and behaving arose surprisingly early." The study's conclusions are based upon brain activity in modern individuals taught to create two types of ancient tools: simple Oldowan-era "flake tools" -- little more than broken rocks with a jagged edge -- and more complicated Acheulian-era hand axes, which resemble a large arrowhead. Both are formed by smashing rocks together using a process known as "flintknapping."
View print quality image The use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy technology allows researchers to measure brain activity in real time as volunteers craft ancient hand tools. Shelby S. Putt
Oldowan tools, which first appeared about 2.6 million years ago, are among the earliest used by humanity's ancestors. Acheulian-era tool use dates from 1.8 million to 100,000 years ago. Putt said that neuroarchaeologists look to modern humans to understand how pre-human species evolved cognition since the act of thinking -- unlike fossilized bones or ancient artifacts -- leave no physical trace in the archaeological record. The methods used to conduct studies on modern humans crafting ancient tools was limited until recently by brain imaging technology. Previous studies depended on placing people within the confines of a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine -- essentially a narrow mental tube -- to observe their brain activity while watching videos of people crafting tools. Putt's study, by contrast, employed more advanced functional near-infrared spectroscopy -- a device that resembles a lightweight cap with numerous wires used to shine highly sensitive lasers onto the scalp -- to observe brain activity in people as they learned to craft both types of tools with their hands. In the study, 15 volunteers were taught to craft both types of tools through verbal instruction via videotape. An additional 16 volunteers were shown the same videos without sound to learn toolmaking through nonverbal observation. These experiments were conducted in the lab of John P. Spencer at the University of Iowa, where Putt earned her Ph.D. before joining IU. Spencer is now a faculty member at the University of East Anglia. The resulting brain scans revealed that visual attention and motor control were required to create the simpler Oldowan tools. A much larger portion of the brain was engaged in the creation of the more complex Acheulian tools, including regions of the brain associated with the integration of visual, auditory and sensorimotor information; the guidance of visual working memory; and higher-order action planning.
View print quality image Shelby S. Putt. University of IowaAlthough some investigators have recovered what they believe to be fragments of the genetic material, DNA, from preserved biological tissue millions of years old, the notion that it might be possible to revivify an entire organism of such great age has been generally dismissed as science fiction. Even a one-celled organism like a bacterium is vastly more complex and, presumably |
future economic gains.
David Cameron today was said to be ‘visibly furious’ as he hit out at the surprise £1.7billion EU bill, and spoke of anger at:
“…appalling’ way Britain has been treated by European Commission…I’m not paying that bill on December 1. It is not going to happen…” Telegraph.
Apparently, the Treasury may have known about this for some weeks before. If they did not know then this must be regarded as a calculated ambush by the EU, possibly in response to Cameron’s recent failure to support the principle of open-doors immigration in the EU. One outcome may be that there is a compromise or a delayed payment arranged to save face for Cameron, involving concessions elsewhere in less public areas, but still requiring ultimate payout.
The big question which must be asked of the Chancellor George Osborne, is where will the £1.7billion due by 1st December come from? Which budgets will be cut, or which taxes will rise to pay for it?
We are continually being told by Labour that the Coalition is not spending enough on education, health, welfare, and a whole coterie of other financial holes. Yet they must now feel dismayed and possibly a little betrayed that their EU ‘friends’ arbitrarily see fit to deprive our social services of a whole chunk of funding.
To sum up the main points:
UK contribution to the EU up 20% to £66million a day
The £1.7billion extra to be paid on December 1st this year
France and Germany to get rebates
Greece must pay an extra £70 million
Italy, in big economic trouble, must pay £268 million extra, even as the EU demands spending and borrowing cuts
This move establishes the principle that the EU has first call priority over any national gain in income
It is not clear whether the Treasury knew about this or was even aware of the effect of the changed EU formula
The new rules calculate back to 1995 and now take into account prostitution and drug economies
It comes on top of Tony Blair’s reduction in the UK rebate which has already lost us £10.4billion
Cameron apparently only found out about the bill on Thursday this week
Cameron may bluff, bluster, and posture, but only until the Rochester and Strood by-election is over
This will only strengthen the resolve of Eurosceptic MP’s in the other parties and make it harder for Cameron to push the line that he can control EU spending and reform the EU.Share this
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The simple act of texting someone during a minor surgical procedure done under local anesthesia can significantly reduce the need for narcotic pain relief.
Further, when that text buddy is a stranger, the odds a patient will ask for medications to take the edge off could be as little as one-sixth of those who undergo surgery without a phone.
“These findings suggest that the simple act of communicating with a companion or stranger provides an analgesic-sparing effect,” researchers write in a new study published in the journal Pain Medicine. “The data also suggest that text-based communication with a stranger is more effective.”
Angry Birds
The study builds on previous findings that have shown social support before and during medical procedures can reduce anxiety and perceptions of pain.
Researchers decided to test whether mobile phones that allow patients to send text messages or play games could bring that support benefit into settings where the company of family members or friends is not possible.
They conducted an experiment to track four groups: patients receiving standard mobile phone-free perioperative treatment; those using a mobile phone to play the game Angry Birds; patients using a mobile phone to text with a close friend or family member; and others invited to text with a research assistant instructed to focus on “getting to know you” conversations.
None of the 98 patient volunteers who took part from January to March 2012, the research assistant texting, or nine of the 10 treating anesthesiologists (the lone exception being a coauthor of the study) were aware of the nature of the research. Treatment in all cases was left entirely to the discretion of the physicians.
Texting therapy
The findings showed that patients receiving “standard therapy”—meaning those not using mobile phones during surgery—were almost twice as likely to receive supplemental pain relief as patients who played the game Angry Birds before and during the procedure.
The same patients were more than four times as likely to receive additional analgesic as those texting a companion and—most notably—more than six times as likely to receive additional narcotic relief as patients who engaged in a texting conversation with a stranger.
To verify that latter effect and explore its source, researchers analyzed the language of the two groups allowed to text during their surgeries.
Distraction methods
Text conversations with companions related more to biology, the body and negative emotions, while texts with a stranger included more words expressing positive emotions, with patients writing more often about self-affirming topics.
[related]
The study provides the first evidence that texting offers a benefit that is beyond traditional treatment or even “distraction” methods such as playing a video game. The team called for new work to explore exactly what type of conversations work best, and how far this benefit can be developed to assist patients and doctors.
“Our findings suggest that text messaging may be a more effective intervention that requires no specialized equipment or involvement from clinicians,” the authors write.
“Even more importantly, text-based communication may allow for the analgesic-sparing benefits of social support to be introduced to other clinical settings where this type of support is not otherwise available.”
Cornell doctoral student Jamie Guillory, and physicians Christopher Woodruff and Jeffrey Keilman from McGill Universityare coauthors of the study.
Source: Cornell UniversityA senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee is accusing the Obama administration of quietly ordering the FBI to start reading Miranda rights to suspected terrorists at U.S. military detention facilities in Afghanistan
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The move is reportedly creating chaos in the field among the CIA, FBI and military personnel, according to Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. The soldiers, especially, he says, are frustrated that giving high value detainees Miranda rights -- the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney -- is impeding their ability to pursue intelligence on the battlefield, according to a story first reported by the Weekly Standard.
"What I found was lots of confusion and very frustrated people on the front lines who are trying to, well, make Afghanistan successful for the United States and its allies," said Rogers, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.
Rogers, a former FBI special agent who served in the U.S. Army, just returned from Afghanistan and a visit to Bagram Air Base, where he said the rights are being read.
"I witnessed it myself, talked to the people on the ground," he said. "What you have is two very separate missions colliding in the field in a combat zone. Again, anytime that you offer confusion in that environment that's already chaotic and confusing enough, you jeopardize a soldier's life."
U.S. commanders told FOX News soldiers are not reading Miranda rights to detainees, but those commanders could not speak to whether the FBI was doing so. The practice has not been instituted at detention facilities in Iraq or at Guantanamo Bay, according to U.S. senior military officials.
Asked if the Obama administration had ordered that Miranda rights be read to certain detainees, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, "I have no reason to disbelieve a member of Congress. But I don't know any of the circumstances that are involved around it."
But Gibbs acknowledged that it wouldn't be a surprise to find out that it was happening.
Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd denied there has been a policy change covering detainees.
"There has been no policy change nor blanket instruction for FBI agents to Mirandize detainees overseas," he said in a statement, adding, "While there have been specific cases in which FBI agents have Mirandized suspects overseas, at both Bagram and in other situations, in order to preserve the quality of evidence obtained, there has been no overall policy change with respect to detainees."
Some senators wonder what would have happened if Khaled Sheikh Mohammad, a self-confessed architect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, had been read his Miranda rights.Ski Vermont! The Fabled Stake, High Atop Mount Mansfield Mount Mansfield Snow Depths
Summit Snow Depth at "The Stake" high atop Mount Mansfield, Vermont
Green region represents multi year average (1954-55 through present)
The SkiVt-L "Snow Year" begins September 1 each year. Right now, we are in the 2018-2019 season.
Will this be a record year?
Decide for yourself! We have many years of data for every snow year stretching all the way back to the winter of 1954-55. Check our additional historical data for graphs of these past years, as well as the all-time highs and lows, where does the data come from, and How does it get updated?
A SkiVt-L production, brought to you through the courtesy of Enterprise Technology Services, University of Vermont. Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001,2019. All rights reserved.SKOWHEGAN — The next visible battle over Skowhegan High School’s Indians sports mascot and nickname is set to take place on Columbus Day, a polarizing federal holiday Native Americans say is a cutting reminder of their ancestors’ slaughter by Europeans that instead should celebrate indigenous people.
Jennifer Poirier, the administrator of the Skowhegan Indian Pride Facebook group, did not respond Thursday to a message asking whether her group considered the fact that Columbus Day is offensive to American Indians when planning the event.
Mark Roman holds a sign is support of changing the Skowhegan High School team mascot during a forum in Skowhegan in 2015. Skylar Carter joins a goupr to show support keeping the Indian nickname and mascot at Skowhegan High School in April. A group supporting keeping the nickname plans a Skowhegan Indian Pride rally on Columbus Day, while Maine Indians and their supporters are holding an Indigenous Peoples Day rally at Lake George in Skowhegna. The events are the latest surrounding the last school in the state that has Native American imagery.
The rally, to be held at Langlais Park, is one of two celebrations planned for Oct. 12 in the area. The other is Skowhegan Indigenous Peoples Day on the west side of Lake George Regional Park, the second year the gathering has been held in the area on Columbus Day.
The events are the latest surrounding the issue of Skowhegan High School’s Indians nickname and mascot. The school is the last one in the state that uses Native American imagery as a mascot.
Experts on Indian issues in American history say having the Skowhegan Indian Pride rally on Columbus Day shows, at best, a lack of sensitivity.
“It seems like bad timing,” Colby College professor Daniel Tortora said Thursday. “It seems like rubbing salt on the wound.
“Columbus represents the beginning of over 500 years of suffering in the face of colonization and oppression,” said Tortora, an assistant professor of history who teaches classes on Native American history. “It seems like an intentional decision.”
Poirier said there are many misconceptions about the people in her group, and “it’s time everyone knows the truth” about those who support the nickname. The rally, set for 4 p.m. in front of the 62-foot Skowhegan Indian sculpture by Maine artist Bernard Langlais, includes a food drive and raffle to raise money for the local soup kitchen and the animal shelter. Its aim “is to show positive support regarding not only the issue of a name, but to also bring together and strengthen our communities.”
Maulian Smith, who heads the effort to get rid of the Indians nickname, said the “Indian pride” rally is an “insulting irony,” pointing out that Columbus Day “in the native community is nothing to celebrate, as he is a murderous and brutal attacker of our ancestors.”
She said the charity aspects of the event don’t lessen that.
“What makes this even more laughable is that they are having a rally in the name of charity, when the cause of the event is keeping racism and hate alive in their community,” Smith said. “They are trying to distract from the negative view that everyone has of them because of their support for a racist and outdated mascot by coming off like this is an event to give back to their community.”
John Bear Mitchell, the Wabanaki Center Outreach and Student Development Coordinator at the University of Maine, said he thinks the rally’s timing isn’t so much “an insult as much as I think it’s pure unmindfulness.”
“It tends to give the appearance of a dismissive attitude that is often present in the arena of education,” he said Thursday. “It’s just a sad exhibition of very poor planning and lacks any real thought.”
‘IT’S JUST A DAY’
Poirier, who is also a member of the Skowhegan-based School Administrative District 54 school board, which voted 11-9 in May to keep the Indians mascot name, said the day of the rally — Columbus Day — was chosen after a long planning process and consultation with the town. Poirier said she worked with the town and local businesses to find a day when her group could use Langlais Park without interfering with business parking and street congestion. She said she submitted the proper permit paperwork to the town and to the selectmen without a requested date.
“After several weeks, we were approved,” Poirier said. “Oct. 12 was the most feasible day because many businesses are closed since it is a federally recognized holiday and more people would be able to participate.”
Poirier’s Aug. 12 application for a gathering, though, shows Oct. 12 as the specific requested date for the “rally to support keeping Skowhegan the Indians.” The time of the rally was to be determined “depending on local businesses closing time,” according to a written note on the application.
The application was examined by Town Manager Christine Almand and it was determined that by town ordinance the group did not require an application for a permit to gather. Poirier’s $30 application fee was refunded. The application never went to the Board of Selectmen for a vote, said Almand, who declined to comment on the rally and the date the group chose.
Lynda Quinn, a school board member who voted with Poirier to keep the Indians nickname, said Columbus Day is just another day off from school for the students. She said she doesn’t think Poirier had the negative implications of Columbus Day in mind when she set the date for the rally.
“I really can’t imagine that she thought of that deliberately,” Quinn, a former Skowhegan selectwoman and county commissioner, said Thursday. “I’m sure she picked it because it was a day off from school. I don’t think she made that connection.
“It’s not a bad day. It’s just a day, and I don’t look at Columbus that way.”
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY
Meanwhile, those in favor of the school district dropping the nickname are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day in Skowhegan for the second straight year. Last year the gathering was held on Columbus Day in the parking lot of the Skowhegan Farmers’ Market.
The focus of the Indigenous Peoples Day is to shift the focus of what American Indians see as the beginning of the mistreatment of the people who were here when Christopher Columbus arrived in 1492.
Smith said the purpose of the event is to celebrate indigenous people of Maine and the world “and to show thanks to our ancestors for preserving our ways even though they had to face warfare, attempted genocide and unthinkable hardships to make sure that we can continue to exist and have our culture.”
There’s a movement around the world to abolish Columbus Day and instead celebrate indigenous people, according to Smith’s father, Barry Dana, of Solon, former chief of the Penobscot tribe.
“The Jewish people would never celebrate a Hitler Day as a holiday, nor do natives honor Columbus,” he said. “This year we are focusing on positive contributions that native people make to the world.”
The group organizing the rally has a public Facebook page, Skowhegan Indigenous Peoples Day, and is supported by the Not Your Mascot Maine Chapter Facebook page, whose membership is actively working for the removal of the nickname from Skowhegan high school sports teams. The page is run by Smith.
Indigenous Peoples Day is not a new concept. The cities of Berkeley, California, Seattle and Minneapolis already have recognized Indigenous Peoples Days. Hawaii, Oregon and Alaska are among 16 states that don’t recognize Columbus Day as a public holiday, according to a CNN report last year. South Dakota renamed the holiday Native American Day in 1990.
BIGGER PICTURE
Poirier said keeping the school name is not the group’s only concern.
“Our group is a place to converse with people who share similar views and to support community members because that’s what a community family is all about,” she said. “I believe our group has so many members because we are a community full of pride.”
The event includes a food drive and group photo opportunity sponsored by supporters of Skowhegan Indian Pride, whose membership says the Indians nickname used by the school is an important part of their local history and heritage. It’s set for 4 p.m. in front of the 62-foot Skowhegan Indian sculpture by Maine artist Bernard Langlais.
“We share community events and cheer on our teams, but we also come together to support community members in need,” she said. “We have rallied support to help families in crisis, and we will be holding a group community service project in a few weeks.”
The Columbus Day rally organized by Skowhegan Indian Pride will feature merchandise to be given away in a raffle. Merchandise is to include stickers and T-Shirts that read “I Bleed Orange & Black — Skowhegan Indian Pride.”
Names will be entered for the drawings by bringing nonperishable food items for the local soup kitchen and the local animal shelter, Poirier said.
Debate about dropping the Indians name from the high school sports teams came to a head in April and May with a meeting with tribal leaders and a public forum on the issue.
Poirier this week echoed many who support keeping the school’s nickname. “The Skowhegan Indian name has been a long-standing tradition that encompasses the entire community’s history and heritage.”
Mitchell, of UMaine, has said that people who support use of Indian images and nicknames for sports teams think mascots aren’t racist because they themselves aren’t offended and that “tradition” often is used to defend the mascots.
Tortora, from Colby College, said the “larger picture” of debates about American Indian mascots are being played out all over the United States, so it comes as no surprise that it is happening in Maine as well but is “no less concerning.”
“It enables me to see why Indians are passionate about the harms of mascots and where it fits into the bigger picture, and many people might not be aware of that,” he said. “Some are, but many are not. It seems then that people are still passionate to keep it, that they’ll kind of rub it in the face of people that are offended and have been offended for years.”
He said the continued debate about school sports mascots is raising awareness and discussion about use of Native American nicknames and images and reminding people who are somewhere in the middle that “Indians do exist and they are prideful and they are real people.”
ShareA few weeks ago, I directed Harvard Extension School’s “Crisis Game,” in which students had to play out a hypothetical Cold War crisis involving nuclear weapons. The realization that a crisis could escalate to nuclear war shocked younger students who had never given much thought to this issue, especially when they found the game sliding from an exercise in negotiation toward nuclear doom. (“I was literally sweating,” one of the players later said.)
But is a nuclear war between Russia and America possible today? After all, there is no longer a Cold War, the Soviet Union and its military alliance were dismantled long ago, and both Russia and America have slashed their nuclear inventories. What could cause a nuclear conflict? How would such an exchange start, and how would it progress?
Unfortunately, nuclear war is still possible. Now, as during the Cold War, the keys to a strategic nuclear exchange are rigid military planning, political misperception, and natural human frailty.
Part of the problem is that Russia now openly considers the use of nuclear weapons in any scenario in which they begin to lose to a superior force. In an ironic reversal of the situation during the Cold War, NATO is now the dominant conventional coalition in Europe, while Russia is a weak state with a large but less powerful army. The Russian Federation has no significant ability to project power far from its borders, and likely cannot sustain a major conventional engagement with a capable opponent for any prolonged period.
(Recommended: Russia & America: Stumbling to War )
As a result of this imbalance, the Kremlin has embraced a doctrine of “de-escalation” in which Russia would threaten to use nuclear weapons during a conflict in order to deter an opponent from pursuing further military gains. (While China maintains a public pledge never to be the first to use nuclear arms, Beijing likely has a similar plan should war with the Americans go badly.)
How might this doctrine come into play during a crisis? There is far less at stake between Russia and the West now, and the Russians are not commanding a global empire dedicated to a revolutionary ideology. That does not mean, however, that Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, accept the outcome of the Cold War.
And so imagine, in the wake of Russia’s successes in Ukraine, that the Russian leadership under Vladimir Putin decides to test its belief that NATO, as a political alliance, can be broken with a show of force. To this end, the Kremlin attempts to replicate the 2014 Ukraine operation, only this time in a NATO nation, perhaps in the Baltics or Poland. “Little green men” begin assisting “separatists” in isolating a slice of NATO territory.
This time, however, the target responds forcefully: instead of the hapless and disorganized Ukrainians of 2014, the Russians find themselves facing troops with better training and superior Western weapons, who briskly dispatch the Russian “volunteers” and showcase an array of captured Russian arms.
(Recommended: 5 Most Lethal U.S. Weapons of War Ever )
The Kremlin, now watching its plans unspool, doubles down. Clinging to the assumption that NATO will fracture and abandon the victim to Russian aggression, the men in Moscow send in Russian regulars to help their “brothers” in the struggle. NATO leaders, contrary to these unrealistic Russian expectations, activate Article V of the NATO charter. Now it’s a real war, and after they clear the skies of inferior Russian aircraft, Western jets soon begin pounding Russian soldiers and obliterating Russian equipment in numbers that defy even the most pessimistic assumptions of the Russian General Staff.
(Recommended: 5 Russian Weapons of War America Should Fear )
Russian losses, viewed instantly and globally across the internet, are heavy. The Russians soon realize they face the prospect of a humiliating defeat. Worse, they may fear a counter-offensive that could spill into Russian territory. The idea of NATO stepping even an inch into Russia fills the generals and their president with dread, especially as the Russian public watches their soldiers being cut to pieces in a foreign country.
The Kremlin, at this point, threatens to use nuclear weapons. The West responds by reiterating its demands that the Russians leave NATO territory, by initiating a renewed offensive against the invading forces, and by increasing U.S., British, and French nuclear readiness.
What happens next is too hard to predict in political terms. If the Russians pull back and borders are restored, the crisis is over. If, on the other hand, they decide to go all in on what was supposed to be a bluff, they might launch a limited number of tactical nuclear strikes against NATO targets, such as a small number of airfields or command posts, in order to “de-escalate” the situation. (If all of this sounds crazy, remember that this is exactly the scenario the Russians exercised in 1999 —while the far more pro-American Russian President Boris Yeltsin was still in power—and have repeatedly practiced since.)
As the world reels from the news that nuclear weapons have been detonated in Europe, the Kremlin then issues a warning: everything stops right here, right now, with all forces left in place. Or else.
Before the ink dries on the Russian demand, NATO’s response is quick, calibrated, and forceful. A few symbolic targets are chosen: a Russian naval formation in the Black Sea or in the Baltic are destroyed with submarine-launched nuclear weapons. Russian territory is not breached (Yet.) All Western strategic forces are on full alert, ready to strike the entire Russian nuclear infrastructure, including Moscow. The Russians, likewise, are ready to strike hundreds of North American ICBM sites, along with U.S., British, and French submarine pens and bomber bases.
If the Russians respond with another round of nuclear strikes inside NATO, a combined Anglo-American (or even Anglo-Franco-American) attack on targets inside Russia near the fighting might be the West’s last ditch to convince the Russians to pull away from their failed gambit. Once a nuclear weapon explodes on Russian soil, however, Russian hardliners, civilian and military, will demand a strike on America or Britain, or both, as revenge and as a show of resolve.
If the crisis goes beyond this initial exchange of nuclear force, with hundreds of thousands of people already dead and injured from nuclear strikes in multiple countries, we can expect all sides to execute their Cold War-era plans, since they’re really still the only ones anyone has. Driven by fear and military logic, the United States and Russia will attack each other’s strategic nuclear capability as quickly as possible, including command and control centers located in or near major cities like Washington and Moscow.
Carefully crafted nuclear war plans, with all their elegant, complicated options, will fall apart in the midst of chaos. Even taking into account weapons destroyed by surprise, rendered inactive by flawed orders, or neutralized by some kind of technical malfunction, a combined total of several hundred nuclear weapons will fall on each country, including a fair number on Canada, the United Kingdom and France.
In the United States, much of the eastern seaboard will burn. Even a limited strike will require the immediate destruction of Washington along with Navy nuclear installations from Virginia to Florida. In the west, San Diego and Seattle will suffer the most. Omaha, the home of the U.S. Strategic Command, will be gone, along with missile bases and airfields in the mountain states. Fallout will kill many more to the east of all of these targets, and irradiate large swaths of America’s agricultural heartland.
In the immediate aftermath, governors will take control of their states as best they can until something like a U.S. government can reconstitute itself. National Guardsmen, along with state and local police forces, will be forced to cope with a terrified and gravely wounded population. Soldiers and cops will find themselves doing everything from protecting food stocks to euthanizing doomed burn victims. Along with the grisly human cost, the damage to the fragile, electronically-based U.S. infrastructure will be massive.
Areas that were untouched in the strikes, from Northern New England to the Deep South, will drown under an influx of refugees. Civil disorder will eventually spiral out of the control of even the most dedicated state military organizations and police forces. Martial law will be common and persistent.
In Russia, the situation will be even worse. The full disintegration of the Russian Empire, begun in 1905 and interrupted only by the Soviet aberration, will finally be complete. A second Russian civil war will erupt, and Eurasia, for decades if not longer, will be a patchwork of crippled ethnic states led by strongmen. Some Russian rump state may emerge from the ashes, but it will likely be forever suffocated by a Europe unwilling to forgive so much devastation.One of the most exciting starter activities to do with a Raspberry Pi is something you can't do on your regular PC or laptop—make something happen in the real world, such as flash an LED or control a motor. If you've done anything like this before, you probably did it with Python using the RPi.GPIO library, which has been used in countless projects. There's now an even simpler way to interact with physical components: a new friendly Python API called GPIO Zero.
Photo by Giles Booth. Used with permission
I recently wrote about Raspberry Pi Zero, the $5 computer and latest edition to the world of affordable hardware. Although the names are similar, the GPIO Zero and Raspberry Pi Zero projects are unrelated and are not coupled. The GPIO Zero library is made to work on all Raspberry Pi models, and is compatible with both Python 2 and Python 3.
The RPi.GPIO library is bare bones and provides all the essential functionality to do simple things with the Pi's GPIO pins—set up pins as inputs or outputs, read inputs, set outputs high or low, and so on. GPIO Zero is built on top of this and provides a collection of simple interfaces to everyday components, so rather than setting pin 2 high to turn on an LED, you have an LED object and you turn it on.
GPIO port label – from rasp.io/portsplus
Getting started
With GPIO Zero, you import the name of the interfaces you're using, for example: from gpiozero import LED Also you must correctly wire up any components you're using and connect them to the GPIO pins. Note that some pins are allocated to 3V3, 5V, and GND; a few are special purpose and the rest are general purpose. Refer to pinout.xyz for more information, or use a port label:
Blink an LED with the following code:
from gpiozero import LED from time import sleep led = LED(17) while True: led.on() sleep(1) led.off() sleep(1)
Alternatively, use the LED's blink() method, but make sure to keep the program alive with signal.pause() like so:
from gpiozero import LED from signal import pause led = LED(17) led.blink() pause()
Output devices
As well as a basic LED interface, with the methods on(), off(), toggle(), and blink(), GPIO Zero also provides classes for Buzzer and Motor, which work in a similar way:
from gpiozero import Buzzer, Motor from time import sleep buzzer = Buzzer(14) motor = Motor(forward=17, backward=18) while True: motor.forward() sleep(10) motor.backward() buzzer.beep() sleep(10) buzzer.off()
There also are interfaces for PWMLED (control the brightness rather than just on/off), and for RGB LED, which is an LED comprising red, green, and blue parts using the brightness of each to provide full color control.
There's even an interface for TrafficLights. Provide the pin numbers the red, amber, and green lights are connected to, then control with:
lights = TrafficLights(2, 3, 4) lights.on() lights.off() lights.blink() lights.green.on() lights.red.on()
and so on.
Input devices
The simplest input device is a push button, and the interface provided makes it easy to control programs with button presses:
from gpiozero import Button button = Button(14) while True: if button.is_pressed: print("Pressed")
Another way to use button pressed to control programs is to use wait_for_press :
button.wait_for_press() print("pressed")
This halts the program until the button is pressed, then continues. Alternatively, rather than polling the button state, you can connect actions to button presses:
button.when_pressed = led.on button.when_released = led.off
Here, the method led.on is passed in as the action to be run when the button is pressed, and led.off as the button is released. This means when the button is pressed, the LED comes on, and when it's released the LED goes off. In addition to using other GPIO Zero object methods, you can use custom functions:
def hello(): print("Hello") def bye(): print("Bye") button.when_pressed = hello button.when_released = bye
Now every time the button is pressed, the hello function is called and prints "Hello". When the button is released it prints "Bye".
The use of custom functions in this way can be a good way to run a set of GPIO instructions, such as a traffic lights sequence:
def sequence(): lights.green.off() lights.amber.on() sleep(1) lights.amber.off() lights.red.on() sleep(20) lights.amber.on() sleep(1) lights.green.on() lights.amber.off() lights.red.off() lights.green.on() button.when_pressed = sequence
Now when the button is pressed, the traffic lights will go from green to red, then wait 20 seconds before turning back to red, in the usual way.
Sensors
Swapping out a button for another input device, such as a basic sensor, can open up a world of interesting projects. Instead of a button, use a motion sensor:
from gpiozero import MotionSensor sensor = MotionSensor(15)
Then use sensor.if_motion, sensor.wait_for_motion, and sensor.when_motion. There is a similar interface provided for LightSensor.
Analogue devices
The Raspberry Pi has no native analogue input pins, but you can easily connect up an ADC (analogue-to-digital converter) and access analogue input devices (such as potentiometers) and read their value:
from gpiozero import MCP3008 pot = MCP3008() while True: print(pot.value)
The potentiometer returns values from 0 to 1, which means you can connect them up to output devices easily:
from gpiozero import PWMLED, MCP3008 led = PWMLED(4) pot = MCP3008() while True: led.value = pot.value
Now the LED's brightness is controlled directly by the potentiometer value.
Alternatively, a clever feature of GPIO Zero allows you to directly connect two devices together without continuously updating inside a loop. Every output device has a source property, which can read an infinite generator of values. All devices (input and output) have a values property, which is an infinite generator, yielding the device's current value at all times:
from gpiozero import PWMLED, MCP3008 led = PWMLED(4) pot = MCP3008() led.source = pot.values
This works exactly the same as the previous example, just without the need for a while loop.
You can connect multiple analogue inputs to the same ADC (the MCP3008 chip provides 8 channels). This example uses three potentiometers allowing control of each color channel in an RGB LED using the same method:
led = RGBLED(red=2, green=3, blue=4) red_pot = MCP3008(channel=0) green_pot = MCP3008(channel=1) blue_pot = MCP3008(channel=2) led.red.source = red_pot.values led.green.source = green_pot.values led.blue.source = blue_pot.values
This allows you to use the three potentiometers as a color mixer for the RGB LED.
Bundle interfaces
Like the TrafficLights interface, there are others for bundles of components, particularly for use in commonly used simple add-on boards.
Generic LED board or collection of LEDs, controlled together or individually:
from gpiozero import LEDBoard lights = LEDBoard(2, 3, 4, 5, 6) lights.on() lights.off() lights.leds[1].on() lights.leds[3].toggle() lights.leds[5].on() lights.leds[2].blink() lights.leds[4].blink()
The Ryanteck TrafficHAT:
from gpiozero import TrafficHat hat = TrafficHat() hat.on() hat.off() hat.lights.blink() hat.buzzer.on() hat.button.when_pressed = hat.lights.on hat.button.when_released = hat.lights.off
Note that the TrafficHat interface did not require a set of pin numbers, because they are already defined within the class.
Connect up two motors and make a chassis and you have yourself a Raspberry Pi robot:
from gpiozero import Robot robot = Robot(left=(4, 14), right=(17, 18)) robot.forward() robot.backward() robot.reverse() robot.left() robot.forward() robot.stop()
Zero all the things
Now that there's a suite of Zero-named projects, why not use them in conjunction? How about a Pi Zero-powered robot programmed with GPIO Zero and PyGame Zero?
GPIO Zero and PyGame Zero do work very well together—perfect for creating on-screen interfaces for GPIO components.
Photo by ItsAll_Geek2Me. Used with permission.
Try it now!
GPIO Zero has been included in the Raspbian Jessie image since December, so you can grab a copy from raspberrypi.org/downloads. If you have an older image, install it with:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install python3-gpiozero python-gpiozero
Open up IDLE and prototype in the REPL, or create a file to save your scripts. You can also use the regular Python shell, or install IPython and use that.
More
Read more about GPIO Zero:About a year and a half ago, I wrote about a $12 “Gongkai” cell phone (pictured above) that I stumbled across in the markets of Shenzhen, China. My most striking impression was that Chinese entrepreneurs had relatively unfettered access to cutting-edge technology, enabling start-ups to innovate while bootstrapping. Meanwhile, Western entrepreneurs often find themselves trapped in a spiderweb of IP frameworks, spending more money on lawyers than on tooling. Further investigation taught me that the Chinese have a parallel system of traditions and ethics around sharing IP, which lead me to coin the term “gongkai”. This is deliberately not the Chinese word for “Open Source”, because that word (kaiyuan) refers to openness in a Western-style IP framework, which this not. Gongkai is more a reference to the fact that copyrighted documents, sometimes labeled “confidential” and “proprietary”, are made known to the public and shared overtly, but not necessarily according to the letter of the law. However, this copying isn’t a one-way flow of value, as it would be in the case of copied movies or music. Rather, these documents are the knowledge base needed to build a phone using the copyright owner’s chips, and as such, this sharing of documents helps to promote the sales of their chips. There is ultimately, if you will, a quid-pro-quo between the copyright holders and the copiers.
This fuzzy, gray relationship between companies and entrepreneurs is just one manifestation of a much broader cultural gap between the East and the West. The West has a “broadcast” view of IP and ownership: good ideas and innovation are credited to a clearly specified set of authors or inventors, and society pays them a royalty for their initiative and good works. China has a “network” view of IP and ownership: the far-sight necessary to create good ideas and |
's placement office. It is also inaccurate, and the real figure is lower than the one being quoted. This is precisely the reason why in the recent meeting, have decided not to reveal details of in the offers made by recruiters," said an institute source at IIT, Kharagpur.
say such high offers are exceptional, and revealing such figures tends to put unnecessary pressure on other students.
"Students and parents alike start developing unnecessary expectations from offers during placements. At times, this also impacts students' performance during placement interviews. Hence, IITs have decided it is safer to reveal the average salary packages offered in a particular year at the end of the placement process," said a source at IIT Guwahati. IIT Bombay too refused to divulge salary details.
IITs divide salaries into two parts - the guaranteed or fixed component and the variable component. They say they consider only the fixed component in their placement records.
IIT placement cell officials said variable components in salaries - stock options, joining or sign - on bonus, relocation benefits, medical reimbursement, leave travel allowance, transport allowance and other benefits - raise annual salaries to more than Rs 1 crore. Including variable components, international pay packages soared at IITs.
Often pay packages also include payments for students' accommodation in five-star hotels. "These are one-time payments and are completely misleading. We do not club these with the overall package. We focus only on the assured and recurring salary component," said a placement official at IIT Bombay.
Last year US-based firm made a job offer of Rs 1.83 crore, with a base salary of Rs 80 lakh and 4,000 shares in stock options. With the stock at about Rs 2,590 ($41.9) then (1 December, 2014), 4,000 stocks were valued at Rs 1.03 crore, taking the overall package to Rs 1.83 crore.
This was also the case with social networking site Facebook, which has made job offers for coding profiles.
Another multinational firm had made an offer of $100,000 as the base salary, $15,000 as a sign-on bonus and $10,000 in relocation benefits, along with stock options at one of the IITs.
Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Facebook are among several companies making big-ticket job offers to students.
IITs said, in many cases, students don't stick to a company for more than a year or two, failing to exercise the stock option. They cannot exercise the option if they quit the company before three or five years.Share. Mario galaxy. Mario galaxy.
A team of four designed a mash-up of 2D Mario and No Man's Sky in 72 hours, and you can play it now (provided Nintendo hasn't pulled it down).
No Mario's Sky (flagged up by Wired) places players on a randomly-chosen World 1-1, then lets them blast off in an M-themed spacecraft to find far less conventionally-numbered, circular levels.
Every planet comes with different species of Goomba (personal favorites include the ones with no faces and the guys with Donald Trump hair), atmosphere, gravity effects, even remixed takes on the classic Super Mario Bros. theme. Here's one of mine:
A word in advance: the jumping physics are a common point of complaint, but I think we can forgive an ambitious fan game made in three days, right? Right?
No Mario's Sky is available to download for free from itch.io. However, Nintendo is famously protective of its copyright - going by the speed at which high-profile fan projects like Pokemon Uranium and the Metroid 2 remake were pulled, it may not be long for this internet.
Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor and, like, he gets the idea, but what's the *point* of No Mario's Sky? We demand answers. Follow him on Twitter.I use AWS Lambda for almost all of my projects these days-from Flask apps and Slack bots to cron jobs and monitoring tools. I love how cheap and easy it is to deploy something valuable.
Python is my go-to language, but handling Python packages in Lambda can be tricky. Many important packages need to compile C extensions, like psycopg2 for Postgres access, or numpy, scipy, pandas, or sklearn for numerical analysis. If you compile these on a Mac or Windows system, you'll get an error when your Lambda tries to load them.
The import path also requires finesse. You can install your dependencies directly into your top-level directory, but that clutters up your workspace. If you install them into a subdirectory like deps/ or vendored/, you have to mess with your sys.path at the beginning of your function.
But there is a much better way. In this post, I'll show you a how, by using the serverless-python-requirements plugin for the Serverless Framework.
Initial Setup
Let's get our environment ready. If you have Node and NPM installed, install the Serverless Framework globally with:
$ npm install -g serverless
You'll also need to configure your environment with AWS credentials.
Note: if you need a refresher on how to install the Framework or get AWS credentials, check out the Prerequisites portion on the top of our Quick Start Guide.
Creating your service locally
For this quick demo, we'll deploy a Lambda function that uses the popular NumPy package.
We can create a service from a template. I'm going to use Python 3, but this works with Python 2 as well.
$ serverless create \ --template aws-python3 \ --name numpy-test \ --path numpy-test
This will create a Serverless Python 3 template project at the given path ( numpy-test/ ) with a service name of numpy-test. You'll need to change into that directory and create a virtual environment for developing locally.
(Note: further reading here about how and why to use virtual environments with Python.)
$ cd numpy-test $ virtualenv venv --python=python3 Running virtualenv with interpreter /usr/ local /bin/python3 Using base prefix '/usr/local/Cellar/python3/3.6.1/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6' New python executable in /Users/username/scratch/numpy-test/venv/bin/python3.6 Also creating executable in /Users/username/scratch/numpy-test/venv/bin/python Installing setuptools, pip, wheel...done. $ source venv/bin/activate (venv) $
Let's set up the function we want to deploy. Edit the contents of handler.py so that it contains the following:
import numpy as np def main (event, context) : a = np.arange( 15 ).reshape( 3, 5 ) print( "Your numpy array:" ) print(a) if __name__ == "__main__" : main( '', '' )
This is a super simple function using an example from the NumPy Quick Start. When working with Lambda, you'll need to define a function that accepts two arguments: event, and context. You can read more at AWS about the Lambda Function Handler for Python.
Notice the last two lines of the file, which give us a way to quickly test the function locally. If we run python handler.py, it will run our main() function. Let's give it a shot:
(venv) $ python handler.py Traceback (most recent call last): File "handler.py", line 1, in <module> import numpy as np ImportError: No module named numpy
Ah, we haven't installed numpy in our virtual environment yet. Let's do that now, and save the package versions of our environment to a requirements.txt file:
(venv) $ pip install numpy Collecting numpy Downloading numpy-1.13.1-cp36-cp36m-macosx_10_6_intel.macosx_10_9_intel.macosx_10_9_x86_64.macosx_10_10_intel.macosx_10_10_x86_64.whl (4.5MB) 100% |████████████████████████████████| 4.6MB 305kB/s Installing collected packages: numpy Successfully installed numpy-1.13.1 (venv) $ pip freeze > requirements.txt (venv) $ cat requirements.txt numpy==1.13.1
If we run our command locally now, we'll see the output we want:
(venv) $ python handler.py Your numpy array: [[ 0 1 2 3 4] [ 5 6 7 8 9] [10 11 12 13 14]]
Perfect.
Deploying your service
Our function is working locally, and it's ready for us to deploy to Lambda. Edit the serverless.yml file to look like the following:
service: numpy-test provider: name: aws runtime: python3.6 functions: numpy: handler: handler.main
This is a basic service called numpy-test. It will deploy a single Python 3.6 function named numpy to AWS, and the entry point for the numpy function is the main function in the handler.py module.
Our last step before deploying is to add the serverless-python-requirements plugin. Create a package.json file for saving your node dependencies. Accept the defaults, then install the plugin:
(venv) $ npm init This utility will walk you through creating a package.json file....Truncated... Is this ok? (yes) yes (venv) $ npm install --save serverless-python-requirements
To configure our serverless.yml file to use the plugin, we'll add the following lines in our serverless.yml :
plugins: - serverless-python-requirements custom: pythonRequirements: dockerizePip: non-linux
Note: a previous version of this post set dockerizePip: true instead of dockerizePip: non-linux. You'll need serverless-python-requirements v3.0.5 or higher for this option.
You need to have Docker installed to be able to set dockerizePip: true or dockerizePip: non-linux. Alternatively, you can set dockerizePip: false, and it will not use Docker packaging. But, Docker packaging is essential if you need to build native packages that are part of your dependencies like Psycopg2, NumPy, Pandas, etc.
The plugins section registers the plugin with the Framework. In the custom section, we tell the plugin to use Docker when installing packages with pip. It will use a Docker container that's similar to the Lambda environment so the compiled extensions will be compatible. You will need Docker installed for this to work.
The plugin works by hooking into the Framework on a deploy command. Before your package is zipped, it uses Docker to install the packages listed in your requirements.txt file and save them to a.requirements/ directory. It then symlinks the contents of.requirements/ into your top-level directory so that Python imports work as expected. After the deploy is finished, it cleans up the symlinks to keep your directory clean.
(venv) $ serverless deploy Serverless: Parsing Python requirements.txt Serverless: Installing required Python packages for runtime python3.6... Serverless: Docker Image: lambci/lambda:build-python3.6 Serverless: Linking required Python packages...... Truncated... Serverless: Stack update finished... Service Information service: numpy-test stage: dev region: us-east-1 api keys: None endpoints: None functions : numpy: numpy-test-dev-numpy
Great. Let's invoke our numpy function and read the logs:
(venv) $ serverless invoke -f numpy -- log -------------------------------------------------------------------- START RequestId: b32af7a8-52fb-4145-9e85-5985a0f64fe4 Version: $LATEST Your numpy array: [[ 0 1 2 3 4] [ 5 6 7 8 9] [10 11 12 13 14]] END RequestId: b32af7a8-52fb-4145-9e85-5985a0f64fe4 REPORT RequestId: b32af7a8-52fb-4145-9e85-5985a0f64fe4 Duration: 0.52 ms Billed Duration: 100 ms Memory Size: 1024 MB Max Memory Used: 37 MB
And there it is. You've got NumPy in your Lambda!
Be sure to check out the repo for additional functionality, including automatic compression of libraries before deploying, which can be a huge help with the larger numerical libraries in Python.The Android Market may still lag behind the iPhone App Store in terms of variety and quality, but there is something to be said for the Android operating system's extremely tight integration with existing Google products, and the wide choice of devices and carriers.
There's no question that the iPhone has many wonderful apps, but Android's smart syncing with existing tools, interesting Android-only experiments coming every day from Google employees, and its open marketplace model have yielded some tools that may give the average iPhone user pause.
If you're looking for a change, or you're in the smartphone market and still weighing the pros and cons, consider these Android-only apps and how they might fit into your work, play, and mobile lifestyle.
5 Free Android Apps That Will Make You Drop Your iPhone
More Android resources from Mashable:Find Offers the Most Complete Picture of Earth’s Low-Latitude Climate History to Date
Newswise — COLUMBUS, Ohio—Two annually dated ice cores drawn from the tropical Peruvian Andes reveal Earth’s tropical climate history in unprecedented detail—year by year, for nearly 1,800 years.
Researchers at The Ohio State University retrieved the cores from a Peruvian ice cap in 2003, and then noticed some startling similarities to other ice cores that they had retrieved from Tibet and the Himalayas. Patterns in the chemical composition of certain layers matched up, even though the cores were taken from opposite sides of the planet.
In the April 4, 2013 online edition of the journal Science Express, they describe the find, which they call the first annually resolved “Rosetta Stone” with which to compare other climate histories from Earth’s tropical and subtropical regions over the last two millennia.
The cores provide a new tool for researchers to study Earth’s past climate, and better understand the climate changes that are happening today.
“These ice cores provide the longest and highest-resolution tropical ice core record to date,” said Lonnie Thompson, distinguished university professor of earth sciences at Ohio State and lead author of the study.
“In fact, having drilled ice cores throughout the tropics for more than 30 years, we now know that this is the highest-resolution tropical ice core record that is likely to be retrieved.”
The new cores, drilled from Peru’s Quelccaya Ice Cap, are special because most of their 1,800-year history exists as clearly defined layers of light and dark: light from the accumulated snow of the wet season, and dark from the accumulated dust of the dry season.
They are also special because of where they formed, atop the high Andean altiplano in southern Peru. Most of the moisture in the area comes from the east, in snowstorms fueled by moist air rising from the Amazon Basin. But the ice core-derived climate records from the Andes are also impacted from the west—specifically by El Niño, a temporary change in climate, which is driven by sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific.
El Niño thus leaves its mark on the Quelccaya ice cap as a chemical signature (especially in oxygen isotopes) indicating sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean over much of the past 1,800 years.
“We have been able to derive a proxy for sea surface temperatures that reaches back long before humans were able to make such measurements, and long before humans began to affect Earth’s climate,” Thompson said.
Ellen Mosley-Thompson, distinguished university professor of geography at Ohio State and director of the Byrd Polar Research Center, explained that the 2003 expedition to Quelccaya was the culmination of 20 years of work.
The Thompsons have drilled ice cores from glaciers atop the most remote areas of the planet—the Chinese Himalayas, the Tibetan Plateau, Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Papua Indonesia among others—to gauge Earth’s past climate. Each new core has provided a piece of the puzzle, as the researchers measured the concentrations of key chemicals preserved in thousands of years of accumulated ice.
A 1983 trip to Quelccaya yielded cores that earned the research team their first series of papers in Science. The remoteness of the site and the technology available at the time limited the quality of samples they could obtain, however. The nearest road was a two-day walk from the ice cap, so they were forced to melt the cores in the field and carry samples back as bottles of water. This made some chemical measurements impossible, and diminished the time resolution available from the cores.
“Due to the remoteness of the ice cap, we had to develop new tools such as a light-weight drill powered by solar panels to collect the 1983 cores. However, we knew there was much more information the cores could provide” Mosley-Thompson said. “Now the ice cap is just a six-hour walk from a new access road where a freezer truck can be positioned to preserve the cores. So we can now make better dust measurements along with a suite of chemical analyses that we couldn’t make before.”
The cores will provide a permanent record for future use by climate scientists, Thompson added. This is very important, as plants captured by the advancing ice cap 6,000 years ago are now emerging along its retreating margins, which shows that Quelccaya is now smaller than it has been in six thousand years.
“The frozen history from this tropical ice cap—which is melting away as Earth continues to warm—is archived in freezers at -30ºC so that creative people will have access to it 20 years from now, using instruments and techniques that don’t even exist today,” he said.
Coauthors on the study include Mary Davis, Victor Zagorodnov, and Ping-Nan Lin of Byrd Polar Research Center; Ian Howat of the School of Earth Sciences at Ohio State; and Vladimir Mikhalenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation’s Paleoclimatology Program and Ohio State’s Climate, Water and Carbon Program.
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Editor’s note: Lonnie Thompson will be on travel from Saturday, March 30 until Thursday, April 4. During that time, he can be reached through Pam Frost Gorder. Two images of Quelccaya Ice Cap, one taken in 1977 and one in 2002, also available from Pam Frost Gorder.(Image: Matjaz Krivic/Getty Images)
Iran will spend half a billion dollars just in the first year in a bid to revive the once-enormous Lake Urmia, which has shrunk almost to nothing in the last two decades.
The money will mostly go to water management, reducing farmers’ water use, and restoring the local environment, says Naser Agh of Urmia University, who is a member of the steering committee of the Lake Urmia restoration programme.
In March, Iran’s Department of Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) issued a plan to save the lake and the nearby wetland.
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Now a recovery plan has been approved at a special meeting headed by Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani. “President Rouhani accepted the programmes and ordered immediate action plans,” says Agh. The budget approved for the first year is 14 trillion Iranian rials – over $500 million. That goes well beyond an earlier Iran-UNDP plan, which called for spending $225 million in the first year of a $1.3 billion restoration.
Draining away
Lake Urmia was one of the largest lakes in the Middle East, and is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. But in just 14 years it has almost vanished. Once covering 5000 square kilometres, by October last year it covered just 20 per cent of that. Its volume has shrunk nearly 95 per cent from its original 32 cubic kilometres.
The southern half of the lake has been left largely dry, and wildlife has suffered. Flamingos largely abandoned islands in the lake where they bred, and numbers of migratory ducks, shorebirds and gulls declined.
The problem is that Lake Urmia is highly vulnerable to water loss. Like the shrunken Aral Sea in central Asia, it is shallow and sits in a closed, semi-arid basin. Every year about 3 billion cubic metres of water evaporates from the lake.
Two factors have drained the lake, according to the Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project. First, a major drought began in 1998. At the same time, people have been using too much water. The number of wells pumping groundwater increased from a few thousand in 1973 to over 70,000 in 2005. There has also been lots of dam-building, so little water now flows into the lake.
It looks like that situation could now change.Bant Control 2-1
G1- Detention Sphere and Banishing Light destroyed my devotion and he got out Elspeth, Sun's Champion
G2- Stormbreath Dragon went monstrous early for a fast win.
G3- Detention Sphere s almost got me but Destructive Revelry destroyed them allowing me to play another Stormbreath Dragon and win.
R/U/G Combo 2-1
G1- Won without him casting any spells.
G2- Blast of Genius + Enter the Infinite hit me for just enough due to a Riddle of Lightning earlier.
G3- Burning Earth got him low enough to Fanatic of Mogis for the win.
Naya Monsters 2-1
G1- Stormbreath dragon got out early again and destroyed his life total.
G2- He managed to monstrous 2 [[Arbor Colossus and shut my field down.
G3- I got lucky and drew 2 Fanatic of Mogis hitting him for 13 total while he was at 12.
Azorius Cleanser 2-0
G1- I managed to win the land race and didn't see him play a single spell other than Divination.
G2- Nyx-Fleece Ram slowed me down but I drew Destructive Revelry and killed it, winning that turn.Not terribly long after launching the first bitcoin ATM in the United States, Robocoin today announced the launch of another bitcoin ATM in North America’s largest shopping mall on Thursday, February 26th.
The location is the highest-traffic venue in which a Robocoin ATM is installed, and it’s the West Edmonton Mall in Canada’s Alberta province. According to Robocoin, the machine will be at Entrance 50 near the Second Cup Coffee Shop. This 5.3 million square foot facility is visited by over 30 million people annually, and could be considered to be the size of a small city.
“We’re really excited about opening Robocoin in the largest mall in North America–our highest traffic venue to date,” said Robocoin CEO Jordan Kelley. “The high profile location perfectly supports Robocoin’s goal of bringing bitcoin to masses.”
The mall is home to over 800 retail stores, has 10 world-class attractions (which includes a water park), 100 dining locations, 2 hotels, and believe it or not, is accredited as a zoo.
The new location will be an opportunity for individuals not familiar with bitcoin to buy the digital currency with traditional fiat currency, and exchange it back to fiat with ease.
The first bitcoin ATM in the world was installed by Robocoin in a downtown Vancouver coffee shop. In the first month of service, the device did over $1 million in transactions.Japan’s population has fallen at the fastest rate last year since its survey started in 1968. As per government data released on Wednesday, the number decreased by 308,084 from the previous year to 125,583,658 as of January 1, 2017.
According to Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, this marked the eighth consecutive year of decline, despite the fact that measures have been taken to address the graying society.
The country’s “natural population loss,” which basically subtracts deaths from births, was 328,313. This resulted from the fact that there were only 981,202 births and a chilling 1,309,515 deaths for the year, the Japan Times reported.
The decline was recorded in 41 out of 47 prefectures. Among the six left with growth, Tokyo recorded the most at 77,400, an increase of 0.60% from the previous year. Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba, Aichi and Okinawa prefectures followed. Only Okinawa recorded more births than deaths.
With a loss of 33,593, Hokkaido saw the largest decrease in population, while Akita had the fastest drop at 1.34%.
In terms of age, people 65 and above made up a whopping 27.17% of the population, while those 14 and below made up 12.69%, following a trend of decline.
Interestingly, the number of foreigners increased to 2,323,428, 6.85% up the previous year. Saga Prefecture recorded the fastest increase at 13.21%, equivalent to 5,143 people, as it accepted more international students and offered more training on technical skills for foreigners.
Most registered foreigners, at 486,346, were in Tokyo — an increase of 8.31% from the previous year. Aichi and Osaka Prefectures followed with 217,218 (up 7.69%) and 215,057 (up 3.72%), respectively.
Still, Japan’s overall population — counting both Japanese and foreigners — fell by 159,125 from the previous year to 127,907,086.
Masakazu Yamauchi, associate professor of population geography at Waseda University, commented (via The Mainichi):
“The latest announcement shows a continuation of the current trend and is therefore no big surprise. In order to create and maintain a better society for the next generation, we should place importance on developing an environment that allows people to have families and make their living wherever they live, by improving employment situations and child-rearing support.”
How do you think can Japan solve its demographic issues?
Feature Image via Flickr / Mr Hicks46 (CC BY-SA 2.0)When the prepared statements were finished and the floor was opened for questions, the first reporter in line wanted to question Bill Morneau, about not just the government's tax changes, but also whether the finance minister's personal wealth was being ethically managed.
But Justin Trudeau, standing at the lectern, declined to give way and let his minister respond.
"I'll take them," the prime minister said of the questions.
Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, one of Morneau's most enthusiastic tormentors, seized the moment.
"Trudeau bans Morneau from answering questions at today's Finance press conference," he tweeted. "Good move."
And so this kerfuffle has gone.
What was supposedly a specific matter about tax policy has led opposition MPs and press gallery reporters to a series of questions about the finance minister and his own financial situation: about the tax treatment of the company he used to lead, about whether that company stands to benefit from his proposed changes, about whether he properly disclosed his ownership of a villa in France and about how his personal finances have been managed since he became a minister of the Crown.
Perhaps — while the Liberals loudly touted a tax cut for small business on Monday, details of the new proposals were scant — they have landed on a set of policies that can be safely implemented.
But they still might wonder whether their finance minister, and thus the government, has suffered lasting damage.
Despite not being in Question Period himself, Finance Minister Bill Morneau's villa in France was the topic de jour. 1:18
Pasta and politics
It was to a family-owned Italian eatery — that great barometer of public policy and ethics — that Morneau and Trudeau went on Monday, sitting down with the proprietors over plates of bread, meats and cheeses, and making awkward small talk about entrepreneurship while the cameras recorded the heartening scene.
Morneau asked what was the best recipe on the menu. One of his hosts suggested all the pasta dishes were quite good, but another voice at the table seemed to single out the pasta alla vodka.
A while later, the finance minister and prime minister proceeded to the formal portion of the announcement. Above them was a banner reading, "Support For Small Business." On a sign affixed to the lectern were the same words. And on an easel to the right was perched a placard touting, "Cutting Taxes For Small Business."
Paeans to the small-business owner were then offered by a local Liberal MP, the prime minister and the minister of state for small business.
This is perhaps not exactly what Bill Morneau had in mind when he decided he wanted to serve his country.
But this is the sort of thing one does when one wants to start burying three months of fuss and fury about one's proposed tax reforms.
MPs - Joel Lightbound (Liberal), Pierre Poilievre (Conservative), and Nathan Cullen (NDP) discuss 10:04
'I listened intently'
"As you know, I spent the last few weeks travelling the country, listening to people," Morneau said on Monday. "And I listened intently. Because it really matters. It matters to me and it matters to the country that we get things right."
So, in a way, the system worked. The government put forward a set of proposals and asked for feedback. In response, people yelled at the finance minister. And, in response to that yelling, the government is going to adjust.
But, in various other ways, things seemed to go poorly. For one, there was a lot of yelling. For another, a Liberal backbencher decided he was better off voting with the opposition on a motion that criticized the government's approach.
If the new proposals are implemented without inflicting widespread hardship, this might still be a distant memory by the 2019 election. One day, over a plate of pasta alla vodka, Bill Morneau might look back at this and laugh.
But the government's critics are now primed to jump on any hint of an untoward tax change. Reacting to the government's announcement on Monday, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer warned darkly of tax increases that might yet be sprung sometime after 2019 if the Liberals are allowed to continue governing.
Meanwhile, Morneau is being framed as a man of privilege. And even if none of the recent questions about his financial situation ever amount to a finding of significant wrongdoing, his critics will be only too happy to reference his villa in France whenever they want to suggest he is not in touch with the realities of the common man.
Minister of Small Business and Tourism Bardish Chagger sits down with Chris Hall to discuss 9:17
Measuring Morneau
When Morneau was introduced as a member of Trudeau's team in February 2014, he and his resume were said to bolster Trudeau's credibility.
Monday felt like Trudeau, the more effusive communicator, carrying Morneau's policy.
The process of getting to that policy — starting with a set of proposals that invited dire predictions — was at least clumsy. And a cabinet minister is entitled to initiate only so many kerfuffles
Disliking politics?
Amid the chiding and accusations, columnists have also speculated about whether Morneau might dislike politics enough to walk away at the next election.
The finance minister has succeeded at negotiating with the provinces, but he is not naturally at ease in the public arena. He seems friendly, but wooden. It is hard to imagine him ever raising his voice. Like many members of this cabinet (including the prime minister), he prefers to speak generally about principles and values, rather than fight over specifics.
But, from start to finish, this fight was taken to the government.
On Monday, Morneau grasped at a higher measure.
"It's important right now to have a little reminder," he ventured. "The plan that we've put in place for Canadians, it's working. … Over the last year, we've had the highest growth that we've seen in a decade."
As a man who has had a life outside politics, Morneau probably knows it's too simple to credit a finance minister with the performance of the national economy (as much as his predecessors have tried and as much as they were judged by same).
But he now might be that much more vulnerable if he's ever unable to brag about the last GDP numbers.If you criticize feminism, feminists will label you as sexist and use unethical tactics to prevent your opinion from being heard.
This mentality is not unique to North Dakota State; in fact, it is the defining characteristic of feminism at academic institutions all over the world.
Feminists have a warped sense of ethics that leads them to believe their actions are justified.
They believe the world is ruled by the patriarchy, which is a series of social systems that benefits men at the expense of women. To feminists, the patriarchy represents the source of all evil in the world, and by fighting the patriarchy they are essentially working to create a utopia.
Once this is established as the unquestionable truth, which it is to the majority of feminists, all tactics become justified when it comes to silencing opposition.
Feminists do not see themselves as violating freedom of speech. Instead they think they are silencing “hate speech,” which in turn facilitates free speech by creating a “safe space” where people can discuss ideas free from criticism.
This kind of doublespeak sounds like it is pulled directly from George Orwell’s “1984.”
Here are six examples where feminists have displayed this mentality at various academic institutions in response to speakers who have dared to criticize feminism throughout their careers:
1.) Approximately 100 protesters disrupted a lecture given by Warren Farrell at the University of Toronto in 2012. Protesters attempted to prevent people from hearing his lecture by blockading the door to the event, in addition to harassing people simply for going to the lecture.
A video of the protest, posted on YouTube, shows that the protesters considered the act of listening to Farrell to be a form of sexism. They even considered the police to be at fault simply for providing security to this event.
2.) Milo Yiannopoulos’ 2016 lecture at Rutger’s University was interrupted by protester’s who shouted, “This man represents hatred!” They then proceeded to smear their faces with fake blood and leave the lecture while shouting and giving everybody the middle finger.
3.) Feminists set up a safe space which traumatized students could retreat to in the event that they were triggered by Christina Hoff Sommers’ 2015 lecture at Oberlin College. The safe space was guarded by gatekeepers to prevent “toxic” people from entering it.
In addition to being disruptive, some protesters sat in the front row with duct tape over their mouths. They also hung up signs accusing Sommers of condoning rape.
4.) Janice Fiamengo’s 2014 lecture at the University of Ottawa was repeatedly interrupted by protesters who yelled and blew horns. After failing to quell the protesters, the event organizers called security and moved the talk to a different room. The protesters then pulled the fire alarm, effectively stopping the presentation.
5.) A joint lecture given by Yiannopoulos and Sommers at the University of Minnesota in 2016 was interrupted by three separate sets of protesters who yelled and blew horns.
6.) The University of Manchester’s Student Union barred Yiannopoulos and Julie Bindel from speaking at their university in 2015 on the grounds that it would violate their safe space policy.
Keep in mind that these are only a handful of numerous examples where feminists have unethically silenced opposition.
Not only is this behavior disgusting, but it is antithetical to academic values. Feminism is ruining academia, and people need to start standing up to it.Samsung runs promotions on its phones pretty often. For the Galaxy S8 alone, we've already seen quite a few - a free Gear VR / an optional $99 bundle for pre-orders, a free "Entertainment Kit," and currently, a free $200 Visa card. However, while customers were recently guaranteed a $200 discount on the S8 in exchange for almost any phone in good condition that they sent Samsung's way as a trade-in, the company is having a hard time delivering on its promises to some.
The original offer was simple: you'd purchase an unlocked, AT&T, US Cellular, or Verizon Galaxy S8 or S8+ between June 2nd and June 25th with the $200 discount, and after trading in any device in "good condition" within 15 days of receiving your S8, Samsung would send you a confirmation email. If your trade-in didn't qualify, you'd be charged $175 (all trade-ins are worth at least $25, regardless of condition) from your original payment method, and it would not be returned to you, as "by shipping the device to Samsung, you agree to transfer title and ownership of the device to Samsung. You disclaim any and all right, title or interest in and to the Trade-In Device, including the right to sell, dispose, or otherwise collect, where applicable, the its value."
"Good condition" meant that your phone would turn on and hold a charge, have a working display, have no cracks or breaks, not be on a blacklist, have no water damage, etc. That $200 number would increase to $300 for a Galaxy S7 or Note5, and $350 for an S7 edge. You also had the option to purchase the new Gear 360 for just $49. Pretty straightforward, I think. Personally, I was genuinely enticed by the offer, despite already owning a T-Mobile S8+.
Naturally, people began digging around for ultra-cheap phones that were eligible so that they could get $200 off the rather expensive Galaxy S8 phones at nearly no cost. Given the promotion's relatively loose constraints, many simply purchased a cheap prepaid phone from stores like Target or Walmart and called it a day. For instance, the Slickdeals thread suggested the $9.99 Alcatel OneTouch Pixi Eclipse from Walmart, which is of course now sold out. Others just grabbed an old phone out of their drawer.
A couple of days ago, customers began to receive emails from Samsung. While most people were greeted with a confirmation of their successful trade-in, others weren't so lucky. Here's what Slickdeals user dchay found in his inbox after trading in an unnamed new prepaid Alcatel phone (likely the $10 Pixi Eclipse):
"Dear Don, Your original method of payment will be charged $175. The Trade-In phone we received did not meet one or more of the eligibility criteria and you will be charged for the Trade-In Value you have already received through our Program. All charges will be applied to your most recent method of payment on file. Samsung will not be able to return your Trade-In device back to you. Click to see the Terms and Conditions of the Samsung Trade-In Program. You will receive a separate email confirmation of this charge The following condition |
and out very quickly delivering whatever that load is whether its food, munitions, tents, or vehicles," explains Bolton, a former helicopter navigator with experience of flying external loads during the Bosnia conflict.
The other option is to load the equipment or supplies internally, which can take several minutes to unload, thus increasing the possibility of a helicopter being hit by enemy fire.
Just how dangerous it could be was shown in August 2009 when a RAF Chinook was hit by a rocket propelled grenade in Afghanistan shortly after dropping off cargo. The RPG caused the helicopter to crash land but luckily, the crew escaped alive.
Preparing and testing equipment for external loading
Ground crews are responsible for preparing a load on the ground which then attaches via a strop – a fabric strap – to the helicopter. Loads such as artillery pieces, vehicles and other helicopters can be lifted with ‘leg slings’ by attaching them to hard points on the equipment. Loose items like rations, ammunition and soldiers’ backpacks can be placed inside a cargo net and transported with relative ease.
"The RAF currently uses both the Chinook and Merlin helicopters extensively for underslung missions both at home and abroad."
It is the responsibility of the JADTEU and Sqn Ldr Bolton to develop the most effective way to safely carry these loads and in what configuration. For new equipment to be cleared for underslung operations in the British armed forces, JADTEU will liaise with manufacturers and advise them how best their product can be lifted. Every piece of equipment has to go through strict ground-based testing before any flight.
Sqd Ldr Bolton explains: "We do an engineering airworthiness assessment of the load to make sure it is in accordance with military standards and also to make sure that it is fit to fly. It has not got anything that is going to fall off. All the doors should have second locking devices on them and we make sure there is nothing on the exterior where the air flow can get underneath and, as the aircraft is flying through the air, we don’t get any loads peeling back and becoming detached."
"Then if we are happy with that from a static assessment on the ground we bring it in and carry out a static trial. We’ve got a gantry in our unit where we use instrumented sling sets, the same spec as you get on an aircraft but we have strain gauges and load cells on them. We then hang this load underneath a gantry to make sure we don’t exceed any of the load limits on any of the sling legs."
Bolton says his unit will produce a draft scheme after the static trial. "We then go fly the load and come up with the flying characteristics, including the maximum speed, angle of bank, rates of climb and rates of descent that load can achieve. Then we produce that in a full schematic diagram with text and publish it in a Digital Air Publication which all the squadrons have access to."
Unstable loads and going unmanned
"Loose items like rations, ammunition and soldiers’ backpacks can be placed inside a cargo net and transported with relative ease."
Different load configurations mean different flight characteristics for the pilots. When loads are attached via just one hook on the underbelly of the aircraft, the loads can become unstable at higher airspeeds, causing it to spin on its vertical axis, causing an uncomfortable swinging motion. On top of this, equipment such as aircraft and boats can even generate their own lift, making them particular unstable in flight.
Thanks to JADTEU and their stringent testing, pilots rarely have any nasty surprises when flying external loads. In fact, recovering aircraft and moving loads has become fairly routine for the helicopter section at Brize Norton and is ‘actually quite straightforward’, says Bolton.
This was put to the test in October when a Royal Navy helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in the Scottish Highlands and the only way it could be retrieved was by helicopter. Those lucky enough to be in Glencoe would have looked skywards to see a navy-grey Sea King helicopter dangling from a RAF Chinook. The lift went as planned and the Sea King will eventually fly again.
In April this year, Bolton’s team even helped move a Gloster Meteor – the RAF’s first ever jet aircraft – to a museum in Gloucestershire, UK, by lifting it with a Chinook.
Gazing into the crystal ball, it is even possible to see a time in the future where technology will remove the need for humans to be involved in underslung operations. Unmanned helicopters such as the Kaman K-MAX and Lockheed Martin’s MQ-8C are specifically designed to carry out external load missions. The K-MAX is even fully autonomous, meaning it does not require human interaction, apart from starting up.
The K-MAX carries out around five or six missions a day to forward operating bases in Afghanistan and represents the future tactical direction of underslung load operations. But for the foreseeable future, these types of operations will still require highly-trained crew using old workhorses like the Chinook.
Related content
As the backbone for militaries across the world, the standard design for helicopters has not changed significantly for more than 50 years.
It is 60 years since the first-ever surface-to-air missile system was deployed by the US Army.MONROE, Wash. -- A chocolate lab that ran from the scene of a car crash Sunday night showed up hours later at a pet store a mile away.
The dog, Zaley, had been missing since a head-on collision around 7:30 p.m. on State Route 522.
The Washington State Patrol said a teenager driving a Hyundai Sonata was heading east and exiting to SR 2 when she crossed the centerline of the exit and hit a westbound Subaru Impreza.
The crash hurt three people in the Impreza. A 15-month-old baby was in a car seat and wasn’t hurt. The driver of the Sonata suffered serious injuries.
Zaley, who was in the Subaru, vanished from the scene, but Breanna Findley, who was going to open a store nearby, saw him at the pet store doorstep around 5:30 a.m.
“From 522 a mile away, from all of the stores, to come to a pet store,” Findley said out of amazement after finding Zaley at the store’s doorstep. “I was amazed and shocked. He was a smart boy. He came to a smart place.”
Findley found Zaley by the Pet Pros in Monroe, which was closed at that hour. Zaley was soaking wet and shivering.
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Findley’s co-worker, Amber McGar, showed up minutes later and happened to have dog treats her in glove box because she’s a dog owner herself.
“He started warming up after we brought the cookies,” McGar said. “I couldn’t imagine how scared he was. That had to be traumatizing.”
Through the Lost Dogs of Snohomish County Facebook group and Zaley's tag, the two were able to find his owner.
“She told me she honestly thought she was never going to see him again,” Findley said. “As soon as the cops showed up, we had to bribe him with some hot dogs, but he got up. He walked over to the car, saw it was a car and the door was open and he jumped in on his own. We didn’t have to help him.”
Zaley rode off in that police cruiser and later reunited with his owner. On Monday, she told KING 5 she was having him checked out to make sure he’s okay.
Copyright 2016 KINGEarlier tonight I added support for the Mint Bird Feeder plugin to my site’s RSS feeds. Bird Feeder isn’t designed to work with Django so I had to change a few things to get it up and running. I mostly followed the instructions on Hicks-Wright.net with a few tweaks.
While I was trying to get things running smoothly I had to redeploy the site a bunch of times so I could test the changes I made. If I were simply FTP’ing the files over each time I wanted to redeploy it would have been a huge pain. Fortunately, I have another way to do it that cuts down on my typing.
My Basic Deployment Steps
The code for my site is stored in a Mercurial repository. There are actually three copies of the repository that I use:
One is on my local machine, which I commit to as I make changes.
One is on BitBucket, which I use to share the code with the public.
One is on my host’s webserver, and is what actually gets served as the website.
When I’m ready to deploy a new version of the site, I push the changes I’ve made on my local repository to the one on BitBucket, then pull the changes from BitBucket down to the server. Using push/pull means I don’t have to worry about transferring the files myself. Using BitBucket in the middle (instead of going right from my local machine to the server) means I don’t have to worry about serving either repository myself and dealing with port forwarding or security issues.
Putting BitBucket in the Middle
Using BitBucket as an intermediate repository is actually fairly simple. Here are the basic steps I use to get a project up and running like this.
First, create a new repository on BitBucket. Make sure the name is what you want. Feel free to make it private if you just want it for this, or public if you want to go open source.
Set Up Your Local Machine
Clone this new, empty repository to your local machine. If you already have code written you’ll need to copy it into this folder after cloning. I don’t know if there’s a way to push a brand-new repository to BitBucket; if you know how please tell me.
On your local machine, edit the.hg/hgrc file in the repository and change the default path to:
default = ssh://hg@bitbucket.org/username/repositoryname/
That will let you push/pull to and from BitBucket over SSH. Doing it that way means you can use public/private key authentication and avoid typing your password every single time. A fairly comprehensive guide to that can be found here. You can ignore the server-side configuration; you just need to add your public key on BitBucket’s account settings page and you should be set.
UPDATE: I didn’t realize it before, but BitBucket has a guide to using SSH with BitBucket. It’s definitely worth looking at.
Now you should be able to use hg push and hg pull on your local machine to push and pull changes to and from the BitBucket repository. The next step is getting it set up on the server side.
Set Up Your Server
On your server, use hg clone to clone the BitBucket repository to wherever you want to serve it from. Edit the.hg/hgrc file in that one and change the default path to the same value as before:
default = ssh://hg@bitbucket.org/username/repositoryname/
Once again, set up public/private key authentication; this time between the server and BitBucket. You can either copy your public and private keys from your local machine to the server (if you trust/own it) or you can create a new pair and add its public key to your BitBucket account as well.
While you’re at it, set up public/private key authentication to go from your local machine to your server too. It’ll pay off in the long run.
Now that you’ve got both sides working, you can develop and deploy like so:
Make changes on your local machine, committing as you go.
Push the changes to BitBucket.
SSH into your server and pull the changes down.
Restart the web server process if necessary.
Not too bad! Instead of manually managing file transfers you can let Mercurial do it for you. It’ll only pull down the files that have changed, and will always put them in exactly the right spot. That’s pretty convenient, but we can do better.
Weaving it All Together with Fabric
Being able to push and pull is all well and good, but that’s still a lot of typing. You need to enter a command to push your changes, a command to SSH to the server, a command to change to the deploy directory, a command to pull the changes, and a command to restart the server process. That’s five commands, which is four commands too many for me.
To automate the process, I use the wonderful Fabric tool. If you haven’t seen it before you should take a look. To follow along with the rest of the section you should read the examples on the site and install Fabric on your local machine.
My Current Setup
Here’s the fabfile I use for deploying my site to my host (WebFaction). It’s pretty specific to my needs but I’m sure it will give you an idea of where to start.
def prod (): """Set the target to production.""" set ( fab_hosts = ['sjl.webfactional.com' ]) set ( fab_key_filename = '/Users/sjl/.ssh/stevelosh' ) set ( remote_app_dir = '~/webapps/stevelosh/stevelosh' ) set ( remote_apache_dir = '~/webapps/stevelosh/apache2' ) def deploy (): """Deploy the site.""" require ( 'fab_hosts', provided_by = [ prod,]) local ( "hg push" ) run ( "cd $(remote_app_dir); hg pull; hg update" ) run ( "cd $(remote_app_dir); python2.5 manage.py syncdb" ) run ( "$(remote_apache_dir)/bin/stop; sleep 1; $(remote_apache_dir)/bin/start" ) def debugon (): """Turn debug mode on for the production server.""" require ( 'fab_hosts', provided_by = [ prod,]) run ( "cd $(remote_app_dir); sed -i -e's/DEBUG =.*/DEBUG = True/' deploy.py" ) run ( "$(remote_apache_dir)/bin/stop; sleep 1; $(remote_apache_dir)/bin/start" ) def debugoff (): """Turn debug mode off for the production server.""" require ( 'fab_hosts', provided_by = [ prod,]) run ( "cd $(remote_app_dir); sed -i -e's/DEBUG =.*/DEBUG = False/' deploy.py" ) run ( "$(remote_apache_dir)/bin/stop; sleep 1; $(remote_apache_dir)/bin/start" )
When I’m finished committing to my local repository and I want to deploy the site, I just use the command fab prod deploy on my local machine. Fabric pushes my local repository to BitBucket, logs into the server (with my public key—no typing in passwords), pulls down the new changes from BitBucket and restarts the server process.
I also set up a couple of debug commands so I can type fab prod debugon and fab prod debugoff to change the settings.DEBUG option of my Django app. Sometimes it’s useful to turn on debug to find out exactly why a page is breaking on the server.
Extending It
The reason I split off the prod command is so I can set up a separate test app (on the server) in the future and reuse the deploy and debug commands. All I’d need to do is add a test command, which might look something like this:
def test (): """Set the target to test.""" set ( fab_hosts = ['sjl.webfactional.com' ]) set ( fab_key_filename = '/Users/sjl/.ssh/stevelosh' ) set ( remote_app_dir = '~/webapps/stevelosh-test/stevelosh' ) set ( remote_apache_dir = '~/webapps/stevelosh-test/apache2' )
Deploying the test site would then be a simple fab test deploy command.
Why Should You Try This?
After you’ve gotten all of this set up the first time it will start saving you time every time you deploy. It also prevents stupid mistakes like FTP’ing your files to the wrong directory on the server. It frees you from those headaches and lets you concentrate on the real work to be done instead of the busywork. Plus setting it up again for a second project is a breeze after you’ve done it once.
Obviously the exact details of this won’t be a perfect fit for everyone. Maybe you prefer using git and GitHub for version control. I’m sure there’s a similar way to automate the process on that side of the fence. If you decide to write something about the details of that please let me know and I’ll link it here.
My hope is that this will at least give you some ideas about saving yourself some time. If that helps you create better websites, I’ll be happy. Please feel free to find me on Twitter with any questions or thoughts you have!
It’s been over a year since I originally wrote this entry and I’ve learned quite a bit since then. I don’t have the time right now to go back and rewrite the entire article, but here are some of the main things that have changed:
I now use virtualenv and pip when deploying Django sites. It sandboxes each site very nicely and makes it easy to deploy.
I no longer go “through” BitBucket when deploying — I push directly from my local machine to the server. This eliminates an extra step, and I can always push to BitBucket once I’m done with a series of changes.
Fabric is completely different. “Ownership/maintenance” of the project has transferred to a new person and the format of fabfiles has drastically changed.
Here’s a sample fabfile from one of the projects I’m working on now. There are no comments, but I think most things should be self-explanitory. If you have any questions just find me on Twitter and I’ll be glad to answer them.How do you impress a hot model girlfriend? A flashy car like a Lamborghini would do the trick. How to not impress her? Smash that same car then blame it on her.
Such is the case of a Taiwanese man only identified as Ding, who in an attempt to impress his 18-year-old girlfriend, rented a nice, yellow Lamborghini Gallardo last week. Two days later, the same car would be seen smashed in the Sanchong area in New Taipei City. The front part of the Lamborghini was reportedly destroyed beyond repair due to an accident.
Local news agencies reported that his girlfriend, who is reportedly a model, was excitedly posting pictures featuring the flashy vehicle and the couple on social media. After the crash however, Ding told the police that the driver was actually not him but his girlfriend. The investigation however revealed that the car was actually a rental and it was in fact Ding who was driving.
The model then denied to the authorities that they were even a couple. She also immediately deleted all their photos from social media. There were no reported injuries aside from Ding’s apparent broken heart. According to police reports, Ding rented the Lamborghini for over $1,500 a day and must now pay over $200,000 in damages.
Aside from lying about the car, Ding also reportedly claimed that he is a rich businessman who runs an international trade company in China. His friends revealed later that Ding actually works in a local milk tea shop in Taiwan.As automakers develop autonomous vehicles, it’s not the finish date that’s important — it’s when the technology is ready for the road, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) Executive Chairman Bill Ford said Tuesday.
“Every single piece” of the automotive business is changing, Ford said in remarks to the Detroit Economic Club, including the ownership model; propulsion, from internal combustion to electric; and the integration of 3-D printing, artificial intelligence and autonomous systems in vehicles.
“I also don’t think in many of these cases it’s who’s first to market. It’s who’s most thoughtful to market that I believe will win,” Ford, 60, said at the luncheon at Ford Field, the Detroit Lions’ home turf.
The Blue Oval is “well-positioned” in its investments across the technology spectrum, Ford said.
He singled out artificial intelligence as a technology with “the capability of either transforming things in an incredibly positive way or not.”
In propulsion, Ford told outgoing Detroit Economic Club CEO Beth Chappell that his company is focusing on electric vehicles.
“Right now — and I think it’s the right bet — most of us are betting hard on electrification.”
Detroit And Silicon Valley: ‘Frenemies’
Ford said he didn’t want to make negative comments about electric car manufacturer Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA), a 14-year-old company with a market cap of $55.14 billion, to 114-year-old Ford's $48.72 billion.
“They’ve done a really nice job. My hat’s off to them,” he said. The executive chairman added “you’re seeing them maybe struggle a little bit” with the “blocking and tackling” work of the auto business.
When Chappell asked Ford about the Motor City’s relationship to Silicon Valley, he said, “The term out there is frenemies.”
Ford must be “facile and nimble enough” to work with both legacy companies and startups, the executive chairman said.
“I do think this notion of friends and competitors — that’s just the world we live in and we’d better get used to it.”
‘A Lack Of Clarity’ In Automaker Valuations
After Ford left the stage, he told Benzinga his thinking on the relationship between automakers’ stock valuations and their autonomous vehicle development.
“I think there’s perhaps a lack of clarity, because on the one hand you have a group of auto analysts that look at the traditional side of the business. They will say ‘you’ve had a good run for a number of years now, and we don’t see a lot of upside from here,’” Ford said.
“Then you’ve got another group saying, ‘well, there’s going to be winners and losers in this new tech era and we’re not exactly sure where to place the bets yet.’
“Once there starts to be convergence of the two and also a little bit greater clarity, I think you’ll start to see the valuations change.”
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A New Bull Case For Ford Sees More Than 100% Upside
Image Credit: Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford addresses the Detroit Economic Club Tuesday, Oct. 31 at Ford Field. Photo by Dustin Blitchok.From taco pizza to Korean-Mexican street food, cooking that crosses cultures can be as delicious as it is initially confounding. What seems culturally perplexing can snap into focus with one delicious taste—which appears to be the case with Filipino-Indian samosas.
What’s that, you ask? It’s an invention borne of our latest episode of Served.
“I’ve challenged Chef K to take her Filipino essence and infuse it into my Indian brilliance,” says actor Utkarsh Ambudkar, who has appeared in the film Pitch Perfect and television’s The Mindy Project. The problem is, the Indian American actor freely admits that while he’s an expert at eating Indian food, he doesn’t know how to cook it.
Growing up in the Ambudkar home, “the ladies were in the kitchen” making dinner, and the men played cards; everyone gossiped. As such, he says, the only thing he knows how to cook is popcorn.
That’s where the culinary know-how of Chef K—Khristianne Uy, a Filipino American who won the first season of the cooking-competition show The Taste—comes in. With her deep understanding of both eating and cooking the cuisine of the Philippines and years of experience as a private chef and caterer, Chef K is able to put this kitchen mash-up in order. She ties the pair’s culinary traditions with mango—a fruit found in both South Asian and Southeast Asian cooking—using it to lend a sweet touch to the samosa filling.
Ambudkar says that “when and if I ever make Indian food again, I can infuse some of these things” learned from Chef K into his own culinary practice. So keep an eye out for that Filip-Indian food truck sometime soon.
Chef K’s Filip-Indian Samosas
Makes 30 samosas
Ingredients
For the sweet-and-sour tomato chutney:
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon ginger, grated
Salt
For the mint-cilantro sauce:
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 cup mint leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon ginger, grated
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sambal (chile paste)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
For the samosas:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound ground chicken
1 small onion, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
1 small jicama, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 tablespoon brown mustard seeds
1 mango, peeled and diced
1 to 2 tablespoon sambal
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
Salt
12 ounces tomato puree
30 large wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten
2 quarts canola oil, for frying
Directions
Make the sweet-and-sour tomato chutney: Combine all the ingredients in a small pot and simmer, uncovered, until the tomatoes have broken down and the sauce has slightly reduced, about 10 to 15 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, and puree until smooth.
Make the mint-cilantro sauce: Stir together all the ingredients except for the olive oil in a small bowl. Whisk in the oil in a steady stream, and check the seasoning, adding salt to taste.
Make the samosas: Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan over medium heat, and cook the chicken, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 5 minutes. Reserve the chicken. Add the onion, carrot, and jicama to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 10 minutes. Mix in the curry powder, mustard seeds, sambal, mango, and soy sauce, stirring to scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Continue cooking, stirring regularly, until the spices are fragrant, about 8 minutes. Check the seasoning, adding more salt if necessary. Return the chicken to the pan along with the tomato puree, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat, pour out onto a sheet tray, and place in the refrigerator to cool.
Lay each egg roll wrapper out on the work surface, and place 3 tablespoons of cooled filling in the middle. Using a pastry brush or your finger, brush the border of the wrapper with beaten egg. Fold the wrapper over to form a triangle, pinching the edges to make a seal. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and filling.
Preheat oil to 350 F. Fry until golden brown (2–3 minutes), flipping over once. Remove and drain on paper towels. Serve with prepared dipping sauces.29 ridiculous tips for keeping warm in winter (from Bear Grylls, nature and the internet)
It's cold and if you're doing it right, so is your student house. Here are some of the stupidest suggestions for staying warm we've found from nature, Bear Grylls and the internet...
1) Put tin foil behind the radiator
The BBC recommend you put tin foil behind your radiator. This will stop your walls from absorbing the heat, reflecting it back out at the room.
However it'll make your house will look like a crack den. Whilst you're at it, why don't you warm your hands by heating heroin in a spoon with a lighter.*
2) Start greeting people with hugs instead of waves.
Refuse to let go. It'll be warm in prison.
3) Smear yourself in goose fat
Swimmers, geese and David Walliams slather themselves in goose fat to keep warm. Why are you not doing this before you go out? You are losing vital body heat.
4) Ask a housemate to spoon you to sleep at night
Ask your housemates to measure their body temperatures, choose the warmest and ask them to spoon you to sleep at night. When that one says no, ask the second warmest (and so on) until you get your 'yes'.
5) Hibernate
Some animals evolved to sleep right through the cold. The alpine marmot (Marmota marmota) sleeps through eight months of the year. In the four months they're awake, the animals scurry to mate and gorge on food to build fat reserves for the long winter's nap.
A breeding / sleeping / eating frenzy sound familiar? That's right, it was first term at uni. With that out of the way, feel free to nap your way to spring.
6) Go somewhere warm and catch the warm air in a bag
Go to heated buildings and catch the warm air in a bag or a thermos. Seal the device, take it home and release it when you need a burst of warm air.
7) Google "hot water bottle for your face". See if that's a thing.
Is it a thing? Well good. Get one of those for your face and be warm.
8) Live like a penguin
Emperor penguins use a huddle formation to stay warm. Why aren't you and your housemates doing this? Are you dumber than a penguin?
Are you dumber than this penguin??
9) Stand ever so slightly too close to people.
Leech off their body heat and look like a serial killer.
10) Sleep around
Free body warmth. Free sense of shame.*
11) Use a sheep as a sleeping bag
No man has ever looked this proud whilst inside a sheep.
12) Be a lizard
"To avoid being stabbed from the inside out, some frogs and lizards increase the amount of glucose, a type of sugar, and glycerol, a sugary alcohol, in their blood. Glucose and glycerol in the blood can help prevent the formation of ice crystals. The European common lizard (Lacerta vivipara) went a step further and developed specialized mitochondria, the energy producing part of the cell, according to a study in the Journal of Experimental Biology. These mitochondria help the lizard continue producing energy without creating harmful byproducts even when half of the lizard's body water freezes." - Discovery News
Do this.
13) Cocoon yourself in your duvet from now till March.
Then emerge like a sweaty moth.
14) Steal radiators
Students have been known to steal toilet paper from public toilets. Have you thought about stealing radiators?
15) Use anti-freeze instead of blood
Icefish survive in water colder than -2 Degrees Celsius. These Antarctic cod evolved antifreeze proteins flowing in their blood and bodily tissues that stop them from freezing.
Why not try evolving? If that doesn’t work, it's time to start injecting anti-freeze like you're Pete Docherty visiting the Arctic.*
16) Flex for a friend
Burmese Pythons (Python Bivittatus) flex their muscles near their eggs, to give off heat and keep the eggs warm.
Take off your top, hold a friend in close and make your pecks dance near their face, to keep their chin warm.
17) Freestyle dance instead of sitting
Whilst you're sitting down you feel a lot colder than when you're freestyle dancing. Freestyle dance instead of sitting.
18) Sneak a bath
Japanese Macaques (Macaca Fuscata) stay warm in the winter by sneaking into man-made hot springs. Why not sneak into a friend or neighbour’s bath? What, you think you're better than these monkeys??
The Macaques pass this on from generation to generation. Be generous. Try teaching a fresher.
19) Lure a herd of stray cats back to your place
Train them to sleep on your feet.
20) Lure a herd of stray cats back to your place and sacrifice them
Sacrifice them to the sun god Ra.*
21) Copy the whales
Whales use a layer of blubber to keep warm in the icy depth of the polar oceans. Blubber insulates the whales and traps their heat energy from escaping into the cold waters, like a scuba diver wearing a wet suit. Without the blubber, the whales would burn too many calories just trying to stay warm.
The cold-busting benefits of blubber can be modelled at home. First, fill a plastic bag with lard. This will mimic the effect of body fat. Then insert another bag and tape the tops of the two bags together so the fatty substance can't escape. Then, put a hand in the blubber glove and squish the fat around until it surrounds the hand like an oven mitt - Thank me later. The New England Aquarium provides more detailed instructions.
22) Seal off the unused rooms
If you have any rooms you don't use, the advice is to seal it off, to stop it sucking the heat from everywhere else.
The problem is it'll look like you have a dark family secret, or a secret house mate that no-one knows about. Start a rumour a crazy hermit lives in there who gets violent if you approach him, to keep curious strangers from letting the heat out.
23) Drink coffee
Drink so much coffee you have heart palpitations and need medical attention. Enjoy a warm hospital bed, courtesy of the NHS.
24) Eat what whales eat
Whales use blubber made through a high fat diet. It’s time to pie down. Whatever Whales eat, you should eat. If they eat seals whole, so should you.
Slow down their, brunch.
25) Use seals as a wetsuit
Whilst we're on seals, don't leave seal carcasses lying around the house. Use them as a wetsuit like Bear Grylls.
Starting to think Bear Grylls is a bad man.
26) Put shower curtains up in your lounge to trap the heat
The BBC advices you put shower curtains up in your lounge to stay warm. They're right, but when you have guests over there'll be a "am I meant to pee in this room?" vibe, which might kill a party somewhat.
27) Turn your tights into a draught excluder
Make a draught excluder by stuffing tights with rice and putting them in front of the door. Alternatively, try wearing your tights on your legs to keep warm. Eat the rice.
28) Emit pheremones
Male garter snakes (Thamnophis sp.) will emit female scent chemicals to trick other males into trying to mate with them. They then sap the other males heat, which gives them an advantage as they warm up after winter. Try emitting your own pheromones to lure in same-sex housemates.
29) Steal all the fiberglass from your attic
Fibreglass is keeping the attic warm when it should be keeping you warm. Rip it down, and roll in it like a duvet.*
*Do not do this.
For more ridiculous life hacks see 41 Ridiculous Life Hacks.Proving that prayer is superstition
http://youtube.com/watch?v=BH0rFZIqo8A
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1986014567979609861
Please help spread the word Transcript By watching this short video, you will be able to prove to yourself that the belief in prayer is a superstition. Every answered prayer is a coincidence, nothing more. Let's start by understanding how superstitions work. Imagine one day that your uncle gives you his lucky horseshoe. He says to you, "This horseshoe has never failed me. Just tell the horseshoe what you want, and it will bring it to you." This sounds good, but you are a little skeptical. So you decide to try it out. You take six dice in one hand and the lucky horseshoe in the other. You say, "Lucky horseshoe, give me six sixes!" And you roll the dice. So think about it. What do you suppose is going to happen? If you are a normal, intelligent person, you know what will happen - chances are that you won't get six sixes because the odds are only one in 46,000 that you will get six sixes. It is not going to happen very often. Does the lucky horseshoe have any effect on the dice? Does the horseshoe change the odds of getting six sixes? No. The horseshoe has absolutely no effect. Can we prove it? Yes. We can test it scientifically. We roll the dice thousands of times, invoking the lucky horseshoe each time. We find that the horseshoe has no effect whatsoever on the dice. Therefore we call the belief in lucky horseshoes a superstition. A superstition is defined as: An irrational belief that a magical object or action influences the outcome of events. By performing thousands of experiments, we prove that the belief in lucky horseshoes is a superstition. We can prove that the belief prayer is a superstition in exactly the same way. Let's look at several examples. Example 1 Imagine that your aunt says to you, "If you pray to God, he will answer your prayers." You ask her the obvious question, "How do you know that?" She says, "I have prayed to God hundreds of times. He always answers my prayers just like he says in the Bible." Then she quotes you two Bible verses. In Mark 11 verse 24 Jesus says: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." In John 14, verse 14, Jesus says: "Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; if you ask anything in my name, I will do it." This seems pretty simple. Jesus is supposed to be God. God is supposed to be perfect. When God says something, it should be true. Prayer should work. So, you decide to try it out. You pray to God in this way, "Dear God, please help me to roll six sixes. I have faith that you will answer my prayer as you promise in the Bible. In Jesus' name I pray, amen." And you roll the dice. What do you suppose is going to happen? If you are a normal, intelligent person, you know what will happen. Nothing. You will not roll six sixes any more often than normal if you pray. We can scientifically prove this. We can roll the dice thousands of times, praying to God each time. We find that prayer has no effect on the dice whatsoever. Any intelligent person can see what is happening here. The prayer has exactly the same effect as the horseshoe. That's because the belief in prayer is a superstition, just like the belief in lucky horseshoes. Understanding example 1 A superstitious person who believes in prayer cannot see that prayers and horsesh |
narcissistic anguish. If they want to have a real effect on issues, they will need to actually talk to the people they claim to represent – both Israelis and Palestinians – and take them seriously. Otherwise, they will continue to be irrelevant.
This article was originally published by Mida.Microsoft is once again taking strides to make education more innovative for students, faculty, and staff by making Office 365 ProPlus available across the board; previously, Office 365 ProPlus was only available for students.
This announcement coincides with Microsoft’s September 22ndinitiative to make Office 365 easily available for students to procure via a new self-serve model designed to ease the burden on the school’s IT department. In other words, students no longer have to rely on the school to initiate the service, students can now obtain Office 365 themselves – for free!
Benefits of Office 365 in Education – Simple Provisioning, Licensing, and Compliance
With the growing prevalence of tablets in schools to boost productivity and collaboration, Microsoft is offering Office 365 to students and teachers whose institutions are enrolled in a Microsoft Volume Licensing program. Qualified users will receive:
Office365 ProPlus
The latest versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access, and Publisher
Installation on up to 5 PCs or Macs, and Office apps on other mobile devices
Unlimited OneDrive cloud storage
Office Online
As the first cloud-based productivity service to use security frameworks based on ISO 27001 standards verified by an independent auditor, Office 365 eases the burden on Legal and IT by maintaining compliance regarding robust Data Processing Agreements, EU model clauses, and HIPAA Business Associate Agreements. Simply put, Office 365 is secure, compliant, and ready to go right out the box.
The licensing criteria is straightforward – owning any of Microsoft Volume Licensing plans ensures eligibility to the Office 365 Education Benefit. Ideally, organizations will want to be enrolled in one of the below agreements structures:
Open Value Subscription Education Solution (OVS-ES)
Campus / Enrollment for Education Solution (EES)
To procure Office 365, Microsoft offers a free, unmanaged provisioning service where qualified students, faculty, and staff can download Office 365 in a matter of minutes. However, the keyword here is “unmanaged,” and this is where SoftwareONE’s expertise as a certified Microsoft cloud partner can further ensure the ongoing compliance and provisioning management of your constantly revolving Office 365 enrollment base.
Provisioning Office 365 for Students, Faculty, and Staff
Microsoft is only taking this service so far – they’re providing the free installation of Office 365 for qualifying education institutions right on the website, but the school’s IT itself is responsible for procuring the appropriate number of licenses as well as proper provisioning and management of those licenses.
Some important questions IT Administrators should ask themselves include:
How should we distribute the Office 365 licenses?
Do we have proper turnover management regulations in place?
How will we manage user identities?
How does the Service deal with multi–tenants?
How do we manage staff and students who do not have a unique email domain to register?
After acquiring the Office 365 Education licenses, Microsoft no longer plays a role in assisting the customer IT with the management of those licenses. A typical education institution has about 10 times more students than staff. To further complicate matters, many IT departments do not have the time to manually deploy and support the yearly turnover of students enrolling and graduating from the school.
The SoftwareONE Academic (SWO-ACAD) service assists IT Admins throughout the entire provisioning lifecycle. Qualified users can go directly to the SWO-ACAD portal to connect their Microsoft Online Console with the portal, after which the Administrator distributes his URL and is granted access to full lifecycle management of Office 365 Education. Learn more in the video below.
Free Office 365 ProPlus to Your Staff and Students for Christmas
More than 400 educational institutions in 10 different countries are using the SWO-ACAD service already. SWO-ACAD is available globally and works with existing SoftwareONE Customers as well as customers who previously signed an agreement with another partner.
As a Christmas promotion we offer for the first 100 customers the service at no cost for the first year.OCALA, Fla. - Police say an Ocala school worker has been arrested for sending naked pictures to students.
A student told detectives that in Jan. 2013, he received what he believed were 26 naked pictures of 43-year-old Jody Onorato on his cell phone.
The student said he admitted that prior to receiving the photos, he and Onorato texted each other several times that were "sexual in nature," said detectives.
Detectives said the student said he and Onorato never got together to have a physical sex encounter.
The mother of student told detectives that she confronted her son after she found out about the rumors in high school that he had naked photos of Onorato in his cell phone.
The student admitted to his mother that he, in fact, had several naked pictures of Onorato in his cell phone, but detectives said he deleted them.
Detectives said the mother told them that she made contact with another former student from Vanguard, who told her that her son had sent the other student a naked photo of Onorato back in Oct. 2012.
On Friday, Detectives conducted a control phone call between the second student's mother and Onorato. In the recorded conversation, detectives said Onorato apologized to the mother for sending a naked picture of her to her son.
Detectives conducted a second control phone call on Friday between the first student's mother and Onorato. Detectives said this mother confronted Onorato and asked her what she was thinking when she sent all the naked photos of her to her son over the cell phone.
Onorato apologized to this mother for sending her son naked pictures of her. Detectives said Onorato told this mother that this took place sometime at the beginning of Jan. 2013.
Detectives said Onorato confessed to a detective that she had sent naked photos to both of the students. Onorato told detectives she did not know exactly when she sent her naked photos to the first student, but was over one year ago.
Onorato also confessed to sending more than one naked photo to the second student and believes this happened at the beginning of the year.
Onorato has been charged with two counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor with bond set at $10,000.
Copyright 2013 by ClickOrlando.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Developers have big plans for an old brewery in South Bend.
They want to renovate the building on Lincolnway West. The building is between Wilbur and College Streets.
It was built in 1905 and is a historical landmark for the city of South Bend.
South Bend Heritage Foundation and Neighborhood Development Associates want to breathe new life into the old building.
"This is the historic South Bend Brewery and we want to rehab it and make it into 25 apartments there will be studio one and two bedroom apartments. They'll be affordable," said Anne Mannix, president of the Neighborhood Development Associates.
The project doesn't just stop with the apartments, developers hope to build homes on the vacant lots north of Lincolnway. The homes and apartments will cost about $12-million dollars. The Redevelopment Commission will provide one million dollars for the project. The other $11-million will be funded by investors. Developers are applying for state tax credits to make them affordable homes, but say it is a very competitive application process.
For people who have seen the decline of the west side of the city, it's a welcome investment.
"South Bend made great strides on the east side and downtown improvements, but now it would be nice to see the upsurge heading west, but head west in a way that respects and takes into account the people who actually live here," said Patricia Lorenc, a life-long South Bend resident.
That's the point behind making these apartments affordable. They'll range from $300 to $700 a month in rent.
"Not everyone can afford an $1,000 a month apartment downtown," said Lorenc.
Developers, like Mannix, hope it will attract a new generation.
"I think young people with modest incomes need a place to live and they'll live there and then we can have families live in the houses," she said.
The hope is that the years of people just passing by, are behind the west side of the city.
"It would be nice to see things on the west side spruced up a bit, and to see it as not only on the west side want to stay, but residents from other parts of south bend, or from out of town, see as a destination option for them," said Lorenc.
The plans are contingent on the state tax credits, Mannix says they're turning in the application in November, but if they're not approved, they'll try again.“Can I get in the building?”
It might not be a question you find yourself asking regularly — but for the 3 million+ wheelchair users in the U.S., it’s a question that has to be considered. And starting now, it’s one that Google Maps is trying to help answer.
“Wheelchair accessible entrance” will now be noted in a location’s “Amenities” section wherever Google is made aware of the accessibility.
Accessibility info won’t show for all locations — that data simply doesn’t exist yet. Organizations like Wheelmap have been building up the dataset for a while, but the available data doesn’t blanket major cities, much less the world. Google is turning to local guides (users who contribute location info in exchange for early access to new features) to grow their data set, but it’ll take a while.
The effort is led by Googler Rio Asaka as part of his “20% time” (Google’s policy that has its employees spend one day a week tinkering on side-projects). BI has an interview with him here.
“But wait!” you say. “Aren’t all buildings supposed to be wheelchair accessible?”
While the Americans with Disabilities Act requires new buildings to account for wheelchair access, the requirements for structures built prior to the act’s signing in 1993 are less strict (Heads up: PDF link). In major cities where many of the buildings were built decades ago, wheelchair access is anything but a given.Roger Tassé, who is considered the architect of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, died in hospital Saturday in Gatineau, Que.
He was 85.
His wife, Renee Marcil Tassé, was at his bedside. She told The Canadian Press Tassé had been receiving dialysis treatment for several years and that doctors had been closely monitoring his condition since discovering water in his lungs.
In 1980, Tassé led a team of Justice Ministry lawyers tasked with helping political leaders reach an agreement on The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Two years later, he was deputy justice minister in the Liberal government of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, where he played a lead role in the patriation of the Canadian Constitution.
During his long career in federal politics Tassé also served as deputy solicitor general in the 1970s, then attorney general.
In the 1980s and 90s he represented the government in negotiations of the Meech Lake accord and subsequent Charlottetown accord.
In 1992, when he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec at Hull, he said the biggest challenge he faced in drafting the Charter was "to find the right balance between, on the one hand, greater protection of our fundamental freedoms and, on the other, the demands of the common good.''52 weeks of education from 52 books, 500+ hours of podcasts, and endless conversations
Fueled by technology, our society is obsessed with the new and next big thing. While neomania drives our ability to continually ideate/design/build/ship, it also leaves little time for introspection and reflection. I’m no exception. I have a genuine love for enrichment through education, and my brain acts as a sponge, absorbing knowledge and constantly seeking its applications. This time last year, I set out intent on ensuring that my learning did not stop simply because I was no longer in an academic setting.
Over 52 weeks, I read 52 books, listened to 500+ hours of podcasts, perused thousands of articles/blog posts, and enjoyed a myriad of interesting conversations. But ingesting information for the sake of information isn’t nearly as valuable as digesting it, drawing your own conclusions, and sharing it with others. There is tremendous value in pausing to look back on all that has been gathered to connect the dots. Dakota Shane Nunley wrote a great piece reflecting on his life learnings from this past year so I wanted to write some of my own takeaways in hopes of paying tribute to my contemporary mentors.
From doctors and economists to venture capitalists and everyone in between, a new generation of thinkers and creators are leading the charge to change the world. The following 5 points were key lessons they expressed or demonstrated time and time again that we can apply to better our own lives.
1. Set positive constraints
“Decisions lead to options, options to choices, choices to freedom.” — MK Asante
It seems counter-intuitive. Constraints usually hold negative connotations, but positive ones can help keep our harried lives in check. Once we identify our priorities, we can set rules around them, which in turn can be incredibly liberating.
For many successful individuals, waking up at or before 5am was the norm. This gave them ample opportunity to read, meditate, spend a few hours devoted to their most important morning rituals. For others, I often saw a recurring commitment to spend time with loved ones sans tech. Emails were only to be checked at certain times of day and time off meant time unplugged.
These micro decisions did not come at the expense of convenience. Instead, they behaved as guidelines to optimize happiness.
2. The path to success is rarely linear
Very few people interviewed or written about knew exactly what they wanted to do/be when they grew older. Some had a semblance of the industry they wanted to be in or some functional role they wanted to occupy, but the most impressive, knowledgeable leaders revealed a non-linear career progression.
By being unafraid to replace what they do with what they aspired to do, they opened doors to meeting people and being exposed to new industries. This provided unique opportunities to grow and be challenged while others around them provided support and resources.
“When you say what you want, you give others the opportunity to help you make your dreams come true.” — Bruce Kasanoff
Look at the diverse careers of John Maeda, Andrew Chen, and Karlie Kloss. Heck, look at the Rock (ahem, that’s Dwayne The Rock Johnson). They are proof that success is not just one upward vertical climb.
3. Be obsessed
Look at this awesome iceberg image. That is why every single accomplished person is obsessed with whatever it is they do.
Success is bright and shiny and easily celebrated. What is rarely highlighted is the grueling work it takes to get there.
To get better at something, it takes commitment and diligence. Atul Gawande said that “[betterment] does not take genius…it takes a willingness to try.” No one writes about what lies beneath the tip of the success iceberg because more often than not, diligence is mundane. So find something to be obsessed with to make the hundred thousand steps to betterment worthwhile.
4. The devil is in the details
The importance of user experience was stressed above all else this year. Especially when it came to technology and digital content, the maturation of the web meant that design remained as a key product differentiator.
It’s easy to write off great design because good design solutions feel obvious. Facebook designer Julie Zhou and sushi chef Jiro Ono both understood that mastering the art of simplicity entailed a deep understanding of complexity’s depth and being able to strip away the non-essentials. This process calls for a venerable number of iterations, a painstaking attention to detail, and a holistic understanding of the essence of a product.
Without such meticulous behavior, we would have been stuck with functional products that never graduated to become the usable and beautiful products we know and love today.
5. Ask honestly and listen earnestly
Every single writer, CEO, designer, founder, contributor repeated this mantra in one way or another. If I could recommend one book from the dozens I read this year, it would hands down be Americanah by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In it, she has a quote that encapsulates this last point that I won’t even try to paraphrase:
“ If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It’s easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more. Sometimes people just want to feel heard. Here’s to possibilities of friendship and connection and understanding.”
Ask honestly and listen earnestly. Doing so can only spread a little more empathy to the world.
…
Consolidating a full year’s worth of knowledge into five points almost does a disservice to the collective wisdom of all the information out there. It’s been humbling to have access to so much, only to realize that what I have learned only scratches the surface of many of these subjects.
But I’m also excited. We can learn via almost any medium today and as more and more people around the world gain access to the web, anyone with internet connection can access this knowledge. We can learn more, faster, better than ever before so long as we are humble enough to admit what we don’t know. All of these lessons remain tried and true, and as we head into another year, I can only hope to continue learning and adding to this list.
For anyone who is curious, you can find my 2015 reads here, and I always welcome book/podcast/article suggestions via my twitter @minney_cat.
…
Special thanks:
The quantity and quality of information I ingested this year would have been impossible without the help of some of my new favourite apps. Even within the veritable mountain of quality content out there, Overcast, Pocket, Medium, This.cm, and Airtable were instrumental in gathering, recommending, organizing, and consolidating the very best to help me on this educational journey.
AdvertisementsWhat Is Docker?
If you read technology news websites, you’ve most likely heard about Docker and all the wonderful things this open platform that allows developers and sysadmins to build, ship, and run distributed applications can do. But why just read about Docker when you can try it first-hand? In this tutorial, we’ll teach you how to install and configure Docker on Arch Linux, and we’ll also show you a few examples of what you can do with Docker.
On its official website, Docker is described as “world’s leading software container platform.” Okay, but what is a container? A container is a self-contained bundle of libraries and settings that guarantees that a piece of software will always run exactly the same, regardless of where it’s deployed.
In other words, containers, and Docker, solve the fragmentation issue that has been plaguing the Unix world for decades. Finally, developers can easily take software from development machines to remote servers and know with certainty that everything will run as expected.
Docker was initially released in 2013 by the company Docker, Inc. The person who started Docker is Solomon Hykes, who was the co-founder and CEO of dotCloud, a platform-as-a-service company. Several dotCloud engineers contributed to Docker, including Andrea Luzzardi and Francois-Xavier Bourlet.
Just three years after Docker’s initial release, an analysis revealed that major contributors to Docker include Red Hat, IBM, Microsoft, Huawei, Google, and Cisco. In a short time, Docker has caught the attention of some of the largest companies in the world and established itself as the leading software container platform.
Docker Versus Virtualization
Unlike virtual machines, which get virtual access to host resources through a hypervisor, Docker containers run natively on the host machine’s kernel, each running as a discrete process and taking no more memory than any other executable.
Docker containers don’t run any guest operating system. Instead, they contain only an executable and its package dependencies. This makes containers much less resource demanding and allows containerized applications to run anywhere.
How to Install Docker on Arch Linux
0. Before You Begin
Even though Arch Linux still allows i686 installations to receive upgraded packages, in accordance with the distribution’s plans to phase out the support of this architecture, Docker supports only 64-bit systems. That dusty old machine you may have in your closet may be great for some retro-gaming, but you won’t be able to run Docker on it.
1. Enable the Loop Module
Besides the 64-bit architecture, Docker also depends on the loop module, which is a block device that maps its data blocks not to a physical device such as a hard disk or optical disk drive, but to the blocks of a regular file in a filesystem or to another block device, according to Linux Programmer’s Manual.
Docker should enable the loop module automatically during installation. Check if ”loop” has been loaded as a kernel module:
# lsmod | grep loop
If the loop module has been loaded, you may skip to the next step. Otherwise, run the following two commands:
# tee /etc/modules-load.d/loop.conf <<< "loop" # modprobe loop
The first command passes the word “loop” to the standard input of the command on the left, which is the command tee. Then, tee writes the word “loop” to the file loop.conf. The modprobe command adds the loop module to the Linux kernel.
2. Install Docker
You can choose whether you want to install a stable version of Docker from the Community repository or a development version from AUR. The former is called simply docker, and the latter is called docker-git. If you’re new to using Docker in general or just using Docker on Arch Linux, we highly recommend you install the stable package:
# pacman -S docker
3. Start and Enable Docker
Before you can use Docker on Arch Linux, you have to start and enable the Docker daemon using system:
# systemctl start docker.service # systemctl enable docker.service
The first command immediately starts the Docker daemon, and the second command ensures that the daemon will start automatically on bootup.
Optionally, use the following command to verify the installation and activation:
# docker info
Note that you can run Docker only as root. To run Docker as a regular user, add yourself to the docker group:
# groupadd docker # gpasswd -a user docker [replace user with your username]
The first command creates a new group called docker, and the second command adds a user to the group. Don’t forget to re-login to apply the changes.
Post-Install Configuration
Provided that your host machine is properly configured to begin with, there’s not much left to do after the installation before you can start using Docker on Arch Linux.
You may want to change the location of Docker images, however. Docker stores images by default in /var/lib/docker. To change their location, first stop the Docker daemon:
# systemctl stop docker.service
Then, move the images to the target destination. Finally, add the following parameter to the ExecStart in /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d/docker-storage.conf:
ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd --data-root=/path/to/new/location/docker -H fd://
For more post-install configuration options, see Docker’s official Arch wiki page
Using Docker on Arch Linux
With Docker installed and configured, it’s time to finally have some fun with it.
First Steps
To see what Docker can do, ask it to list all available commands:
# docker
You can also ask Docker to tell you its version or give you system-wide information:
# docker version # docker info
Downloading Docker Images
When you’re ready to try something more interesting, you may download an x86_64 Arch Linux image:
# docker pull base/archlinux
If you would like to download some other Docker image, search for it using the following command (make sure to replace [image name] with your preferred search query:
# docker search [image name]
As you experiment with Docker, your collection of Docker images will naturally increase, and the amount of available storage space will shrink. When Docker starts occupying too much space, you may want to change its default storage location and move it to a different hard drive or partition. By default, Docker stores images and containers in /var/lib/docker. To set a new storage location, stop the Docker daemon:
# systemctl stop docker.service
Next, create a drop-in file “docker.conf” at a new drop-in directory /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d. All files with the suffix “.conf” from the new drop-in directory will be parsed after the original configuration file is parsed, allowing you to override its settings without having to modify it directly.
# mkdir /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d # touch /etc/systemd/system/docker.service.d/docker.conf
Next, open the newly created drop-in file in your favorite text editor and add the following lines:
[Service] ExecStart= ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd --graph="/mnt/new_volume" --storage-driver=devicemapper
Don’t forget to change “new_volume” to your preferred new storage location and “devicemapper” to your current storage driver, which controls how images and containers are stored and managed on your Docker host. You can find out what storage driver is currently used by Docker using the following command, which you should be already familiar with:
# docker info
The only thing remaining is to reload service daemon to scan for new or changed units and start Docker again:
# systemctl daemon-reload # systemctl start docker.service
Creating New Containers
Once you’ve downloaded your first Docker image, you can use it to create a new container by specifying a command to run using the image:
# docker run [image name] [command to run]
If the container suddenly stops, you can start it again:
# docker run [container ID]
And if you want it to stop, you can do that as well:
# docker stop [container ID]
From time to time, you may want to commit a container’s file changes or settings into a new image. List all running Docker containers to find the container that you would like to commit into a new image:
# docker ps
Issue the following command to commit the changes and create a new image:
# docker commit [container ID] [image name]
Just keep in mind that when you commit a container’s file changes or settings into a new image, the newly created image will not include any data contained in volumes mounted inside the container.
Finally, you can easily delete a container and start from scratch:
# docker rm [container ID]
Monitoring Docker Containers
There are several available options how to collect useful metrics from Docker containers. One readily available option is the docker stats command, which gives access to CPU, memory, network and disk utilization for all of the containers running on your host.
# docker stats
If you run multiple Docker containers at the same time, you may want to restrict the output of the command to only one or more containers by specifying container ids, separated by a space:
# docker stats [container ID] [container ID] [container ID]
To get a one-time snapshot of current container resource usage, add the –no-stream option:
# docker stats --no-steam
You can also use the –all option, which displays stopped containers:
# docker stats --all
Apart from docker stats, you can also use cAdvisor (a container monitoring tool from Google), Prometheus (an open source monitoring system and time series database), or Agentless System Crawler (ASC) (a cloud monitoring tool from IBM with support for containers), among other services.
Networking Configuration
By default, Docker creates three networks automatically, and you can list them using the following command:
# docker network ls
You should see something like this:
NETWORK ID NAME DRIVER 7fca4eb8c647 bridge bridge 9f904ee27bf5 none null cf03ee007fb4 host host
The bridge network corresponds to the docker0 network, which is present in all Docker installations. The none network doesn’t have any access to the external network, but it can be used for running batch jobs. Finally, the host network adds a container on the host’s network stack without any isolation between the host machine and the container.
Use the following command to see information about the default bridge network:
# docker network inspect bridge
Docker recommends using user-defined bridge networks to control which containers can communicate with each other. Docker doesn’t limit how many new networks users can create using the default networks as templates, and containers can be connected to multiple networks at the same time. Create a new bridge network:
# docker network create --driver bridge bridge_new
And inspect it:
# docker network inspect bridge_new
Launch a busybox (or any other) container connected to the newly created network:
# docker run --network= bridge_new -itd --name=[container ID] busybox
SSH Into a Container
To SSH into Docker containers, you could install an SSH server in the images you wish to ssh-into and run each container mapping the ssh port to one of the host’s ports. However, this is not the right approach. “In order to reduce complexity, dependencies, file sizes, and build times, you should avoid installing extra or unnecessary packages just because they might be ‘nice to have,’” states the Docker user guide.
Instead, it’s a better idea to use a containerized SSH server and stick it to any running container. The only requirement is that the container has bash. User Jeroen Peeters provides the following example on Stack Exchange and encourages readers to visit his GitHub for more information:
$ docker run -d -p 2222:22 \ -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \ -e CONTAINER=my-container -e AUTH_MECHANISM=noAuth \ jeroenpeeters/docker-ssh $ ssh -p 2222 localhost
Alternatively, you can use the docker exec command to run a command in a running container. For example:
# docker exec -it <mycontainer> bash
Sharing Data Between a Docker Container and the Host
You can use Docker volumes to share files between a host system and the Docker container. This can be handy, for example, when you want to create a permanent copy of a log file to analyze it later.
First, create a directory on the host in a location that a Docker user will have access to:
# mkdir ~/container-share
Then, attach the host directory to the container volume located in the /data directory within the container:
#docker run -d -P --name test-container -v /home/user/container-share:/data archlinux
You will see the ID of the newly created container. Gain shell access to the container:
docker attach [container ID]
Once you’ve entered the command above, you will be the data directory we added at container run-time. Any file you add to this directory will be available from the host folder.
Conclusion
Docker is an immensely powerful software technology, and this tutorial is only an introduction for those who have never used it before. You can learn much more about Docker from the official documentation, which is always kept up to date. If you would like to learn how to define and deploy applications with Docker, check the Get started with Docker guide. If you run into any problems with Docker, the Troubleshooting page is the best place where to look for a solution.Annette Schavan says: “There are warmongers who embrace religion. But that does not mean that religion promotes war. Religion has the great power to bring peace.” It doesn’t seem to occur to her that there is not a single unified entity called “religion,” or that different religions actually teach different values. She assumes that whatever is labeled “religion” teaches peace, and that anyone who commits violence in the name of “religion” must be importing his violent impulses from elsewhere, not deriving them from the teachings of “religion.”
She also says: “People are upset by the numerous attacks and wonder, ‘Should we equate these images of violence with Islam?’ One gets the impression that Islam is part of the problem. But that’s not true. It must become clear that it is part of the solution.” That is a fine assertion, but that’s all it is. Where have we ever actually seen Islam be part of the solution? Our expectations have become so low; if Islam were really a Religion of Peace that had been hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, we could realistically expect to see a genuine mass Muslim movement against jihad terror comprising a significant segment of the Muslim population worldwide, dedicated to an honest reinterpretation of the Qur’an and Sunnah so as to mitigate their capacity to incite violence. Instead, there is an avalanche of pro-forma Muslim condemnations of terror by groups such as CAIR, which has ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, plus just a handful of Muslim individuals and groups who actually take a stand against jihad activity in all its forms, but have no significant following among Muslims. Many of the latter group, moreover, also deny that there is anything in the Islamic texts that needs reforming.
So we have yet to see Islam be “part of the solution,” but Annette Schavan and her colleagues are betting the future of Europe on the hope that it will “become” part of that solution, any day now.
“Germany’s Vatican ambassador: ‘Islam is part of the solution,'” DW, January 17, 2016:A "sensational" discovery of 75-century-old copper tools in Serbia is compelling scientists to reconsider existing theories about where and when man began using metal.
Belgrade - axes, hammers, hooks and needles - were found interspersed with other artefacts from a settlement that burned down some 7,000 years ago at Plocnik, near Prokuplje and 200 km south of Belgrade.
The village had been there for some eight centuries before its demise. After the big fire, its unknown inhabitants moved away. But what they left behind points to man's earliest known extraction and shaping of metal.
"It really is sensational," said Ernst Pernicka, a renowned archaeology professor at Germany's Tuebingen University who recently visited the Ploce locality.
Scientists had previously believed that the mining, extraction and manipulation of copper began in Asia Minor, spreading from there. With the find in Plocnik, parallel and simultaneous developments of those skills in several places now seem more likely, Pernicka said.
Indeed, the tools discovered in southern Serbia were made some 75 centuries ago - up to eight centuries older than what has been found to date.
The site at Plocnik, believed to cover some 120 hectares in all, is buried under several metres of soil. Serbian archaeologists have so far exposed three homes - the largest of them, measuring eight by five metres, discovered this year.
The layer of earth it stood on is still blackened from the scorching heat that destroyed the village. It is unclear what caused the fire, but no damage that would indicate an outside attack has been found.
The huts collapsed on their contents, with mud bricks and ashes burying all that was inside - pottery, statues, tools and a worktable. After dusting the still embedded artefacts off, archaeologists began extracting them, most of all hoping to find more precious copper tools.
Scientists are debating whether the Plocnik village led the world to the Copper Age in the 6th millennium BC, particularly as remains of primitive copper smelters were recently found not far away, near today's mines and smelters in Majdanpek and Bor.
The find, which stems from "certainly very, very early in the Copper Age", was a very lucky one, said another expert from Tuebingen, Raiko Kraus.
The Ploce locality was discovered by railroad builders in 1927, but was largely disregarded until 1996, when serious excavations began, eventually yielding the sensational finds.
According to Krause, old settlements may similarly surface in eastern Anatolia when Turkey launches some massive earth-moving project, such as building a dam.
It remains unclear why a comparatively large quantity of copper tools were found at Plocnik. The head archaeologist on site, Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic, said that the village may have been a tool-making or trading centre.
There is also much more to be learned about the ancient inhabitants, apart from the key question of how man developed his tools.
"These people were not wild," Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic stressed, pointing to fine pieces such as statuettes. "They had finely combed hair and adorned themselves with necklaces."
One statue of a woman shows her wearing some sort of a mini skirt. Others wore long and broad scarves. Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic actually helped a Serbian fashion designer set up a show inspired by the clothes of the people who lived there millennia earlier.
Whatever remains to be found at Ploce and elsewhere, "mankind took a major step toward the modern era" during that time, Pernicka said.
First Published: Nov 15, 2010 10:49 ISTThe Egyptian man who launched the ‘covert attack’ against Pauline Hanson has been criticised for showing disrespect to women. In the shocking viral video, the man is shown holding a campaign poster next to the controversial One Nation leader, appearing to support her. However, he then begins to speak in Arabic, which Pauline Hanson does not understand. Translated subtitles of the video show the man call Mrs Hanson a "b****" while posing for photos and smiling next to her.
PEDESTRIAN The Egyptian man who launched the covert attack against Pauline Hanson
Outraged supporters of the politician called on the unknown man to apologise and "show some respect". Footage from the scene shows the man holding a poster for One Nation candidate Doug Shaw in Western Australia on the eve of the local state election. The Egyptian man speaks to the camera and hurls abusive insults at Mrs Hanson as she smiles politely, unaware of what he is saying. At one point, Mrs Hanson even puts her thumbs up while the man can be heard berating her and telling viewers not to elect the political leader.
GETTY Pauline Hanson is the right-wing leader of the One Nation party
PA Hanson was campaigning in Western Australia ahead of local elections
This is the b**** Pauline Hanson from One Nation. Nobody vote for her. Ever. Man in video
He says: "This is the b**** Pauline Hanson from One Nation. Nobody vote for her. Ever. "She is the b**** who is trying to prevent us from entering the country." The pair end the video by sharing a smile before the unknown man says thanks to the political party leader. Many on social media were outraged by the video, claiming he was man was "offensive" and should apologise immediately.
PEDESTRIAN The man is shown holding a campaign poster next to the controversial Australian politicianTusayan becomes Arizona's newest and smallest town
TUSAYAN - This gateway to the Grand Canyon established its first Town Council on Tuesday, the result of a vote a month earlier to incorporate so residents |
sister Lynn, what she wanted Drew to be when he grows up. Lynn replied, "I don't really care what he chooses to be, as long as he is a compassionate human being." And compassionate he is.
Perhaps Mother Teresa's quote sums it up best, "If you judge people, you don't have time to love them."
When I created my inspirational website: www.GoInspireGo.com I knew I wanted to help people. What I didn't realize was how much this project would help me understand people and humanity while connecting with them. As I embark on this new journey of my career-- or should I say, my life's work?! -- I have met so many amazing people from; the subjects of my stories to volunteers to those of you reading this right now. I saw a shift in myself and have witnessed the amazing changes in others joining me on this journey of service and inspiration. Take Sarah Mirza, the amazingly talented producer who collaborated with me on this video shoot, Sarah says after getting laid off of her TV gig, like the millions of other jobless Americans, it was hard to be inspired to even get out of bed in the morning, much less, garnering the strength to send out resumes. When I invited her to join me on producing this video, she was stoked! After the shoot, she texted and then called me to tell me, with caps lock and smiley icon ;) "THANK YOU," for the opportunity to collaborate with you on this story. I couldn't sleep the last few nights, in anticipation of meeting Jorge and doing this shoot."
This experience was cathartic -- Sarah's perspective changed. And it was obvious, she was inspired. You could hear it in her voice. She told me that it was one of the most rewarding experiences and that this was one of the most moving stories she has ever covered in her career. Sarah also said she then, took "laycation." (What I like to call laid-off vacation or lay-off me time) Then she and came back inspired to get out of bed and look for jobs. Well, she recently called me and told me she got a Network TV producing job! Woo hoo... congrats Sarah!
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Speaking about service, I connected with Arianna Huffington, during the last Craigslist Bootcamp workshop in Berkeley, California. She was the guest speaker - and I was volunteering for the event -- I was fortunate enough to listen to Arianna speak about the spirit of service, and I was moved by her stories of volunteerism and goodwill. I emailed her. She then invited me to blog for her based on my website, which uses Social Networking to Inspire Social Change: www.GoInspireGo.com. And voila... here I am, sharing inspiring stories with you. So I want you to stop for a second, take a deep breaths (or a couple) and be aware of the present moment. Be grateful. Then, I want you to think about what you can do to improve someone else's life. It doesn't have to start off big. If you read my last blog about 5-year-old Phoebe's mission, you'll see that it really doesn't have to be a something big -- it can start off small. And like Phoebe, you may be surprised of the outcome. (If you didn't read it from my last blog. Please do.)
If you can't think of what you can do, then please make a small donation to www.AnAngelInQueens.org - someone saw Munoz's good deed and helped him file for papers to start a non-profit. Still he has to use his own money to feed people in his community. You can also make a donation to www.GoInspireGo.com. For now, Be good to each other... and think what can you do?!
We love to hear your quirky and not-so-quirky comments, so please make a comment below. Thanks for reading and watching! Stay tuned...
GO INSPIRE GO'S Goals:
The Mission: To set up a global platform for people to see and share inspirational stories.
(There's a link at the end of every story where people could go to help the person/people featured in the video)
The Vision: My hope is that everybody will be inspired to use their resources and talents to see what they can do to better someone's life or better their community.
I launched this website in March of 2009, with the thought that if I could just help one or two people through my expertise and skill set, then my mission would be accomplished. I didn't expect such a huge show of support around the world. I surely wasn't ready for the influx of e-mails, messages, comments and calls to come in: Viewers continue to connect with us from around the world (including: North and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa) to tell us they're doing to better someone else's life or improve their community.
***My Droid World is on a roll! Yesterday they brought us a working Froyo update for Motorola Droid but it came with a serious omission - WiFi was not included.
After taking a breather, a few hours later they produced another version, this time with support for WiFi and overclocking.
There are a number of download options, varying in the CPU frequency hardcoded into the kernel - from 800 MHz to 1250 MHz, so grab the one you want and see if it's stable enough (I promise you - it will be FAST). If the one you grabbed is not stable, grab one with a lower frequency, and rinse and repeat until it all works well.
So read our notes on the original release and then head over to this My Droid World post for download links and community feedback.
Update [6/6/10]: there is now a great set of noob-friendly instructions over there is now a great set of noob-friendly instructions over here
Source: My Droid World forumsThe vote gap between Senate candidates Norm Coleman and Al Franken fluctuated throughout the day Thursday, with Franken closing to within 236 votes by Thursday evening.
The fluctuations are normal, said a spokesman at the Secretary of State's office, as county's double check their work and report minor changes.
A typo in Pine County got fixed Thursday, giving Al Franken 100 more votes and tightening Minnesota's unresolved Senate race even tighter.
Republican Sen. Norm Coleman's lead over Democrat Al Franken stood at 236 votes Thursday night.
With nearly 2.9 million ballots cast, the difference between the top two candidates is about one one-hundredth of a percentage point.
In Pine County, an election official accidentally entered 24 votes for Franken on Tuesday night instead of the 124 he actually received. The mistake was caught on Thursday and the numbers changed, said Jim Gelbmann from the Secretary of State's office.This is Shaela’s Dad. I feel that it’s time I make a public comment. I have resisted so far because, frankly, I know how people feel toward someone accused of such horrific things. For years, when I would hear of such a case, it was typical for me to react with anger toward the accused perpetrator with all kinds of horrible things that I think should be done to them even though I had no real idea whether they were actually guilty or not. Child sexual abuse is too horrific to allow us to easily “take the high road” of non-judgement until we really know if they are guilty.
So I will state up front, there is no way I could have or would have ever done anything like that to any of my children or anyone else; it did not happen. And it never happened to Shaela unless someone else did something. Shaela’s initial accusations included a time period when she was about four years old where she claimed she was ritualistically, satanically abused or something like that. I don’t even know how to do that. I always took every measure I could to protect my children from this kind of thing.
I do blame myself for ignoring the accumulating signs that something was very wrong with Mark and Cathy. I sometimes come across subject matters that I have to know everything about so when I heard about and read Tranceformation, I made contact with Mark Phillips. I recall that I wanted to see for myself if they were for real. After one or two emails back and forth (I don’t recall what we talked about), I sent Mark a quote from a speech by James Traficant. It sounded all patriotic and I thought he might enjoy it. His response back to me was a touch of anger or disgust because I didn’t remember that he had written about Traficant in his book and that Traficant was a “bad guy”. I felt like “ok…whatever…I was just sharing”. But that was an early hint of Mark’s personality disorder.
I don’t want to repeat what has already been said but Shaela started emailing Cathy. One day Shaela came to me and asked if I thought it was ok for her to talk to Cathy on the phone. Sure. Why not? It was strange the way Cathy and Shaela’s relationship grew so close over the phone. Should that have been a red flag? At the time, I couldn’t see why it would be. We all felt deep compassion for Cathy because of what she had supposedly been through. Seriously, how dangerous could she be?
So Mark and Cathy flew to a conference they were speaking at that was a few hours away from where we were living. When Shaela met Cathy in person for the first time, they hugged and cried with happiness. At the time it really didn’t bother me. Should it have? It does now.
Some time later, Shaela came to me and said that Mark and Cathy had asked her to work for them. She would have to move there and live with them. They stressed that it had to be after she was no longer a minor. I thought that maybe Mark was just being wise because of the appearance that would create. Now I wonder.
Shaela was so excited about the idea. I didn’t want her to leave. But we were having a very difficult time getting Shaela to move forward in her life. She would not go to college or get a job at the time. I thought that maybe working for Mark and Cathy would give her good experiences. And what a great work…exposing other peoples’ suffering and maybe contributing to a healing of our country. Still, my feelings were unclear. I was upset about her leaving but I thought I was only upset about her leaving. I believe humans are very empathic and intuitive but they need to be able to recognize it. It wasn’t until we took Shaela to the airport to fly to Mark and Cathy in Alabama that I was overcome with dread…a deep dread like being marched to the gallows would feel. If I would have trusted my intuition more, I would have said “no” right then.
Everything seemed fine for the first six months or so. Except that everything I would talk to Shaela about on the phone would get discussed with Mark. Then she would get on the phone with me and tell me all the things I should do “according to Mark”. Mark was becoming the final word on everything, which, of course, stressed my ego.
Then they invited me to come and visit. Backing up a bit, I need to relate that Cathy had offered to do a handwriting analysis on everybody in our family. Apparently, she was trained in the highest level of hand writing analysis. I thought “what a nice person!” So we sent handwriting samples for each of us including the very young twins. This leads back to my visit with them because Mark had offered to do some kind of analysis of me so he could give some advice. I filled out questionnaires and did some other things I can’t fully recall now. It seemed pretty benign. He said I needed to meditate with the idea of “cold” or “ice” because that’s what the tests showed. When I got home, I got a poster of some winter ice and tried to apply what he had said.
My visit there was very interesting. They showed me items Cathy had saved that were allegedly the same items from the stories in their book. There were the red Dorothy slippers and other trinkets. I took pictures. It all seemed quite real. At one point, Cathy was leaving the room to get something and Shaela said “Can I give you a hand?”. I didn’t notice anything but after she left the room, Mark told Shaela that you can’t say that to her because of that one handler she supposedly had who would cut off human hands for satanic rituals…he would say “Can I give you a hand?”
I saw scars on Cathy that she said were from the cattle prods. I sat next to her and watched as she had additional memory flashbacks and it really did not look like she was putting on a show for me. At one point, I was so overcome with the sick depths of Cathy’s experiences that I gave her a hug and said something like “please know that all men are not like that”. Mark was watching from across the room.
My point in relating the above is that I really don’t know what the true story is when it comes to Cathy’s past. The only thing I am sure of at this point is that Mark is one big walking liar. I know because he has since told horrible lies about me and my family as well as other people discussed below. At this point, it is obvious to me that Cathy is totally manipulated by Mark. She changes her opinion to match his no matter what the subject is. She never disagrees with him. I believe he completely controlled Cathy’s memory recall. I can only guess why but I really do not know. On the other hand, while believing Cathy is still a victim, I have found myself very angry with her that she did not protect Shaela from Mark…I’m just being honest.
And I believe that the tests and analyses Mark conducted on my family and myself were later used to control and intimidate us.
The first notable event that woke me up was an email Mark sent to me. His email accused us of being bad parents with a slew of bizarre reasons. Then he threatened that if we ever said anything negative about him or Shaela that he would come after me “from beyond the grave”. Backing up again, Mark had told me about how he was in a dispute with his ex-wife so he got two or three of his spook friends to “take care of it” for him. He said they put her in the trunk of their car and three days later she completely backed down and stopped hassling Mark. I asked what they did to her and he laughed and said “I don’t know”. Why did he tell me that?
Back to the email from Mark, well, I was devastated. I thought he was my friend. And now I was being threatened by this ex-CIA guy who had my daughter (are they really ever “ex” CIA?). Several years later I found a post by Mark on the internet in response to some guy challenging him…he personally attacked this guy and threatened to have him put on the sex-offender list (as if Mark had such power)…and I don’t think he even knew him. More recently, a woman emailed Mark about Shaela using the email address that has always been right there on their website only to attack her in the same way by calling her a prostitute, saying she was into porn, that she inappropriately obtained his email address, and that she better watch out for law enforcement. That exchange, with the actual email Mark sent, is posted on the forums. A real class act guy huh?
After Mark’s email to me, I immediately emailed Shaela. There was no way she would be a party to this. There was no way she would agree to such negative things about me. I got no response. I emailed again. No response. More devastation. Weeks went by then months went by without hearing from her. I know this was because Mark told her not to respond to me. I had this growing feeling that I was like their psychological experiment and I was to be dealt with only according to Mark’s instructions. Mark knew that this action would be very hurtful to the relationship Shaela and I had.
I’m a little confused about the time line but it was sometime during this time that Mark had instructed Shaela that if anyone in her family wants to talk to her, they had to send an email to set an appointment and explain beforehand what was going to be talked about. Another blazing red flag. Once, Shaela’s younger brother called her and Mark answered. Mark said that Shaela wasn’t there. Shaela’s brother identified himself and at that point Mark said “Oh, let me get her”…he had thought it was me.
During this time period, Shaela was still occasionally in contact with her younger brother. On one call, she told him that she was having some surgery. We also knew that she was in some kind of “therapy”. I still do not know who the therapist was or who chose the so-called therapist.
By this time, everybody in the family was telling me that Shaela was being mind controlled. I was finally starting to believe it too. But the final proof came about a year or two later. We were desperate to find out if she was even still alive and managed to get a message to her to “call her mother”
The response was an email from Shaela. Shaela accused Tammy and I of all kinds of bizarre things including the above-mentioned ritual abuse when she was about four years old. She also informed us that she had her tubes tied because she can’t be responsible for perpetuating such bad dna. I will never forget the trauma of that day and I seem to remember every minute of it. I am blessed enough that each one of my other children informed me that it was obvious Shaela is totally brainwashed and that they know nothing like that stuff ever happened. They are awesome children.
It was around the same time period that we got hold of the post made by Shaela’s childhood friend Jessie. It all came together like a ton of bricks falling on my head. Therapy? Surgery? Threesomes? Living with a mind-control expert that obviously lacked a conscience? Again, threesomes? With old people? My beautiful daughter with these old people? I didn’t even have to imagine what horror she might be facing because now we knew it was true!
Abusing a man’s daughter right in front of him is one of the worst things that can be done to a human. But Mark compounded the attack by making that “interview” video in Germany. For anybody who ever knew Shaela, it is crystal clear that this is not her…except for her physical presence. I believe that is why they misspelled and mispronounced her name several times…they didn’t want us to find it because they didn’t want the blow back from such an obvious fake. And they knew that anybody who ever knew Shaela would know it was a fake.
Note that Shaela has been ruthless to her siblings. It appears that her excuse is that it’s because they still have “anything to do with the parents”. I’m sure it’s because Mark knows she would feel the love from her family, which may actually cure the situation. I hope nobody out there has ever had to watch your teenage and adult children go through something like this.
If I had only googled Mark. If only. The truth about Mark is all over the internet. There’s a Rense.com article called The Truth About Mark Phillips that really spells a lot out. And then there are his dealings with Sue Ford. Sue Ford claims to be the 1960’s MK-Ultra mind-control victim she spells out in her book Thanks for the Memories. Her 1960’s name is Brice Taylor. She went to Mark and Cathy with the hope of being helped through the trauma of the abuse she wrote about. We contacted Sue Ford and she seemed tired but, for some reason, she didn’t really want to talk about it. After we emailed her a second time, she wrote that “Mark’s open-eyed hypnosis nearly drove me crazy”. To this day, I still do not know what “open-eyed hypnosis” is. Sue Ford claims that Mark and Cathy ripped her off to the tune of $75,000. She said that after he was done with her money, he told her she wasn’t abused after all. I do recall that when I was visiting, Cathy tried to tell me something negative and perverted about Sue Ford.
Research all this and you will see that whatever Mark says, the opposite is true. He also strangely thinks that the word “parent” equals “abuser”. When I was visiting, he had it in his mind that Tammy’s parents had abused her, which is insane…and he had never even met them. Mark has no concept of families and the kind of love and tenderness that is usually there. I’ve chalked it up to Mark’s horrendous upbringing; nevertheless, he is without feeling and he lacks a conscience, which is a partial definition of a sociopath and/or psychopath. So, Sue Ford wasn’t abused, Ted Gunderson is a pedophile, and I am an abuser…yea right.
In your internet search, you will likely find the article wherein Mark explains how to mind control someone. In that terrifying article he says something like don’t try this at home because you will end up in jail. Hmmmmmm.
Shaela had demonstrated some awesome psychic abilities when she was a teenager. I even took her to “psychic expos” and people would pay her for readings. People were calling her on the phone for readings for some time. She was the real deal. She did not, however, pursue that route. For you researchers out there, consider what it means that Shaela is very psychic, she is extremely beautiful, and her first shot at leaving home landed her with these people who are experts in mind control. Then we have evidence from the friend Jessie that Shaela has been sexually taken advantage of.
Friends quit several years ago asking about Shaela. What reason can I give them that would explain why someone like Shaela would waste eight years so far of the prime of her life with people old enough to be her grandparents?
I have never lost a child to death but I have lost this child over and over again as we keep convincing ourselves that there may be hope for her only to get some communication or see something like the Germany video, which causes us to relive the loss all over again…and again.
Warmest Regards,
ScottSpaceEngine is a realistic virtual Universe you can explore on your computer. You can travel from star to star, from galaxy to galaxy, landing on any planet, moon, or asteroid with the ability to explore its alien landscape. You can alter the speed of time and observe any celestial phenomena you please. All transitions are completely seamless, and this virtual universe has a size of billions of light-years across and contains trillions upon trillions of planetary systems. The procedural generation is based on real scientific knowledge, so SpaceEngine depicts the universe the way it is thought to be by modern science. Real celestial objects are also present if you want to visit them, including the planets and moons of our Solar system, thousands of nearby stars with newly discovered exoplanets, and thousands of galaxies that are currently known.There exist a fairly significant number of voters who will support Barack Obama in 2012 regardless of what Mitt Romney says or does. There is a somewhat smaller population that will almost indubitably support GOP Candidate Mitt Romney. What remains in the middle will care about both what Mitt Romney says and what he does not say. Hence we get an effort being waged by President Obama’s die-hard supporters to prevent Mitt Romney from saying certain things.
This tactic prompted Conservative Stalwart William F. Buckley to caution the American Right to avoid arguing on pre-empted categories. Allowing the political opposition to define what is meant by “fair”, “compassionate”, “rich”, and especially the pejoratives such as “racist”; will predictably leave you on the wrong side of every one of these terms. Defining these terms defines what people are allowed to actually say. Limiting what Mitt Romney is allowed to say, limits what he can say to win over undecided voters.
As Brett Stevens puts it:
The best way to win an argument is to poison your opposition with assumptions.
Nothing more effectively poisons the assumptions facing a GOP candidate than to call him a racist. Unless, like The New Republic, you can think of ways to claim he is even worse. The Odious and Disingenuous Timothy Noah attempts to plant assumed axioms aimed at derailing any effort by Mitt Romney to criticize Barack Obama’s efforts to undo portions of the 1990′s Welfare Reform Legislation. Preemptive use of The Race Card follows below:
Of course, Romney isn’t interested in the facts; he’s interested in associating Obama with black and Hispanic undesirables bent on collecting welfare benefits and robbing white elderly people of their health insurance. The son of a politician who walked out of the 1964 Republican convention because of its opposition to blacks could well end up encouraging anti-black sentiments at the 2012 Republican convention. Like Poppy Bush, Romney is not a racist himself. He is, arguably, something worse: A man who, because he has no particularly pronounced views himself, is willing to say just about anything to get himself elected president.
Other preempted categories include the negative-loading of the term “gun-nut.” We all know who those people are: white, rural, unedumacayted, and clinging bitterly to their guns and religion. Of course this fails to explain why people are more people have been shot in Chicago this Summer than in Afghanistan. The people who defined the term “gun-nut” would be flabbergasted at the NSFW video linked here.
These are clearly not the droids AG Eric Holder was looking for. By allowing the language to be tilted towards the purpose of ideological warfare, our society is failing to address the problem because people are racist if they accurately describe what that problem truly consists of. Categorical preemption prevents society from being as safe for average people.
Categorical preemption also prevents radical honesty. It disallows speech that is necessary to learning and comprehension. Mitt Romney does not have to be evil for opposing the undoing of welfare reform legislation by executive order. All that requires is a fairly rigorous reading of the US Constitituion and a basic understanding of what Democratic Senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan described as “the defining-down of deviancy.” This defining-down, like the “soft bigotry of low expectations” that dwells in synonymy therewith, is a problem that saps and will eventually kill America the way lung-cancer kills the nicotine addict. Mitt Romney doesn’t have to be “mean”, “divisive”, “uncaring” or even egregiously “White-acting.” Yet he does need to tell America a series of hard truths about the road we are all on. He needs to ignore all the flacks and the flunkies who try to preemptively brand him a racist as he speaks out on behalf of his vision for the future.Update: According to an article in The Gothamist, St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten and Nona Marie Invie are providing guest vocals on the album. Sufjan Stevens contributed to the album by providing drum samples and Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) contributed to the album. (Via Pitchfork)
Original Text The National announced today the title of their new album, Trouble Will Find Me. The sixth album for the band is set for a release on 4AD on May 20/21 and was described by frontman Matt Berninger as more“immediate and visceral.”
“For the past ten years we’d been chasing something, wanting to prove something,” frontman Matt Berninger said. “And this chase was about trying to disprove our own insecurities. After touring High Violet, I think we felt like we’d finally gotten there. Now we could relax—not in terms of our own expectations but we didn’t have to prove our identity any longer.”
The National also announced a full tour behind the release, which kicks off in Ithaca, N.Y. at the State theater and wraps up in Colorado at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Check out the album’s tracklist and the band’s tour dates below.
Trouble Will Find Me Tracklist
1). I Should Live in Salt
2). Demons
3). Don’t Swallow the Cap
4). Fireproof
5). Sea of Love
6). Heaenfaced
7). This is the Last Time
8). Graceless
9). Slipped
10). I Need My Girl
11). Humiliation
12). Pink Rabbits
13). Hard to Find
May
16 – Ithaca, N.Y. @ State Theater
26 – Boston, Mass. @ Boston Calling/City Hall Plaza
June
5 – Brooklyn, N.Y. @ Barclay’s Center
6 – Columbia, Md. @ Merriweather Post Pavillion
7 – Philadelphia, Pa. @ Mann Center for Performing Arts
8 – Richmond, Va. @ The National
10 – Raleigh, N.C. @ Red Hat Amphitheatre
11 – Pittsburgh, Pa. @ Stage AE
13 – Montreal, Canada @ Lachine Canal
14 – Toronto, Canada @ Yonge Dundas Square
15 – Columbus, Ohio @ The LC Pavilion
13-16 – Manchester, Tenn. @ Bonnaroo
21 – Scheessel, Germany @ Hurricane Festival
22 – Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany @ Southside Festival
25 – Cirque Royal @ Brussels, Belgium
28 – Cork, Ireland @ Live at the Marquee
30 – Rome, Italy @ Parco Della Musica
July
1 – Milan, Italy @ City Sound Festival
2 – Zagreb, Croatia @ Salata
14 – Cincinnati, Ohio @ Bunbury Music Festival
August
6 – St. Paul, Minn. @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium
10 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Greek Theatre
September
17 – Morrison, Colo. @ Red RocksYou Want an Estimate? Give Me Odds.
I was asked recently in a comment what I thought about the “No Estimates Movement.” In the interests of full disclosure, what I thought was, “I kinda remember that hashtag.” Well, almost. Coincidentally, when the comment was written to my blog, I had just recently seen a friend reading this post and had read part of it myself. That was actually the point at which I thought, “I remember that hashtag.”
That sounds kind of flippant, but that’s really all that I remember about it. I think it was something like early 2014 or late 2013 when I saw that term bandied about in my feed, and I went and read a bit about it, but it didn’t really stick with me. I’ve now gone back and read a bit about it, and I think that’s because it’s not really a marketing teaser of a term, but quite literally what it advertises. “Hey, let’s not make estimates.” My thought at the time was probably just, “yeah, that sounds good, and I already try to minimize the amount of BS I spew forth, so this isn’t really a big deal for me.” Reading back some time later, I’m looking for deeper meaning and not really finding it.
Oh, there are certainly some different and interesting opinions floating around, but it really seems to be more bike-sheddy squabbling than anything else. It’s arguments like, “I’m not saying you shouldn’t size cards in your backlog — just that you shouldn’t estimate your sprint velocity” or “You don’t need to estimate if all of your story cards are broken into small enough chunks to be ones.” Those seem sufficiently tactical that their wisdom probably doesn’t extend too far beyond a single team before flirting with unknowable speculation that’d be better verified with experiments than taken as wisdom.
The broader question, “should I provide speculative estimates about software completion timelines,” seems like one that should be answered most honestly with “not unless you’re giving me pretty good odds.” That probably seems like an odd answer, so let me elaborate. I’m a pretty knowledgeable football fan and each year I watch preseason games and form opinions about what will unfold in the regular season. I play fantasy football, and tend to do pretty well at that, actually placing in the money more often than not. That, sort of by definition, makes me better than average (at least for the leagues that I’m in). And yet, I make really terrible predictions about what’s going to happen during the season.
At the beginning of this season, for instance, I predicted that the Bears were going to win their division (may have been something of a homer pick, but there it is). The Bears. The 5-11 Bears, who were outscored by the Packers something like 84-3 in the first half of a game and who have proceeded to fire everyone in their organization. I’m a knowledgeable football fan, and I predicted that the Bears would be playing in January. I predicted this, but I didn’t bet on it. And, I wouldn’t have bet even money on it. If you’d have said to me, “predict this year’s NFC North Division winner,” I would have asked what odds you were giving on the Bears, and might have thrown down a $25 bet if you were giving 4:1 odds. I would have said, when asked to place that bet, “not unless you’re giving me pretty good odds.”
Like football, software is a field in which I also consider myself pretty knowledgeable. And, like football, if you ask me to bet on some specific outcome six months from now, you’d better offer me pretty good odds to get me to play a sucker’s game like that. It’d be fun to say that to some PMP asking you to estimate how long it would take you to make “our next gen mobile app.” “So, ballpark, what are we talking? Three months? Five?” Just look at him deadpan and say, “I’ll bite on 5 months if you give me 7:2 odds.” When he asks you what on earth you mean, just patiently explain that your estimate is 5 months, but if you actually manage to hit that number, he has to pay you 3.5 times the price you originally agreed on (or 3.5 times your salary if you’re at a product/service company, or maybe bump your equity by 3.5 times if it’s a startup).
See, here’s the thing. That’s how Vegas handles SWAGs, and Vegas does a pretty good job of profiting from the predictions racket. They don’t say, “hey, why don’t you tell us who’s going to win the Super Bowl, Erik, and we’ll just adjust our entire plan accordingly.”Berlin Basic Income is a local group that explores strategies to implement a universal basic income (UBI), including unconventional methods that may start outside of the usual political process (e.g. the Ethereum based basic income cryptocurrency "Circles (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsQ-kERiH0)").
This month, we are honored to feature one of Germany's most renowned UBI advocates, Stefan Füsers, hailing from Hamburg. After completing two interdisciplinary Master degrees in European Studies and in International Studies, he began a career in climate change awareness and in transdisciplinary sciences. He is a member of the executive council of the German Basic Income Network and a founding member of the UBIE (Unconditional Basic Income Europe). For over ten years, he has been actively involved in several NGOs and independent projects to promote a basic income as part of a socially and ecologically sustainable planet.
Füsers present an argument for the somewhat controversial concept of de-growth, the theory that overcoming the growth ideology of the current economic climate will result in a more socially and ecologically sustainable system. He will expand upon the idea that degrowth will provide a stable foundation upon which social welfare systems, such as UBI, can flourish with minimal adverse environmental effects.
The talk will be preceded by the usual global UBI update, and followed by Q&A. We hope to see you there, and newcomers and guests are always welcome.
In diesem Monat haben wir die Ehre, einen von Deutschlands bekanntesten UBI-Verfechtern, Stefan Füsers, aus Hamburg darzubieten. Nachdem er zwei interdisziplinäre Master-Abschlüsse in European Studies und International Studies erwarb, begann er eine Karriere in Klimawandlaufklärung und transdisziplinärer Wissenschaft. Er ist Vorstandsmitglied des Netzwerks Grundeinkommen und Gründungsmitglied des UBIE (Universal Basic Income Europe). Seit zehn Jahren ist er aktiv an mehreren NGOs und unabhängigen Projekten beteiligt um das Grundeinkommen als Teil einer sozial und ökonomisch nachhaltigen Welt voranzubringen.
Füsers argumentiert für das leicht kontroverse Konzept des „de-growth“, der Theorie, dass die Überwindung der Wachstumsideologie des derzeitigen ökonomischen Klimas zu einem sozial und ökologisch nachhaltigeren System führen wird. Er wird die Idee ausführen, dass de-growth ein stabiles Fundament hervorbringen kann, auf dem soziale Wohlfahrtssysteme wie UBI mit minimalen ökonomischen Nebenwirkungen gedeihen kann.
Facebook: Basic Income Berlin (https://www.facebook.com/groups/665978780207953/)
e-mail: [masked]
Slack: basicincomeberlin.slack.com
NEW!!! UBI cafe website: http://www.cafe-grundeinkommen.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~An ambitious goal to describe 10 million species in less than 50 years is achievable and necessary to sustain Earth’s biodiversity, according to an international group of 39 scientists, scholars and engineers who provided a detailed plan, including measures to build public support.
“Earth’s biosphere has proven to be a vast frontier that, even after centuries of exploration, remains largely uncharted,” wrote the authors, who include biodiversity crusaders Edward O. Wilson and Peter H. Raven.
“Exploring the biosphere is much like exploring the universe,” the authors argued. “The more we learn, the more complex and surprising the biosphere and its story turn out to be.”
By most estimates, about 2 million of Earth’s species are known, with about 18,000 new plants and animals discovered each year. Experts estimate at least 10 million species on Earth are yet to be discovered or accurately classified. These species are tiny, large, buried, hidden in collections, or in plain sight.
Raven, President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, has said that roughly 30 percent of Earth’s species will become extinct this century. He and the other co-authors pointed out: “For the first time in human history, the rate of species extinction may exceed that of species discovery.”
“The time is ripe for a comprehensive mission |
What if you couldn’t go on?
A recent and recently frequent contributor to the Prepper Journal, Bolo asked me the following question the other day.
What would you do if someone in your group became unable to continue the journey? This frequently happens with smuggling groups, where a person is suffering from hyperthermia or has a heart attack or stroke. Predictably, the “Coyote” guide will abandon them in the desert and continue on with the rest of his group. He has a schedule to maintain, a pre-set load up area, and a pay day to think about. Many of these people die where they were left on the trail and the Coyote would be facing murder charges if he was apprehended
I think Bolo was framing this question from the perspective of a bug out scenario that involved his local regional desert environment but the risks aren’t limited to long treks over barren stretches of uninhabited land. The potential for circumstances arising in your group that would cause you to be forced to stop or radically change your travel plans are common to every prepper I think and I found this question intriguing because it wasn’t something I had spent too much time thinking about.
Never leave a man behind?
There is an unspoken bond as humans that we share that compels us to take care of other people we are with. This could be obvious bonds like you have with your family members, friends or even acquaintances. It could also be not as obvious as in the case of people we might not know from Adam, but find ourselves traveling with. Passengers who are involved in plane crashes or commuting accidents, shoppers at a mall under attack from religious fanatics or guests at a hotel involved in a bombing are frequently cited as helping one another out during and after the disaster even though they have no tangible vested interest in offering assistance. Instead of running in the opposite direction to protect their own lives, many people rush into danger at a very real risk to their own safety simply because they are driven by some innate compulsion to help. I can say now while I am sitting in my chair typing on my computer that I think I would always do the same thing for my fellow humans but is that really true?
The U.S. Army’s Soldier’s Creed has as one of its lines: I will never leave a fallen comrade. This is simple to understand and I never questioned it when I served in the military. Though I did not see combat, I believe that I would have lived that creed out in whatever capacity to the best of my abilities. Your comrades are your brothers in arms who are right there with you in harm’s way. You would want them to help you get home and you would willingly do the same for any of them.
But… if SHTF and we as families with children and groups of like-minded individuals, not an Army with transportation and resupply capabilities, are forced to abandon the relative safety and shelter of our homes; are things different? Going back to earlier, I have to believe that if I am bugging out with my family, things are bad. This isn’t, the roads are out and the power won’t be back on for a few days bad. It is danger serious and we fear for our lives bad. In this case, anything that prevents you from escaping that situation could end up killing you.
Using Bolo’s example of his series on Covering Your Tracks where your survival group is forced to flee from some force who is tracking you; speed of travel has to be a factor in there somewhere. If you aren’t able to travel faster than your pursuers, while hopefully not leaving any tracks, you could eventually be caught. Anything that prevents your travel to that safer destination is potentially a risk to your entire group.
Tough Decisions
I think about this from a couple of different viewpoints because I do have people in my family who would simply not be able to make it if they were forced to bug out. For health or age reasons some of my relatives might decide that they would rather die where they were than try to begin a long and arduous journey they knew for themselves anyway, was next to impossible. This is its own moral dilemma. Do you leave someone behind to face certain death or do you bring them along with you understanding that eventually they will not be able to continue, may hate you for it and could face death in the wilderness possibly exposing you to greater danger in the process?
Another aspect would be people traveling with you who are perhaps part of your group. Like the people on that ferry crossing a body of water, you are traveling together. Perhaps you know them but it may be that you have no relationship with them other than your shared survival instincts. Maybe these are neighbors. What if one of them becomes injured and is unable to continue? What if they must be carried and this slows your group down? How much risk are you willing to accept for someone you don’t know if it means putting people you do know and love at risk? These arent your buddies sent with you on a mission somewhere overseas, these could be relative strangers.
The problem with this thought exercise is that as Bolo rightly pointed out; there are too many “what-ifs” to offer anything more than a lot of different scenarios for us to contemplate. What is the disaster that has forced you from your home? Are you fleeing from anyone in particular or is this a general need to get to a safer environment that allows you some flexibility with movement and time? How serious are the injuries or circumstances that are affecting the person? Would they be able to continue the journey with medical care or rest? Can you afford the detour necessary and potential delays to provide the care needed to them? Is there even the possibility of medical care in this SHTF scenario? Are they injured past the point of care that you can provide? Are they telling you to go on without them because they know they are slowing you down or jeopardizing the group? Do you leave them with some food, water and extra ammo for their rifle, or do you give them one bullet and your throw away pistol?
What if this is your diabetic, overweight mother who simply can’t handle the stress or physical activity required to make the trek and refuses to budge any longer? What if they give up on you?
Like some posts on the Prepper Journal, I am going to have to say I don’t know what I would do. I can make statements and plans now, but I don’t think any of us really know what we will do in some cases do until we do it. I think the concept of never leave a man behind is noble. I’d like to believe I would try to live up to that creed, but would I jeopardize my children to honor that promise? Would I sacrifice my wife’s safety for a stranger? It may be that for the safety of others you are forced to choose between one life and the lives of many. I honestly don’t know and like other circumstances we discuss I hope I never have to find out what I would do.
What do you think? Could you leave someone behind if you had to?A dating website that helps married people cheat has been hit by hackers who threatened to release information about millions of customers.
Ashley Madison, which uses the advertising slogan “Life is short. Have an affair,” said Monday it had been attacked and some user data was stolen.
Brian Krebs, the blogger behind Krebs on Security, first reported the breach late on Sunday. Krebs said the hackers posted some data and were threatening to release all Ashley Madison’s customer records if their demands were not met.
“We were recently made aware of an attempt by an unauthorized party to gain access to our systems,” Avid Life Media, the parent company of Ashley Madison, said in a statement. The company said that while it had stringent security measure in place, they “have unfortunately not prevented this attack.”
“At this time, we have been able to secure our sites, and close the unauthorized access points,” company said. “We are working with law enforcement agencies, which are investigating this criminal act.”
Ashley Madison is a dating website, with one important twist: Instead of connecting eligible singles, it caters to married people interested in having an affair. The site claims to have 37 million members, and has in the past bragged about its data security.
The site is an obvious target for hackers. After all, its databases have enormous potential for use in blackmail schemes.
The hackers — or hacker, perhaps — appear to be upset over the company’s “full delete” service, which promises to completely erase a user’s profile, and all associated data, for a $19 fee.
“Full Delete netted [Avid Life Media] $1.7 million in revenue in 2014. It’s also a complete lie,” the hackers were quoted as saying in a manifesto published by Krebs. “Users almost always pay with credit card; their purchase details are not removed as promised, and include real names and address, which is of course the most important information the users want removed.”
Related: Irony alert: Password-storing company is hacked
The hackers called themselves the “Impact Team.” If Ashley Madison is not taken offline, they have threatened to “release customer records, including profiles with all the customers’ secret sexual fantasies and matching credit card transactions, real names and addresses, and employee documents and emails.”
In a later statement Monday, Avid Life Media said that it had hired “one of the world’s top IT security teams” to work on the breach, and had successfully removed all posts by the hackers that contained user data. It gave no further details.
The hack follows a similar event in March, when more than 3.5 million people’s sexual preferences, fetishes and secrets were exposed after dating site Adult FriendFinder was hacked.
Adult FriendFinder, which boasts 64 million members, claims to have “helped millions of people find traditional partners, swinger groups, threesomes, and a variety of other alternative partners.”
Included in the exposed personal information are customers’ email addresses, usernames, passwords, birthdays and zip codes, in addition to their sexual preferences.
CNNMoney (Hong Kong) July 20, 2015: 6:32 AM ETThe Federal Office Building, Seattle, Washington is a historic federal office building located at Seattle in King County, Washington.
Building history [ edit ]
According to local tradition, the Federal Office Building in Seattle is located on the site where city founders A.A. Denny, William Bell, and C.D. Boren docked their boat after making initial surveys of Puget Sound and its harbors in 1851. On June 6, 1889, the Great Seattle fire, which destroyed more than 64 acres (260,000 m2) of the commercial district, started in a cabinet shop at the site of the Federal Office Building.[2]
Seattle rebuilt after the fire, and in 1897 its port became the "Gateway to Alaska" for steamships bearing prospectors bound for Alaska and the Klondike Gold Rush. The city's population burgeoned, and the federal government decided to consolidate the location of its services. In 1928, Congress approved more than $2 million for site acquisition and construction. Officials selected a site bounded by Madison and Marion streets and First and Western avenues. The building was designed between 1930 and 1931 by the Office of the Supervising Architect under James A. Wetmore. One of the earliest federal buildings in the Art Deco style of architecture, the building's design was a departure from the more traditional styles of Classical Revival and Beaux Arts Classicism and a step toward more modern architectural styles that were gaining popularity. However, the building retains conventional symmetrical massing and proportion.[2]
Construction was completed in 1933 by the Murch Construction Company of St. Louis, Missouri. The building used substantial amounts of aluminum from smelters along the nearby Columbia River. It was the first building in Seattle designed specifically to house offices for the federal government. Among its first tenants were 52 federal agencies, the largest of which was the Department of the Treasury.[2]
Today, the building is located among three significant historic areas: Pioneer Square, Pike Place Market, and the waterfront. The Henry M. Jackson Federal Building, located across the street, was constructed from 1975 to 1976.[2] In 1979, the Federal Office Building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[1]
Architecture [ edit ]
The Federal Office Building is an exuberant example of Art Deco architecture. One of the earliest Modern styles, Art Deco architecture emphasizes verticality and is heavily ornamented with stylized, geometric motifs. The facade is stepped, with the outer portions rising from six stories to nine stories, while the central tower reaches eleven stories in height. The tower is topped by a ziggurat (stepped pyramid) with a flagpole at its apex. Corner towers rise slightly above the ridgeline.[2]
The building is constructed of a steel frame encased in concrete for additional fire protection. The design is also notable for its use of aluminum, which was installed as cast spandrel panels between windows on the third through sixth floors. The panels, which depict either insignia of various federal agencies or decorative geometric designs, were one of the earliest substantial uses of aluminum on a West Coast building.[2]
The building rests atop a granite foundation. Smooth terracotta, which lends the appearance of stone, covers the first story and is punctuated by segmental-arch openings on the facade. The midsection is clad in light red brick and is topped by elaborate stylized ornamentation executed in pale terra cotta.[2]
On the facade, three centrally located entrances are articulated by vertical pale terra-cotta ornamentation that includes miniature ram and lion heads. A stylized eagle motif is centrally placed above the entrance, and bronze lanterns provide light. Two five-foot-tall, cast-bronze urns, which were relocated from the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, flank the entrance. They feature stylized geometric decorations.[2]
Often, the rear elevations of buildings are less visible and therefore less ornamented, but because the rear of the Federal Office Building faces Western Avenue, an important thoroughfare, all elevations are extensively detailed. The building's cornerstone and two plaques commemorating the Great Seattle Fire of 1889 are located near where the fire began.[2]
Interior public spaces are heavily ornamented with Art Deco materials and motifs. Access is gained through the First Avenue entrance into a vestibule with cast-bronze moldings and bronze-and-glass doors which lead to a public lobby and the post office. The public lobby floor is covered with dark red terra-cotta tile with cross strips and baseboards of Tokeen marble from Alaska. Walls are clad in light gray Wilkeson sandstone, and a coffered ceiling tops the space. Several original bronze, reverse-pyramid light fixtures remain in the lobby. A nearby elevator lobby has four elevators with original cast-bronze doors bearing floral Art Deco motifs.[2]
At the north end of the vestibule is the U.S. Post Office, which is reached through an opening flanked by stained oak pilasters (attached columns). The postal lobby, which is nearly unchanged since building construction, is one of the most significant interior spaces. Two original postal service windows are cased in stained oak with simple scroll brackets and carved lintels. The floor is covered in polished, dark red, terra-cotta tile with a coved base molding. Stained oak, tongue-in-groove wainscot reaches a height of three feet around the perimeter of the postal lobby and is capped by a stained oak rail. Above the rail, plaster walls are finished in a heavily stippled texture. Plaster cove molding tops the walls and has a fruit-and-leaf design.[2]
Significant events [ edit ]
1851: Seattle founders land on Federal Office Building site
1889: Seattle Fire starts at Federal Office Building site
1931-1933: Federal Office Building constructed
1975-1976: Jackson Federal Building constructed
1979: Federal Office Building listed in the National Register of Historic Places
Building facts [ edit ]
Location: 909 First Avenue
Architect: James A. Wetmore
Construction Dates: 1931-1933
Architectural Style: Art Deco
Landmark Status: Listed in the National Register of Historic Places
Primary Materials: Red Brick and Terra Cotta
Prominent Features: Central tower with ziggurat; Art Deco ornamentation
References [ edit ]
Attribution [ edit ]“Mountain View,” Paul Graham intoned, “is sort of the center of Silicon Valley.”
The co-founder of Y Combinator was speaking of the city’s place on the map while showing a recent visitor around his startup hothouse. But there’s a strong argument that the title applies in another important way.
San Francisco may get the sizzle, and prices for Palo Alto office space may be soaring, but quiet little Mountain View could be the heart of the valley’s startup landscape.
Consider the big-kahuna investors who gathered at Y Combinator’s semiannual Demo Day last week. As a gaggle of geeks pitched their fledgling companies, Netscape co-founder turned venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sat next to Michael Ovitz, the former Disney president and longtime Hollywood power broker. Ron Conway, tech’s most high-profile angel investor, held court not far from actor/heartthrob/Web 2.0 impresario Ashton Kutcher.
Thanks in part to the city’s biggest corporate tenant — that would be Google (GOOG) — startups are flocking to the scene. They range from classic, two-guys-and-a-surfboard garages to the more buttoned-down offices of online-video provider Ooyala, which has landed $44 million in venture backing and counts ESPN and Dell among its customers.
“Shortly after we moved to downtown Mountain View, it became like a Google refugee camp,” said Ooyala co-founder Bismarck Lepe, who left the search giant in 2007 to hang out his own shingle.
Google owns or leases more than 4 million square feet of office space in town and is making plans to boost that by at least one-quarter. Ex-Googlers have spun off a host of startups nearby, and the company’s venture capital arm incubates a handful of its own.
Microsoft, meanwhile, boasts a 32-acre campus in town that’s the hub of the software titan’s BizSpark outreach program to startups. Then there’s 500 Startups, the incubator launched by early PayPal employee Dave McClure that opened shop earlier this year atop the city’s tallest downtown high-rise.
As for Y Combinator, it ended up in Mountain View through serendipity: Co-founder Trevor Blackwell had extra space in the headquarters of his robotics startup, Anybots.
“People want to be in Palo Alto, but they can’t afford it,” Graham said. “Mountain View’s livable, has good weather and is near San Francisco.”
Lepe added to that laundry list good access to area airports and freeways. “It’s close to Sand Hill Road without being right next door, where you would have to run into venture capitalists every day,” he quipped.
David Lieb and Jake Mintz dropped out of business school at the University of Chicago and moved to Mountain View in 2009 after founding Bump Technologies, which lets people exchange contact information, photos and other digital data simply by knocking their smartphones together.
The fast-growing startup — Bump says it adds up to 150,000 new users a day — recently outgrew its digs near Y Combinator, and Lieb acknowledged the allure of San Francisco. But, he said, “We still see incredible talent in the valley.” To make life easier for employees who live in the City by the Bay, he and his co-founders picked new offices near Mountain View’s Caltrain station.
To be sure, Mountain View doesn’t have exclusive rights to the startup picture. Plug and Play Tech Center, for instance, houses nearly 400 of them at incubators in Sunnyvale, Palo Alto and Redwood City. Palo Alto officials, for their part, say they don’t track the number of startups in their city.
Still, compared to some of its competitors, Mountain View has “always had a little bit of a homier feel,” said Nick Chaput, who opened coffee shop Dana Street Roasting Co. during the dot-com boom. After weathering the bust and two recessions, he sees neighboring buildings once more filled with new tech firms.
“It’s nice to have Atherton or Woodside as your home address,” Chaput said. “It’s nice to have Mountain View as your business address.”
While Mountain View officials likewise don’t keep a tally of how many startups are in town, Tiffany Chew of the city’s economic development office said there are more than 100 in less than one square mile of downtown alone.
“We try to make ourselves accessible to the startup and tech industry,” she said. That includes attending startup events, introducing startups to local landlords and real estate brokers and walking entrepreneurs through the planning and building process.
“We want to let them know we’re supportive,” Chew said. “The city has become a niche for these kinds of companies.”
Officials in San Jose say they also work to help startups find office space and employees, clear permitting hurdles and make connections to potential partners and customers. Yet they concede that budget travails can limit other outreach efforts.
And the City Council is currently embroiled in controversy over a newly unearthed report that concluded San Jose’s tech incubators, despite receiving $30 million from taxpayers over the past two decades, have generated few jobs — partly because most of those startups didn’t stay in town.
Mountain View, too, faces the challenge of keeping fledglings from flying the coop.
Jessica Livingston, another Y Combinator co-founder (and Graham’s wife), said many entrepreneurs her group backs eventually head to San Francisco. The South of Market neighborhood there is so startup-crammed that it’s a flashback to the dot-com era.
Lepe acknowledged that as Ooyala looks to more than double its payroll to 500 in the next couple of years, “We may require more square footage than Mountain View can support.”
Travis Biziorek and Jim Nguyen can only dream for now of that kind of growth. The duo last fall founded Kibin, an online community for people to critique each other’s writing. They just graduated from the 500 Startups program and are seeking seed funding.
But even as they look forward to making their first hires, they’re hoping to keep their workspace at 500 Startups, which is a bit like a fraternity house basement crammed with newbie companies.
“We love it there,” Biziorek said, speaking not just of the incubator but downtown as a whole. “It truly feels like home.”
Contact Peter Delevett at 408-271-3638. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercwiretap.By Scott DiSavino
(Reuters) – U.S. natural gas pipeline company NiSource Inc said it shut part of its key Columbia Gulf Transmission interstate natural gas pipeline following an explosion in Adair County, Kentucky that injured at least one person.
The blast early Thursday morning engulfed and destroyed homes and cars, authorities said.
The explosion and fire in Knifley, Kentucky, about 90 miles south of Louisville, could be seen “just as plain as day” from Columbia, about 12 miles from the blaze, a local police officer said.
“Columbia Gulf operating teams detected a drop in pressure on the company’s Line 200 pipeline in Adair County. Our operating crews immediately responded to the alert and determined that there was a rupture in the pipeline,” the company said in a statement.
“We activated our emergency response procedures and took steps to isolate the damaged portion of the pipeline. The flow of gas was stopped to the damaged pipeline shortly thereafter,” the statement said.
“We don’t yet know the cause but will be working with the appropriate authorities to conduct a thorough and complete investigation,” the company said.
Columbia Gulf Transmission consists of approximately 3,400 miles of pipeline and 11 compressor stations with nearly half-a-million horsepower, located primarily in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the company website.
The Columbia system is interconnected to virtually every major pipeline system operating in the Gulf Coast and interconnects with pipelines serving markets in the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast.
Police were notified of an explosion at about 1 a.m. local time (0200 ET) on Thursday, Thomas, the Adair County official, said.
The explosion spawned multiple woodland and structural fires, Thomas said. Three homes were set ablaze, two of them were fully destroyed, as well as two barns and four cars.
The one injured person was sent to an area hospital but the extent of injuries was not known, Thomas said.
In addition, some in the community near where the pipeline exploded were evacuated.
The fires had largely been contained and were being allowed to burn out, said Adair County Emergency Management Director Greg Thomas.
BAD DAY TO LOSE A PIPELINE
Natural gas traders and analysts said this was a tough day to lose a big pipeline due to the winter storm battering the East Coast. The pipeline supplies some of the fuel used to heat millions of homes and businesses in the Northeast and Midwest.
“An explosion on a major pipeline from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast could send spot natural gas prices in the Northeast soaring,” said Phil Flynn of Price Futures Group in Chicago.
It is too early for next-day natural gas prices to trade on the IntercontinentalExchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural gas futures for March were trading up about 3.2 percent, or 15 cents, to $4.975 per million British thermal units at 7:06 EST.
Columbia Gulf is part of NiSource’s Columbia Pipeline Group, which owns and operates more than 15,700 miles of natural gas pipelines serving customers in more than 16 states and one of the largest underground storage systems in North America.
Approximately 1.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas flows the Columbia Pipeline systems each year, according to the company’s website.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York and Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Catherine Evans, Jeffrey Benkoe and Sofina Mirza-Reid)Here’s a Building That Makes Money Selling Electricity
Sipéa builds and runs social housing in Poitiers, central France. The buildings are very green, so much s that their use of energy is actually net-negative. In this way the building actually earns a little income from selling its excess power from the solar roof. This little extra comes in handy when when you are running a non-profit.
This new building houses Sipea headquarters. It was designed so that…
the operating cost would be negative : the selling to the grid of the electricity produced by the solar roof incorporated into the south-facing side on the roof more than offsets the running costs of the buildings energy use for heating and cooling.
The rooftop solar produces 9,000 kilowatt-hours a year of electricity, and manages to use far less than that itself.
Due to PassivHaus construction (basically; lots of insulation)Â the heating and cooling requirements of the building are negligible, thanks to careful design and construction. The roof is a kind of see-through solar that is not yet available in the US. Then it is sandwhiched between layers of glass to be super energy efficient: not lose heat or gain it.
The roof does let natural lighting in though, affording a dappled protection against direct solar glare, while reducing the heat loss and producing electricity. The cells are spaced out between two sheets of glass, mounted in between the double-glazed sun-roof.
The yearly operation of the building requires very little active heating, thanks to PassivHaus insulation (22 cm of cellulosic wool in the outer walls) and it needs no active cooling at all, just ventilation.
Even with this highly efficient design, the construction costs were only $207 a square foot and the yearly operating costs are lower than their previous – much smaller headquarters.
Images: Flikr user paspog
Source: Sipea
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You can receive our articles for free in your email inbox or subscribe to our RSS feed. Just enter your email below for the email subscription: | Buy | PrintIntel isn't generally in the business of selling mobile devices, though it makes an exception when it comes to educational products. It already offers the classmate PC laptops, and now it has rolled out a pair of school-friendly tablets.
The Intel Education Tablets come in 7-inch and 10-inch versions, each running a version of Android. The 7-inch flavor uses an Intel Atom Z2420 processor and runs Android 4.1, while the 10-inch model is powered by an Atom 2460 chip and Android 4.0. Each comes with 1GB of RAM, with the 7-inch Education Tablet including 8GB of flash storage and the 10-inch version coming with 16GB.
More important than the raw hardware specs, however, are the learning tools that Intel puts at the center of the Education Tablet experience. The built-in software suite includes apps for science and art, an electronic textbook reader, and camera-based software for science-related projects. The 10-inch tablet includes a digital stylus (available as an option for the 7-inch model), and other optional accessories include a snap-on magnifying lens for the rear-facing camera as well as a temperature probe.
To help manage a school's stable of Education Tablets, Intel also packages a classroom management app and security software like Parents Carefree and Intel Education Theft Deterrent. More information about the Education Tablets can be found on the Intel website.
Because these are to be volume purchased by education institutions, Intel Education Tablets aren't readily available to consumers, and hence it's not surprising that pricing information has not yet been provided. The devices will face stiff competition for the classroom, however, as Microsoft, Dell, Sony, and others (even News Corp ) are attempting to make inroads against Apple's traditional turf and its popular (albeit pricier) iPad.A bill introduced Thursday in the New Hampshire state assembly seeks to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of ailments eligible for medical marijuana treatment, which was legalized in 2013 but remains hard to obtain in the Granite State.
The proposed legislation comes as New Hampshire grapples with an opioid addiction and overdose crisis. Medical marijuana advocates argue that better access to cannabis would offer an alternative means of pain relief to people now using painkillers or heroin. In 2015 the state’s medical examiner attributed 385 deaths to opiates, almost double the 192 fatalities in 2013, according to New Hampshire Public Radio.
Also, adding PTSD to the list of illnesses approved for cannabis treatment could provide another option to people who’ve found no relief with standard anti-anxiety or antidepressant medication, advocates say.
A University of New Hampshire poll last year found strong backing for the legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana, with support levels growing each year.
Joe Lachance, a Republican state assemblyman who co-sponsored the PTSD measure, is one of the 62 medical marijuana cardholders in the state of 1.6 million people. A military veteran and former police officer, Lachance said he suffers from chronic pain and PTSD, ailments only marijuana has helped ease. He also said marijuana helped him kick an opiate habit.
“I can tell you, yes, it does work,” Lachance told Al Jazeera. “We have an opioid overdose crisis, and by allowing legal access to cannabis we could reduce overdose rates by 30 percent,” he added. “You don’t get addicted to marijuana. But you get addicted to opioids physically.”
Opioid painkillers including hydrocodone and oxycodone are all legal for prescription in New Hampshire, but widespread dependence on them led the state’s medical board last November to restrict how much doctors can prescribe. Lachance said this move prompted some painkiller addicts to turn to heroin.
But Lachance said that almost three years after the passage of the state’s medical marijuana law, there still isn’t a single dispensary open in the state. He has to go to neighboring Maine to legally buy his medical marijuana.
Lachance said veterans are particularly vulnerable to painkiller addiction and the ravages of PTSD. Some drugs meant to treat the disorder have side effects that include impotence and have been linked to suicide.
“Veterans are dying every day from PTSD. If I could help one person, one kid, one soldier, one rape victim, then I’ll have done my work,” he said.
But New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, has stood in the way, Lachance said. He believes that Hassan has “buyer’s remorse” over signing the bill into law, and that she has set up a series of hurdles to making medical marijuana available.
For example, until recently the governor’s office declined to allow the issue of medical marijuana cards, saying they shouldn’t be available until dispensaries had opened. But in December, a woman suffering from late-stage cancer won a lawsuit against the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, forcing the agency to start issuing cards, the Union Leader newspaper reported. The cards allow for the legal possession of up to two ounces, or 50 grams, of marijuana.
The state’s first dispensary, Sanctuary ATC, will likely open by March, Lachance said.
New Hampshire remains a deeply conservative state in some ways. Many residents believe marijuana acts as a gateway drug that opens young people to heroin and other hard drugs. The Union Leader editorial board came out forcefully against marijuana legalization bills introduced earlier this week.
William Hinkle, a spokesman for Hassan, said that the governor understands “how debilitating PTSD can be for those who suffer from the condition” — including many veterans — and that she has worked to make permanent state aid to those suffering from PTSD and brain injuries. But she believes marijuana isn't the answer.
“The most effective treatment for PTSD is to consult a mental health professional,” Hinkle said. “Use of medical marijuana by those who suffer from PTSD can discourage them from seeking appropriate mental health care when experiencing symptoms, raising significant concerns about including the condition in the bipartisan legislation that the Governor signed.”
Although research in the area has just begun, anecdotal evidence and recent studies indicate significant decreases in PTSD symptoms, including anxiety and depression, in people prescribed medical marijuana. Some veterans say smoking pot decreases the frequency of nightmares.
Unless legalization bills introduced earlier this week pass, veterans or anyone else caught with marijuana in New Hampshire can expect to face criminal charges. Although it’s decriminalized in the neighboring states of Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine, possession of a joint in New Hampshire can send a person to jail.
“New Hampshire is a police state,” said Rick Naya, the executive director of the New Hampshire chapter the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Naya said he warned state policymakers 10 years ago of the dangers of reliance on painkillers.
“By stuffing opiates down people’s throats, it’s going to create a problem. You guys are going to have a heroin epidemic. You’re going to see it. And in the last two years, it is just out of control,” Naya said. “You can get stoned on marijuana and not chase a dragon that’s going to kill you.”Updated 2:41 p.m. ET
A small asteroid will buzz the Earth late Friday EDT (early Saturday GMT), flying just inside the orbit of the moon. It should pass safely by our home planet, according to a crack team of NASA space rock trackers.
The space rock, named 2009 TM8, was just discovered Thursday by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. It will get within 216,000 miles (348,000 km) of Earth when it zooms by at a speed of about 18,163 mph (29,232 kph).
"That's slightly closer than the orbit of our moon," NASA's Asteroid Watch team said Friday via Twitter.
The time of closest approach will be 0344 GMT Saturday, or 11:44 p.m. EDT tonight.
The asteroid hunters at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., stands on constant watch for rogue space rocks that could pose an impact risk to Earth. It was the same team which, last week, scaled back the risk of another asteroid – a large space rock called Apophis – hitting the Earth in 2036.
Compared to Apophis, which is as large as two football fields, 2009 TM8 is tiny. It is about 30 feet (7 meters) across and was discovered Thursday by skywatchers, JPL officials told SPACE.com.
Such close passes are not unheard of. With smaller objects, which are hard to find, announcements like this often come at the last minute. Researchers say there is a risk, however, of Earth eventually being hit by an undetected small asteroid that could cause heavy localized or even regional damage.
So what would happen if an object like this did strike?
"If it's typical density, it would create a 4 kiloton explosion in the Earth's atmosphere if it were to hit, which of course it won't," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "You'd expect an object of this size to fly within the orbit of the moon every few days or so."
Most simply aren't spotted.
"There're about 7 million of these objects in the near-Earth space; needless to say we have discovered only a small fraction of them." Yeomans said.
An asteroid this size can hit the Earth once every seven years or so, he said.
Professional and amateur skywatchers are expected to keep a close eye on 2009 TM8 over the next few days to refine its path through space. Additional observations will help astronomers pin down the rock's entire track around the sun. "We'll have this orbit nailed within a couple days or so," Yeomans said.
While NASA tends to focus on larger asteroid threats and has found most of the big asteroid that could eventually threaten our planet, monitoring the smaller space rocks is also vital, Yeomans said. "They're sort of Mother Nature's way of shooting a few across the bow to make sure we pay attention."UFC president Dana White has defended his decision to ban Mark Hunt on medical grounds, saying the Aussie heavyweight even refused first class tickets to a brain specialist in the US.
This is White’s full letter, obtained exclusively by The Daily Telegraph.
DANA WHITE’S FULL LETTER
Mark Hunt was never “cleared” to fight Marcin Tybura in Sydney, Australia this November. Period. And the statements he’s been making, saying that he is, are just not true.
Let me tell you what I know.
Mark Hunt recently wrote an op-ed piece for an Australian website that described some serious symptoms.
He wrote that he’s starting to stutter and slur his words.
He wrote that he’s not sleeping well.
He wrote that he can’t remember something he did yesterday.
These are his words, from him, but now he’s saying it was taken out of context. How can you take your own words out of context? So you know what I did? My team contacted his management within the first week of learning about these symptoms and offered to fly him to Las Vegas first class to visit the Lou Ru |
of God is the human being fully alive and that this includes people who are gay.
If Ireland votes Yes, it will be about much more than marriage. It will end institutional homophobia. It will say to gay people that they belong, that it’s safe to surface and live fully human, loving lives. If it’s true that 10 per cent of any population are gay, then there could be 400,000 gay people out there; many of them still living in emotional prisons. Any of them could be your son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father or best friend. Set them free. Allow them live full lives.
Ursula Halligan is political editor of TV3I received my order from Shiro’s 5th Anniversary Sale. As you guys know, I am a big fan of Shiro’s products. I’ve ordered quite a few times, so there wasn’t a ton that I needed to pick up. But, turns out there was a deal where you got 10 random eyeshadows for $5, so of course I had to pick up a couple of those!
Consequently, I have a lot of swatches to do. So, I’m going to break this order up into a few posts. In this first post, I’ll cover the custom lipgloss I picked up.
The custom gloss wasn’t included on the sale, but I figured since I was paying shipping, I might as well grab one. I was thinking of order something safe, but then I remembered my test in Chimera gloss test. While it didn’t quite turn out using the crappy Wet n Wild clear lipgloss and eyeshadow, I still desperately wanted to see what this gorgeous pewter/copper color would look like. So, I picked it up in Moderate opacity in pumpkin cheesecake flavor.
Color: The color of this gloss in the tube looks like a dark bronze. Applied, it’s more dark pewter gray with a bronze sheen. It’s a lovely color. I don’t think it’s a color that looks good on me, but I think there are quite a few people this color would look badass on. Indoors, it has a really beautiful (but a bit too unconventional for me) greenish tint to it, almost like it’s the antiqued bronze that starts to slightly green. I love the color! In contrast, you can see that when you are in sunlight, the copper just explodes and looks absolutely amazing.
Opacity: I want to comment on opacity. So, I picked this up in moderate. I thought, based on my poor attempt of making a Chimera gloss, that it would be pretty sheer, which is sort of what I wanted. So I thought going for moderate would make it have color, but still be sheerish. Nope. It’s super opaque. In fact, I can’t even imagine how choosing the opaque option would be different! I’m not too upset about it being so much more opaque than expected, but it definitely was unexpected.
Wear: In terms of wear time, I find that Shiro glosses last a couple of hours, but they need touchups. It also wears from the center in, so something to keep an eye on. Putting on a layer, blotting, and applying a second layer helps with the longevity.
Flavor: So, at first, I thought my order had been messed up and my gloss was made with the cinnamon flavor. It smelled like cinnamon (not at all like pumpkin cheesecake) and it burned a bit on my lips. It’s not a terrible flavor, but I’m not a huge fan of cinnamon bubblegum, which is what this made me think of. If you like that stuff, you’d like this flavor. I tried to pretend the slight burning was a lip plumper. It just helped me cope with the tingling. That said… I probably will have to destash this at some point. The cinnamon is just too much for me. I’m too sensitive for it.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with this, although I don’t think I’ll really ever be able to use it. The color is more opaque than I was thinking it would be, but it’s absolutely gorgeous. For me, the flavor was the biggest problem. If you like cinnamon, you’ll like it, but for me, it was much too strong.
Incidentally, I did send Caitlin an email asking her if there was in fact cinnamon in the pumpkin cheesecake flavor, and she said that it’s a pretty spicy blend with a nutmeg/clove/cinnamon thing going on like pumpkin pie spice. Since it was something I am apparently sensitive to, she offered either a refund, a replacement gloss in a different flavor. As it turns out, she sent me the Come Out, Come Out Miyazaki lip tint, which I was super happy about. More to come on that one later.
As much of a gamble as it is buying these custom lipglosses, I find them to be a great adventure. I especially like picking ones up that I can’t find any other swatches online for. It makes me feel like I am an explorer, discovering something brand new! So, I’ll keep doing it. Eventually I’ll buckle down and get one in a normal color, though.
But for now, I’m going to keep on trying some cookey ones!
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PocketIstanbul (CNN) -- Mounting tensions between the government and members of Turkey's Kurdish ethnic minority erupted on the streets of the country's largest city Thursday, after Kurdish activists clashed with riot police at a protest organized by the main Kurdish nationalist political party.
Scores of Kurdish youths, many of them covering their face with bandannas, hurled stones and petrol bombs as security forces fired tear gas to try to disperse the crowds in Istanbul.
Amid the chaos near the banks of the Marmara Sea, a CNN producer witnessed a man collapse, apparently overwhelmed by the clouds of noxious tear gas. Nearby, flowers littered the pavement where a women's flower stand had been overturned.
The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Turkey's main Kurdish political party, organized rallies in Istanbul and other Turkish cities Thursday to mark "World Peace Day."
But the rallies come within weeks of a fresh Turkish military bombing campaign of Kurdish separatist rebels who have long operated out of camps and bases across the border in Northern Iraq.
Tensions escalated after a BDP official, Yildirim Ayhan, was killed Sunday during clashes with security forces on the Turkish side of the border. Ayhan was reportedly part of a group of Kurdish activists marching toward Iraq to serve as human shields against the Turkish aerial and artillery bombardment.
The protest in Istanbul Thursday began fairly peacefully. Women in traditional Kurdish costumes led a column of thousands of people, many of them waving BDP flags and carrying banners that said "peace now immediately" and "long live the brotherhood of people."
Since 1984, fighters from the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have waged a bloody guerrilla war against the Turkish state that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.
For decades, Kurds were the target of repressive government policies, implemented by officials who sometimes referred to members of Turkey's largest ethnic minority as "mountain Turks." Until just a few years ago, it was illegal to speak Kurdish on radio and television in Turkey. The government of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to improve relations by launching a state Kurdish language TV station in 2009.
Despite these steps, some of the demonstrators on Thursday chanted "Erdogan murderer" and chanted "Kurdistan will be the graveyard for fascism."
At one point in the march, BDP parliament member Sebahat Tuncel successfully negotiated with police officers who had objected to some of the political banners. The signs were taken down, and the march proceeded. But then CNN journalists witnessed dozens of young masked men emerge and begin hurling stones at bus stops.
Then chaos broke out.
As Kurdish youths hurled stones, police officers took cover behind fences firing round after round of tear gas into Kadikoy's main square. Frightened bystanders fled the scene choking. Meanwhile, protesters also lobbed Molotov cocktails into the melee.
At one point, CNN cameraman Joe Duran witnessed a mob of Kurdish activists viciously beating a man. Duran left the scene of the violence after members of the crowd turned on him and told him to turn off his camera.
A Turkish police commander told CNN there were approximately 3,000 protesters participating in the rally. The officer, who did not volunteer his name or rank, estimated only a minority of the demonstrators, some 150 people, participated in the violence.
But some Kurdish activists blamed the government for the clashes.
"Look, we are struggling for peace and Erdogan attacks us using tear gas," said Sabiha Sayan, a female demonstrator, dressed in the white hooded veil traditionally worn by many Kurdish women.
After a melee that lasted nearly two hours, demonstrators fled the scene. The ground was littered with shards glass from dozens of shattered bus stops and newspaper kiosques. Billboards advertising the face of Turkey's prime minister had been defaced with graphiti saying "the Arab Spring will come to Turkey and you will be on trial."
Commuters began gingerly stepping through debris and past overturned police barriers, some of them wincing at the tear gas still lingering in one of Istanbul's busiest transit hubs. A pair of tourists from Italy wandered through the gas-canister strewn square pulling their suitcases, looking in vain for a shuttlebus to the airport.
Other protests were scheduled to be held in other Turkish cities on Thursday, including the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of Turkey's Kurdish minority.
CNN's Joe Duran contributed to this reportFrom Chronicle Staff Writer Susan Slusser at the Coliseum
A’s manager Bob Melvin has done a lot of rehashing of last night’s 9-8 loss in 12 innings to the Royals in the American League wild-card game, and he said a lot of interesting things about some of the strategy in the game.
First, on not using Adam Dunn to pinch hit, Melvin reiterated what he said last night when I asked him: There wasn’t a right spot to use him. When Alberto Callaspo pinch-hit in the 12th (and drove in a run with a single), Melvin figured that the Royals would walk Dunn if he’d used him there. In the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs, he didn’t want to remove his regular shortstop, Jed Lowrie, in a game the A’s were leading – typically clubs rely on their veteran, everyday position players for defense when holding leads. (And Andy Parrino had barely played in a month, that’s a tough situation to put a little-used backup into.)
“I’m not going to take my shortstop out – I’m not, at a certain part of the game,” Melvin said. “It’s not something I’m going to do.”
Melvin didn’t pinch hit for Nick Punto in the 10th for the same reason – defense.
Melvin said “it kills me” that he was unable to use Dunn, though.
“I feel horrible, it’s an awful feeling,” Melvin said. “It never dawned me that he wasn’t going to be playing (Thursday) in Anaheim. It really never did. You have to win that game, hold him for the right spot.”
Melvin spoke to Dunn and Dunn told him: “Don’t you worry, we were trying to win the game and the spot didn’t come up.”
Melvin told Dunn, who has said he probably will retire this offseason, that he thinks he still has a lot of baseball in him. Dunn, 34, has 462 homers, 35th all-time; many of his friends and former teammates have tried to convince him to keep playing (Scott Hatteberg and Ken Griffey Jr. both told me they’ve done so) and Melvin said he’d always be happy to have Dunn play for him if the circumstances were right.
Now some pitching questions for Melvin: Why didn’t he use Fernando Abad rather than Dan Otero vs. Eric Hosmer in the 12th? (Hosmer tripled and scored on Christian Colon’s slow, high chopper to tie the game; Josh Donaldson didn’t have even a remote chance to get either player because of the high bounce off the plate.)
“If one thing sticks in there more than anything, it’s probably Abad for Hosmer,” Melvin said. “The plan when the inning started was if (Otero) gets (Lorenzo) Cain out, I’ll let him have Hosmer and we’ll see where they are with Colon or (Raul) Ibanez the next at-bat.”
The A’s did call a pitchout at the right time – Jason Hammel pitched out when Colon stole second, but catcher Derek Norris couldn’t handle the pitchout. Melvin said you can’t assume the out at second base in that case, anyway.
Melvin said he didn’t use Sean Doolittle in the eighth inning, rather than Luke Gregerson, because that part of the lineup had more hitters who handle lefties better than some other spots in the KC lineup. Melvin noted that Gregerson gave up a hit to Billy Butler (sending in a run) and a wild pitch (another run) but after that he was sharp, striking out the next two men. ‘I liked the matchups with Gregerson,” Melvin said.
Had Jon Lester retired Hosmer (him again!) that inning, Lester would have stayed in, but after two hits and a walk, Melvin had to lift him.
“Look, we’re all accountable in games like that,” Melvin said. “And no one feels more responsible than I do when we lose a game.”
In other news from today, Melvin said that had the A’s advanced, injuries would have claimed two more players. Catcher Geovany Soto (thumb) and center fielder Coco Crisp (hamstring) could not have played in the Division Series, Melvin said. The A’s would have had to activate Bryan Anderson, a September call-up who got one at-bat, to play against the Angels, and even starting catcher Derek Norris has been banged up, with a shoulder problem and a bad back.
The A’s worst injury, though, was Stephen Vogt’s foot problem, which prevented him from catching for three months. Vogt will need surgery to repair the torn plantar plate in his right foot, would spend 4-6 weeks in a walking boot and then start rehab. He is expected to be 100 percent recovered by spring training.
Brandon Moss expects to have surgery for torn cartilage in his right hip. Among the A’s other issues, Crisp had a neck problem, Josh Donaldson had leg injuries, Jed Lowrie a fractured finger, Norris back and shoulder trouble and Craig Gentry and John Jaso missed the end of the season with concussions; Jaso might not return to catching, but he is a good enough hitter to DH. Melvin said that if Jaso is cleared to catch, it will be Jaso’s decision to do so.
*General manager Billy Beane said the team will look for a right-handed hitter this offseason, but, he added, “Right-handed bats are something we’ve always been looking for, which is why Cespy (Yoenis Cespedes) was such a great guy to have, no question. But it’s always been our Achilles heel, finding right-handed bats to complement the lefties. And listen, it’s a challenge for the league, too.”
*John Shea will be writing much more about Beane’s post-season comments in tomorrow’s paper, but the main thing everyone wants to know: Where does he stand on the Cespedes trade now that the season is over and Lester, obtained with an eye exactly toward a big game like Tuesday, did not pitch his best?
“Simply put, we don’t have Jon Lester, we don’t make the playoffs,” Beane said repeatedly today. Pressed on that several times, he said, “Jon put us in a position to win the game (Tuesday) and the ball was handed off. … I don’t think it was any fault of his. We can debate all you want but I truly believe we don’t make the playoffs extracting Lester.”
*The A’s allowed seven steals on Tuesday, in part because of Soto’s injury, but Norris had trouble throwing out runners all year and Oakland pitchers weren’t great at holding runners. “It’s definitely something we have to take a hard look at because we ere extremely deficient in that area,” Melvin said. Melvin said that Soto also would be someone who he’d welcome back if the opportunity ever arose.
*Punto said that his option for 2015 has vested
*All the A’s coaches are expected back, but bench coach Chip Hale could be a managerial candidate in Arizona and Minnesota; he has ties to both organizations.
*Gentry was going to go get at-bats in instructional leagues this week in order to potentially play in the ALCS if the A’s had advanced.A small number of EDL protesters gathered outside the Arndale Shopping Centre (Picture: Reuters)
Mancunians turned their anger on the English Defence League when the far-right group held a display in the wake of last night’s deadly bombing.
Men carrying English flags clashed with police and protesters outside the Arndale Shopping Centre in the city, which was briefly evacuated on Tuesday morning.
Suspect hid in portable toilet while on run for two days
But they were outnumbered by Mancunians who condemned their protest of the attack, which happened after an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena and killed 22 people, including ‘many’ children, Prime Minister Theresa May said.
Footage obtained by Reuters shows a man shouting at EDL protesters outside the shopping centre.
He says: ‘The people of Manchester don’t stand with your xenophobia and racism.
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Dozens of people were injured (Picture: Getty)
Floral tributes have been left near the Manchester Arena (Picture: PA)
‘The people of Manchester are going to stick together, no matter what religion you follow, no matter what the colour of the skin is. We’re not going to stand with people like you.
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‘We’re going to stick together, because together we are stronger and the people of Manchester are not going to be afraid of who is responsible for this violence.’
The clip also shows a police officer appearing to condemn the behaviour of the protesters, though his words are drowned out by the anger of the gathered crowds.
Shocking images reveal the devastation inside the arena (Picture: PA)
Ariana Grande fans were targeted (Picture: AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Families are desperately trying to locate their missing loved ones, with the hashtags #MissingInManchester and #Manchestermissing trending on social media.
Twelve children under the age of 16 were taken to hospital following the blast.
The youngest person known to have died is Saffie Rose Roussos. She was just eight.
Greater Manchester Police are treating the bombing as a terrorist attack and believe they know the identity of the attacker, who died at the scene.EUGENE -- If Oregon's method of shielding its offensive play signals from the Arizona State sideline was unusual Thursday night, then so was how hard the Sun Devils worked to decode those signs, UO offensive coordinator Scott Frost said Monday.
"From the intel we got, I've never heard of a team going to the lengths they go to to try to get the signals," Frost said Monday, as Oregon began preparations for a Saturday home game against Cal. "But hopefully we combatted it well."
The "intel" indicated to Oregon that Arizona State staffers were trying to tell their defensive playcaller whether the play would be a run or a pass, and "that puts you at a huge disadvantage," Frost said. After ASU's Oct. 17 game against Utah, a few Utes players alleged the Sun Devils were working to steal signs.
Asked if he thought sign-stealing was an accepted practice or frowned upon, Frost said, "Well, there's no rule against it."
Oregon (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) needed every break it could get in a 61-55 win against the Sun Devils, finally sealing the victory on cornerback Arrion Springs' end zone interception with ASU just three yards away from tying in the third overtime.
Large barriers are held along the Oregon sideline during the game between the Ducks and Arizona State on Oct. 29, a game Oregon would win, 61-55, in three overtimes.
Five Oregon staffers held a large white sheet -- around eight feet tall and as wide as the staffer's reach -- behind which other UO coaches hid.
Some of it was for show, with Frost acknowledging the sideline subterfuge was a way for the Ducks to employ some misdirection.
"I think we tried to create a little confusion with them with our signals as to who was signaling, tried to hide the signals. That inevitably slowed us down because it was a little bit chaotic on the sideline. I think we only had one or two (busted plays) because of it the whole game.... Hopefully it helped us more than it hurt us."
Nine days before the matchup, head coach Mark Helfrich largely downplayed the effectiveness of sign-stealing, saying "I think there's a lot that is overblown about that."
"Even if you know and you're trying to see a signal, communicate a defense or a group and then call the defense, line up and execute the defense," he said Oct. 20, "that's really hard to do."
Nonetheless, with former Oregon coach Chip Kelly now in the NFL running a similar offense that relies on sideline signals rather than huddles, Oregon has been forced to change its signs in the past to guard against Philadelphia Eagles players who might relay the system to their alma maters.
Yet the signal-shielding white sheets were a new measure.
"We're just trying to protect our stuff," Helfrich said Sunday.
Whether that means Oregon will employ the sheets again is to be determined.
"If we think we need those sheets, we'll use them," Frost said. "I don't think everybody is like the team we just played."
-- Andrew Greif
agreif@oregonian.com
@andrewgreifUh oh. They're at it again. Yes folks, Euclideon are back with more of their smarmy-voice-over-without-any-detail brand of hype. They call it "Unlimited Detail", but what they don't do is explain how any of it actually works.
If only there were some way we could find out how their idea works. If only... wait! There is!
One of the great things about ideas is that you have two choices; you can either keep it a secret, but then you risk someone else coming up with it too. Or, you can patent it, which grants ownership of the idea. Of course, in order to be granted a patent, you need to actually explain what your idea is and how it works.
With that in mind, it's easy to actually find out how the Euclideon tech works. Off we go to the Australia Patent Office! A quick search for Euclideon reveals a number of documents, but there's one 2012390266, "A computer graphics method for rendering three dimensional scenes" that seems to be the one we need.
It's not an especially exciting read, most patents aren't. I'll summarize the description here:
The scene is stored as a number of objects. Most objects are rendered using the fast orthographic method. Objects up close are rendered using the slow perspective method.
Oh look, it's just voxels in an octree.
But what is the orthographic method, you ask? Well it turns out not to be that complex. Here it is folks. Prepare yourself for the wonder of the Unlimited Detail Engine:
You store colors in octree cells.
You walk recursively over this octree and splat each point on screen.
Wait, is that it? Yes my friends, this is the same algorithm described in the 1985 paper "Back to-Front Display of Voxel Based Objects", by Frieder et al. I think Euclideon choose to go front-to-back instead, and use a mask to avoid overdraw, but it's the same thing. They're taking 30 year old technology and passing it off as being next-gen.
What this means is that their data is stored in a pre-built octree. Despite their recent claims, there's no way this can animate like modern games need. The only way you can animate it is if you use stop motion - i.e. have several pre-built octrees and switch between them. And looking at their recent footage, I think that's what they're doing. It all looks kinda... well... jerky?
We can do a little math and run the numbers here. Let's imagine you've got a 3GHz CPU, and you want to render 1000x1000 at 60FPS. That's a million pixels you need to fill in. 3GHz/60=50,000,000 cycles available per frame. Therefore you need to render one pixel in 50 cycles. That's pretty tight. It might be do-able, but then you've just used all of your CPU budget doing it. What about the rest? Do you want anti-aliasing? Lighting? Shadows? Bloom? Depth of field? Well tough, because you've already pegged your CPU out at 100% just filling in the color buffer.
Extreme draw distance in The Vanishing Of Ethan Carter
I'm not saying voxel-based games can't work, I think there's definitely a place for less polygony techniques in future. But this isn't it. The trouble with Euclideon is that they spend such a large amount of their time trying to explain that their tech is better than current existing games, when the simple fact is that it isn't. In their latest video they moan about LOD pops in games. I suggest they go take a look at some actual games. I just finished playing through the delightful "Vanishing Of Ethan Carter", and guess what? No LOD pops anywhere in the game. It draws trees off to the horizon and they all just magically morph to lower-detail versions without you ever noticing.
You might be impressed by their up-close dirt rendering, but it's no match for the current round of games and GPUs. Take a look at "Star Wars: Battlefront" here - that's what we're doing right now using just regular GPUs. It's already light years ahead of their tech. Advances like geometry tessellation have taken polygon rendering to new extremes.
Visible voxel artifacts in a so-called Unlimited Detail engine.
This tech, at least the way they're doing it, is dead. They have no real lighting, none. Just look at their images - it's just N-dot-L, which has been prebaked. I spotted a shadow underneath one of the fences, but oh look, it casts directly downwards. Do you know why? It's because if it cast at an angle, it would spill over onto adjacent objects and prevent re-use of instances. You could argue that they could prebake very nice GI lighting, but they can't; the only way they can get their "unlimited detail" is by instancing the same objects several times.
If you want to see some real exciting advances in point-based technology, go look at the upcoming game Dreams by Media Molecule. Those guys are way ahead of Euclideon, and guess what? Their stuff doesn't rely on pre-baked hierarchies, it's all genuinely real-time.
tl;dr -- GPUs get better every year. If you want unlimited detail, just go buy a PS4 today. But please, don't give these hacks any money.Spanish pop-punk act, Balloon Flights, recently released a new album. Now, normally we wouldn’t be covering music from outside of the borough, let alone from outside of the country, but this release is special. Why? Because for some reason, Balloon Flights decided to call their new album “Staten Island.” It’s cover even features the Verrazano Bridge in all of it’s majesty.
What’s more, is when folded open to show the full art, there’s even a NY Wheel, along with some misplaced pine trees. There’s not a lot about the band written in english, though all of their lyrics are. We’re just not sure why they chose to name the album after our borough, but we do know we’re honored. Either way, enjoy the music and have a great weekend.
You can stream the full album, below:
Follow Balloon Flights on Twitter, here
Visit their Bandcamp page, hereA key economic policy adviser to the federal government has said the Trans-Pacific Partnership has provisions of “questionable benefit” – including an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause allowing foreign corporations to sue the Australian government if they think the government has introduced or changed laws that hurt their commercial interests.
The Productivity Commission made the comment in its annual trade and assistance review, released on Monday. The review quantifies the level of assistance governments give to Australian industry and this year criticises regional adjustment programs that have followed the exit of the carmakers, and also the Turnbull government’s big defence procurement spend rolled out in the countdown to the recent federal election.
On the TPP the commission says it is uncertain whether the US will sign the controversial pact before the presidential election in November 2016. While noting that, the commission says the TPP contains provisions of questionable benefit. “These include term of copyright and the investor state dispute settlement elements.”
US senator Orrin Hatch says Australia wants to steal American medicine patents under trade deal Read more
The commissioner, Paul Lindwall, warned the success in defending a recent landmark ISDS case relating to tobacco plain packaging entailed reported legal costs of about $50m.
The tobacco giant Philip Morris used an ISDS provision in the Hong Kong-Australia bilateral investment treaty, signed in 1993, in an effort to sue the Australian government over the plain packaging laws implemented by the Gillard government in 2012. The case dragged on for years before an international tribunal ruled in Australia’s favour, saying Philip Morris Asia’s claim was an abuse of process.
“As it was resolved on a technicality, and costs are apparently yet to be recovered, this success should not be taken as an indication that ISDS is essentially harmless,” Lindwall said Monday.
The TPP is a US-led trade deal spearheaded by the Obama administration that includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Singapore and Vietnam.
The Turnbull government remains a strong supporter of the TPP despite the political backlash to the agreement in many countries.
The trade minister, Steve Ciobo, has declared recently he remains cautiously optimistic about the fate of the TPP despite the apparent opposition to it from both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, who recently described the trade pact as a “rape of our country”.
In the event the TPP makes it through the political controversy that has been generated domestically in the US courtesy of the presidential primary season, the Turnbull government faces a similar trade liberalisation backlash in the 45th parliament.
Labor has firmed its opposition to ISDS clauses. The opposition recently promised to review three of the major free-trade agreements signed by the Abbott and Turnbull governments – the Korean FTA, the China FTA and the TPP – in the hope of removing their ISDS clauses.
Labor says it will not accept ISDS clauses in new trade pacts. If existing ISDS clauses can’t be removed, then Labor’s position is stronger safeguards should be imposed on existing agreements to make it harder for corporations to sue the government.
As well as having to deal with Labor’s reservations, two key Senate balance-of-power players in the new parliament – the Nick Xenophon Team and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation – are anti-free trade.
The Productivity Commission in its latest review of industry assistance also calls for the Turnbull government to review regional adjustment packages delivered in response to the closure of car manufacturing in Victoria and South Australia, and slow growth in Tasmania.
“These schemes appear to involve very high subsidy rates to some individual companies,” Lindwall said.
“Governments naturally want to help large groups of people who find themselves suddenly out of work due to the collapse of a major industry in the area. But it is difficult to find effective evaluation of whether this assistance is meeting its stated objectives, be that helping people transition to new careers or regional diversification.”
Labor pledges to review trade deals that let companies sue Australia Read more
The commission also criticises the Turnbull government’s big defence spend, which was rolled out in the lead-up to the recent election to help shore up the Liberal party’s fortunes in South Australia against a political incursion by the NXT.
“Paying more for local builds, without sufficient strategic defence and spillover benefits to offset the additional cost, diverts productive resources (labour, capital and land) away from relatively more efficient (less assisted) uses,” the report says.
“It can also create a permanent expectation of more such high-cost work, as the recent heavily promoted ‘valley of death’ in naval ship building exemplifies. Such distortion detracts from Australia’s capacity to maximise economic and social wellbeing from the community’s resources.
“The recent decision to build the new submarines locally at a reported 30% cost premium, and a preference for using local steel, provides an illustrative example of how a local cost premium can deliver a very high rate of effective assistance for the defence contractor and the firms providing the major steel inputs.”
The commission says close attention to future evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the revised defence industry support program is “paramount”.Yemeni forces ended a hostage crisis Monday with 29 police and six civilians dead, a day after the attack claimed by the Islamic State group began with suicide bombings, official sources said.
Assailants on Sunday stormed the criminal investigations unit in Aden, the Yemeni government's de facto capital, setting it alight and taking hostages after killing two policewomen execution-style.
The attack began on Sunday, when two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the entrances to the criminal investigations unit and the city's security headquarters.
Overnight, the security forces tried three times to seize back the unit, but each time a suicide bomber blew himself up, stopping them from entering, a security official said.
A fourth suicide bombing occurred on Monday morning, before the security forces finally brought an end to the standoff in the southern port city.
A total of 29 members of the security forces were killed during the attack and hostage crisis, the official said.
Among them were six police officers whose bodies were found buried under the rubble of the building along with six civilians, including two children.
"The security forces have managed to enter the building and clear it of the elements of evil and terrorism," said the interior ministry of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's internationally recognised government.
The bullet-riddled bodies of three assailants were also found in the rubble, the security official said.
The attack was claimed by IS in a statement released online on Sunday.
IS and its extremist rival Al-Qaeda have taken advantage of the war between the Saudi-backed government and Shiite Huthi rebels allied with Iran to bolster their presence across much of south Yemen.
The Hadi government has been based in Aden since the Huthis drove it out of the capital Sanaa in 2014.
More than 8,650 people have been killed in Yemen since Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the war in 2015 to support government forces, according to the World Health Organization.President Donald Trump’s ability to withstand scandals that would seemingly bring down other politicians is well-established, and his first two months in office have shown the outrage-a-week rhythm of the campaign will continue.
The scandals, real or imagined, produce hours of coverage and plenty of Twitter traffic. But do they register with the American public? Or is “Teflon Don” truly impervious to the rules the punditry said applied to politicians?
Related: Voters Want GOP to Hit Brakes on Health Care Overhaul as Support Dips
To test this, we asked voters whether scandalous events from Trump’s first two months in office gave them a more or less favorable view of the president. We found that after each of the seven events we tested, from the size of the inaugural crowds to Russia, a plurality of voters had a more negative view of the president.
But the opposite is true when you look just at people who voted for Trump. In five out of seven cases, a plurality of Trump voters say these ‘scandals’ gave them a more favorable view of the president. For the other two events, Trump voters were slightly more likely to say it didn’t change their view of the president.
One place where Trump voters and all voters agreed? Mar-a-Lago. The idea that Trump discussed national security and North Korea on the terrace of his Florida golf club prompted the most people to say they had a less favorable view of Trump (46 percent of registered voters, 25 percent of Trump voters).
After that, Trump voters and the entire sample diverge. Following Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s tweets saying the media was the enemy of the American people and his accusation that President Barack Obama wiretapped him were the most damaging to Trump’s approval (43 percent of voters said both prompted a less favorable view of the president). Among people who voted for Trump? Those tweets were the most likely to give them a more positive view of the president.
Related: Many Voters Support Foreign Aid Cuts, but Want More Spent at Home
The media-as-enemy tweet in particular was a hit with Trump voters, with 48 percent saying it gave them a more favorable view of the president. That is nine points higher than any other event we tested.
On the whole, these scandals don’t seem to be pulling down Trump’s overall approval numbers. He has hovered around 50 percent after dropping a few points after the first executive order on immigration. It’s also important to note that for about a 20 percent of voters, these scandals didn’t change their opinion either way.
So what does this mean? It’s possible that the scandals tamp down on support in the moment, but the outrage of the day isn’t yet driving public opinion of the president. And if anything, it’s making Trump’s base like him even more.
The national, online survey polled 1,927 registered voters from March 16-19. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points. Crosstabs are available here.There's some good stuff on the Nintendo Download today, so make sure you read our Guide to the Nintendo 3DS System Update to get your machine up to speed before checking out the latest downloads.
3DS Download Software
Pushmo (Nintendo, $6.99) — Known as Pullblox in Europe where it is also released today, this is a quirky little puzzler from Intelligent Systems, known for its Advance Wars and Fire Emblem series among others. We'll have a full review very soon.
DSiWare
Castle Conqueror — Against (CIRCLE Entertainment, 200pts) — Another instal |
hoppy cactus sizzurp. Welcome to weird Texas.
What could go wrong? Now I’ve done some research and this is a dark beer, not tea coloured. stand by for my amazed observation….
Pop the can, get a decent whiff of hops.
Lovely pour, looks like the colour of Malt vinegar, a decent head too!, unlike malt vinegar. Aroma is like stilted hops in the glass, which now looks like it contains oil or tar. It’s quite intriguing.
You get a bite of bitter, carbonation – pause – boomfha, a Chilli burst – pause – all calm nice finish.
Go again. Same thing, although the chilli hit is a bit stronger and longer.
Then is gave me the sneezes and the peppery chilli began to be prominent. At this point it’s where I decide that chilli-beers are not all that and a bag of chips, or in other ways you could say that this is a style that I’m not a fan of.
It might be very clever as a beer, but I’m not sure I like or enjoy it, and I like odd things usually.
This does have a nice hop level, and the chilli heat level is low to medium and not intrusive or off-putting, it’s a compliment to the beer and not a mask for something that may have not gone so well in the brewing.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 a of its things from the thing. I wanted to like it, and it looks great, sits well, and has a nice level of enjoyable hops, tonight though I’m not in the zone to enjoy the chilli hit. The double dip review Am I enjoying it? There are bits of this to like Would I have another? I don’t think that at the moment I would, but then I don’t know when would be the right time. Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? I couldn’t in all honesty talk too this beer enough to convince someone else to share it. “It’s About Time” is the album of choice for this, by Ruby Velle & The Soulphonics, this is the the track “My Dear”
For me a bit under produced, under sung, or poorly chosen songs for what should be a better album and effort.
Not the best of an evening.
Finally, almost, this is what a proper paid and trained journalist has to say Finally, in the tea-but-not-as-you-know-it category, I have to mention Yeastie Boys‘ fellow Wellingtonians Garage Project and their Texas Tea. While it doesn’t actually feature tea we’re still in the weird department as Texas Tea is made with habanero chilli and prickly pear (oh, all right, cactus). The beer starts with a lustrous chocolate malt base, has a spike of habanero heat and ends with a sweet, berry note that must come from the cactus. I love this name – Texas Tea is slang for oil and Garage Project operates out of an old service station in Aro Valley, so it’s a pretty slick name. Look out for it in the distinctive blue can with the with wispy cloud-like wording above a service station in the desert.
BROWN ALE
Color ranges from reddish-brown to dark brown. Lower in alcohol than porter, medium to full body flavor. Appropriate foods are apple pie, pork with brown sauce, beef vegetable soup and cheddar.
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AdvertisementsThe March 1989 geomagnetic storm occurred as part of severe to extreme solar storms during early to mid March 1989, the most notable being a geomagnetic storm that struck Earth on March 13. This geomagnetic storm caused a nine-hour outage of Hydro-Québec's electricity transmission system. The onset time was exceptionally rapid.[1] Other historically significant solar storms occurred later in 1989, during a very active period of solar cycle 22.
Geomagnetic storm and auroras [ edit ]
The geomagnetic storm causing this event was itself the result of an ejection known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) on March 9, 1989.[2] A few days before, on March 6, a very large X15-class solar flare also occurred.[3] Three-and-a-half days later, at 2:44 am EST on March 13, a severe geomagnetic storm struck Earth.[4][5] The storm began on Earth with extremely intense auroras at the poles. The aurora could be seen as far south as Texas and Florida.[6] As this occurred near the end of the Cold War, an unknown number of people worried that a nuclear first strike might be in progress.[6] Others incorrectly considered the intense auroras to be associated with the Space Shuttle mission STS-29, which had been launched on March 13 at 9:57:00 AM.[7]
Substantial communications blackouts occurred. The burst caused shortwave radio interference, including the disruption of radio signals from Radio Free Europe into Russia. It was initially believed that the signals had been jammed by the Soviet government.[citation needed] As midnight came and went, a river of charged particles and electrons in the ionosphere flowed from west to east, inducing powerful electrical currents in the ground that surged into many natural nooks and crannies.[6] Anecdotal evidence suggests that one of the UK's nuclear submarines noticed a variation in ELF signal strength around the same time[citation needed]. Because the MoD files are still classified, this is not yet possible to confirm or deny.
Some satellites in polar orbits lost control for several hours. GOES weather satellite communications were interrupted, causing weather images to be lost. NASA's TDRS-1 communication satellite recorded over 250 anomalies caused by the increased particles flowing into its sensitive electronics.[6] The Space Shuttle Discovery was having its own problems: a sensor on one of the tanks supplying hydrogen to a fuel cell was showing unusually high pressure readings on March 13. The problem went away after the solar storm subsided.
Quebec power blackout [ edit ]
[8] GOES-7 monitors the space weather conditions during the Great Geomagnetic storm of March 1989, the Moscow neutron monitor recorded the passage of a CME as a drop in levels known as a Forbush decrease
The variations in the Earth's magnetic field also tripped circuit breakers on Hydro-Québec's power grid. The utility's very long transmission lines and the fact that most of Quebec sits on a large rock shield prevented current flowing through the earth, finding a less resistant path along the 735 kV power lines.[9]
The James Bay network went offline in less than 90 seconds, giving Quebec its second massive power outage in 11 months.[10] The power failure lasted nine hours and forced the company to implement various mitigation strategies, including raising the trip level, installing series compensation on ultra high voltage lines and upgrading various monitoring and operational procedures. Other utilities in North America and Northern Europe and elsewhere implemented programs to reduce the risks associated with geomagnetically induced currents (GICs).[9]
Military [ edit ]
One of the few publicly reported military operations impacted was the Australian Army component of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force which was deployed to Namibia at the time. The storm occurred just as the advance elements of the contingent arrived in Namibia, but the effects were believed to last for weeks afterwards. The Australian contribution to UNTAG was heavily reliant on HF radio communications which were severely impacted.[11][12]
Aftermath [ edit ]
In August 1989, another storm caused a halt of all trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.[13]
Since 1996, geomagnetic storms and solar flares have been monitored from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Because of serious concerns that utilities have failed to set protection standards and are unprepared for a severe solar storm such as the Carrington Event, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has ordered the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) to create standards that would require power grids to be somewhat protected from solar storms and equipment to be continuously tested for possible effects of solar storms.[14][15] Similarly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has begun a phased rule-making, published in the Federal Register, to examine the sufficiency of cooling systems of stored spent fuel rods of nuclear power plants now considered vulnerable to long-term power outages from events such as space weather, high-altitude nuclear burst electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) or cyber attacks.[16]
See also [ edit ]Jeffrey Robert Lurie (born September 8, 1951) is an American motion picture producer and businessman, and the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL).[2]
Early life and education [ edit ]
Lurie was born to a Jewish family[3] in Boston, the son of Nancy (née Smith) and Morris John Lurie. His grandfather Philip Smith founded the General Cinema movie theater chain which was one of the largest operators of drive-in movie theaters in the United States.[4] His uncle is Richard A. Smith. He has two siblings: Peter and Cathy. His father died April 14, 1961 at the age of 44 when Jeffrey was nine years old.
In the late 1960s, General Cinema began acquiring bottling franchises, including a Pepsi bottling operation. General Cinema evolved over the years into Harcourt General Inc., a $3.7 billion conglomerate based in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, with 23,700 employees worldwide. In its heyday it was the nation's fourth largest chain of movie theaters, owned several publishing houses, three insurance companies and a leading global consulting firm. In 1984 Carter Hawley Hale was acquired, which was at the time the tenth largest clothing retailer in the United States, including Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman-Marcus.
Lurie earned a B.A. from Clark University, a master's degree in psychology from Boston University, and a doctorate in social policy from Brandeis University, where he wrote his thesis on the depiction of women in Hollywood movies. He was born to Jewish parents but has spent his adult life as a non-practicing Jew.[5] Prior to entering business, Lurie served as an adjunct assistant professor of social policy at Boston University.
Career [ edit ]
In 1983, he left academia to join General Cinema Corporation, a major film company founded by his grandfather, Philip Smith, and now headed by his uncle, Richard A. Smith. He worked as an executive in the company as a liaison between General Cinema Corporation and the production community in Hollywood. He was also an advisor in The General Cinema national film buying office.
He then founded Chestnut Hill Productions in 1985, which produced a string of Hollywood movie and TV shows.
On February 27, 2011, the Lurie-produced movie Inside Job won an Academy Award (Oscar) for best documentary film.[6] The company also produced television commercials. Two years later he won a second Oscar as Inocente - in which he was executive producer - won for Best Documentary Short Film.[7]
Philadelphia Eagles ownership [ edit ]
As a fan of all the Boston sports teams, Lurie went to games and put himself to sleep listening to the Boston Red Sox on his transistor radio. The Luries had been season-ticket holders since the New England Patriots franchise began in 1960, the year the American Football League was founded. Lurie cheered for Gino Cappelletti, Houston Antwine and Babe Parilli. In 1993, Lurie tried to buy the New England Patriots, but he dropped out of the bidding at $150 million when his uncle Richard Smith nixed the purchase based on the financials.
Lurie's name also had surfaced in sale talks regarding the Los Angeles Rams, and he was a potential investor in a bid for a Baltimore expansion team with Robert Tisch, who subsequently bought 50% of the New York Giants. Five months later, Smith agreed to let his nephew buy the Philadelphia Eagles. Lurie contacted Norman Braman, then-owner of the Eagles. Lurie bought the Philadelphia Eagles on May 6, 1994 from Braman for $195 million. Lurie and his mother, Nancy Lurie Marks of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts — the only daughter of Philip Smith — borrowed $190 million from the Bank of Boston to buy the Eagles.[8] To back the Bank of Boston loan, Lurie put up millions of dollars' worth of personal stock in Harcourt General and GC Companies Inc., as equity capital.[8] Additionally, he and his mother pledged their stock in the family trust as collateral so Lurie could borrow the rest.[8]
The club is now estimated to be worth $2.65 billion, as valued in 2017 by Forbes which ranks them 10th in the NFL in terms of team value.[9]
On February 4, 2018, the Eagles upset the Patriots, and won Super Bowl LII by the score of 41–33, giving Lurie his first title as Eagles owner. The victory evened the score with New England, as the only other Lurie era Super Bowl appearance was a 24-21 loss to the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX.
Christina Lurie helped shape the Eagles vision. In 1992, Lurie married Weiss in Gstaad, Switzerland. They had two children: a son Julian and a daughter Milena.[10] In 2012, the couple announced that they were divorcing; the divorce was finalized in August 2012.[11] She received a "sizeable" ownership interest in the Philadelphia Eagles as part of the divorce settlement.[12] On May 4, 2013, he married Tina Lai.[13]
Awards and honors [ edit ]
Two-time Academy Award winner: 2011 for Best Documentary as executive producer of Inside Job 2013 for Best Documentary Short Film as executive producer of Inocente [7]
Super Bowl LII champion as owner of the EaglesThe Apple TV as a set-top box for cable TV? That's what Apple is aiming for, according to sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal. The company is reportedly in talks with cable operators in the US to bring live TV—as well as "other content"—to the living room, though no deals have been solidified as of yet.
The Apple TV was released in 2007 as a "hobby" device that could bring iTunes content to the television set. More than five years later, Apple maintains that it's still a hobby, despite selling 4 million devices so far in 2012 (with one fiscal quarter left to go). "It's still at a level that we would call it a hobby, but we continue to pull strings to see where it takes us. We're not one to keep around projects that we don't believe in," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company's third quarter conference call in July. "The 4 million is not a small number. It's small relative to iPads and iPhones perhaps, but it's not a small number."
Apple has progressively added more and more non-Apple content to the Apple TV, including access to Netflix, Hulu Plus, and some sports (NBA and MLB). But Apple's biggest challenge has always been the cable TV market, which has long resisted Apple's overtures when it comes to content. Many cable TV shows are not available on iTunes until long after their seasons are over, leading consumers to choose other options for TV consumption—often the traditional cable subscriptions Apple TV could circumvent.
Indeed, according to the WSJ, sources indicated that Apple continues to face an uphill battle when it comes to wooing cable operators. "One obstacle may be the reluctance of operators to let Apple establish a foothold in the television business," wrote the WSJ. Also, Apple reportedly wants to deliver content over IP, essentially turning cable operators into dumb pipes—something they undoubtedly do not want.
Despite this, two sources indicated that a cable-compatible Apple TV could eventually be integrated into a television set, fueling the ongoing rumors about Apple's plans to release a TV. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly declared to biographer Walter Isaacson that he had "cracked" the concept of an Apple-branded television set, and Reuters reported earlier this year that such a device was indeed in the works. The WSJ's sources gave no indication that Apple would be releasing its own TV set in the near future, however.
Update (Thursday, August 16): The original story (above) was published on Wednesday evening. The Wall Street Journal is now offering new details on Apple's alleged vision for its set-top box, which Apple hopes to use to "erase the distinction between live and on-demand content." Users will reportedly be able to start any show at any time, and the UI is said to resemble icons on the iPad.This is the eighth in a series of blog posts introducing the new C++0x thread library. See the end of this article for a full set of links to the rest of the series.
In this installment we'll take a look at the "futures" mechanism from C++0x. Futures are a high level mechanism for passing a value between threads, and allow a thread to wait for a result to be available without having to manage the locks directly.
Futures and asynchronous function calls
The most basic use of a future is to hold the result of a call to the new std::async function for running some code asynchronously:
#include <future> #include <iostream> int calculate_the_answer_to_LtUaE(); void do_stuff(); int main() { std::future<int> the_answer=std::async(calculate_the_answer_to_LtUaE); do_stuff(); std::cout<<"The answer to life, the universe and everything is " <<the_answer.get()<<std::endl; }
The call to std::async takes care of creating a thread, and invoking calculate_the_answer_to_LtUaE on that thread. The main thread can then get on with calling do_stuff() whilst the immensely time consuming process of calculating the ultimate answer is done in the background. Finally, the call to the get() member function of the std::future<int> object then waits for the function to complete and ensures that the necessary synchronization is applied to transfer the value over so the main thread can print "42".
Sometimes asynchronous functions aren't really asynchronous
Though I said that std::async takes care of creating a thread, that's not necessarily true. As well as the function being called, std::async takes a launch policy which specifies whether to start a new thread or create a "deferred function" which is only run when you wait for it. The default launch policy for std::async is std::launch::any, which means that the implementation gets to choose for you. If you really want to ensure that your function is run on its own thread then you need to specify the std::launch::async policy:
std::future<int> the_answer=std::async(std::launch::async,calculate_the_answer_to_LtUaE);
Likewise, if you really want the function to be executed in the get() call then you can specify the std::launch::sync policy:
std::future<int> the_answer=std::async(std::launch::sync,calculate_the_answer_to_LtUaE);
In most cases it makes sense to let the library choose. That way you'll avoid creating too many threads and overloading the machine, whilst taking advantage of the available hardware threads. If you need fine control, you're probably better off managing your own threads.
Divide and Conquer
std::async can be used to easily parallelize simple algorithms. For example, you can write a parallel version of for_each as follows:
template<typename Iterator,typename Func> void parallel_for_each(Iterator first,Iterator last,Func f) { ptrdiff_t const range_length=last-first; if(!range_length) return; if(range_length==1) { f(*first); return; } Iterator const mid=first+(range_length/2); std::future<void> bgtask=std::async(¶llel_for_each<Iterator,Func>, first,mid,f); try { parallel_for_each(mid,last,f); } catch(...) { bgtask.wait(); throw; } bgtask.get(); }
This simple bit of code recursively divides up the range into smaller and smaller pieces. Obviously an empty range doesn't require anything to happen, and a single-point range just requires calling f on the one and only value. For bigger ranges then an asynchronous task is spawned to handle the first half, and then the second half is handled by a recursive call.
The try - catch block just ensures that the asynchronous task is finished before we leave the function even if an exception in order to avoid the background tasks potentially accessing the range after it has been destroyed. Finally, the get() call waits for the background task, and propagates any exception thrown from the background task. That way if an exception is thrown during any of the processing then the calling code will see an exception. Of course if more than one exception is thrown then some will get swallowed, but C++ can only handle one exception at a time, so that's the best that can be done without using a custom composite_exception class to collect them all.
Many algorithms can be readily parallelized this way, though you may want to have more than one element as the minimum range in order to avoid the overhead of spawning the asynchronous tasks.
Promises
An alternative to using std::async to spawn the task and return the future is to manage the threads yourself and use the std::promise class template to provide the future. Promises provide a basic mechanism for transferring values between threads: each std::promise object is associated with a single std::future object. A thread with access to the std::future object can use wait for the result to be set, whilst another thread that has access to the corresponding std::promise object can call set_value() to store the value and make the future ready. This works well if the thread has more than one task to do, as information can be made ready to other threads as it becomes available rather than all of them having to wait until the thread doing the work has completed. It also allows for situations where multiple threads could produce the answer: from the point of view of the waiting thread it doesn't matter where the answer came from, just that it is there so it makes sense to have a single future to represent that availability.
For example, asynchronous I/O could be modelled on a promise/future basis: when you submit an I/O request then the async I/O handler creates a promise/future pair. The future is returned to the caller, which can then wait on the future when it needs the data, and the promise is stored alongside the details of the request. When the request has been fulfilled then the I/O thread can set the value on the promise to pass the value back to the waiting thread before moving on to process additional requests. The following code shows a sample implementation of this pattern.
class aio { class io_request { std::streambuf* is; unsigned read_count; std::promise<std::vector<char> > p; public: explicit io_request(std::streambuf& is_,unsigned count_): is(&is_),read_count(count_) {} io_request(io_request&& other): is(other.is), read_count(other.read_count), p(std::move(other.p)) {} io_request(): is(0),read_count(0) {} std::future<std::vector<char> > get_future() { return p.get_future(); } void process() { try { std::vector<char> buffer(read_count); unsigned amount_read=0; while((amount_read!= read_count) && (is->sgetc()!=std::char_traits<char>::eof())) { amount_read+=is->sgetn(&buffer[amount_read],read_count-amount_read); } buffer.resize(amount_read); p.set_value(std::move(buffer)); } catch(...) { p.set_exception(std::current_exception()); } } }; thread_safe_queue<io_request> request_queue; std::atomic_bool done; void io_thread() { while(!done) { io_request req=request_queue.pop(); req.process(); } } std::thread iot; public: aio(): done(false), iot(&aio::io_thread,this) {} std::future<std::vector<char> > queue_read(std::streambuf& is,unsigned count) { io_request req(is,count); std::future<std::vector<char> > f(req.get_future()); request_queue.push(std::move(req)); return f; } ~aio() { done=true; request_queue.push(io_request()); iot.join(); } }; void do_stuff() {} void process_data(std::vector<char> v) { for(unsigned i=0;i<v.size();++i) { std::cout<<v[i]; } std::cout<<std::endl; } int main() { aio async_io; std::filebuf f; f.open("my_file.dat",std::ios::in | std::ios::binary); std::future<std::vector<char> > fv=async_io.queue_read(f,1048576); do_stuff(); process_data(fv.get()); return 0; }
Next Time
The sample code above also demonstrates passing exceptions between threads using the set_exception() member function of std::promise. I'll go into more detail about exceptions in multithreaded next time.
Subscribe to the RSS feed or email newsletter for this blog to be sure you don't miss the rest of the series.
Try it out
If you're using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 or g++ 4.3 or 4.4 on Ubuntu Linux you can try out the examples from this series using our just::thread implementation of the new C++0x thread library. Get your copy today.
Here are the posts in this series so far:
Posted by Anthony Williams
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Tags: concurrency, multithreading, C++0x, thread, future, promise, async
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If you liked this post, why not subscribe to the RSS feed or Follow me on Twitter? You can also subscribe to this blog by email using the form on the left.When the Dayton Dynamo move to Chaminade Julienne’s Roger Glass Stadium next summer, more than the venue will be new.
Dynamo president David Satterwhite also plans to beef up the entertainment factor at the soccer club’s home games by selling alcohol, something that wasn’t possible at home games at Welcome Stadium during the team’s inaugural season in the Gem City.
“I was very disappointed that I wasn’t able to put together the match-day event the way I wanted at Welcome Stadium,” Satterwhite said.
“But knowing that it was only a transitional facility, we made do. I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally get to put on a proper soccer match experience. I have been waiting 18 months to finally get to put on a match at Chaminade Julienne. It’s a fantastic location to host a soccer match.”
While selling alcohol was out of the question at Welcome Stadium because it is owned by Dayton Public Schools, the ability to do so was essential to agreeing to move to CJ’s stadium.
(The team’s application for a license is still pending approval by the Ohio Division of Liquor Control.)
Chaminade Julienne president Dan Meixner said alcohol sales were “a topic of conversation as part of our consideration of having the Dynamo here.”
Previous experience hosting events such as an annual 21-and-over fish fry provide confidence the Dynamo games shouldn’t be a problem.
“Alcohol can never be served obviously at a high school event, but we occasionally have adult-centered events on campus,” Meixner said. “Because our community has demonstrated we can do this responsibly, there are adult-centered activities that can happen on campus in a limited way.”
He added the one-year deal between the Dynamo and CJ calls for the club to ensure appropriate security is in place on game days.
“Our trustees are comfortable with the precautions that we’ve put in place around these things, but also it will be pretty quick that if things go contrary to what we think it will be, we’re not going to be afraid to make a different decision,” Meixner said.
Satterwhite said there will be “slightly new branding” for the team next year with new uniforms expected to be unveiled before Christmas.
“In regards to what exactly we are planning for match days, I can only tell you right now that our match-day experience will start prior to the match as our lease gives us access to both fields at Roger Glass Stadium for our matches,” he said. “We are hoping that with our matches and prematch festivities that our matches will be the ‘go to’ events of the summer.”Cishek converted a Major League-best five saves in as many opportunities, striking out eight over five full innings. He allowed just two hits while also tying for the MLB lead in pitching appearances for the week.
A pair of young hurlers -- Marlins closer Steve Cishek and Mets rookie Jacob deGrom -- were named the co-National League Players of the Week on Monday after outstanding performances from the mound for the week of July 21-27.
A pair of young hurlers -- Marlins closer Steve Cishek and Mets rookie Jacob deGrom -- were named the co-National League Players of the Week on Monday after outstanding performances from the mound for the week of July 21-27.
Cishek converted a Major League-best five saves in as many opportunities, striking out eight over five full innings. He allowed just two hits while also tying for the MLB lead in pitching appearances for the week.
It is now the second straight season in which Cishek has hit the 26-save threshold. It's his second career NL Player of the Week Award, after he won it last July 22-28 for a five-save week.
deGrom tied for the league lead in wins and innings pitched last week, going 2-0 with a 0.68 ERA over 13 1/3 innings. He struck out 11 and walked three over two starts.
The rookie righty beat the Mariners on Tuesday, allowing just one run on five hits in seven innings, striking out seven. It was deGrom's third consecutive start of at least seven innings and no more than one run allowed, joining Jerry Koosman (April 1968) as the second Mets rookie to post such a three-game streak.
The 26-year-old then held the Brewers scoreless over 6 1/3 innings on Sunday for his fifth win of the season. deGrom struck out four and walked two, and he now ranks first among NL rookies with 87 innings pitched and 83 strikeouts.Early Tuesday, Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez, Kostya Tszyu, Mexican trainer Ignacio “Nacho” Beristain, referee Joe Cortez, actor and screenwriter of “Rocky” Sylvester Stallone and several other boxing greats were selected for induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame & Museum in Canastota, New York.
This is a special year for the boxing hall of fame because of how many big names are being inducted this year. Sylvester Stallone who never boxed as a professional but his fictional movie character Rocky Balboa lives on in the hearts of many boxing fans; Iron Mike Tyson who was the youngest heavyweight champion of the world and one of the biggest draws in boxing; Julio Cesar Chavez a boxing legend from Mexico whose fame in his country was comparable to that of Manny Pacquiao’s in the Philippines; Nacho Beristain is one of the greatest trainers to come out of Mexico having trained Ricardo “Finito” Lopez, Daniel Zaragoza, and currently Juan Manuel Marquez; Kostya Tszyu reigned as the best 140-pound champion of this era, and boxing referee Joe Cortez has worked over 160 championship boxing bouts and has been working the ring for over 30-years.
2011 Boxing Hall of Fame Inductees were voted on by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America and a panel of international boxing historians
The Boxing hall of fame inductions will be on June 12, 2011 in Canastota, New York.
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JOIN the NOW BOXING FORUM to discuss this and other boxing news topics (membership is FREE)LAS VEGAS -- San Diego State came out strong in the second half, showing why it is undefeated when leading at the break.
The eighth-ranked Aztecs used a 19-9 run to open the second half, extending their lead to 15 points en route to a 59-51 victory over UNLV in the semifinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament on Friday night.
San Diego State improved to 23-0 when leading at halftime.
"We came here to win three games," Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said. "We came here to compete like crazy. We've done that for two. We got one to go."
Dwayne Polee II came off the bench to lead the Aztecs (29-3) with 18 points and six rebounds. Xavier Thames added 17 and six assists for San Diego State, which will face New Mexico in the title game on Saturday.
The Aztecs scored 12 points off of turnovers, outrebounded UNLV 34-29, and outscored their league rivals 11-4 with second-chance points.
"I thought the difference in the game really was second chance points and then the fact that we had a few key turnovers," UNLV coach Dave Rice said. "But I was proud of the fact we kept battling, working the entire game. We didn't give up. We got down, hung in there, and got ourselves within striking distance."
The feisty Runnin' Rebels kept it close in the first half, and made a last-minute rally, but it wasn't enough against the quicker and defensively sound top-seeded Aztecs. Trailing 50-37 with just under six minutes left in the game, UNLV's Bryce Dejean-Jones scored seven points during a 14-6 run to cut the lead to five with 48.9 seconds to go.
But Polee, who fell one point short of tying his career-high, made 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to seal the Aztecs' win.
"As the sixth man, that's what I like to do, is be the sparkplug for our team," Polee said. "Whether it's offensively or defensively, I like to come in and bring a lot of energy."
Despite shooting a bleak 36.4 percent from the field on 20 of 55 shooting, San Diego State drained 14 of 17 free throw attempts in the game.
San Diego State got 26 points from its reserves, outscoring UNLV's bench by 12.
Thames, the Mountain West player of the year, turned the ball over just one time, and through two games in the tournament, he has 13 assists with just two turnovers.
"They're a great team," Thames said. "We knew they were going to fight hard and come back. We just wanted to get on a run. We talked (about it) at halftime. I think that's what we did."
During their six-game win streak the Aztecs have knocked off No. 21 New Mexico and UNLV twice, while four of the six games have been away from home.
And while San Diego State is assuredly headed to the NCAA tournament, the loss dealt a severe blow to UNLV's chances of making it for a fifth consecutive year.
Deville Smith led the Rebels (20-13) with 17 points, while Dejean-Jones scored 10 and Khem Birch added six points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots.
San Diego State, which has advanced to the title game five of the last six years, has now handed UNLV seven of its last 23 home losses. The Aztecs held the Rebels to their fewest points in a loss this season.Story highlights Three diminutive single-engine unmanned propeller planes were found in March and April
They look like hobby shop model airplanes with consumer cameras shoved into them
They don't have strong military or spy capabilities, but they made it through air defenses
Spring is typically a time of high provocations between North and South Korea
Call them drones; call them toy airplanes with digital cameras dropped into their girths.
Either way, South Korean defense officials said on Friday they were sure that they came from North Korea and that they were up to no good.
Three diminutive single-engine unmanned propeller planes that look like they could have come from a hobby shop were found on the ground in March and April in parts of the South near the border with the northern Communist regime.
Though the low-tech buzzers don't seem to represent a major danger, they come in the shadow of North Korean missile launches and the impending countdown to the test of a nuclear device.
And they made it through South Korean air defenses.
JUST WATCHED South Korea: Enemy drone crashed here Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH South Korea: Enemy drone crashed here 00:46
Ministry of National Defense officials in Seoul immediately suspected that the sky-blue colored fliers belonged to Pyongyang. They formed an investigation team with the United States in mid-April to analyze the "travel log file" and photos taken by the drones and announced the results on Friday.
Scientists found a "smoking gun that all three were sent from North Korea and are programmed to return to North Korea," South Korean defense spokesman Kim Min-soek said.
Photos the drones took along on their journey corroborate their flight path, he said.
Precarious cargo
Had the mechanical carrier pigeons made it back home, they would have delivered precarious cargo, but it would have been far from precious.
Japanese-made digital cameras, which look like they could be of the consumer variety, were inserted into the bellies of the drones and had taken aerial photos of the South from around the border region.
All three were programmed to fly over military facilities, and two of them had images of targets of military interest -- strategically important islands near the demilitarized zone, and the Blue House, residence and office of South Korea's President Park Geun-hye.
Images from the third drone were not available to South Korean investigators. A wild ginseng digger had stumbled upon the plane and had deleted its memory card so he could use it himself, the Korea Times reported.
The planes were not capable of transmitting images back to North Korea in real time, and the photos themselves were no better than what one might see on a service akin to Google Earth, Kim said in a previous briefing.
Limited capabilities
There is little danger the drones could have made it far into South Korea.
The type of drone is not used for long-range missions, a defense analyst said. Instead they're better suited to see what the enemy is up to on the other side of a hill or wall.
"It has quite a small range, it doesn't have very long endurance so it would only be up there for a few hours. You |
fourth quarter and making it the top borough for price growth, the report found.
In The Bronx, the average monthly rent was $822 for the fourth quarter, representing a 4 percent jump over the year before.
Manhattan rents for rooms shares continued to be the most expensive — with average monthly rents at $1,535 — but prices stagnated over the past year, rising a mere 1 percent.
Credit: SpareRoom
Brooklyn, where the average rent was $1,087 a month, prices also edged up just 1 percent from the same time the year before.
Staten Island, which had the lowest room rental prices, at $736 a month, saw a 4 percent decline over the past year, the report found.
“Manhattan rents are finally starting to cool,” SpareRoom director Matt Hutchinson said, “which is good news on the face of it. But with average room rent in excess of $1,500 a month, affordability is still a huge concern. One in three New Yorkers now spends over half their salary on rent. Just by moving to Queens the average roommate would save $559 a month, that’s almost $7,000 a year.”
But the increased popularity of Queens could pose problems for renters as gentrification spreads, he said.
“With people looking further afield, prices are being driven up dramatically in previously less popular neighborhoods,” he said, “which will lead to further gentrification, with the risk that current long-term residents become priced out.”
Of the top 20 most expensive neighborhoods, 17 were in Manhattan, while two were in Queens. (Flushing came in at No. 5 and Long Island City was in the No. 11 spot.) Williamsburg ranked 19.
Although Brooklyn didn’t see significant price growth last year, the borough remained the most popular choice for roommate rentals, with seven of the top 10 busiest areas when it came to the number of advertisements for rooms, the report found.
The Bedford-Stuyvesant/Bushwick ZIP code of 11221 topped the city’s list with roughly 440 rooms listed in the fourth quarter.
That was followed by the 10009 ZIP code for the East Village and Stuyvesant Town, the 11206 ZIP code for Bed-Stuy/Bushwick/Williamsburg, and the 11211 ZIP code for Greenpoint/Williamsburg.
Credit: SpareRoom
The city’s most expensive neighborhood for roommates was Battery Park City, with an average monthly rent of $2,100 for a room.
This tony neighborhood also saw the highest increase in average room rents over the past year, spiking 20 percent.
That increase was dramatic compared to price changes in the area for one-bedroom units, which decreased by 10 percent, according to a recent report from Zumper.
The discrepancy between the decline in apartment prices versus the jump in room rental prices indicates that people in the area were increasingly looking to share their apartments to keep rents down while the demand for one-bedrooms in Battery Park City dropped, Hutchinson believes.
“As we continue to monitor average rents and popularity to spot trends in NYC’s ever moving rental landscape,” Hutchinson said, “the data shows how attitudes to certain neighborhoods are changing and the impact that rent increases are having on the city.”Engineering students at the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City. Mexico is now producing as many or more engineers than the United States as it tries to move its economy beyond low-wage factory jobs.
Oct. 17, 2012 Engineering students at the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City. Mexico is now producing as many or more engineers than the United States as it tries to move its economy beyond low-wage factory jobs. Dominic Bracco II/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
In an aggressive bid to develop an entrepreneurial economy, Mexico is graduating students in engineering and technology at rates that challenge the United States. But it isn’t producing jobs for them.
In an aggressive bid to develop an entrepreneurial economy, Mexico is graduating students in engineering and technology at rates that challenge the United States. But it isn’t producing jobs for them.
In an aggressive bid to develop an entrepreneurial economy, Mexico is graduating students in engineering and technology at rates that challenge the United States. But it isn’t producing jobs for them.
Mexico is producing engineers, but not engineering jobs for them
Mexico is producing engineers, but not engineering jobs for them
In an aggressive bid to move beyond low-wage factory jobs and toward an entrepreneurial economy, Mexico is producing graduates in engineering and technology at rates that challenge its international rivals, including its No. 1 trade partner, the United States.
President Felipe Calderon last month boasted that Mexico graduates 130,000 engineers and technicians a year from universities and specialized high schools, more than Canada, Germany or even Brazil, which has nearly twice the population of Mexico.
But it remains an open question whether the soaring number of skilled graduates will transform Mexico into the “country of engineers” that Calderon envisions, or they go to work in low-level managerial jobs at assembly plants owned by foreigners — jobs that have come to define their profession here.
“This idea that Mexico is a country of engineers is a mirage,” said Manuel Gil Anton, an expert in education policy at the College of Mexico.
Gil compared Mexico to a Starbucks franchise — its workers are able to deliver a fast cup of coffee but cannot create by themselves the business model and products that make Starbucks a global brand. He said most engineers in Mexico become underachievers, not inventors or entrepreneurs. “They turn knobs,” he said.
(The Washington Post/Sources: American Society for Engineering Education; The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); CIA World Factbook)
But this may change as more engineers graduate and if incoming President Enrique Peña Nieto can make good on his promise to remove impediments to growth and turn Mexico into a kind of warm-weather Canada.
Many analysts who study emerging economies — such as the MISTs (as Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey are known) — say that Mexico is, in fact, laying the groundwork.
Mexico already posts a trade surplus with the United States and is building communications satellites and corporate jets.
A boom in higher education
In the past decade, Mexico has doubled the number of its public two-year colleges and four-year universities.
During Calderon’s six years in office, even as the drug war raged and the recession pushed millions of Mexicans into poverty, the government built 140 schools of higher learning, with 120 of them dedicated to science and engineering. Capacity was expanded at 96 other public campuses.
Private colleges — such as the pricey but popular Monterrey Institute of Technology with its 31 campuses in 25 cities — are experiencing a boom.
“Mexico is now one of the top producers of engineers in the world,” said Oscar Suchil, director of graduate affairs at the public National Polytechnic Institute, where 60 percent of its 163,000 students are studying engineering and paying just $12 a semester in tuition.
These aspirational students, many from humble backgrounds, want desperately to build something — for themselves and their country — and join Mexico’s growing middle class, which accounts for half of the population.
In a courtyard of the engineering library at the National Polytechnic Institute here sat a slightly stressed Alejandro Landin Cruz, 20, surrounded by graph paper scrawled with logarithms, the keypad of his Casio scientific calculator worn down by his flying fingertips.
Landin was cramming for his applied-statistics exam, which he predicted he would ace. “I really like math,” he said.
An urge to succeed
Like most of his classmates, Landin comes from a working-class family. He pays a pittance to attend what many here proudly call “the MIT of Mexico,” whose mascot is a white burro.
Under Calderon, the number of college scholarships doubled. The government gives Landin $65 a month — which helps him pay for bus fare, clothes, school supplies and food.
His dream is to be a transport engineer and calculate the weight and placement of cargo containers on ships for the Mexican customs agency.
“I feel like we can reach the same level as anyone in the world, because this is a seriously competitive school,” he said. “I can promise you my classes are not easy.”
Mexico is now competing with the United States in the number of undergraduate degrees in engineering.
The United States awarded 83,000 undergraduate degrees in engineering in 2011, according to the American Society for Engineering Education. UNESCO said Mexico issued 75,575 undergraduate diplomas in engineering in 2010, the most recent statistic available.
“I would tell American companies to come to Mexico, because our engineers are very good. But don’t give us jobs as technicians; give us jobs as creators,” said Emelyn Medina, 22, a student of mechanical engineering at the National Polytechnic Institute who remembers dismantling her family’s TV remote controls as a child to see how they worked.
The basics
While Mexico has become a top producer of raw engineering talent, the country lags far behind its competitors — including South Korea and Chile — in basic measures of innovation, such as the number of patents filed, scientific papers published and investments made in research and development.
Public and private spending on research and development in Mexico, as a percentage of gross domestic product, is at the very bottom among industrial nations.
But university enrollment in Mexico has tripled in 30 years, to almost 3 million students.
Ruben Bravo, 23, who is majoring in mechanical engineering at the National Polytechnic Institute, is president of the club that competes in the international intercollegiate RoboGames. This year, Mexico finished in second place, besting South Korea and Japan but losing to the United States.
“But we’re ambitious, and every year we win more medals,” said Bravo, who wants to start his own robotics company in Mexico, where, he pointed out, most of the cars sold in the United States are made.
Peña Nieto has pledged to enroll half of all college-age Mexicans in higher education, up from less than 30 percent today, which is one of the lowest figures in developed Latin American countries.
But while the number of graduates in engineering has soared during the Calderon presidency, the number of Mexicans employed as engineers has grown only slightly, from 1.1 million in 2006 to 1.3 million in 2012.
“We’ve combined an aggressive government-sponsored production of engineers with no clear plan to put them to work,” said Roberto Rodriquez Gomez, a sociologist who studies education policy at the Autonomous National University of Mexico.
“The problem is that many companies in Mexico don’t want to hire an engineer who innovates; they want to hire a technician,” said Jorge Alcantara, 22, who commutes two hours each way to the National Polytechnic Institute.
He is the first in his family to attend a university.
Economists who study Mexico point out that innovation requires investment and that investment is stoked by competition. Mexico suffers from a political culture reluctant to challenge the comfortable elites who own the nation’s near-monopoly enterprises and the government bureaucracy that serves them.
“Mexico has to invest in Mexico,” said Alcantara, who is one semester shy of a degree in computer engineering.
“We Mexicans have to lose our fear of everything, of math, of science, which is the only way to create innovation and for us to grow up as a country.”
Gabriela Martinez contributed to this report.Sketchfab has always been a bit ahead of the curve. We were pioneering WebGL from day one, before all browsers could even support it, and we were ready for Virtual Reality content even as headsets are still in development. When TimeSlice Films reached out a few weeks ago to say they were working on 4D capture with experimental tech from GoPro, we were already working on figuring out how we could host it.
Today, Sketchfab and TimeSlice are excited to present the first result on Sketchfab: a fully interactive 4D scan on the web!
“It’s incredibly exciting that Sketchfab have offered to host an example of our prototype 4D footage. Although early days, it’s fantastic to see they intend to support this type of content.” Said Callum Macmillan, Managing Director of TimeSlice Films. “Volumetric capture is a crucial evolution of both the still and moving image. It fundamentally changes visual content creation from a fixed-viewpoint to a free-viewpoint experience. We call this type of content Free Viewpoint Media (FVM) – content that can be viewed from any perspective.”
The 4D video itself was captured using TimeSlice’s pioneering 4D volumetric array, which in addition to their own custom hardware and software, incorporates 53 GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition cameras and experimental GoPro Sync technology.
With the growth of immersive storytelling, full volumetric capture is the key successor to spherical 360 type videos which currently occupy the “VR 1.0” space. By supporting this on Sketchfab, it is VR-ready out of the box, mobile ready, shareable and embeddable anywhere on the web. Here is the first interactive 4D scan on Facebook ever. 🙂
We built Sketchfab because we believe 3D, virtual and augmented reality are changing the ways we consume content, and becoming common media formats like video and sound. As people like TimeSlice push boundaries of new content creation, we’re proud to be able to support them, and our vision for an interactive future.We are delighted to confirm that the Doctor returns to BBC One on Saturday, 1st September with the incredible, Asylum of the Daleks. But you won’t have to wait until then for new Doctor Who as Pond Life premieres online on Monday, 27th August.
Matt Smith returns as the Doctor and called Asylum of the Daleks ‘a cracker’, adding, ‘Steven [Moffat] has written an absolute belter and we have made the Daleks scary again’. But before that, we have Pond Life to look forward to!
Featuring the Doctor, Amy and Rory, this five-part mini-adventure premieres on this site at noon on Monday with parts 2-5 stripped daily across the week. Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Saul Metzstein, the omnibus version of Pond Life will be shown on the BBC’s Red Button on Saturday, 1st September.
Chris Chibnall commented, ‘Pond Life provides us with a lovely opportunity to catch-up with Amy and Rory since we saw them at the end of the last series. It opens with the Ponds at home and gives us an insight in to just what happens when the Doctor drops in and out of their lives. Travelling with the Doctor is one of the greatest things you can do, but it's fun to spend a few moments looking at the chaos he can also bring.’
Caroline Skinner, Executive Producer, said ‘Chris has written a beautiful, heartfelt and wickedly funny piece about the adventures the Ponds have been having with the Doctor since we last saw them on-screen. It's not long till the series itself will be back with a vengeance - but in the meantime, Pond Life is a truly heart-warming piece about our best-loved companions and their madcap relationship with their raggedy Doctor.’
We’ll be bringing you more about the new series and Pond Life soon!WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- Quarterback Travis Wilson of UTAH, cornerback Steven Nelson of OREGON STATE and punter Kris Albarado of USC have been named Pac-12 Players of the Week in football.
Wilson, a sophomore from San Clemente, Calif., completed 24 of 35 passes for 273 yards and no interceptions in leading Utah to a 20-13 victory over BYU, the fourth-straight win over their in-state rival. His 74-yard second-quarter pass to Dres Anderson was his fifth pass play of more than 50 yards this season and set up a touchdown that put Utah up 13-0 just before halftime. Clinging to a 13-6 fourth-quarter lead, Wilson engineered a 12-play, 79-yard drive that concluded with a 2-yard touchdown pass and extended the Utes’ lead to 20-6.
Nelson, a junior from Atlanta, Ga., stepped in front of a San Diego State pass and returned it 16 yards for the game-winning touchdown in the Beaver’s come-from-behind 34-30 win over the Aztecs on Saturday night. The interception came with 2:31 left in the game with Oregon State down by three after they had faced deficits of 13 and nine points earlier in the second half. Nelson co-leads the nation with four picks on the year and is the first player in team history to have four interceptions in his first four career games.
Albarado, a sophomore punter from Lake Charles, La., helped stymie the Utah State offense with his precision punting in the Trojan’s 17-14 victory on Saturday at the Coliseum. Five of his seven punts pinned the Aggies within the 20-yard line, including two inside the five, leading to an average starting field position for Utah State on their own 21-yard line. The first-year punter is averaging 40.3 yards on 23 boots, with more than half (12) of those backing opponents within their own 20. He has a pair of 50-yard punts on the season, including a best of 64 yards.
Also nominated for offensive player of the week honors were quarterbacks Sean Mannion of Oregon State and Keith Price of WASHINGTON; running back Jordan James of UCLA; and wide receivers Jaelen Strong of ARIZONA STATE, Ty Montgomery of STANFORD and Gabe Marks of WASHINGTON STATE. Also nominated for defensive player of the week honors were defensive ends Cassius Marsh of UCLA, Leonard Williams of USC and Hau’oli Kikaha of Washington; defensive back Michael Walker of Utah; and linebacker Darryl Monroe of Washington State. Also nominated for special teams player of the week honors were punters Keith Kostol of Oregon State and Tom Hackett of Utah and UCLA kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn.
2013 Pac-12 Football Players of the WeekIslamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- A senior Pakistani intelligence official told CNN Friday that U.S. military personnel have left a southern base said to be a key hub for American drone operations in the country's northwestern tribal areas.
It is the Shamsi Air Base in Pakistan's Balochistan Province, from which drones are said to take off and where they are refueled for operations against Islamic militants.
The development comes amid a public furor over American drone attacks, which have killed civilians.
A suspected U.S. drone strike Friday in the Pakistani tribal region killed 25 people, including eight civilians and 17 militants, a Pakistani intelligence source said. This came after another strike on March 17 killed 44 people, most of them civilians.
Yet a U.S. official disputed the Pakistani contention that civilians died in Friday's drone strike.
"There is no evidence to support that claim whatsoever," the U.S. official said.
Another senior Pakistani intelligence official, who did not want to be identified discussing a sensitive issue, confirmed that the Americans had been using the base as a center of operations for launching drone strikes. He was not able to confirm the Americans had left.
While the first official was able to confirm that American personnel were no longer operating out of the base, he could not say whether they had left voluntarily or at the request of the Pakistani government.
The operation of the base -- not publicly acknowledged by the American government -- has always been presumed to have occurred with tacit Pakistani military consent.
It was not clear from the Pakistani officials when the presence there began or when it ended.
A U.S. military official who did not want to be identified told CNN: "There are no U.S. forces at Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan." He did not respond at the time or in writing to queries as to whether U.S. personnel had been based there in the past.
The departure of American personnel -- if confirmed -- would be significant because of increasing strain between Islamabad and Washington sparked by the continuing drone attacks and by the Raymond Davis affair, in which a CIA contractor fatally shot two Pakistani men in a Lahore neighborhood.
It has always been unclear how many drone bases the United States operates in or near Pakistan. But the Friday attack in North Waziristan that killed 25 people would indicate the United States maintains the capability to strike tribal areas with drones.
Carl Forsberg, research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War think tank, said he doesn't think the alleged move will affect the effort using drones to target the Haqqani Network and other militant groups holed up in the tribal region.
That's because many strikes have been conducted from closer bases, such as those across the Pakistani border in eastern Afghan provinces. He said the Pakistanis could be making the alleged move to appease a populace angry at the United States.
The southern air base, he said, doesn't appear to be integral to the tribal area fight and is probably a supporting base.
"It's not like the Pakistanis shut down the program," he said. "It's possible they want to do this as a means of pre-empting drone strikes in Balochistan," where there is a Taliban presence.
"The United States has an interest in going after the Taliban in Balochistan" he said, and in an ideal world the United States would like to target Taliban sanctuaries in that region with drones.
Also, he said, it's possible the Pakistanis are using pressure on the United States to offset any U.S. pressure on them.
He said it's no coincidence that the development emerged after Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Islamabad.
In an interview that aired Wednesday on Pakistan's Geo TV, Mullen spoke forcefully about the Haqqani Network, which he said "very specifically facilitates and supports the Taliban who move in Afghanistan, and they're killing Americans."
"I can't accept that and I will do everything I possibly can to prevent that specifically," he said.
Then Mullen said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence "has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani Network. That doesn't mean everybody in the ISI, but it's there."
"I also have an understanding that the ISI and the (Pakistani military) exist to protect their own citizens, and there's a way they have done that for a long period of time," Mullen said. "I believe that over time, that's got to change."
A senior Pakistani intelligence official responded by saying, "We do have a relationship: that of an adversary."
"We have made our resolve very clear that (the Haqqani Network) is an enemy we need to fight together," said the official, who did not want to be identified discussing intelligence matters.
The Pakistani intelligence official told CNN that "we have our hands full" fighting other Islamist militant groups along the border with Afghanistan, notably those under the umbrella of the Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, "and once we are through with them we can turn on the other (the Haqqanis). We do not have the capacity to undertake simultaneous operations."
The official said the "onus of providing proof of this" relationship was on the Americans and it was not up to the ISI "to start providing clarification."
Asked if offense was taken from Mullen's remarks, the intelligence official said: "Not personally, no."
In Friday's attack, a drone fired five missiles on a hideout in Mir Ali of North Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan, two intelligence officials said.
The officials said the militants, who were staying in the hideout, were planning to move into Afghanistan for an attack against coalition forces.
The militants were local Taliban members from Orakzai agency, another district of Pakistan's tribal region, who were trained for war, the officials said. The intelligence officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
But the attack also killed at least three women when one of the missiles hit a house next to the targeted compound, officials said. The Pakistani intelligence source identified the civilians killed as five women and three children.
Friday's drone strike was the 20th this year compared with 111 in all of 2010, based on a CNN tally.
The strike comes two days after Pakistan issued a strongly worded statement condemning deadly suspected U.S. drone strikes in the country's tribal region.
"Drone attacks have become a core irritant in the counterterror campaign," a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday. "We have repeatedly said that such attacks are counterproductive and only contribute to strengthen the hands of the terrorists."
CNN's Joe Sterling and Pam Benson contributed to this report.Tuesday, March 14, 2017
PostgreSQL is an amazing and extensible database, providing a ton of functionality. One of the best parts, in my opinion, is the ability to add additional programming languages to create stored procedures. This allows developers to move business logic deeper into the database itself. Unfortunately, this is often very hard to test in isolation.
The current state of testing in PostgreSQL is to run make installcheck, which runs a myriad of SQL commands living in files in the sql directory, with the results checked against a bunch more files living in the expected directory. This works, but is often-times difficult to add into existing test suites, which ultimately leaves holes in testing.
This is where Equinox comes in. Equinox is a testing framework built on top of PLV8 and Node.js; which comes in handy if you're already in the Javascript ecosystem. All tests are written in Javascript, executed in the PLV8 environment, and the results of the tests are available in a few different formats: dot, spec, and tap.
Installing
Installation requires Node.js to be installed:
$ npm install equinox
From there, it's just a matter of creating tests and running them.
Your First Test
Tests are written in Javascript, which get executed in PLV8 - this gives you query access, as well as logging where needed.
For more information about querying the database and executing stored procedures, see Database Access.
You define an array of tests to run, which get executed by the test runner:
var tests = [ {'should equal 1': function ( ) { var result = plv8.execute('SELECT 1 AS num'); assert.equal(result.length, 1, "length should be 1"); assert.equal(result[0].num, 1, "num should equal 1"); } }, { 'another test': [...] } ];
In addition, there are setup and teardown functions that can be executed at specific times. See testing to learn more.
Tests can be divided up to into multiple files. Each file will be treated in isolation, so each one should encapsulate all logic needed in order to run the tests.
Assert
There is currently only one type of assertion: assert.equal(a, b, message). This assertion only handles simple values, and does not yet do deep object equality checks.
Running Tests
By default, the equinox command-line script can be used to execute the tests:
$ equinox -d mydatabase --files tests/*.js
There are options available to help with configuration:
Parameter Description Default files Files to load and execute database Database to run in host Hostname to connect to localhost user Database user to connect with password Database password to connect with reporter Test reporter to use (dot, spec, tap) dot
Under the Hood
Equinox creates a schema named equinox in your database when it runs. It then loads all of your tests into that schema by name as Postgres functions. These functions include all of the information needed to setup, execute, and teardown your tests, there is no need for you to add anything but the test code.
When the tests are complete, the schema is destroyed.
Node.js is used to instrument the tests. It creates the equinix schema, adds the tests by name, executes them in PostgreSQL, and returns the results in the format requested.One of five Nobel Prizes established by Alfred Nobel
The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish, Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. Since March 1901,[3] it has been awarded annually (with some exceptions) to those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".[4]
Per Alfred Nobel's will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a five-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway. Since 1990, the prize is awarded on 10 December in Oslo City Hall each year. The prize was formerly awarded in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law (1947–1989), the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–1946), and the Parliament (1901–1904).
Due to its political nature, the Nobel Peace Prize has, for most of its history, been the subject of controversies.
Background [ edit ]
According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who in the preceding year "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".[5]
Alfred Nobel's will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian Parliament.[citation needed]
Nobel died in 1896 and he did not leave an explanation for choosing peace as a prize category. As he was a trained chemical engineer, the categories for chemistry and physics were obvious choices. The reasoning behind the peace prize is less clear. According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, his friendship with Bertha von Suttner, a peace activist and later recipient of the prize, profoundly influenced his decision to include peace as a category.[6] Some Nobel scholars suggest it was Nobel's way to compensate for developing destructive forces. His inventions included dynamite and ballistite, both of which were used violently during his lifetime. Ballistite was used in war[7] and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, an Irish nationalist organization, carried out dynamite attacks in the 1880s.[8] Nobel was also instrumental in turning Bofors from an iron and steel producer into an armaments company.
It is unclear why Nobel wished the Peace Prize to be administered in Norway, which was ruled in union with Sweden at the time of Nobel's death. The Norwegian Nobel Committee speculates that Nobel may have considered Norway better suited to awarding the prize, as it did not have the same militaristic traditions as Sweden. It also notes that at the end of the 19th century, the Norwegian parliament had become closely involved in the Inter-Parliamentary Union's efforts to resolve conflicts through mediation and arbitration.[6]
Nomination and selection [ edit ]
The Norwegian Parliament appoints the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which selects the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Nomination [ edit ]
Each year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee specifically invites qualified people to submit nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.[9] The statutes of the Nobel Foundation specify categories of individuals who are eligible to make nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize.[10] These nominators are:
Nominations must usually be submitted to the Committee by the beginning of February in the award year. Nominations by committee members can be submitted up to the date of the first Committee meeting after this deadline.[10]
In 2009, a record 205 nominations were received,[11] but the record was broken again in 2010 with 237 nominations; in 2011, the record was broken once again with 241 nominations.[12] The statutes of the Nobel Foundation do not allow information about nominations, considerations, or investigations relating to awarding the prize to be made public for at least 50 years after a prize has been awarded.[13] Over time, many individuals have become known as "Nobel Peace Prize Nominees", but this designation has no official standing, and means only that one of the thousands of eligible nominators suggested the person's name for consideration.[14] Indeed, in 1939, Adolf Hitler received a satirical nomination from a member of the Swedish parliament, mocking the (serious but unsuccessful) nomination of Neville Chamberlain.[15] Nominations from 1901 to 1956, however, have been released in a database.[16]
Selection [ edit ]
Nominations are considered by the Nobel Committee at a meeting where a short list of candidates for further review is created. This short list is then considered by permanent advisers to the Nobel institute, which consists of the Institute's Director and the Research Director and a small number of Norwegian academics with expertise in subject areas relating to the prize. Advisers usually have some months to complete reports, which are then considered by the Committee to select the laureate. The Committee seeks to achieve a unanimous decision, but this is not always possible. The Nobel Committee typically comes to a conclusion in mid-September, but occasionally the final decision has not been made until the last meeting before the official announcement at the beginning of October.[17]
Awarding the prize [ edit ]
The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee presents the Nobel Peace Prize in the presence of the King of Norway on 10 December each year (the anniversary of Nobel's death). The Peace Prize is the only Nobel Prize not presented in Stockholm. The Nobel laureate receives a diploma, a medal, and a document confirming the prize amount.[18] As of 2013, the prize was worth 10 million SEK (about US$1.5 million). Since 1990, the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony is held at Oslo City Hall.
From 1947 to 1989, the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony was held in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law, a few hundred metres from Oslo City Hall. Between 1905 and 1946, the ceremony took place at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. From 1901 to 1904, the ceremony took place in the Storting (Parliament).[19]
Criticism [ edit ]
It has been expressed that the Peace Prize has been awarded in politically motivated ways for more recent or immediate achievements,[20] or with the intention of encouraging future achievements.[20][21] Some commentators have suggested that to award a peace prize on the basis of unquantifiable contemporary opinion is unjust or possibly erroneous, especially as many of the judges cannot themselves be said to be impartial observers.[22]
In 2011, a feature story in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten contended that major criticisms of the award were that the Norwegian Nobel Committee ought to recruit members from professional and international backgrounds, rather than retired members of parliament; that there is too little openness about the criteria that the committee uses when they choose a recipient of the prize; and that the adherence to Nobel's will should be more strict. In the article, Norwegian historian Øivind Stenersen argues that Norway has been able to use the prize as an instrument for nation building and furthering Norway's foreign policy and economic interests.[23]
In another 2011 Aftenposten opinion article, the grandson of one of Nobel's two brothers, Michael Nobel, also criticised what he believed to be the politicisation of the award, claiming that the Nobel Committee has not always acted in accordance with Nobel's will.[24] Norwegian lawyer Fredrik S. Heffermehl has criticized the management of the Peace Prize.[25]
Criticism of individual conferments [ edit ]
Barack Obama with Thorbjørn Jagland at the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony
The awards given to Mikhail Gorbachev,[26] Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Menachem Begin and Yasser Arafat,[27][28] Lê Đức Thọ, Henry Kissinger,[29] Jimmy Carter,[30] Al Gore,[31] the IPCC,[32] Liu Xiaobo,[33][34][35] Aung San Suu Kyi,[36][37][38] Barack Obama,[39][40][41][42] and the European Union[43] have all been the subject of controversy.
The awards given to Lê Đức Thọ and Henry Kissinger prompted two dissenting Committee members to resign.[44] Thọ refused to accept the prize, on the grounds that such "bourgeois sentimentalities" were not for him[45] and that peace had not actually been achieved in Vietnam. Kissinger donated his prize money to charity, did not attend the award ceremony and later offered to return his prize medal after the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnamese forces 18 months later.[45]
Notable omissions [ edit ]
Foreign Policy has listed Mahatma Gandhi, Eleanor Roosevelt, U Thant, Václav Havel, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Fazle Hasan Abed and Corazon Aquino as people who "never won the prize, but should have".[46][47]
The omission of Mahatma Gandhi has been particularly widely discussed, including in public statements by various members of the Nobel Committee.[48][49] The Committee has confirmed that Gandhi was nominated in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and, finally, a few days before his assassination in January 1948.[50] The omission has been publicly regretted by later members of the Nobel Committee.[48] Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, "The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize, whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question".[51] In 1948, following Gandhi's death, the Nobel Committee declined to award a prize on the ground that "there was no suitable living candidate" that year. Later, when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".[52]
List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates [ edit ]
View of a diploma - Nobel Peace Prize 2001, United Nations
As of 2016, the Peace Prize has been awarded to 104 individuals and 23 organizations. Sixteen women have won the Nobel Peace Prize, more than any other Nobel Prize.[53] Only two recipients have won multiple Prizes: the International Committee of the Red Cross has won three times (1917, 1944, and 1963) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has won twice (1954 and 1981).[54] Lê Đức Thọ is the only person who refused to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.[55]
See also [ edit ]The secret Senate Democratic budget resolution drafted by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and shared with the White House relies heavily on cuts to the Pentagon which would see its budget slashed by more than $800 billion over 10 years, according to sources.
Overall security spending is cut by $886 billion in the budget which Senate leadership is still mulling making public. Under law the Senate was to have agreed on a budget by April 15.
This compares to $178 billion in security cuts in the House-passed budget resolution, only $78 |
iled when former-police-officer-turned-MNA Robert Poëti hinted the Parti Quebecois likely arranged with police for the information on the raid to be leaked, just as session was starting, in order to sabotage the Liberals.
“If you think this is a coincidence …” he suggested, his voice trailing off.
A suggestion that landed Poëti an avalanche of criticism.
“If Mr. Poëti thinks that UPAC isn’t fit to do the job, it’s up to him to say it,” said Public Security Minister Stéphane Bergeron.
“If Mr. Poëti thinks that Mr. Lafrennière isn’t fit to do the job, it’s up to Mr. Poëti to say it.”
Tourism Minister Pascal Bérubé added: “If he knows something about ties, the links between political power and the police, it’s a major issue.”
Not to be undone, the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) showed reporters a Liberal letter, which was handed out at the doors of a synagogue, reminding worshippers donations amount to preferential treatment. That too provoked reaction.
“There’s a structural problem at the Liberal party and it seems it’s not finished,” said Labour Minister Agnès Maltais.
Couillard has promised to be more transparent and insisted his party has already made some important changes.
But the road to recovery may be a long one: Thursday’s CROP poll showed the Liberals are losing support: five percentage points in a month.Getty Images
As a Bears and Raiders wide receiver in the 1980s and 1990s, Willie Gault was one of the fastest players in the NFL. Now Gault is 55 years old. And he’d still beat a lot of NFL players in a footrace.
Gault was named USA Track & Field’s athlete of the week this week after he set new world records in his age group in both the 100 meters and 200 meters.
At the Oxy Invite in Los Angeles on Saturday, Gault ran an 11.30-second 100-meter dash and a 23.24-second 200-meter dash. The previous world records for men age 55 or older were 11.44 seconds in the 100 and 23.36 seconds in the 200. Gault previously set world records in the 45-49 age group and the 50-54 age group.
Gault was always a multi-sport athlete and may have been better at track than football: He was a member of the 1980 Summer Olympics team that was kept home from the Games in Moscow when the U.S. boycotted, and in 1983 he came in third place in the world championships in the 110-meter hurdles. At the same world championships, he and teammates Emmit King, Calvin Smith and Carl Lewis broke the 4×100-meter relay world record. He was also an alternate in the bobsled in the 1988 Winter Olympics.
In 11 NFL seasons, Gault caught 333 passes for 6,635 yards and 44 touchdowns. He led the Super Bowl-winning 1985 Bears in both receiving yards and kickoff return yards.The final presidential debate was by consensus the best of the three. Much credit goes to the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, as our Ed Morrissey described here.
There was, for a change, significant policy discussion between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, as Jazz Shaw pointed out here, deciphering the truth about the national debt discussion.
Abortion, gun control, immigration, ObamaCare, the Supreme Court, ISIS, Mosul, they were all there.
Clinton was her usually tightly-scripted self, rattling off memorized talking points and confirming her family connections to R2D2. Trump can deny all he wants that he prepared this time. Clearly, he did. And it showed to his benefit.
The two of them were pivoting so much, they pivoted from pivots. When Trump opened the smelly can of corruption holding the remains of that lucrative pay-for-play scheme between her State Department and the Clinton foundation, Hillary set a new debate-stage speed record pivoting to how hard the foundation fights AIDS.
Trump did not press it further.
Most shocking, you might recall from Wednesday evening, was how fiercely Trump tore into Clinton over the lethal Benghazi incident in 2012. How the wannabe commander-in-chief ignored or rejected so many pleas from Amb. Chris Stevens for increased security as Libya fell into lawlessness and chaos after the successful Clinton-Obama toppling of Moammar Gadhafi.
The quirky dictator, who voluntarily relinquished his nuclear weapons program as requested, ended up dead, torn apart by a mob, which Clinton was caught celebrating on videotape. A fate for weapons compliance that no doubt registered when Iran heard similar Western weapons demands.
Later on the anniversary of 9/11, another better-armed mob tore apart the U.S. Benghazi consulate and attacked its CIA annex, killing four government employees, including Stevens, an aide and two CIA operatives.
Their pleas for help went unheeded all night in Clinton’s Washington office. Not one boot or plane moved to rescue the men. The White House has refused to reveal what Obama was doing during those deadlyhours when the first American ambassador in 30 years perished.
We do know that Clinton was busy concocting that yarn about angry Libyans spontaneously reacting to an obscure YouTube video critical of Islam. She started peddling the fable to media around 10 p.m. In the morning before the bodies were cold she appeared in the Rose Garden with Obama, who denounced the attack and vowed swift justice (which, by the way, is still pending.) No media questions that day as Obama rushed off to Las Vegas fundraisers.
When the bodies arrived home, Clinton promised bereaved families tough prosecution of that unknown filmmaker, though she’d already emailed her daughter it was terrorism. Ten days later, long after intelligence agencies had debunked the video claim as fantasy, Obama was still citing it to the world in a UN speech.
Months after, a formal Accountability Review Board scanned documents kindly screened for them by Clinton staff. The report blamed Benghazi lapses on systemic bureaucratic problems. No one was charged. No one was fired. The board didn’t even bother interviewing the woman in charge that awful night.
That’s how Washington tidies up its messes.
Anyway, were you impressed by how fiercely the Republican nominee prosecuted the Democrat point by point over her murderous failures? And how lame were Clinton’s responses?
You were not.
That’s because Benghazi’s blood stains on Hillary Clinton never came up in the debate. The would be Oval Office occupant had to defend nothing about leaving four men to die at the hands of terrorists. Another missed Trump opportunity to define a Clinton vulnerability.
Americans died. Americans lied. And among the more than 17,000 words uttered in that debate on national TV the word “Benghazi” was totally absent. Pfft. As if it never happened.
After all, what difference, at this point, does it make?KABUL (Reuters) - Five Afghan soldiers were killed on Thursday in an air strike by the NATO-led force in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Logar, Afghan officials and the coalition said.
Coalition airstrikes on friendly targets have helped widen a rift between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the United States, cementing his resolve not to sign a bilateral security deal to let U.S. troops remain in the country after 2014.
“We condemn the attack on the Afghan National Army in Logar,” said Aimal Faizi, a spokesman for Karzai. “The president has ordered an investigation.”
The airstrike, at around 3.30 a.m., seriously wounded at least eight other soldiers, said district governor Khalilullah Kamal.
“Right now a discussion in the province is going on between Afghan officials and foreign forces to find out the reason for this attack,” he said, describing the attack as having targeted a new outpost of the Afghan army.
A total of 17 people had been injured, his office said.
Coalition forces said soldiers were accidentally bombed during an operation intended to support Afghan security forces in the province because they were mistaken for insurgents.
“The aircraft engaged suspected insurgents on a ridge overlooking Nawer village,” it said, adding the victims were later identified as Afghan army soldiers.
“We value the strong relationship with our Afghan partners, and we will determine what actions will be taken to ensure incidents like this do not happen again.”
The ministry of defense said a delegation had been sent to the area to investigate.
“Dead bodies and wounded personnel have been transferred to Kabul,” it added.The agreement follows lengthy talks with the current four F1 power unit manufacturers – Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda – and will see the removal of the existing ‘token’ system for in-season engine development.
The FIA statement in full:
The FIA is pleased to announce that, following extensive work done in conjunction with the four Power Unit manufacturers involved in the FIA Formula One World Championship, and with the support of the Commercial Rights Holder, a global agreement on power units has been reached for the 2017-2020 period.
The agreement has been approved by all levels of the F1 governance structure, including the World Motor Sport Council, and will now be included as Technical and Sporting regulations for the 2017 and 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The global agreement on power units covers four key areas relating to the cost and supply price, obligation to supply, performance convergence and the sound of the power units.
As part of the power unit agreement, adherence to the measures outlined below will see the FIA commit to supporting power unit regulations stability and the maintaining of the current Formula One governance structure for the 2017-2020 period.
COST
Agreement has been reached on a significant reduction in the price of power unit supply to customer teams and a reduction in cost to manufacturers over the coming years.
- In 2017 the power unit price for customer teams will be reduced by €1m per season compared to 2016.
- From 2018, the annual supply price will be reduced by a further €3m.
- Cost reduction on power units will be driven by changes to the Sporting and Technical regulations in 2017 and 2018, with a progressive reduction of the number of power unit elements per driver per season.
SUPPLY
Supply of power units to customer teams will be ensured, as the homologation procedure will include an “obligation to supply” that will be activated in the event of a team facing an absence of supply.
PERFORMANCE CONVERGENCE
The new agreement includes a package of measures aimed at achieving performance convergence.
- The token system is to be removed from 2017
- Additionally, constraints on power unit part weights, dimensions and materials, and on boost pressure will be introduced in 2017 and in 2018.
SOUND
Manufacturers are currently conducting a promising research programme into further improving the sound of the current power units, with the aim of implementation by 2018 at the latest.Despite a string of victories over al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, a team of U.S. troops on the ground in Yemen will remain in place for now, a top Pentagon official said.
The deployment is "short term" but currently has no firm end date, Cook said.The "small contingent" of U.S. forces was deployed there in April to support Arab-led forces' effort to oust the militant group al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula from their stronghold in the Yemeni port of Al Mukalla, Cook said."They are still in country, still providing that liaison role, particularly in support of intelligence sharing," Defense Department spokesman Peter Cook said Monday.
"It's going to be a limited period of time, but I don't have a particular deadline [for withdrawal]," Cook told reporters at a press briefing at the Pentagon.
U.S. defense officials revealed the deployment on May 6, marking the first time in more than a year that the U.S. military has sent troops into Yemen.
In March 2015, the U.S. evacuated about 125 special operations troops amid the expanding civil war between government loyalists backed by a Sunni Arab coalition and Houthi rebels supported by Iran.
Hadrami elite forces tightly guard Mokala City from Al-Qaeda by creating check-points in Yemen on May 2, 2016. (Photo by Ibrahim Badawi / RoverImages / Pacific Press) *** Please Use Credit from Credit Field ***
Hadrami elite forces tightly guard Mokala City from Al-Qaeda by creating check-points in Yemen on May 2, 2016. (Photo by Ibrahim Badawi / RoverImages / Pacific Press) *** Please Use Credit from Credit Field ***
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Photo Credit: Ibrahim Badawi, Pacific Press/Sipa USA
Amid the chaos of Yemen's civil war, militants with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula seized the port city last year. With looted bank money and oil exports, AQAP transformed Yemen's southern coastline into a wealthy ministate.
The U.S. is supporting a coalition led by the United Arab Emrites, a Sunni Gulf Arab ally, to push AQAP out of the port city.
AQAP forces have mostly withdrawn from the port city and a local airport there reopened Sunday for the first time in a year, according to local report.
In addition to the small team of U.S. forces on the ground, the U.S. military is also providing the UAE military with intelligence support, advice and assistance with operational planning, maritime interdiction and security operations, medical support and aerial refueling, defense officials said.Each week we search and gather up the coolest comic book art you won't see in actual comics. The reason you won't is because professional artists often draw sketches for fun or commissions and post them on their websites, blogs, and Tumblrs. Some artists even arrange commissions through their sites so be sure to check them out. This is a way to see the artists working on one book draw characters from other comics or publishers.
Todd Nauck posted a couple new pieces on his Tumblr.
Greg Smallwood posted a Winter Soldier commission on his Instagram.
Paolo Rivera posted recent commissions on his blog.
Kris Anka posted new art on his Instagram. The Wonder Woman and Harley ones will be prints available at Emerald City Comic Con.
Chris Samnee posted a classic Logan sketch on his Instagram.
Chris Giarrusso put new art for sale on his website.
Jim Cheung posted recent commissions on his Instagram.
Peter Nguyen posted new sketches on his Tumblr. His commission list for ECCC is open.
Marcio Takara posted more daily sketches on his Tumblr.
Mike Choi posted a Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer commission on his Instagram.
Denis Medri posted new art on his Deviant Art page.
Dustin Nguyen posted new sketches on his Instagram.
Brett Booth posted a sketch for a print he's working on on his Twitter.
Franco posted a Harry Potter painting on his Instagram.
Mike Henderson posted commissions on his Instagram.
Yildiray Cinar posted new art on his Instagram.
That's it for this week. We'll have more awesome art next time.There was a lot of things to get excited about at this years’ Anime Expo in Los Angeles this year, but one particular announcement made me rise from my seat and cheer.
Princess Jellyfish is coming to Crunchyroll Manga!
Stay with me, I know you have questions: Crunchyroll has a manga service? Why would the serialization of the Princess Jellyfish manga get you so excited?
First off, yes, Crunchyroll does have a manga service. It’s free if you’re a premium subscriber, AND they simulpub all of their titles. So as soon as a chapter hits stands in Japan, it’s up on the Crunchyroll service.
This is the future, people. And we’re living in it.
And why am I so excited about the serialization of Princess Jellyfish? Well, if you haven’t watched the anime, I highly recommend you do so immediately. After doing that, I imagine you won’t need me to explain. But for those who don’t heed my advice: it’s one of the most unique and heartfelt josei I have had the pleasure of watching. But don’t take my word for it: there was also a great writeup on the series previously on The Mary Sue.
However, as with most great anime, it’s run was far too short and left viewers craving more. Fortunately, the manga can sate that need. As a manga, Princess Jellyfish has been running since 2008 with a total of 15 tankobon volumes and counting. Until now, the manga has been unlicensed in the US, leaving no legal means to continue reading the story.
So be sure to check out Crunchyroll Manga on July 15 at 5pm PT for the first four volumes of Princess Jellyfish. There’s no word on how quickly the other volumes will follow suit, but for now I simply can’t wait for more of the Amars!
Jess is just your average chaos-organizing, world-traveling, tech-loving otaku. She’ll brazenly defend her love of Harry Potter and Sailor Moon to any who challenge it, and firmly believes that “growing up” is for suckers. Find her on Twitter: @jessicauelmen.
—Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.—
Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?William M. Griswold, a veteran art museum administrator who earned glowing praise as director of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York over the past six years, has been appointed as the new director of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Trustees on the museum's 31-member board voted unanimously Tuesday morning in favor of Griswold, a specialist in Italian Renaissance art and Old Master drawings with strong interests in modern and contemporary art and the art of Asia.
Days before the vote, trustees who served on the search committee that recommended Griswold said he quickly emerged as the favorite candidate during a seven-month international search among 30 to 40 contenders.
"Was he clearly the best choice? Absolutely, yes," said Cleveland museum trustee Peter Raskind, who led the nine-member search committee.
"I'm thrilled," Griswold said on Sunday in an interview in New York, speaking of his expected appointment in Cleveland. "I'm really excited about it. I can't wait to get started."
With Griswold's appointment, the museum can move on from the transition period following the sudden and shocking resignation of David Franklin in October after three years as director.
Franklin, who served as chief curator and deputy director of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa before coming to Cleveland, oversaw the final stages of the Cleveland museum's eight-year, $320 million expansion and renovation, completed in December.
He raised tens of millions of dollars for the museum's capital campaign and endowment.
But Franklin left the institution and the community rattled following the revelation that he resigned after trustees presented him with proof that he had lied for 10 months to cover up an extramarital affair with an employee who left the museum in November 2012 and who later committed suicide.
"I have followed your travails," said Lawrence Ricciardi, president of the board of the Morgan, speaking of the turmoil surrounding Franklin's departure. "Those things are never easy. But Bill will stabilize things. He will."
Ricciardi added that the Morgan would very much miss Griswold.
"He's done a great job," he said. "He's taken us to a whole new level as an institution."
Under an accord with the Cleveland museum and the Morgan, The Plain Dealer agreed Thursday not to publish news about Griswold's impending appointment until 10 a.m. Tuesday -- after the Cleveland board of trustees voted to accept the search committee's recommendation.
The museums said that The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal agreed to the same conditions.
During a conversation at a Dean & Deluca coffee shop on West 48th Street in Manhattan on Sunday, Griswold, 53, said that leading the Cleveland museum "is a huge, huge privilege. It's a tremendous opportunity.
"I've always loved that museum and admired its collection, and with the completion of the [Rafael] Vinoly expansion and the reinstallation of the galleries, the opportunities for programming and for community engagement and educational offerings are just enormous, and that's what I'm really excited about pursuing."
Slim and energetic, with a full head of chestnut hair graying at the temples, Griswold projected enthusiasm, warmth and confidence.
His move to Cleveland means that he'll leave a midsized New York institution that specializes in books, manuscripts, prints and drawings to return to leadership of a large, encyclopedic art museum in the Midwest.
Griswold led the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from 2005 to 2007 after holding administrative positions at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles from 2001 to 2005.
Griswold served as acting director at the Getty in 2004-05 after the departure of Deborah Gribbon, who left over differences with Barry Munitz, then chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust, the museum's parent organization.
Gribbon served as interim director of the Cleveland museum in 2009-10, and has been interim chief curator at the museum since Franklin's resignation.
Griswold said he withdrew his name from a list of candidates to become director of the Getty in 2004-05 after he was recruited to Minneapolis.
He said he wanted to lead what he called a fully independent art museum at which the director reported to a board of trustees, rather than continue under the Getty's multilayered governance structure.
Before joining the Getty, Griswold worked from 1995 to 2001 as a curator and head of the Department of Drawings and Prints at the Morgan, and from 1988 to 1995 as an assistant and then associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
A native of Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, he earned a doctorate in art history at the Courtauld Institute in London before embarking on his museum career.
Raskind described Griswold as an arts leader with a "complete package" of skills, including a deep scholarly background; the ability to raise money; and a proven track record as a manager of large, complex cultural institutions.
Moreover, he said Griswold has demonstrated a high degree of comfort with the civic nature of being a museum director, a post that requires a busy social calendar and frequent speaking engagements.
Griswold lives with his partner of 23 years, Christopher Malstead, a project manager for Wells Fargo.
Griswold said that in Minneapolis, in particular, Malstead "was a full participant in the life of the museum and in our life with the community," and that he expects he will play a similar role in Cleveland.
"He joined the board of just about every grassroots cultural organization in Minneapolis, and he loved it, and I know he looks forward to the same kind of relationship with Cleveland," Griswold said.
Located at 225 Madison Ave. at East 36th Street in Manhattan, the Morgan comprises the home and library of J.P. Morgan, the famous New York banker and Gilded Age symbol of wealth.
Morgan's son, J.P. Morgan Jr., turned the library into a public institution in 1924, in accordance with his father's wishes.
In 2006, the Morgan completed a light and glassy expansion and renovation designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano that includes a new lobby, a skylighted atrium and cafe, and new exhibition areas.
The Morgan originally focused on its founder's enthusiasms, which did not include modern art. But under Griswold, who sought to expand the institution's range to make it more relevant to younger audiences, the Morgan added new departments in modern and contemporary drawing, and photography.
Griswold also led a highly acclaimed restoration of the Morgan's 1906 McKim Building, the institution's historic heart, which includes a three-level, Renaissance-style reading room.
The 2011 federal tax return for the Morgan, the most recent year available, showed that the institution had $27.9 million in revenues and $23.2 million in expenses. Griswold's total compensation that year was $509,000.
The institution has an endowment worth roughly $190 million, Griswold said.
During the same year, the Cleveland museum had expenses of $37.9 million and revenues of $39.2 million. Franklin earned $416,475 that year. The museum's endowment is worth roughly $750 million.
At the Morgan, Griswold earned high praise for overseeing what Ricciardi called "a drumroll" of outstanding and popular exhibitions that included diverse offerings such as drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and by contemporary artist Matthew Barney.
Griswold also helped raise $50 million for the Morgan's endowment, along with roughly $7.5 million a year to support exhibitions and programs.
Fred Bidwell, a retired advertising executive and a trustee and donor at the Cleveland museum, has been the institution's interim director since Franklin's departure in October.
He'll step down as soon as Griswold arrives, which the incoming director said would be no later than Sept. 15, or sooner if he can manage it.
Raskind and Bidwell said that Griswold's willingness to make a long-term commitment to Cleveland was a big factor in his favor.
The Cleveland museum has endured 15 years in which it has had three directors and four interim regimes – an unusually long period of high turnover among top executives at a major American art museum.
When asked how long he planned to stay in Cleveland, Griswold responded: "You won't believe me when I say this, but I'm staying until I retire or until I get carried out in a box. I don't love jumping around from museum to museum."
Griswold did make a sudden career move in late 2007, when he accepted the job of heading the Morgan after only two years in Minneapolis.
He said he leapt at the chance because he loved the Morgan, having previously served there as a curator.
Now, however, he said he's ready for a new challenge – and he said he wants to return to an institution with a broader focus, like the Minneapolis Institute.
"Cleveland has particular appeal because it is a great civic institution and it has an encyclopedic collection," he said.
He said that while he has loved his years at the Morgan, "I missed, frankly, leading an encyclopedic museum embedded in a community like Cleveland."The future of product is no-product
As digital products take a bigger role in our daily lives, the less they ought to command our attention
Arthur Debert Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 14, 2016
Then
It's my first Android phone. I fiddle with it, unimpressed. On stage, Google Glass is all the rage. Then Google Now happens. I'm flabbergasted: this is what the future looks like, not dorky gadgets over your face. It's 2011 and I'm at Google IO, and Now is the impressive idea I see. Surprisingly, no one is talking about it. Cut.
Now
— What are your favorite products right now? She asks.
I gasp, then slowly work my way towards an answer.
— Slack! I spend a huge part of my day within it. It reduced — drastically — the amount of email I receive. Better still, the email I'm getting is of the best kind: well thought, important and worthy of reference. Fleeting ideas stream through Slack.
— And Medium! Daily, at least one hour of reading. It has accomplished two seemingly conflicting goals. For starters it is a social network: I'm introduced to interesting people I didn't knew and I straighten ties to previous acquaintances. Honest, valuable discovery. It took time away from longer form news and books. A place where ideas bigger than tweets and smaller than books live.
— There's Instagram. It does wonders no matter how little time I dedicate to it. Instagram has this magical ability to briefly lift you from reality. Light as a feather. Every interaction with it is short, pleasant, and I have many of these every day.
There. A clear line of reasoning. I can see what these have in common: how much time I spend on them. Time must be a good proxy for liking.
Yet, somehow, something is amiss. A full day passes by and I'm still left with that uncomfortable feeling I'm forgetting something.
I'm not there
What kept me from seeing it is the very thing that makes it great: invisibility.
I assumed great products equal lots of time engaged. I barely ever use Google Photos. An hour a week at most, way less than the others products I listed. How can it be great?
Photo apps have four fundamental roles: storing, organizing, viewing and sharing memories. The first two are chores nobody wants to do. The last two are fun, but you can't do them unless you've stored and organized your stuff.
The beauty of Google Photos is that it just sits there, silently, working in the background. Once enabled your photos will be dutifully stored, safer than you could ever do. By leveraging uncannily accurate computer vision and smart clustering, Photos is able to create collections on the fly. I query it for “Arthur at the beach” and that’s what it gives me: pictures of me taken at the beach. I ask it about my cats, my son’s birth or a long gone girlfriend. Google Photo gracefully gives me what I want. It can also create albums from obvious things, such as a trip to San Francisco, but also subtler events like a Sunday at the part with my son. Sharing is dead easy thanks to a efficient UX and the availability of your contacts from Android or Gmail.
The genius of Photos is how it has removed features, at least on the surface. It has obliviated the need to upload and organize the ever increasing amount of photos I take daily. The small amount of time spent with Photos is no accident, rather the result of thoughtful work.
Less and More
value = joy / soul-sucking
The ultimate measure of a product's success is precisely the amount of value discounting the amount of perceived effort it requires me. Product people know this by heart: remove all friction is a mantra that never gets old. We fight it when we optimize conversion funnels, engagement hooks and social sharing.
But seldomly do we see browsing and searching as chores like we do for signups and tagging. Removing barriers to usage is great, but forgoing usage all together is marvellous. As digital products intertwine with our lives, the greater the opportunities to blur it's very presence. Being part of your inner life is the greatest barrier to entry: switching it requires to alter your habits.
This trend is not about photos at all, but a bigger, inevitable one. Messaging interfaces blur our understanding of what apps are. Amazon's Echo sits there patiently listening. Back to 2011, Google Now. It has missed mainstream attention precisely because it's hard for us to see it as product: it's just there. The better it works, the less you see it.
This trend is everywhere. App fatigue. Less chrome. Great products are about watching drama, listening to music, saving moments, sharing ideas; not using a product. People don’t read Medium, they read stories. They don't listen to Spotify, they listen to music. Products are artificial and restricting. We can, and should, get rid of them.
If you work on Product Design, this idea should unsettle you: are invisible products the end of brands? Quite the opposite, really. The day I no longer think about Spotify is the day Spotify became music itself. This is powerful, something brands could only dream of: becoming you. Uber becomes "I need to go somewhere". Airbnb is now travelling. Netflix is entertainment.
This is the golden age for Product designers: one where your product can be the thing itself. The great products of tomorrow are about adding abilities to people. The less awareness of their existence they command, the better. It’s finally within our reach to make Clarke’s third law a reality. All you have to do is to make your product disappear.
Side NotesGermanys renewable energy sector reached new heights yesterday, exactly a week after the country saw clean energy meet 95% of its power needs.
Data from Agora Energiewende published today showed that solar and wind power peaked at 2pm on Sunday, and joined by biomass and hydro the clean energy sector delivered 45.5 GW of power at a time when German demand was 45.8 GW.
For several 15-minute periods on Sunday, power prices once again dropped into the negative, falling as low as $57/MWh, according to analysts Epex Spot. Last week something similar happened, with Germany effectively paying commercial customers to consume energy.
Despite cool conditions across much of the country on Sunday, high winds and prolonged periods of sunshine during the middle of the day meant that clean energy met pretty much 100% of Germanys power needs at that time, having reached 95% on the previous Sunday, May 8.
Germanys complicated energy network with the country able to export much of its conventional power to neighboring countries actually served to support its renewable integration over the weekend. When solar and wind peaked, around 7.7 GW of conventional power (provided by coal and gas) was being generated, but Germany was able to divert that power to other networks.
If Germany was an island, with no export cables, this would be technically impossible because you always need to have some thermal generation running as a back up supply for when the wind or solar drop off, said Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) analyst Monne Depraetere.
As increased volumes of intermittent renewable power comes on to the grid, Germany has identified a handful of approaches designed for dealing with these new challenges, including more storage, more interconnectors and maybe the exclusion of certain regions from future onshore wind power auctions.President Obama’s new guidelines on drone strikes abroad are likely to curtail the number of attacks the United States carries out, according to defense experts.
The White House’s codified policy signed by the president this week requires a “continuing, imminent” threat before terrorists are targeted. The directive also requires “near-certainty” that civilians will not be harmed in the strike.
Defense analysts say that the emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties will reduce — or perhaps eliminate altogether — the use of “signature” strikes, where unidentified people are targeted on the basis of suspicious activities.
“The announcement that they’ll avoid civilian casualties to the greatest extent possible — what that says is no more signature attacks,” said James Lewis, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The signature attacks are probably the source of a lot of the civilian casualties.”
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In his national security speech on Thursday, Obama defended U.S. drone strikes abroad, saying that they were legal and necessary in the fight against terrorists.
But he also expressed caution about using drone strikes, as he discussed the importance of seeing the U.S. war on terror come to a close.
“To say a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance,” Obama said in his speech at National Defense University. “For the same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power — or risk abusing it.”
Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington Institute, said that the president’s comments reflect a sense that drone attacks can now be subject to the same rules surrounding the use of force for more traditional military power.
“The sense of the emergency that surrounded the global war on terror is gradually dissipating, so the way in which weapons like drones are used will be subject to more normal standards,” Thompson said.
Republicans, however, have pushed back at Obama’s notion that the war on terror is drawing to a close.
“I believe we are still in a long, drawn-out conflict with al Qaeda, and to somehow argue that al-Qaeda is ‘on the run’ comes from a degree of unreality that to me is really incredible,” said Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (R-Ariz.). “Al Qaeda will be with us for a long time.”
Some military experts are skeptical that the president’s speech reflects a major pivot point in the U.S. drone war.
Michael O’Hanlon, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, said the use of drones in the Middle East is already on the decline, thanks to earlier administration policy decisions, a lowered threat and the damage the strikes have caused to relations with Pakistan.
The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2014 will only further reduce the need for drone attacks against those posing an “imminent” threat to the U.S. and its forces, he said.
“We were already on a downward trajectory,” O’Hanlon said. “I’m dubious things are going to change that much.”
The use of drones in Pakistan and Yemen, which began under the George W. Bush administration, has ramped up during Obama’s presidency. Drone strikes in Pakistan peaked at 122 in 2010. There were 48 attacks last year and there have been 12 so far in 2013.
Controversy has surrounded the number of civilian casualties that occur in the attacks, with differing estimates about how many have been killed at the hands of U.S. drones. The New America Foundation, which is viewed as an authority tracking drone strikes, estimates there have been between 258 and 307 civilians killed in Pakistan.
Critics of drone use warn that the attacks have become the most effective recruiting tool for militants aiming to stir-up anti-U.S. sentiment.
Thompson said that the stricter guidelines on drone strikes could give officials pause before a strike is authorized.
“Both the intelligence community and the military are now on notice that they must be able to justify doing new drone strikes if there’s a danger it could go wrong,” Thompson said.
As part of the directive, Obama is expected to shift drone operations from the CIA to the Pentagon, and is also reportedly going to take a greater personal role in the decision-making.
Obama also said in his speech that he wanted the administration to review ideas like creating a drone court or independent oversight board to review or sign off on strikes.
Michael Rubin, an analyst at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said that the transparency was good in theory, but he said he was concerned that added bureaucracy could lead to missed opportunities to target terrorists.
“The idea of ever having a target of opportunity is gone, because it would take too long to get that much oversight,” Rubin said.How to build a data science pipeline
Start with y. Concentrate |
Oakland's other receivers. Seth Roberts was exceedingly inefficient last season, dropping 9.1 percent of his targets, which tied him for the league lead among wideouts with Nelson Agholor. Jared Cook has a well-earned reputation for ill-timed drops, while Lee Smith is a block-first tight end. Given that Cooper and Crabtree have absorbed 276 and 277 targets over their two seasons together, though, those secondary receivers aren't extremely important unless somebody gets hurt.
One of the few advantages of struggling through a season of injuries is that you get to see what's lurking at the bottom of your roster. The Chargers lost Danny Woodhead, Keenan Allen and Stevie Johnson before the end of September last season, and while that might have sank some teams, Philip Rivers kept on making plays. Melvin Gordon, so disappointing as a rookie, broke out as a workhorse and averaged 24.3 touches per game before getting hurt in December. Tyrell Williams came out of nowhere to post a 1,000-yard season. Dontrelle Inman outperformed free-agent addition Travis Benjamin. Hunter Henry began to take over for Antonio Gates. There was a lot to like.
The concern in 2017, of course, is more injuries. The Chargers are already worried about first-round pick Mike Williams, who has been sidelined since the first practice of minicamp with a back injury. Allen has missed 23 of the past 24 games and hasn't played a single 16-game season as a pro. Gordon has dealt with knee injuries in each of his first two years, and there's little depth at running back. Gates is 37 years old. The Chargers could be a top-three unit if everyone stays healthy, but it's foolish to count on that happening.
Another set of talents sapped by injury a year ago, the Bengals got to see Tyler Eifert and A.J. Green line up together for only three full games in 2016. They averaged 26 points in those three games and 19 points per contest during the other 13. Giovani Bernard also tore his ACL, and Jeremy Hill suffered a late-season knee injury. By the end of the season, Andy Dalton was throwing the ball to Brandon LaFell and Cody Core.
The Bengals never spend money in free agency, but they've drafted reinforcements. After re-signing LaFell, Cincy used its first-round pick on Washington speedster John Ross before taking disgraced Oklahoma back Joe Mixon in the second round. Last year's second-round pick Tyler Boyd should also be better, leaving the Bengals with four viable starting wideouts, three useful running backs and a star tight end in a contract year. If Ross (who has missed the entire offseason after undergoing shoulder surgery) and Mixon make an immediate impact, the Bengals could be close to unstoppable on offense.
You don't need to be reminded about Ezekiel Elliott, who was the most productive running back in the league as a rookie. Dez Bryant hasn't been his usual self over the past two season, with injuries limiting him to 54.4 receiving yards per contest after he averaged 77.2 yards per game over his first four seasons as a starter. He should be healthy after undergoing surgery last year, with the 137-yard, two-touchdown game Dez put up on the Packers in the playoffs a reminder of what the former first-round pick can do.
Things aren't quite as impressive after Dallas' big two. Jason Witten is a Hall of Famer, but his receiving totals have dropped in three of the past four seasons, and that trend is unlikely to reverse itself as Witten turns 35. Cole Beasley is a useful slot receiver, but his 76.5 percent catch rate in 2016 was a career high. Terrance Williams remains anonymous; he was thrown the ball on just 13.8 percent of his routes last season, the sixth-lowest rate among wide receivers. There's a huge drop-off between Zeke and Dez and the rest of the team.
You saw them torching the league last season, right? They didn't throw quite as many passes to Julio Jones -- Matt Ryan threw him 74 fewer passes in 2016 than he did in 2015 -- and while part of that was due to injury, the change also came thanks to a more balanced and successful offense. The Falcons ran the ball more because they were winning, but the one-two punch of Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman was also more efficient, as Atlanta's rushing DVOA jumped from 25th to seventh. Both backs return, and it might be easier to keep Freeman for the long term thanks to Le'Veon Bell, who turned down a long-term offer that would have reset the running back market and given Freeman a lofty target.
Atlanta scored 83 points during Jones' two-game respite from the lineup, although it came against the Rams and 49ers and included a pair of defensive touchdowns. The Falcons would still be in trouble if Jones went down with a serious injury, but they have a useful set of secondary wideouts in Mohamed Sanu, big-play sensation Taylor Gabriel and Justin Hardy. Gabriel won't be quite as explosive as he was a year ago, but there's enough of a support staff to pick up the slack if Jones isn't 100 percent. Austin Hooper looms as a promising tight end, but that's the weak spot in this otherwise dominant unit.
Tier VIII: The final frontier
It has almost become parody, but there's a staggering amount of potential among the Dolphins' collection of skill-position talent. There's not a more exciting trio of young receivers in the game than Jarvis Landry, DeVante Parker and Kenny Stills, each of whom are 25 or younger. Parker might loom as the most devastating of the three, and if he takes a leap forward in his third season, it's hard to figure out how anyone is going to cover these guys.
Miami got lucky at running back, where it sensed some weakness and tried to sign C.J. Anderson to a hefty offer sheet in March 2016 before bringing Arian Foster in over the summer. The Broncos matched Anderson's offer and Foster retired, turning the job over to Jay Ajayi, who announced his arrival with back-to-back 200-yard games against the Steelers and Bills before putting up a third 200-yard game against Buffalo in December. Ajayi was a little more dependent upon big plays than you might like, but there's still a starting back here with plenty of upside.
If coach Adam Gase can get something out of Julius Thomas, who scored 24 touchdowns in two years for him in Denver, this offense could be unstoppable. They're not all going to break out unless the Dolphins get to play with two footballs, but there's so much talent to go around that Miami won't have to depend on any one player to have a big season.
The Steelers can make a case that they have the best running back and the best wide receiver in the league. It's tough to count on Le'Veon Bell to play 16 games, but Bell stayed healthy through his 12-game season in 2016 and averaged 157 yards from scrimmage per game. The only players in league history to top that (minimum 10 games) are Priest Holmes in 2002 and O.J. Simpson in 1975, and neither of those guys had a receiver as target-intensive as Antonio Brown with whom to split touches.
Brown also sat out Week 17 and had his worst season since his breakout 2013 campaign, but does anybody really think the five-time Pro Bowler is significantly worse than he was over the previous three seasons? The only thing that might keep his numbers down is the return of Martavis Bryant, whose prorated 2015 performance (playoffs included) translates to 79 catches for 1,166 yards and nine touchdowns.
One concern with the Steelers is injury, a real concern for Bell specifically. DeAngelo Williams is gone, and he wasn't very effective last season; after a 143-yard game against Washington in the opener, Williams subsequently ran the ball 72 times and gained just 200 yards, averaging 3.5 yards per rush. Rookie third-rounder James Conner has an inspiring story and should be a good contrast back next to Bell, but he's not the receiver Bell is. I suspect Bell is about to have a monster contract season, but his history raises an alarm. That, and the absence of a useful tight end opens up the door for the...
Brandin Cooks is a painfully perfect addition for the Patriots because of his agility and ability to get in and out of breaks. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is going to have a field day isolating Cooks, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski (remember him?) for easy completions and yards after their receptions. New England will be a little worse at tight end as it replaces Martellus Bennett with Dwayne Allen, but the Patriots still have the best No. 1 tight end and the best No. 2 tight end in the league. About the only thing they lack at receiver is a second deep threat to stretch teams behind Chris Hogan, but Malcolm Mitchell could fill that role in a pinch.
The Pats are also better at running back and deeper than they've ever been, with a pair of options for both their power back (hyper-efficient newcomers Mike Gillislee and Rex Burkhead) and receiving back (holdovers James White and Dion Lewis) spots. It's remarkable that the Pats are 17-0 with Lewis in the lineup and he still might not make the roster anyway. This isn't going to be an offense that terrifies teams with brute downfield force like Randy Moss and the 2007 New England team, but it's going to convert second-and-short and third-and-short over and over again until opposing defenses collapse.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the military from force-feeding a Syrian prisoner on hunger striker at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
It was the first time a judge ordered a halt to force-feeding of a prisoner in Guantanamo, where last year during a hunger strike, as many as 46 of 166 inmates were force-fed at least some of their meals. Several sued.
U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler ordered the U.S. government to stop force-feeding Abu Wa’el Dhiab until a hearing on May 21. She also ordered the military to stop extracting him from his cell if he refuses to go to feedings.
The judge said the government also must preserve all videotape evidence of forcible cell extractions and force-feeding until the hearing next Wednesday.
Human rights advocates and many doctors call force-feeding a violation of personal liberty and medical ethics. The procedure, designed to keep hunger strikers alive, involves feeding them liquid meals via tubes inserted into their noses and down into their stomachs.
“While the Department follows the law and only applies enteral feeding in order to preserve life, we will, of course, comply with the judge’s order here,” Defense Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Todd Breasseale said in reaction to the ruling.
Last July, Kessler, based in Washington D.C., denied Dhiab’s request to halt the force-feeding, saying she would be overstepping her authority if she issued an injunction and adding that only President Barack Obama had the power to intervene.
But in February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that Guantanamo prisoners have the right to sue over force-feeding and that judges have the authority to consider petitions challenging aspects of how the U.S. military treats them.
Dhiab’s attorney’s hailed the decision as a turning point.
“This is a major crack in Guantanamo’s years-long effort to oppress prisoners and to exercise total control over information about the prison,” one of Dhiab’s attorneys, Cori Crider said.
“I am glad Judge Kessler has taken this seriously, and we look forward to our full day in court to expose the appalling way Dhiab and others have been treated,” Crider added.Making Angel Dragon costume head
https://imgur.com/y95EUTl
So, I may have told you that I had different kinda project going on in some earlier post.
I started creating this fursuit head somewhere around July and I worked on it every now and then. It probably took somewhere 80 to 120 hours to create the head but it is very difficult to estimate time what I have spent to this.
https://imgur.com/JEYeYJj
First I made foam base which took a week to do when I worked 4-6 hours per day. I used balaclava and 10 years old mattress foam so they cost me nothing. I had couple knives to cut the foam and I used 200-300 grams of hot glue.
https://imgur.com/7ceZdeh
Then I covered it with tape and drew markings, numbers and colors.
https://imgur.com/nvGdU1t
Then I stick the tape on paper, cut it and I traced them on faux fur.
https://imgur.com/KPnJaWX
After cutting all pieces I started sewing some pieces together with sewing machine. I stitched them together with double stitch, zigzag and standard stitch. I sewed about 2/3 with machine and rest by hand.
All the fur I bought were from kangastukku.com. I bought 6 square meters of fur for 85€. The quality wasn’t supreme but it was good enough for me.
https://imgur.com/slxd3Tg
I glue everything together with some hot glue and mostly with adhesive gel. It’s super messy bu easier to apply.
I cut eye frames from plastic cookie box, and used mesh to cover the eye holes.
I used wall paint and spray paint to color the mesh.
I trimmed everything but inner ears and neck with scissors.
I hadn’t time to work with it when schools started. Well, I guess a bit because of laziness too,
Horns are made from pine wood which I carved with knife, sanded, painted white and I applied two layers of varnish. I had only yellowish varnish but they didn’t look too bad.
I cut holes with knife and scissors and masked the around the holes so I don’t end up gluing the fur together. I used again adhesive gel.
https://imgur.com/7VEzf7N
And after lifetime and spending 120€ to this. It was finally done. Now I got only rest of the suit left to do.
Huge thanks to Matrices.net tutorial where I got most of the tips to make this head. Some Sparky’s videos were very helpful aswell. I had some crafting experiences before I started making this but I hadn’t sewn or used sewing machine for 6 years.
Let me know what you think about the head. Do you want me to post more about this when I have done rest of the suit or nah?
It is not flawless for sure but it’s still the first one what I have ever made.
Here’s two tiny GIFs from Kaelygon which I animated few days ago.China doesn’t need you. Not your software. Not your programmers. Not anything you have to offer.
China mints over 100,000 new software engineers each year. Those engineers are writing an incredible volume of great software. What software China doesn’t develop, it pirates, to the tune of 77% of all software used in China as of 2012. For Western technology vendors already struggling to meet the challenges of open source and cloud, China just made things harder.
Much harder.
China is challenging the way Western firms make money in China and everywhere else. For those companies that manage to figure out how to do business in China, their future looks very, very bright.
Resisting China
Not everyone wants to play along, of course. Microsoft, for example, has opted to use U.S. state attorneys general to block Chinese firms from doing business in their states unless they pay for their Microsoft licenses. It’s clever, and it may generate billions of dollars for Microsoft, but it ultimately feels like Microsoft is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
China, quite simply, doesn’t think about IP in the same way that Microsoft does.
As I’ve noted, “like their Indian counterparts, Chinese enterprises seem inclined to pay for complex, proprietary enterprise software that’s more advanced than domestic firms have yet developed.” But this won’t last, as China’s software industry is in warp speed and showing no signs of slowing. China pirates until it can build its own.
But even then, it charges for software differently than in the U.S. Software is either delivered in appliances, the cloud or firms simply charge for support. None of these things can be pirated.
And each, not surprisingly, is how companies make money with open source.
Open Sourcing China
As captured in J. Aaron Farr’s report on open source in China, Hu Ke, an analyst for CCID, notes that “China’s open source communities are relatively small and don’t have much influence. There is a lack of big projects, few participants, and little money.”
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that companies like Huawei view open source as a strategic priority. For example, while Huawei’s open source page is outdated and weak, it belies what’s actually going on in the technology behemoth. In conversations with the company and with consultants engaged with it, they cite a great deal of knowledge about open source within Huawei, though still a decided lack of know-how when it comes to engaging with open-source communities.
That isn’t likely to last.
For one thing, Chinese biggest Web companies actively embrace open source, a sign of what’s to come. Talk to anyone at Baidu, Alibaba, Weibo and you’ll discover that their software stacks are open source, top to bottom, running on homegrown hardware, not Western name brands.
In other words, exactly like in the United States and Western Europe.
Take a look at what software the industry’s hottest startups use today and you’ll get a good sense of what China’s mainstream enterprises will use tomorrow, just as is happening in the Western world. And, not surprisingly, much of it is open source.
Selling To China
All of which means the future of China’s software industry will necessarily look nothing like the history of the U.S. software industry. There won’t be companies making billions of dollars selling proprietary shelfware. Intellectual property, in the Western sense, simply won’t factor into China’s tech economy.
Instead, vendors will need to find a way to sell something other than software. Cloud services will succeed. Hardware appliances will, too. Ditto support and consulting services (though at lower margins). Basically, China’s software industry will look like an industry filled with open source and no easy, proprietary crutches.
Lead image by hackNY.orgHe’s had a knife held to his throat, been pelted with bags of urine – even kissed behind the bookshelves in the prison library. Photographer Valerio Bispuri on his dangerous 10-year journey through South America’s most notorious jails
Until recently, the 90 men judged the most dangerous convicts in Argentina were held in Pavilion 5 of Mendoza prison. It was a place even the guards did not venture into, instead leaving the inmates’ meals at an agreed spot some distance from the interior. When Italian photographer Valerio Bispuri asked for permission to go into Pavilion 5 with his camera, the authorities agreed only on the condition that he signed a document absolving them of all responsibility for his safety.
'A glimpse into the depths of hell': South America's deadly jails – in pictures Read more
“I’ll never forget... the sound of the door shutting behind me, my trembling legs,” he writes in the prologue to his new book, Encerrados: 10 Years, 74 Prisons. And yet he was welcomed there by the inmates, who were moved by his bravery and curiosity, granting him total freedom to document the inhuman conditions in which they served their long sentences. As he left, they made him promise that he would publish the photographs to publicise their plight. He kept that promise and the subsequent photo essay caused such public outrage that Pavilion 5 was closed soon afterwards.
One senses that Bispuri could have made an entire book from his short time in Mendoza prison, but instead he has chosen to chronicle his long and often arduous journey though 74 South American jails because, as he puts it, “prisons are a mirror of what is happening in a country, from small dramas to the great social and economic crises”. What is mainly happening in South America is a failed war on drugs.
Bispuri gained access to Lurigancho in Lima, Peru, the largest prison in South America, housing over 10,000 inmates. It is, writes the journalist, Robert Saviano, in his introduction to the book, “a city within a city in a country that is currently the major producer of cocaine, and entering it means catching a glimpse into the depths of hell”. Bispuri also spent time in the oldest prison in South America (the Penitenciaría in Santiago de Chile), where prisoners settle disputes with duels using swords fashioned from drainpipes. In Villa Devoto in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he entered the most dangerous prison in South America; and in Los Teques in Caracas, Venezuela, the strangest – every inmate carries a knife or a gun.
A smiling guy, in front of guards, put his arm round my neck, pulled a knife and asked if I was enjoying taking pictures
There, he was shown a wall peppered with bullet holes, the results of a ritual celebration by prisoners that happens every time one of their cartel bosses is released. On his journey, he saw men who fought with knives and, later, played football against each other in the prison yard, and women inmates who practised the tango and did synchronised fitness exercises in their breaks. He was pelted with bags of urine by outraged prisoners who objected to his camera, held captive with a knife at his throat, and had to flee another prison fast after an Italian inmate warned him he was in danger.
“Some prisoners had prepared a syringe of infected blood for me. Another time, a smiling guy came to me and, in front of the guards, put his arm around my neck, pulled out a knife and asked me in a sarcastic way if I was enjoying myself by taking pictures there. But I have to say that there were even more positive episodes that happened to me during those long 10 years photographing in these places.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Penitenciaria de Santiago, Chile, 2008. Photograph: Valerio Bispuri/Contrasto Books
Bispuri’s images are steeped in a black and white documentary tradition. “Prison doesn’t have colours,” he says, “there are only grey shades or strong black and whites.” He captures several moments of vulnerability, often shooting faces though smashed cell windows or bars. But there are also hints of the violence and aggression that defines everyday existence in many of these prisons. He shoots men showering in a filthy concrete room and women cooking joyously in a communal kitchen. In one unforgettable image, shot though a gridded security fence, he photographs two young women dancing, hands raised, one perhaps teaching the other a step. Only occasionally are there hints of intrusion as when a female prisoner wakes from sleep in her cell as his shutter clicks.
“I strongly believe that what makes the difference in reportage is the intimacy you can only reach through time spent in a space,” he says, “but you need to balance that with the emotions you’re experiencing.” Was it difficult to shoot in often dark, confined surroundings? “Yes. Light can be very strong in the yard and almost zero in the corridors and the cells. Then there is the fact that prisoners often came up very close to me or they were moving continuously. I chose to trust my instinct, and I shot the way I was feeling, without looking inside the camera at all.”
In Colombia a woman invited me to see her cell, shut the door and she and three others started to dance and get naked
There is heartbreak beneath almost every image, not least those of the female inmates with young children. Mothers are allowed to raise them in jail until they reach their fourth birthday, when the youngsters are taken into care. Was it less threatening to work in all-female prisons? “No. Women prisons are as violent as male prisons, sometimes even more so. Women are not allowed to have intimate visits from their partners as men are. I think this is a reason for the aggression in women’s prisons. I did notice that their attitude towards me was more physical: they touched me, they whispered in my ear or they asked me to go to the toilet with them. Once in Colombia one of them invited me to see her cell. She shut the door and she and three other prisoners started to dance and get naked. Another time, in Ecuador, a 24-year-old girl called me into the prison library and suddenly kissed me behind the bookshelves. It was a quick kiss, but very intense. Then she thanked me.”
One of the most affecting photographs is of an empty corridor lined with heavy steel doors with slots, from which a row of arms extends, reaching out as if grasping the air for comfort. It is an image of desperation and despair, made all the more so by the knowledge that most of the younger inmates will be released to return to the life of brutal survivalism that brought them there in the first place.SAN JOSE — The City Council is poised to pay $900,000 to settle an excessive force lawsuit stemming from an officer-involved fatal shooting of an alleged gang member who police say pointed a handgun directly at them.
But the alleged gangster’s fingerprints and DNA were notably absent from the gun police say 47-year-old Valente Galindo gripped. That, along with several other legal problems, have prompted city lawyers to urge the council to approve the proposed payout to Galindo’s three children. The council is set to vote next month.
Galindo, 47, died Dec. 15, 2011, shortly after officer Lee Tassio fired a single bullet into his chest. Tassio was cleared by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, which concluded the shooting was justified because he acted in defense of himself and others.
The City Attorney’s Office declined to comment because the settlement is not final. However, a settlement is not an admission of fault; in risky cases, the office will advise it to reduce the city’s financial exposure.
Among the legal challenges facing the city in this case was whether Galindo’s alleged gang affiliation with the Norteños was admissible. The family’s attorneys argued that a Norteño tattoo on his arm was old, that he wasn’t an active or validated gang member, and that it had nothing to do with the case anyway because Galindo was at home, inside his bedroom watching TV with his girlfriend, on the night he was shot. It is likely the city would have tried to bring into trial Galindo’s criminal record, including domestic violence and documented antipathy toward police.
Ever since Galindo died, there have been two conflicting versions of the critical moments that took place that night.
The incident started about 11:30 p.m. when two officers conducting a gang suppression patrol near Waverly Avenue and South King Road spotted a 24-year-old man walking down the street and drinking a beer, San Jose police reported.
The officers believed the man matched the description of a juvenile gang member wanted on an arrest warrant. When officers approached the man, identified as Manuel Fuentes, he ran into Galindo’s home, police said.
As the suspect ran, one officer saw the man reaching into his waistband. The suspect again reached for the waistband as he entered the house. At that point officers believed a validated gang member armed with a handgun was entering a house with unknown motives, according to the report.
Tassio and another officer followed Fuentes into the house and pushed him to the ground, according to the report. Fuentes then pulled a handgun from his waistband and slid it along the floor into a nearby bedroom. After getting help subduing Fuentes, Tassio went to find the gun in the bedroom.
The officer came upon Galindo and told him not to pick up the gun. Galindo did, and Tassio ordered him to drop the weapon, according to police. When the man pointed the gun at the officer, Tassio fired one round.
After the shooting, Galindo’s girlfriend claimed her boyfriend didn’t have a gun when he was shot. But according to the District Attorney’s report, he admitted to officers before he died that he had picked up the gun to push it under the bed, where it was ultimately found.
According to court documents, the family’s attorneys planned to use the absence of DNA and fingerprints to challenge the police account. In contrast, the District Attorney’s report concluded that the reason there was no such evidence was he handled the weapon only briefly — a contention that defense experts would have disputed.
Galindo’s lawyers also planned to challenge whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to chase Fuentes into the house in the first place and probable cause to arrest him. To prevail in a civil trial, the family had a lower standard of proof — preponderance of the evidence — than in a criminal case, where the standard is beyond a reasonable doubt.
Contact Tracey Kaplan at 408-278-3482. Follow her at Twitter.com/tkaplanreport.Over the course of human evolution, people with excess stores of fat have been more likely to survive famines, many scientists believe, living on to pass their genes to the next generation.
But these days, obesity is thought to be harmful, leading to chronic inflammation and metabolic disorders that set the stage for heart disease. So what went awry? When did excess fat stop being a protective mechanism that assured survival and instead become a liability?
A provocative new hypothesis suggests that in some people, fat not only stores energy but also revs up the body’s immune system. This subgroup may have enjoyed a survival advantage in the 1800s, when people were plagued by a disease that decimated Europe: tuberculosis.
By some estimates, tuberculosis has killed more than one billion people, eclipsing both the bubonic plague and the Spanish flu.
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But the heightened immune response that helped some overweight adults survive tuberculosis is now an “evolutionary anachronism” that has outlived its usefulness, said Dr. Jesse Roth, who outlined the idea this week in The Journal of the American Medical Association.In a hockey world marred by the overpriced contract and misguided signings, we find a haven of overrated NHLers.
Overrated might be understood a number of ways, a player might be overrated by his franchise's management, a coach who plays him far too many minutes or a fan base that lives and dies by the player, blinded by an immovable bias that gives the player a shine seen only by those wearing the same jersey in the stands and in front of their TVs.
Because of the aforementioned overpriced contracts, these overrated players can be found on just about every NHL roster - some may boast multiple, although boast might not be the right word in this context.
While many of the players on the list are somewhat obvious, others might come as a touch of a surprise. Perhaps a team is devoid of a true overrated player, while others may be judged on unconventional factors.
As much as teams would love (for the most part) to unload themselves of these players - with some sort of return, if possible - the reality is that NHL teams will have to work around the practically unsolvable cap problem. A bad contract or an overvalued player might not always bury a team, but a lot of the times it does a lot more damage to a team's championship hopes than it does good.
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30 Anaheim Ducks - Ryan Kesler
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
During his Vancouver years, Ryan Kesler was widely considered one of the best players in the NHL. While his value goes beyond the statistics he puts in the goals and assist columns, one cannot dispute that Kesler's reputation has been based on a very small sample size considering the length of his career. Kesler had three excellent seasons in Vancouver between 2008-2011, however since 2011 Kesler's offensive numbers have been mediocre and his defensive numbers and possession metrics have taken a hit. The Ducks might have gotten Kesler at a palatable $5 million, but he remains one of the league's most overrated players.
29 Arizona Coyotes - Antoine Vermette
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
For years, Antoine Vermette was given a long leash by fans and pundits alike due to his misfortune of playing on a horrendous Phoenix/Arizona roster during what were arguably the prime years of his career.
Vermette was finally released from his perceived hell last season, as he was shipped to Chicago at the trade deadline en route to a Stanley Cup run and victory. Vermette, who was expected to slide right into the Hawks second-line void, disappointed severely in ChiTown and while he had a few big moments during the playoffs, his overall play left much to be desired.
A small sample size, you might say? Not enough time to mesh with the high-flying Hawks? Hogwash! Vermette's possession numbers have been below average since his days in Columbus. In the right situation, Vermette can be a useful player, but he's far from "The Missing Piece" type of forward that everyone made him out to be last season.
28 Boston Bruins - Matt Beleskey
Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports
When Matt Beleskey is considered one of the top free agent options during any particular summer, you know it's a weak class.
Beleskey went on a bit of a hot streak at the right time and teams around the league - as usual - allowed the whole picture to be clouded by one very nice part of it. Beleskey was pursued by numerous teams, but landed in Boston, essentially replacing Milan Lucic for nearly the same price.
Why Bruins management thought this was a good idea, no one will ever truly understand. Beleskey is a classic grinder with some offensive touch. He got hot playing alongside two of the league's elite - Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry - and fooled everyone into believing he can be a top-six scoring power forward.
Besides last season's breakout performance, Beleskey's highest goal output was 11 in 2009-2010. Injuries may have slowed him down over the years, but it's hard to believe he's all of a sudden become a legitimate scoring threat.
27 Buffalo Sabres - Evander Kane
Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports
It may still happen, but we're still waiting for the Evander Kane breakout year that will justify all the years of propping up the player to elite scorer status. Kane scored 30 goals and finished with 57 points in 2011-2012 - other than that, he's been a JAG (Just a Guy). He's run into injury problems the last few years, but it's not like he was tearing it up when he was able to step on the ice. Throughout the first part of his career, he's been nothing more than a big, high volume shooter and he has, for the most part, been below average in his own end of the ice - which wouldn't matter if he would produce the way everyone expects him to.
26 Calgary Flames - Dougie Hamilton
Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
This may seem unfair to some, as Hamilton is seemingly in a rut more than anything else as he adjusts to life in Calgary. That being said, Hamilton was supposed to establish himself as a top-end defenseman this year and he's doing the exact opposite. He's looked lost in his own zone and hasn't been able to make up for it with offensive production. Granted, the Flames are a mess overall, but Hamilton was supposed to come in and strengthen a unit that was considered one of the deepest in the league last season. Many still consider him a top-two pairing talent (myself included), but if his performance continues along this trajectory, we may be forced to lower our expectations.
25 Carolina Hurricanes - Jordan Staal
James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
Are we done believing the "Jordan Staal is a top-end offensive talent" crowd?
Good. Some of us tuned that drivel out a long time ago. Many believe Staal was buried on a Pittsburgh roster boasting Crosby and Malkin up the middle, so a trade seemingly made sense for both sides. Pittsburgh hasn't been able to regain the intimidation factor it possessed when teams had to deal with Staal as opposed to Brandon Sutter or Nick Bonino, while Staal has been a bust in Carolina. Even though the team is bad overall, he's gotten to play with his brother Eric and Jeff Skinner, among others, so the talent is there around him, but he hasn't been able to capitalize on the opportunity.
24 Chicago Blackhawks - Corey Crawford
Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
It's painful to have to slot a guy like Corey Crawford into a list like this, but the Blackhawks loaded roster didn't leave many options. Crawford "wins out" because there have been too many instances where he's had to pick up the slack and hasn't been able to do so. Crawford was phenomenal during most of last year's Cup run and fairly good in 2013, but his playoff numbers take a significant dip in the years the Hawks were eliminated while he was the team's starter.
Look at it this way, if you must: there's absolutely no reason that Scott Darling, a minor league journeyman and improbable success story, garners as much support for him to be the starter over a 30-year old. two-time Cup champion like Crawford.
23 Colorado Avalanche - Semyon Varlamov
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Remember when Varly was a Vezina finalist and a top candidate for MVP a few years ago?
Yeah, those memories are fading faster than the Avalanche's playoff hopes.
He's stuck behind a horrendous possession team, but Varlamov's play has taken a serious nosedive since his career year in 2013-2014. He's currently lugging around a 3.26 GAA an.890 save percentage.
This isn't a sudden occurrence either, as his number took a large dip last season too, the season following his Vezina finalist year. Something happened over the past two years and if Varlamov and the Avs don't figure it out soon, Varlamov won't even warrant consideration for a list like this.
22 Columbus Blue Jackets - David Savard
Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
I hate to rail on someone who seems like a decent guy and a really hard worker, but someone had to slow down the David Savard hype train. Yes, Savard is a relatively solid player and for the most part is reliable - however, he's not the second coming of Duncan Keith (the solid, not that flashy number one defenseman who puts up a ton of points without anyone really noticing until the end of the year |
a beautiful case for Grindr. He trumpets its international, unifying aspect, making it sound like the United Nations of gayness. "Here we are, 8,000 miles from home and we have 50,000 guys here in London. How? What? I haven't been here for 10 years – the first thing I did when I landed at Heathrow was launch Grindr! Sydney. Melbourne. Singapore. Tokyo! Tokyo is our fourth largest city, one of our top cities! I've never been to Japan! I don't speak Japanese!"
He points out that Grindr is a response to online dating, which causes as many problems as it solves. "With missed connections and back and forth, and: 'Oh actually, this week I'm in New York, and you're in LA…' Online dating is frustrating! It is a lot of work!" Grindr, on the other hand, is immediate. There is no messing about, no toing and froing, no building up your hopes via weeks of emails only to discover on your first physical date that you just don't fancy whoever in the flesh. You see someone's picture on Grindr, you meet immediately, you establish whether or not you're attracted to each other: "Grindr reintroduces the aspect of chemistry. And – it's real. It is not a Second Life. It is not a virtual world. It's a tool. It enables real life, it doesn't replace it."
And it leads, I say, to very real sex. None of this virtual nonsense.
Simkhai pauses.
"Er… From my perspective… it's not sex. It's a precursor to sex. It's just before. That's how I see Grindr. We want to be sexy. We think sex is part of life, the basis of life. But Grindr is sexiness rather than sex."
Simkhai is concerned, perhaps, about the conservative elements of the US media. Editorials on the danger of the "new gay hook-up app" pop up periodically. Simkhai is keen to make the point that Grindr is not uniquely concerned with procuring sex. "I meet guys all the time who say to me: 'I know it's for hooking up, but…'But they met some really good friends. But they met their boyfriend. But. But." Simkhai says his main hope for Grindr is it will help young gay men through the process of coming out.
I am moved by Simkhai's passion, by the tales of the non-sexual impact of Grindr. I appreciate that it is still not easy to come out, and how important that sense of geographical proximity, of being part of a visible and accepting community, would be. The David Laws story breaks a fortnight after I interview Simkhai; a high-profile, sad piece of evidence that gay men still encounter problems in making their sexuality public.
Yet the men I speak to tell me Grindr is all about sex. "Internet's for dating; Grindr's for sex," D tells me. "Well, sometimes the internet's for sex, too, but Grindr: definitely sex." I ask around and am inundated with Grindr stories, all of which end in a sexual encounter. "Sometimes you don't really fancy them, but…" There's a sense of obligation to have sex anyway? "Yeah. But that's OK."
I begin to develop an idea of the culture that surrounds it. Many gay men see Grindr as a way to round off an evening. "I'd had dinner at a friend's house in west London and I was walking back to the tube; thought I'd launch Grindr, see what was going on. This guy pops up and chats me: 'You're near!' I chat back: 'I know…'He says: 'I'm here with my boyfriend. Come and see us.' So… I did."
Others use it as you might a glass of wine at the end of a stressful day. Kev lives near a major station: "And so I get a lot of literal traffic. Men get off the train on Sunday night after a weekend somewhere stifling, probably with their parents; they launch Grindr – guess who pops up first?"
It's mixing formerly segregated elements of gay society. My 30- and 40-something gay male friends tell me they're having much more to do with younger gay men: "Which is weird, and yeah, sometimes not totally comfortable, if you think about it," says one. "You have to work out what's too young for you and stick to that limit. But – you're always honest about who you are. You've got to be. You can't say you're younger or hotter than you are; you can't post someone else's photo. If you lie you're just going to get found out, and that pisses people off, obviously. Lying isn't done on Grindr."
Cheating, on the other hand, definitely is.
"You always see on Grindr: 'Oh, I've got a boyfriend – just interested in chatting!'" says Matthew Todd, editor of gay lifestyle magazine Attitude. "Oh really? Why? Why do you need to chat to people? Why do you need to be on Grindr? Call your mum up!"
A gay man who is in a long-term relationship tells me he's aware of Grindr, but is choosing not to try it. "It would change everything. I'm very tempted, of course I am! But ultimately I don't want to go there, and I don't want my boyfriend F to go there either."
"The vast majority of guys on Grindr are in a relationship," says P. "And I reckon a quarter of the guys who use it are straight. Not curious or bi or whatever. Straight."
"The straight ones are all talk!" says D. "They love the idea that sex with a stranger could be that easy, could be downloaded on their phone… But when it comes to it, they won't do anything."
Not every gay man is enamoured of Grindr. Attitude's Matthew Todd has reservations. "A friend with an iPhone showed me it about a year ago and said: 'Can you believe it?' I rolled my eyes and thought: 'There is no way of stopping this.' Find any new technology – we will always bring it back to sex." Todd's used it ("I dip in and out") and he knows from feedback that Attitude's readers are using it a great deal. "I think it's good for people to be able to connect. Especially young people. It's good to be able to see that there are other gay people around, and to be able to interact. But at the same time I think it's a very adult world. The commercial gay world – which Grindr is part of – is a very adult, very sexual world. And I worry when I see these young kids coming out on to the gay scene, and everything is about sex. There's no real concept of relationships."
Others condemn it more directly. "Grindr's addictive," writes one man – the ex-boyfriend of a close friend – by email. "Grindr and Gaydar [the UK's biggest gay dating site]… A lot of gay men have addiction issues. I feel crap even writing it, but there it is. We drink, we use drugs and we use sex to overcome the shame we feel. And we feel worse because we know we shouldn't feel shame, we should feel pride – so we abuse drugs and sex more. Things like Grindr and Gaydar enable that sort of sex, sex which is compulsive and which dehumanises you; and means you in turn dehumanise the people you are having sex with." He puts me in touch with G, a man he met while seeking treatment for sex addiction. "I've lost entire weekends to sex," writes G. "Downloading porn, going on Grindr, meeting men whose names I don't find out, having sex; downloading more porn…"
"Low self-esteem," says Todd. "I see it a lot in gay men – it's inevitable after years of repression and shame. And what's better for self-esteem than someone having sex with you?"
Could Grindr work for a straight market? There is, I think, an undeniable gender divide on the things that men and women will do for sex, and the things they expect and want from sex. Yes, women are capable of having inconsequential flings. We are capable of one-night stands. We are capable of having sex without becoming emotionally involved. FitFinder – which allowed undergraduate users to post descriptions of people they'd seen and fancied on their university-dedicated website – became extremely popular earlier this spring, before university authorities banned it, which would suggest that there is a straight market for a location-specific dating concept. But I'm not sure Grindr could fully accommodate the complexities of male-female interactions. The gender politics, the power games, the ebb and flow of interest, the tedious but totally authentic need most men feel to pursue a potential sexual conquest…
I ask a handful of straight women – some single, some not – if they think they might be interested in a Grindr equivalent; they say they can just about envisage it working, although none of them would commit to the notion of using it themselves. The straight men I poll say they'd think less of any woman who "advertised herself like that" – and then all insisted on downloading gay Grindr on to their phones, "just to see how it works".
If anyone can make and sell a straight Grindr, Simkhai can. He does concede: "I'm a gay man and I know how to think like a gay man… actually, my sense is I know how to think like a man. I'm not a woman. I don't know how to think like a woman." Yet he says he gets more requests for a straight Grindr from women than he does from straight men. "Many more. Which might be because straight women are often friends with gay men, so know about Grindr… But I do think it would be relevant for women. I do." Furthermore: "We'll redesign it; we'll call it something different, market it differently. We have to. Gay men are very territorial. They want to keep it all to themselves, but they say: 'If you have to make a straight version, call it something else. Grindr is ours.'"
I am still sceptical, but then Simkhai says: "This notion of: 'Who is around me? Who is in this room now? Who else is like me?' – this is not just a gay thing. And this thing where: 'I want a more fulfilling life. A richer life!' This is not just a gay thing either. Gay men don't have the monopoly on loneliness and isolation." He is right, of course. As I say goodbye to Joel Simkhai, I find myself thinking: however straight Grindr plays out for us – even if it opens up a Pandora's box on our sexuality, alters forever the way men and women relate, leaves us vulnerable to a whole new world of emotional and sexual complications – bring it on. It's going to make life more interesting.
grindr.comWhat lies behind the spat between Pope Francis and the Knights of Malta? Of course, it could be what it seems to be: a conflict over authority and autonomy that is the result — as some are claiming — of a misunderstanding that will soon be resolved.
But the defiant language of the Knights suggests otherwise — as does a glimpse at Francis’s history with the order in Argentina.
To recap: On the pope’s instructions, the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has created a five-man commission to investigate the allegedly unlawful removal of one of the Order of Malta’s most senior leaders.
The firing of the Grand Chancellor, Albrecht Boeselager, on December 6, after he refused to resign, was made by the Grand Master, Fra Matthew Festing, in the presence of the Order’s patron, Cardinal Raymond Burke, who is a cheerleader for conservative opposition to the Francis papacy.
The justification for the Festing-Burke move against Von Boeselager was that between 1989 and 2014, when he was in charge of the order’s international humanitarian arm, Malteser International, it financed aid agencies that distributed condoms to prevent AIDS among prostitutes in Myanmar, Kenya and South Sudan.
In a December 23 statement Von Boeselager says when he found out about this through an audit, he acted following advice from relevant committees, and the projects were closed. He says no mistakes were made, there was no concealment involved, and that to suggest he is other than a loyal Catholic obedient to church teachings is “absurd.”
The reason for the Vatican investigation is the Von Boesalager claim that there were no grounds for his ouster, that the order’s own procedures were not followed, and that Burke tried to invoke the Holy See’s support for the sacking when it never sanctioned such a move.
A December 12 letter from Parolin to Festing shows that the pope had given instructions to Burke in a December 1 letter which “asked that dialogue be the approach used to address and resolve potential problems.” Francis, says the secretary of state in that letter, “never mentioned, conversely, expelling anyone.”
The word ‘dialogue’ is underlined, as it is in the following sentence, when Parolin says that “notwithstanding the unpleasant and perilous turn taken by events, it might still be possible, by way of dialogue, to find a prudent way forward.”
Festing however stuck to his guns, insisting that the decision to sack Von Boesalager was taken “fully in accordance with the instructions” relayed by Cardinal Burke. As result, on December 22 Parolin instituted his commission of inquiry, which met on January 5 and has begun hearing from witnesses.
The Knights’ reaction to the inquiry has been to declare that it has “legal irrelevance” because the order is sovereign, that the decision to fire was an “internal act of the government of the order,” and that it “has decided it should not cooperate” with the investigation.
The leadership goes on to warn members of the Order who speak to the inquiry that they are not allowed to dissent from Festing’s decision to sack Von Boeselager.
This language of defiance is remarkable. It is hard to recall another example of a Catholic organization rebuffing papal authority in this way.
The Order may have temporal autonomy and diplomatic sovereignty (it even issues its own passports) but as a Catholic organization it professes obedience to the pope in religious matters. The inquiry’s head, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, points out that the order’s own article 62 declares that Knights and their chaplains “bind themselves to obey the Holy Father.”
The two may be wholly unconnected, but this is not the first time that Francis has faced hostility from the Knights of Malta, some of whose leading figures were involved in an unsuccessful plot in 2008 to remove Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Archbishop of Buenos Aires and replace him with a chaplain to the Knights, the Bishop of Zárate-Campana, Oscar Sarlinga.
Bizarre as it sounds, the plot was widely spoken of at the time, and has since been confirmed by a number of those involved, including Sarlinga himself — although he denies being in favor of the idea — in an interview to the religious correspondent to La Nación, Mariano Vedia, for his book, En Nombre del Papa (‘In the Name of the Pope’).
The plot originated with a Peronist adviser to Néstor Kirchner who reached out to a group of conservative Catholics including the nuncio to Argentina, Adriano Bernardini. Both sides saw it as a way of breaking the impasse between Bergoglio and the Kirchner government, and resolving a number of issues that were unresolved between the Holy See and the Argentine state.
The plan was to accentuate the tension further, then moot Bergoglio’s removal to head a Vatican congregation as a solution, naming Sarlinga to Buenos Aires.
It soon failed, in part because left-wing Peronists around Kirchner’s wife Cristina spotted a right-wing church manoeuvre, and in part because of Bergoglio’s close relations with Pope Benedict. But it threw light on a group that was influential with the then Secretariat of State.
Sarlinga was close to two other prominent Knights, both vigorous opponents of Bergoglio’s: Argentina’s powerful former ambassador to the Holy See, Esteban ‘Cacho’ Caselli, a wealthy businessman with close ties to former Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano, and later an Italian senator; and Héctor Aguer, Archbishop of La Plata, Bergoglio’s principal opponent in the bishops’ conference, who is a chaplain to the order.
Caselli’s son, Antonio Manuel, also a businessman, was the Knights’ ambassador to Argentina throughout Bergoglio’s period as archbishop.
The combination of Sodano — who was no longer Secretary of State after 2006 but remained influential — and Esteban Caselli in Rome, plus Bernardini, Antonio Manuel Caselli and Aguer in Buenos Aires, was widely regarded as the nexus behind the appointment of a number of conservative episcopal appointments in Argentina made over the heads of Bergoglio and the bishops’ conference.
Two of them, Sarlinga and José Luis Mollaghan of Rosario, who clashed with the then Archbishop of Buenos Aires over pastoral questions, have since Francis’s election left their dioceses. Mollaghan was summoned to work at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2014, but is currently living in Buenos Aires. Sarlinga was ousted in 2015 — following scandals involving misuse of church funds.
It would be fair to say, in sum, that Francis’s experience of the Knights has been of a group of wealthy, powerful individuals who formed part of a conservative Vatican-Argentine nexus which sought to bypass and block him and the local Church.
To say that this aspect of the chivalric order exists at the opposite pole from Francis’s call for a pastoral conversion is something of an understatement. The linking of ecclesiastic politics and high finance in Knights such as Caselli — who once sent Bergoglio a first-class ticket to Rome and received it back shred into pieces — is a strong example of what Francis calls “spiritual worldliness.”
Of course, all that history may have nothing to do with the current spat. But when a Catholic organization angrily refuses to hold itself accountable to papal authority, there’s usually something more going on beneath the surface than a procedural issue involving personnel.
It’s possible that the Knights have detected the beginnings of an attempt by Francis to intervene and reform the order which they are trying to cut off at the pass. Allow this investigation, they may think, and others will soon follow.
They could be right.Feinstein plans bill to codify NSA's phone spying
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., left, talks with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013, during the committee's oversight hearing on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. U.S. intelligence officials say the government shutdown is seriously damaging the intelligence community's ability to guard against threats. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) less Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., left, talks with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013, during the committee's oversight hearing... more Photo: Evan Vucci, Associated Press Photo: Evan Vucci, Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Feinstein plans bill to codify NSA's phone spying 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Washington -- California Sen. Dianne Feinstein has set up a clash with another powerful senior Democrat and drawn criticism from civil libertarians on the left and right for her defense of a national security program that collects Americans' telephone records.
The role is a familiar one for Feinstein, whose pro-law enforcement outlook has persisted from her days on a women's parole board and her tenure as San Francisco mayor. Now it's in full evidence in her leadership of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the U.S. spy apparatus.
"I do not want to leave the United States in a position where we are open to another major attack because we can't ferret out who terrorists might be calling in this country to put it together," Feinstein said in an interview.
Her committee is drafting legislation to codify the phone records program, the existence of which was leaked in June by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The legislation would grant the agency explicit authority to gather records listing the numbers, duration and time of all U.S. telephone calls, but not their content.
Feinstein said the measure would increase privacy protections and congressional oversight of the program, but preserve activities she insisted are vital to heading off terrorist attacks.
Taking on Leahy
The legislation is a frontal challenge to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who is drafting a competing bill that would eliminate the NSA program. Feinstein is the Judiciary Committee's second-most-senior Democrat.
Feinstein describes the program as data collection. Leahy calls it domestic surveillance.
"People believe it's surveillance, but it's not," Feinstein said.
"Some may have a problem with the collection of data," she said, but "realistically, it's the only way we prevent an attack."
The clash arrives amid accusations that the agency eavesdropped on cell phone conversations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, listened in on Mexican officials' phone calls and intercepted millions of calls in France - damaging the Obama administration's assertions that it is not misusing its spying capabilities.
'Fig leaf'
To critics, Feinstein is an apologist for the intelligence agencies.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., an author of the 2001 Patriot Act that vastly expanded federal intelligence gathering powers, is sponsoring a House version of Leahy's bill. He has derided Feinstein's legislation as a "fig leaf" and questioned her committee's independence from intelligence agencies.
To her defenders, Feinstein is taking a courageous stand that has no political upside.
"She's always had the courage to break from the orthodoxy," said Stanford University political scientist Bruce Cain, even as he questioned whether Congress has asserted enough control over the intelligence agencies.
Feinstein has penned three opinion pieces in national newspapers defending the program and has frequently backed it in news conferences, often with ranking committee Republican Saxby Chambliss of Georgia at her side.
Behind the scenes, she is battling Leahy over which bill prevails.
"We'll see," Feinstein said. "There'll either be votes for it or there won't be."
Mixing party loyalties
A Judiciary Committee aide said any bill ultimately will need the support of both chairs to pass the Senate.
"There's definitely going to have to be a battle here between the two of them over who gets the base product," said Michelle Richardson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. Civil liberties groups have united behind Leahy.
The issue splits the parties. The program's opponents include liberal senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and libertarian Rand Paul, R-Ky. Backing Feinstein are numerous Republicans and Democrats, among them former Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.
As leaks of NSA activities mount, public opinion is moving against Feinstein. The House last summer narrowly defeated an amendment to eliminate the program's funding.
Scooping up data
A key dispute is the Obama administration's contention that the Patriot Act permits the agency to collect data "relevant" to a terrorism investigation. Critics said the NSA has stretched the word beyond recognition by using a dragnet that collects data from innocent people as well as terrorist suspects, and then decides what is useful.
Feinstein has argued that the agency doesn't monitor the content of phone calls and that there are congressional and legal checks on its power.
She said the program is vital to "connect the dots" of terrorist activities, a key failing in the Sept. 11 attacks. She said the program has interrupted 54 "terrorist events," including 13 in the United States.
Katherine Stern, senior counsel for the Constitution Project, a libertarian group, noted that while the Supreme Court has not ruled on the program's constitutionality, it held last year that police exceeded their authority in tracking a suspect with a GPS unit. In doing so, the court said people have a reasonable expectation of privacy and warned that this applies to other electronic surveillance.
Bulk collection of phone records departs from "suspicion-based intelligence gathering," the ACLU's Richardson said. "Telephone numbers can reveal whether you're calling an attorney who specializes in divorce, or maybe one of those bankruptcy hot lines or a psychiatrist. It could reveal your intimate associations."
Feinstein would add safeguards and limit who could search the data, but "she's OK with collecting it all," Richardson said. "We and the rest of the privacy community are adamant that you shouldn't be collecting them in the first place."(Reuters) - NASA is considering re-activating a mothballed space telescope to help find asteroids that could be on a collision course with Earth, according to a senior U.S. space agency official.
An artist's concept of Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is shown in this publicity illustration released to Reuters November 17, 2009. REUTERS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout
Launched in December 2009, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, telescope spent about a year taking pictures for an all-sky map. With its infrared detectors, WISE was able to peer through thick layers of dust and see even relatively dim objects such as cool brown dwarf stars in great detail.
NASA then put WISE to work on another mission looking for asteroids and comets in the solar system. Of particular interest were objects in orbits that pass relatively close to Earth.
WISE found about 150 near-Earth asteroids, including 20 that were potentially hazardous, before funding for the project ran out. The telescope was put into hibernation in February 2011.
NASA is now reviewing options for enhancing its asteroid-hunting efforts including bringing WISE out of hibernation, Lindley Johnson, who oversees the agency’s Near-Earth Objects observations program, said this week.
This follows February’s explosion of a small asteroid in the skies above Russia and the near-Earth passage of a larger one the same day.
More than 1,500 people were hurt by flying glass and debris after that small asteroid exploded above Chelyabinsk, Russia. The larger asteroid then zipped past Earth closer than the networks of communication satellites that ring the planet.
Together, those events served as a celestial alarm clock, prompting congressional hearings and fresh calls for NASA and other agencies to step up asteroid detection initiatives.
NASA says it already has found about 95 percent of the asteroids that are.62 miles or larger in diameter.
“If an object of that size were to impact the Earth, it would have global consequences,” Lindley said during a NASA advisory committee meeting in Washington. “One as much as 100 meters (328 feet) in size would have regional effects and could cause a great many casualties.”
The Obama administration has requested funding from Congress to double NASA’s $20 million Near-Earth Objects detection programs for the 2014 fiscal year beginning October 1.
Costs for WISE’s potential re-activation and operation were not released, but Johnson said it may be possible within the program’s current $20 million annual budget and would easily fit within the proposed $40 million spending plan.
NASA’s human exploration program also has been developing an initiative to send a robotic spacecraft to a small nearby asteroid and redirect it into a high orbit around the moon, officials said.
Astronauts would then visit the asteroid as part of an initial foray to send humans beyond the International Space Station, which flies about 250 miles above Earth.
Another $85 million in Obama’s $17.7 billion 2014 spending plan for NASA would start technology developments and planning for the robotic portion of the asteroid encounter.
NASA is about halfway through a 15-year effort to find 90 percent of all near-Earth objects that are as small as about 459 feet in diameter.
Scientists say one of the quickest ways to speed up the effort is to re-activate WISE. “We think it can be operated for three years and get much more data,” Johnson said.
Time is of the essence as WISE is expected to slip from its optimal viewing orbit around Earth by early 2017.Bad code a guest Jul 14th, 2017 1,830 Never a guest1,830Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint JavaScript 5.54 KB address_handler. init = function ( ) { address_handler. toggle_events ( 'on' ) ; if ( store. addresses === null || delivery. addresses. source_address === null || delivery. addresses. destination_address === null ) { return ; } $ ( '#source_company' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. company ) ; $ ( '#source_name' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. name ) ; $ ( '#source_address' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. address ) ; $ ( '#source_address_2' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. address_2 ) ; $ ( '#source_city' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. city ) ; $ ( '#source_zip' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. zip ) ; $ ( '#source_country' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. country ) ; $ ( '#source_state' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. state ) ; $ ( '#source_phone' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. phone ) ; $ ( '#source_email' ). val ( delivery. addresses. source_address. email || '' ) ; $ ( '#destination_company' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. company ) ; $ ( '#destination_name' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. name ) ; $ ( '#destination_address' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. address ) ; $ ( '#destination_address_2' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. address_2 ) ; $ ( '#destination_city' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. city ) ; $ ( '#destination_zip' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. zip ) ; $ ( '#destination_country' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. country ) ; $ ( '#destination_state' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. state ) ; $ ( '#destination_phone' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. phone ) ; $ ( '#destination_email' ). val ( delivery. addresses. destination_address. email || '' ) ; $ ( '#destination_copy_origin' ). prop ( 'checked', JSON. stringify ( delivery. addresses. source_address ) === JSON. stringify ( delivery. addresses. destination_address ) ) ; $ ( '#destination_copy_origin' ). trigger ( 'change' ) ; } ; address_handler. toggle_events = function ( flag ) { events. toggle_event ( flag, 'body', '#destination_copy_origin', 'change', function ( event ) { $ ( '#source_company' ). trigger ( 'keyup' ) ; } ) ; events. toggle_event ( flag, 'body', '#source_country', 'change', function ( event ) { $ ( '#source_company' ). trigger ( 'keyup' ) ; } ) ; events. toggle_event ( flag, 'body', '#source_company, #source_name, #source_address, #source_address_2, #source_city, #source_state, #source_zip, #source_phone, #source_email', 'keyup', function ( event ) { var copy_origin = $ ( '#destination_copy_origin' ). prop ( 'checked' ) ; if ( copy_origin ) { $ ( '#destination_company' ). val ( $ ( '#source_company' ). val ( ) ) $ ( '#destination_name' ). val ( $ ( '#source_name' ). val ( ) ) $ ( '#destination_address' ). val ( $ ( '#source_address' ). val ( ) ) $ ( '#destination_address_2' ). val ( $ ( '#source_address_2' ). val ( ) ) $ ( '#destination_city' ). val ( $ ( '#source_city' ). val ( ) ) $ ( '#destination_state' ). val ( $ ( '#source_state' ). val ( ) ) $ ( '#destination_zip' ). val ( $ ( '#source_zip' ). val ( ) ) $ ( '#destination_country' ). val ( $ ( '#source_country' ). val ( ) ) $ ( '#destination_phone' ). val ( $ ( '#source_phone' ). val ( ) ) ; $ ( '#destination_email' ). val ( $ ( '#source_email' ). val ( ) ) ; } } ) ; } address_handler. serialize_addresses = function ( ) { var source_address = { company : $ ( '#source_company' ). val ( ), name : $ ( '#source_name' ). val ( ), address : $ ( '#source_address' ). val ( ), address_2 : $ ( '#source_address_2' ). val ( ), city : $ ( '#source_city' ). val ( ), state : $ ( '#source_state' ). val ( ), zip : $ ( '#source_zip' ). val ( ), country : $ ( '#source_country' ). val ( ), phone : $ ( '#source_phone' ). val ( ), email : $ ( '#source_email' ). val ( ) } ; var destination_address = { company : $ ( '#destination_company' ). val ( ), name : $ ( '#destination_name' ). val ( ), address : $ ( '#destination_address' ). val ( ), address_2 : $ ( '#destination_address_2' ). val ( ), city : $ ( '#destination_city' ). val ( ), state : $ ( '#destination_state' ). val ( ), zip : $ ( '#destination_zip' ). val ( ), country : $ ( '#destination_country' ). val ( ), phone : $ ( '#destination_phone' ). val ( ), email : $ ( '#destination_email' ). val ( ) } ; if ( source_address. address === '' && source_address. city === '' && source_address. state === '' && source_address. zip === '' && source_address. country === '' && source_address. name === '' && source_address. phone === '' && source_address. email === '' && destination_address. address === '' && destination_address. city === '' && destination_address. state === '' && destination_address. zip === '' && destination_address. country === '' && destination_address. name === '' && destination_address. phone === '' && destination_address. email === '' ) { return { source_address : null, destination_address : null } ; } if ( source_address. address === '' || source_address. city === '' || source_address. country === '' || source_address. name === '' || source_address. phone === '' ) { throw new Error ( 'Origin address is missing fields' ) ; } if ( destination_address. address === '' || destination_address. city === '' || destination_address. country === '' || destination_address. name === '' || destination_address. phone === '' ) { throw new Error ( 'Return address is missing fields' ) ; } if ( source_address. country === 'GB' && source_address. state && source_address. state. length ) { throw new Error ( 'State should be empty for UK' ) ; } if ( destination_address. country === 'GB' && destination_address. state && destination_address. state. length ) { throw new Error ( 'State should be empty for UK' ) ; } return { source_address : source_address, destination_address : destination_address } ; }
RAW Paste Data
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of Chemosh. The text also says that Chemosh abandoned his people and allowed them to be taken captive. Obviously because of their disobedience to him. The inscription on a Moabite Stone - the oldest Semitic writing discovered - says that Chemosh was angry with his people and allowed other nations to conquer them. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, art. Chemosh, on p. 640, says:
“What is of importance is the recurrence of so many phrases and expressions applied to Chemosh which are used of Yahweh in the Old Testament narratives. The religious conceptions of the Moabites reflected in the inscription are so strikingly like those of the Israelites that if only the name Yahweh were substituted for that of Chemosh we might think we were reading a chapter of the books of Kings.”
Jephtah, and most of other Israelites of his day believed that each nation was governed by its own national god. They believed that originally the Most High divided the nations and over each nation He appointed one of His sons to rule and take care of that nation and administer His government. The Israelites boasted about their national god and believed that he was superior to all other gods appointed over the nations. It seems that this was the case since he apparently inflicted the punishment over the gods of Egypt. Exodus 12:12 says:
“Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgement.”
The word “judgement” comes from the Hebrew word “shephet”, which actually means “infliction, punish.” The word “infliction” means “pain, punishment.” The word “punish” means “to subject to pain.” A mere idol of gold or stone or any other material could not be punished nor can pain be inflicted on an idol. Only the real and living gods could be punished. In Numbers 33:4 we are also told that Yahweh punished the gods of Egypt. The Jewish chronicler apparently believed that the gods of Damascus were real and powerful. He believed that these gods actually DEFEATED King Ahaz in battle. In 2 Chronicles 28:23 we read:
"He offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him, for he said, "Since these gods helped the kings of Aram, they will help me, too, if I sacrifice to them." But instead, they led to his ruin and the ruin of all Judah."
Obviously king Ahaz believed that Yahweh was not the only god but this is neither here nor there. What is imperative to grasp is the fact that the author of Chronicles believed that the gods of Damascus were real since the author made a statement that these gods HAD DEFEATED king Ahaz. For them to defeat him they had to be real and for the author to make such a statement he had to believe that they were real and not just idols of gold or stone or simply an imagination of a deluded mind.
The bible clearly shows that the authors of the bible prior to the Jewish exile to Babylon believed that other gods existed but they only thought that their god Yahweh was more powerful. Please not the following passages:
Exodus 15:11:
“Who is like you, O Yahweh, among the gods?”
Exodus 18:11:
“Now I know that Yahweh is greater than all the gods.”
Deuteronomy 10:1,7:
“For Yahweh your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, great God.”
Joshua 22:22:
“Yahweh God of gods, Yahweh God of gods.”
Psalm 136:2,3:
“O give thanks to the God of gods, O give thanks to the Lord of lords.”
Psalm 97:9:
“For you o Yahweh…are exalted above all the gods.”
Psalm 95:3:
For Yahweh is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”
Psalm 86:8:
“Among the gods there is none like you.”
The authors of these passages believed that other gods existed, but at the same time that their national god was more powerful than any god of other nations. We are not talking about idols of stone or gold. It would be absurd to say that Yahweh is above all idols of stone who do not even have breath. The comparison is only valid and meaningful if other gods were living deities but not a match for Yahweh. That these gods were living gods and not a mere idols or imagination of the deceived worshippers, is evident from the following passages where the authors of these passages actually call upon these gods to worship Yahweh.
Psalm 97:7 reads:
“Worship him [Yahweh] all you gods.”
In Psalm 138:1 the writer says that he will sing praises to Yahweh in the presence of all the gods:
“I will praise thee with my whole heart: BEFORE THE GODS will I sing praise unto thee.”
The word “before” comes from the Hebrew word “neged.” Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon To The Old Testament, on p. 530, states that this word primarily means “in the presence off; in the sight off.” The understanding of the early Israelites was that Yahweh was the local and national god of Israel. He was worshipped in Israel - the land of his own inheritance. In other nations other gods ruled. There are other passages which prove that ancient Hebrew authors of the bible believed that the gods of other nations were actual deities and living beings who could be punished and upon whom judgement can be executed. In Jeremiah 46:25 Yahweh said the following:
“I am going to punish Amon, the god of Thebes together with Egypt and its gods and kings” [Good News Bible].
“I will punish Amon, god of Thebes, and all the other gods of Egypt. I will punish Pharaoh too, and all who trust in him” [The Living Bible – Life Application Bible].
“I will inflict punishment on Amon of No and on Pharaoh – on Egypt, her gods, and her kings – on Pharaoh and all who rely on him” [Jewish Tanakh].
In a footnote we are told that Amon was a tutelary deity of the City No [Thebes]. Amon of No [Thebes] is also mentioned in Nahum 3:8. It would be impossible to punish and inflict punishment and pain on Amon if he was a nonexistent being and merely an idol of stone and an imagination of a corrupt human mind. In Psalm 29:1 David calls on the “bene elohim” – “sons of God” to give praise to Yahweh. Some translators were dishonest and falsely translated the verse but some were honest and correctly rendered the phrase “sons of God” or “sons of gods” or “divine beings.” The Jewish Tanak actually translates the phrase as “divine beings.” The ancient Israelites regarded Yahweh their god as the greatest of the sons of Elyon and that is why they expected other gods to bow before Yahweh and worship him. In Psalm 89:6 we read:
“For who in the skies can equal the LORD [Yahweh], can compare with the LORD [Yahweh], among the DIVINE BEINGS?” [Jewish Tanakh].
“For who in the skies can rank with the LORD [Yahweh]? Who is like the LORD [Yahweh] among the SONS OF GOD?” [New American Catholic Bible].
“For who in the skies can be compared to Jehovah? Who can resemble Jehovah among the SONS OF GOD.” [New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures].
“For who in the heavens shall be compared unto the Lord [Yahweh]? And who shall be likened to the Lord [Yahweh] among THE SONS OF GOD?” [Greek Septuagint Bible].
The psalmist asks who among the sons of God can be compared to their god Yahweh. The question clearly shows that Yahweh was one of these sons. The psalmist was not comparing the sons with El Elyon – for no such comparison is possible – since no son of El could ever be His equal. But among the sons of El no one could match Yahweh the god of Israel. He was a warrior god and the Israelites praised him as a warfare hero. That the early Israelites believed that Yahweh could have a brother is evident from the name AHIJAH which means BROTHER OF YAHWEH just like the name AHIMELECH means BROTHER OF MELECH. Ahijah was a son of Ahitub who served as priest under King Saul.
It can be demonstrated that angelic beings are named after El Elyon and not Yahweh. The super angels – generally called archangels – bear the name El and not Yahweh. Michael is MishaEL, Gabriel is GabriEL, Raphael is RaphaEL, Uriel is UriEL etc. Why don’t these angels bear the name Yahweh? Why was Jacob’s name changed to IsraEL and not to IsraYAH? Pre Mosaic names are theophoric names and bear the name El. In Genesis 5 we find the following names:
MEHUJAEL
METHUSHAEL
MAHALEL.
Other names of pre Mosaic times:
ISHMAEL
UZZIEL [Moses’ uncle]
ELZAPHAN [Moses’ cousin]
No one was named after Yahweh which shows that Yahweh was a later deity who in ancient Israel displaced the Most High God El Elyon just as in Greek mythology Zeus displaced his father Cronos. But you may point to a passage of Genesis 14 and claim that Abraham identified Yahweh as El Elyon and the creator of heaven and earth. Melchisedek was the priest of the Most High God, that is, of El Elyon in Hebrew. Melchisedek greeted Abraham with the following words:
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth” [verse 19].
But Abraham replied:
“I lift up my hand to Yahweh, God Most High” [verse 22].
It is thus claimed that Abraham equated Yahweh with El Elyon. But the fact is: the earlier versions of this passage did not have the name Yahweh. It was added later by the masorites. The early Greek Septuagint, the Symmachus translation and the Old Latin have Abraham say the same thing Melchisedek said. Why was there a need to corrupt the text and insert the name Yahweh? In Genesis 22:14 we are told that Abraham named a site where he was to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, JEHOVAH JIREH [KJV] or YAHWEH YIREH in the Hebrew bible. But this was just another corruption and a forgery by the masorites. The oldest version of the bible known as the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, translated by Martin Abegg, Jr. Peter Flint and Eugene Ulrich has Abraham naming the place ELOHIM YIREH. Please note the comment by these translators at the passage of Genesis 22:14:
“Since, according to the bible itself, the name Yahweh – translated “LORD” in most modern editions of the Bible – was later revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus [3:13-15], students of the Pentateuch have long debated the use of Yahweh in the book of Genesis. A common solution suggests that an early author/editor indiscriminately used the term in his copying of the text. 4QGen-Exod – sure to fuel the debate afresh – “replaces” the term Yahweh in Genesis 22:14 with the more common Hebrew term for God. Thus the familiar Jehovah Jireh becomes Elohim Jireh.”
I may also add that only one source of the Pentateuch, the J source, uses the name Yahweh but other sources use the name El. Even the Jewish Encyclopaedia admits this fact when it comments on the name Yahweh art. Names of God:
"This name, according to the narrative in Ex. iii. (E), was made known to Moses in a vision at Horeb. In another, parallel narrative (Ex. vi. 2, 3, P) it is stated that the name was not known to the Patriarchs. It is used by one of the ocumentary sources of Genesis (J), but scarcely if at all by the others."
Originally Yahweh and Baal were one and the same god in ancient Israel. Only later did the Israelites identify Yahweh as the universal and supreme God. It was a common practice among the pagans to name their children after gods and goddesses that they worshipped. Daniel’s name was changed to Belteshazzar - after the name of Bel that is, Baal [Daniel 4:8]. One can understand that the apostate Jews and the Israelites named their children after Baal. But there is a problem when David who was supposedly a zealous worshipper of Yahweh and who served no other god, names his children after Baal. It is also a problem when King Saul who was also a stern worshipper of Yahweh names his children after Baal. Let us first take a look at King Saul. His father’s brother was named Baal [1 Chronicles 8:30]. One of King Saul’s sons was named ISHBAAL [man of Baal]. 1 Chronicles 8:33 and 9:39 preserve this name in its original form. But this name was later changed by the Jewish redactors to ISHBOSHETH. They have replaced the name Baal with the Hebrew word “bosheth” which means “shame.” This change is evident from 2 Samuel 2:8; 3:7; and 4:5 where the name is given as ISHBOSHETH instead of ISHBAAL. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, art. Ishbosheth, on p. 904, says:
“The original form of the name seems to have been Ishbaal, but because of the reluctance of the post-seventh-century B.C. Hebrews to use the name Baal, the form Ishbosheth was substituted.”
One of the grandsons of King of Saul, the actual son of Jonathan, was originally called MERIB BAAL [1 Chronicles 8:34; 9:40]. This name was later changed to MEPHIBOSHETH - as is evident from 2 Samuel 4:4 and 9:6. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, art. Mephibosheth, on p. 320, says:
“In the Chronicler’s genealogy [2Chr. 8:34; 9:40] he is called Merib baal; no doubt the name ‘boshet,’ “shame,” was a later substitution for the false god.”
The Jewish Encyclopedia:
“One of King David’s sons was originally called BEELIADA a variant spelling of BAALIADA” [1 Chronicles 14:7].
For one reason or another, David compounded the name of his son with the name of the god Baal. The later Jewish redactors and editors found this name offensive and idolatrous so they changed it to ELIADA [2 Samuel 5:16 and 1 Chronicles 3:8]. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, art. Beeliada, on p. 447, says:
“The name of a son of David born in Jerusalem, but CHANGED to Eliada in ORDER TO REMOVE THE ELEMENT OF BAAL FROM THE NAME.”
The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia Of The Bible, Vol. 1, art. Beeliada, on p. 505, says:
“A son of David, born at Jerusalem. The name was CHANGED to Eliada when the name Baal became distasteful because of its association with idolatry.”
The Jewish Encyclopedia, under name Beeliada, says:
"A son of David (I Chron. xiv. 7), who in II Sam. v. 16 and I Chron. iii. 8 is called "Eliada." This is due to an intentional change by the scribe, to whom the name "Baal" was hateful, and who therefore substituted "El" in its place. For other instances of disguising the name "Baal," see Bosheth.
Under ‘bosheth’ it says:
"Used concretely by the Prophets as "the shameful thing" to designate the Baalim and their images. (See Hosea ix. 10 and Jer. iii. 24, xi. 13, where the word is parallel with "the Baal" [compare Jer. iii. 24]). Later usage adopted the epithet to such an extent that "Bosheth" became a sort of euphemism for "Baal," as is learned from the proper names "Ish-bosheth" (with which Jastrow [see Bibliography] compares a Babylonian name, "Mati-bashti") and "Mephibosheth," the former being written "Esh-baal" in I Chron. viii. 33, ix. 39, and the latter occurring as "Meri-baal" in I Chron. viii. 34 and ix. 40. The manuscript of the Septuagint, known as 93 Holmes, has εἰσβααλ, and the old Latin version has "Isbalem" for "Ish-bosheth." So also in II Sam. xi. 21, "Jerubbe[o]sheth" is given for"Jerubbaal."
The Jewish Encyclopedia under Names of God, sub title, Adonai and Baal says:
"The name Ba'al ( ), apparently as an equivalent for Yhwh, occurs as an element in a number of compound proper names, such as Jerubbaal, Ishbaal, Meribaal, etc. Some of these names, probably at a time when the name of Baal had fallen into disrepute (comp. Hosea ii. 16, 17), seem to have been changed by the substitution of El or Bosheth for Baal (comp. II Sam. ii. 8, iv. 4, v. 16; I Chron. viii. 33, 34; ix. 39, 40; xiv. 7)."
The later Jewish redactors tampered with their bible and removed the name of Baal from these names. But this does not change the fact that originally King Saul and King David named their children after the god Baal who for them was the same as Yahweh. When David fought a battle and defeated his foes he named that place with the name of BAAL although he credited Yahweh with this victory. Please note the text of 2 Samuel 5:20 as is translated in The Interlinear Bible, by J.P. Green:
“And David came to Baal perazim. And David struck them there, and said, JEHOVAH has broken forth on my enemies before me, as the breaking forth of waters. On account of this he called the name of that place THE BREAKING OF BAAL.”
Here Baal is a synonym for Yahweh. Sometimes the names Baal and Yahweh were so closely associated together that it is impossible to distinguish them. The god worshipped after the death of Gideon was named Baal Berith - Lord of the Covenant [Judges 8:33]. The same god is called El Berith - God of the Covenant [Judges 9:46]. One of David’s warriors, a Benjamite, was named BEALIAH - in the King James Bible [1 Chronicles 12:5]. His real Hebrew name was actually BAAL YAH - which means YAHWEH IS BAAL. In the Greek Septuagint his name is given as BAALIAH. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia Of The Bible, Vol. 1, art. Bealiah, on p. 494, says that the name actually means YAHWEH IS LORD. But when you reverse the title Lord back to Hebrew the result is BAAL. The Jewish Encyclopedia under Baal and Baal Worship states:
"It has been already indicated that the Ba'al plays a great rôle in Canaanitic proper names. A curious phase in the history of the cult in Israel is shown in the substitution by later editors of ( ), "boshet," "the shameful thing," for Ba'al in such names as Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth; compare "Eshbaal," I Chron. viii. 33, and "Meribbaal," I Chron. ix. 40 (viii. 34). A name which could not be thus treated was "Bealiah" (I Chron. xii. 6 [A. V. 5]), which means "Jehovah is Ba'al."
When King Saul and his son Jonathan and King David compounded the names of their sons with the god Baal, they only did what many other Israelites have done. For them Baal and Yahweh were one and the same god as many names prove. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia Of The Bible, Vol. 1, art. Baal, on p. 433, says:
“The Samaria obstraca, dating from c. 780 B.C., shows that this tendency [naming children after Baal] was particularly prominent in the northern kingdom; for every two names in lists compounded with the name Yahweh, one was formed with Baal.”
The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion, Vol. F-N, on p. 1343, says:
“The Samaria ostraca yield almost as many names composed with BAAL as with Yahweh.”
Even a certain Reubenite prince was named after Baal. His name was actually Baal [1 Chronicles 5:5]. After settling across the Jordan, the Reubenites built a city and called it Baal Meon [Numbers 32:38]. Later the name Baal was dropped and it was called Beth Meon [Jeremiah 48:23]. In Numbers 32:3 it is referred to as Beon. There was also an important town in Judah called Baale Judah which means lords of Judah. The Ark of the Covenant was there before David brought it to Jerusalem [2 Samuel 6:2]. The original name of the city was Kiriath Jearim.
Now we can take a closer look at Psalm 82.
“The gods stand in the assembly of El, who judges in the midst of the gods.”
The gods were the 72 sons of Elyon [Most High] who ruled over the nations. These gods were accused by the Most High of misrule and injustice:
“How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked…I said YOU ARE GODS; you are ALL SONS OF THE MOST HIGH. But you will DIE like mere men” [verses 2-7].
This psalm depicts the heavenly council in session. All the gods - rulers of the 72 nations [based on Greek Septuagint] - are assembled before the Most High. He accuses them of misconduct and tells them that even though they are ALL HIS SONS and therefore DIVINE, they will die just like mere men. Many bible commentators are aware of this. They are aware that these gods - the sons of El - were members of the Divine Council which was presided by the Most High. Nelson’s New Bible Dictionary, art. Sons of God, on p. 1194, says:
“The sons of God presented themselves before God in what might be called a HEAVENLY ASSEMBLY.”
The Zondervan NIV Commentary, Vol. 1, on p. 746, says:
“The DIVINE COUNCIL is made up of the SONS OF GOD.”
Hasting’s Dictionary Of The Bible, on p. 135, says:
“In a few passages in the Old Testament the term ‘sons of God’ is applied to DIVINE BEINGS, demigods or angels, members of the HEAVENLY COUNCIL…Thus in these cases the ‘children of God’ usually called ‘sons of God,’ were the family of divine beings of whom GOD WAS APPARENTLY THE PHYSICAL FATHER.”
The Oxford Companion To The Bible, on p. 713, says:
“The sons of God are divine members of God’s heavenly assembly.”
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, art. Sons of God, on p. 584, says:
“SONS OF GOD - divine beings. Just as ‘sons of man’ means human beings in Hebrew, so ‘sons of God’ means divine beings, i.e. gods.”
New Bible Dictionary, J.D. Douglas, art. Sons of God, on p. 1133, says:
“In the Old Testament [a] individual of the class ‘god.’ ‘Son’ [Heb. Ben, Aram. Bar] is commonly used in Semitic languages to denote membership of a class, as “son of Israel’ for “Israelite,’ ‘son of might’ for ‘valorous.’ ‘Son of God’ in Heb. means ‘god’ or ‘god-like.”
Did you get that? Just as ‘son of man’ in Hebrew means ‘a human being’ so the term ‘son of God’ means ‘god.’ Just as dogs beget dogs, and men beget men, so does God beget gods.
The early Hebrews [as did also the Canaanites] believed that there were gods other than Yahweh and that in fact there was a God who was greater and superior to Yahweh. They have called Him by his name ELYON which means: MOST HIGH or SUPREME. Even though the true God, the Most High did not have a name – since there was no one to name Him, since He is before all – the early peoples attributed the title Elyon as a name to the supreme God. The title Elyon whenever used of the Super Being it is never preceded with a “definite article.” According to the grammar of the Hebrew language names are never preceded with a definite article while the titles are. This is what The Encyclopedia Judaica, Vol. 7, on p. 680 has to say concerning ‘Elyon:’
“The Hebrew word ‘elyon’ is an adjective meaning “higher, upper,” e.g., the “upper” pool [Isa. 7:3], the “upper” gate [2 Kings 15:35], and “highest” e.g. the “highest” of all the kings of the earth [Ps. 89:28]. When used in reference to God, the word can rightly be translated as “Most High.” Since in reference to God ‘elyon’ IS NEVER PRECEDED BY THE ARTICLE ‘HA’ [“THE”], IT MUST HAVE BEEN REGARDED AS A PROPER NOUN, A NAME OF GOD.”
The very fact that the true and eternal God – the God who was before all and anything – is called God Most High – proves that there were and must be other gods who are subordinate to Him. If there were no gods at all then El would simply be called God and not the Most High God. Yahweh was not and could not have been the Most High God and the creator of the universe because Israel was his INHERITANCE from the Most High God. El Elyon appointed Yahweh to rule over Israel and the sons of Jacob became Yahweh’s lot. There are numerous texts which clearly state that Israelites were Yahweh’s own inheritance.
Sometime after the Babylonian Captivity the Jewish hierarchy imposed a ban on using and pronouncing the name Yahweh on the pretext that it was too holy.. The Catholic Encyclopedia, art. Yahweh states:
“Sometime after the end of the Exile, the name Yahweh began to be considered with special reverence, and the practice arose of substituting for it the word ADONAI or ELOHIM”.
The Hebrew language is written without vowels. However, the original Paleo Hebrew had vowels. In order to ban the pronunciation of the name Yahweh the shoferim introduced the vowel points of ADONAY or ELOHIM above the four consonants - Y H W H. This indicated to a Jewish reader not to pronounce the name YAHWEH but rather to read ADONAY or ELOHIM instead. The adherents of Christendom did not understand that and so in 1518 c.e. Pope Leo X’s confessor, Peter Gallatin misread this as IAHOVAH that was later vocalized as JEHOVAH. Dr. Rotherham calls this name ‘monstrosity’. He compared this practice to adopting the vowels of Portugal - O U A - and inserting them between the consonants of GERMANY - G R M N Y - creating a hybrid GORMUNA. [See the preface of the Emphasized Bible]. The Century Bible, Vol. 1. on p. 91 gives us the following information:
“Hebrew was originally written without vowels, but when the ‘vowel points’ were added, the vowels of ‘Adonay’ or ‘Elohim’ were written with YAHWEH...at the Reformation, the former being more usual, was sometimes used as the Name of the God of Israel, and owing to ignorance of its history was misread as ‘Jehovah’, a form which has established itself in English, but does not give the pronunciation of the Holy Name it represents”.
When Peter Gallatin introduced the name JEHOVAH other prominent scholars like Le Mercier, J. Drusius, and L. Cappelus contested his views by arguing that JEHOVAH was “against grammatical and historical propriety”. Their protests however fell on the dead ears of the Catholic hierarchy. It is important to underline here that the pronunciation JEHOVAH is not only incorrect and a hybrid but it is indeed MONSTROUS as Dr. Rotherham pointed out. The word hovah is another form of the word havvah and means ruin, mischief, perversion, very wickedness. You can verify this fact by consulting Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary under word numbers #1942 and #1943. Now the name YAHWEH is derived from the Hebrew word hayah which means to be. In the third person this word becomes YAHWEH and means he causes to be. The name Jehovah therefore means he causes to be ruin, mischief, perversion, very wickedness...
I have pointed out that the Jewish hierarchy imposed a ban on pronouncing the name YAHWEH. Initially this ban was not absolute. That is, the pronouncing of the so called sacred name was permitted in the temple. Later, the ban was extended to cover the temple and only the High Priest was allowed to pronounce the Name once a year - on the Day of Atonement. Initially the High Priest pronounced the Name in such a way that the participants in the service could hear. Later the practice was introduced to pronounce the Name in a very soft tone so that no one present could actually hear its pronunciation. The Jewish Talmud verifies the fact that initially the ban was not absolute. The Mishnah actually states the following:
“In the sanctuary one says the Name as it is written but in the provinces, with a euphemism” [m. Sotah 7:6; b. Sotah 38b; m. Tamid 7:2].
Dr. A. Cohen, a rabbi and author states:
“...in the early Rabbinic period the pronunciation of the Name was restricted to the Temple service” [Everyman’s Talmud].
Mishnah also points out that in the temple the folks used the name Yahweh in their greetings:
“And they ordained that an individual should greet his fellow with [God’s] name, in accordance with what is said, “And behold Boaz came from Bethlehem; and he said to the reapers, ‘YHWH be with you!’ And they answered, ‘YHWH bless you’ [Ruth 2:4; m. Ber. 9:5].
By the time of Jesus and his disciples the absolute ban on the use of the name Yahweh was in place. At the time of Jesus it was a capital offense to pronounce or cause others to pronounce the name Yahweh. Those guilty of such offense were tried before BEIT DIN and if convicted they were executed.
In the Talmud we read the following statement:
“Among those excluded from the world to come is he who pronounces the Name according to its letters” [Sanhedrin 10:1].
Pesikta 148a states:
“Whoever explicitly pronounces the Name is guilty of a capital offense”.
Even the non-conformist community of Qumran banned the pronunciation of the name Yahweh. In the Manual of Discipline also called the Community Rule we find various instructions as how to deal with those members who sin. Different sins were dealt with in a different manner. For example, whoever deliberately lied was to do penance for six months. Whoever has deliberately deceived his fellow member shall do penance for six months. However, whoever spoke the name Yahweh - even if it was accidental - that person was to be ex-communicated and never be allowed to return to the Community. Please note the following text quoted from the Manual of Discipline:
“If any man has uttered the [Most] Venerable Name even though frivolously, or as a result of a shock or for any other reason whatever, while reading the Book or praying, he shall be dismissed and shall return to the Council of Community no more” [1QS Col. 6 line 27b - Col. 7 line 2a].
The ban on the name Yahweh is also apparent in the canonical bible. We have two psalms in the bible which are commonly referred to as twins because of their virtual identical content. They are Psalms 14 and 53. It is of extreme significance to realise that in Psalm 14 the name YAHWEH appears. In Psalm 53 the name YAHWEH is dropped and is substituted with ELOHIM. Psalm 14 was written during the actual Babylonian captivity. The author was hoping for salvation from ZION. He was hoping YAHWEH would bring the captives back HOME. Originally the Book of Psalms circulated as 5 separate books. Book 1 was composed of psalms 1-41, book 2 of psalms 42-72, book 3 of psalms 73-89, book 4 of psalms 90-106 and book 5 of psalms 106-150. Each book ended with words Amen and Amen. Psalm 14 was not written by David as the title of the psalm implies. It was written by someone who was actually in exile at Babylon. This is evident from the fact that the author longed for salvation from Zion and the return of the Jews to their HOME. The author originally used the name YAHWEH. Psalm 53 belonged to book 2 and was edited by a shofer sometime after the Babylonian captivity. Since at this time it was customary not to pronounce the name YAHWEH the shofer took liberty to actually replace the name YAHWEH with ELOHIM [commonly rendered God in English bibles]. This is not surprising since the Masorites also removed the name Yahweh and substituted it with Adonay in 134 instances. The official list given in the Massorah, 107:5 Gingsburg edition clearly verifies this fact. Therefore psalms 14 and 53 bear testimony that ban on the name Yahweh dates back to at least five hundred years before the birth of Jesus.
The name Yahweh was banned after the return from the Babylonian captivity not because it was too sacred to pronounce it. The idea is too absurd since it was very clear from the bible that the name was commonly pronounced prior to captivity. The name was banned because it was realised just who Yahweh was and that the pre Babylonian religion was false - hence it was reformed and gradually turned into pharisaic Judaism.
It is of colossal importance to realise that the authors of the New Testament never use the name Yahweh even when they quote the Old Testament passages where the name appears. Jesus never uses the name and he never criticises the Pharisees and the priests for not using the name. In fact, when Jesus quotes the Old Testament passage from Deuteronomy 8:3 he drops the name Yahweh and instead pronounces the name El. Please note the text as it stands in the Hebrew bible:
"...man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YAHWEH."
And now please note Matthew 4:4:
"...man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of GOD."
The Greek word 'theos' appears and when reverted back to Hebrew the word is 'el' and not Yahweh. Therefore it is evident that either Jesus dropped the name Yahweh or the author of Matthew did. The only place where the name Yahweh in its abbreviated form supposedly exists in the New Testament is Revelation 19:3. Please note the verse:
"And again they shouted: Alleluia! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever."
The word 'hallelujah' in the Old Testament Hebrew means 'praise Yah.' But John wrote the word 'eleleu ih' and the later scribes ignorantly corrupted it into 'alleluia' and the modern translators corrupted it into 'hallelujah.' The Greek word simply meant'mighty God lives' as is evident from the fact that the hymns sung to Apollo began and ended with this word. The worshippers of Apollo would not have addressed their god as Yah nor would they have cried 'praise yah' - since the god they worshipped was Apollo and not Yahweh.Jurgen Klopp has said he will field a much-changed side for Saturday's FA Cup tie against West Ham after Liverpool's exhausting cup heroics in midweek, though the manager denied he was determined to strengthen his stretched squad.
Klopp's options continued to be complicated by injury and fatigue, with captain Jordan Henderson in need of rest because of the workload he had endured since returning to the side last month.
A heel injury had kept him out since August and Klopp said the midfielder was still feeling |
see that they'll be available at all. In more positive news, he also confirmed that a vinyl release would be forthcoming as well, although he didn't give a specific timeframe for that.
POST CONTINUES BELOW
In the meantime, untitled unmastered. is available for purchase on iTunes, and is also streaming on Spotify.Minnesota smokers become "actors" to get around the ban Bars in Minnesota have found a dramatic way to get around the US state's recently introduced smoking ban. The law grants an exception from the ban to performers in theatrical productions. So the bars have become theatres, and their customers, actors. Now some bars print bills listing the "cast" of bartenders, and ashtrays become "props". Drinkers don costumes and attempt strange accents. But a health official said it was time for the curtain to fall on the ploy. 'Before the Ban' At the Rock, a heavy-metal bar in Maplewood, owner Brian Bauman explained why his clientele were doing little more than sitting around, smoking and drinking to a soundtrack of deafening music. It's turned into the most fun thing I can imagine
Lisa Anderson
Bar owner "They're playing themselves before 1 October - you know, before there was a smoking ban," he said, according to the Associated Press. "We call the production, Before the Ban!" Other bars have taken to the scheme with greater gusto, with customers dressing up in costume, the entrance labelled "stage door" and promising productions such as the Tobacco Monologues. Up to 100 bars across the state are relying on the legal loophole to allow smokers to continue lighting up. Health warning But the state's health department says they are indeed breaking the law, and has threatened to hit them with fines of up to $10,000 (£5,000). "The law was enacted to protect Minnesotans from the serious health effects of second-hand smoke," said Sanne Magnan, the Minnesota health commissioner. She said the "theatrics" would have to end. But bar owners fear their takings will fall once the ban is reimposed, while others will miss the antics. "It's turned into the most fun thing I can imagine," said Lisa Anderson, owner of a bar in Hall City. Read a selection of your comments on this story: If bars would simply put in air purifiers like many bars here (it is still legal to smoke in bars here), and in Europe, there would really be no problem. A bar equipped with a good air purification system is probably healthier than breathing city smog.
Cat, New Orleans, USA The ban is nice when I'm getting coffee in a coffee shop, but it destroys what little night life Minnesota has.
Nick, Minneapolis, Mn Bars in New Zealand allow customers to drink AND smoke on a smoking deck or porch outside (clearly sectioned off as a part of the bar). The ban has not really affected bar attendance at all. However, just after the ban took effect, one smoker decided to install a private "club," allowing smoking, in his garage. He was fined with serving alcohol without a license.
Mel, Christchurch, New Zealand Ontario has been one of the first provinces to implement a complete smoking ban a few years back. Smokers are not even allowed to light up on roof covered patios (strangely enough, umbrella covered patios are exempt). In principle I am not against the ban, but it has had an effect on the entertainment industry. I've spoken to many restaurant owners and staff, the general opinion is that fewer people go to restaurants and bars, and when they do, they consume and tip less. I understand that this is just anecdotal evidence, but interestingly statistical evidence to the contrary is very difficult to find.
Cosmin, Toronto, Canada In Los Angeles they are banning people from having fires in their fireplaces during certain nights in the winter because of the excessive green house gasses they produce. One can only imagine how long it will take before all smoking is banned because of its effects on the greenhouse effect!
Michael, Los Angeles, California, USA Call them feel good socialist control freaks, but when I go to the pub, why should I have to suck in someone elses dirty cigarette smoke? You smoke, not me. Don't be a baby, go out in the cold to enjoy your right to smoke.
Mike, London, Uk Maybe implement a modern day speakeasy where all can get together for a drink and a smoke? Go underground. It was done once and I hope the american people still have the balls to stand up for what they believe in. Our rights are taken away one piece at a time, never all at once. Be aware!
lisa, hayden usa I miss my clothes not smelling from smoke when I wake up on a Sunday morning after a good Saturday night's lash-up. I miss my lungs feeling this good on a day-to-day basis. I miss my friends who dont go to the pub anymore because they can't involuntarily kill people by smoking in the pub anymore. Oh, I could go on.....
Rory Byrne, Dublin People try to get around the smoking ban because it's extremely cold in Minnesota -- just like it is here in Chicago. I still think the bars should've been able to decide whether to allow smoking, and just post signs outside that say whether it's allowed or not. That way no one that doesn't want to be around smoke has to be. They can simply choose to go elsewhere.
Alex, Chicago, USA A seedy bar in my town got around the state's smoking ban by declaring itself a cigar bar. The state tried to shut it down, but the bar fought the state in court and won.
Chris, Durango, Colorado, USA I think it is time for the government to step out of our personal lives. It should be up to the owner of the bar/restaurant/or whatever to decided if it is a smoking place or not. They are the ones who pay the bills on the place, not the government.
Jack Stefani, Indianapolis,USA Good on the bar owners and patrons! The new trend of banning smoking in 'public' places (private business) is inappropriate. Smoking is unhealthy but instead of taking away property rights of the business owners we should consider banning cigarettes.
Jess, Wisconsin, USA Lumpini Park has a smoking ban, despite the traffic around the park which makes it one of the most polluted areas in Bangkok. I hate these facists that believe they can ban consensual smoking. It tempts me to take up cigarettes again just to blow smoke in their faces.
Andy Canfield, Roiet, Thailand Ireland was the first place to introduce workplace smoking ban and it has worked brilliantly. Pubs are have a better environment, food in restaurants tastes better and people in general, will eventually reap the benefits of the policy through health effects. There will always be resistance to such a move, but there was also resistance to the abolition of slavery.
Ian Breslin, Dublin, Ireland Our state imposed a smoking ban in bars that serve food after a ballot resolution in November 2006.Some taverns are trying to get around it by serving food in polystyrene containers with plastic cutlery! I think what they are trying to do is say that the customer has simply bought "take out" food that they have chosen to eat at the bar!!! I'd love to meet the lawyer who first dreamed that one up
Chris Bell, Las Vegas, USA At a pub near me they put in a miniature hotel room in the bar which could be used for smoking.
DH, Reading, UK I've come across bars that quietly don't observe whether their customers are smoking. I've seen them cut holes in the wall that customers can smoke through etc. In all honesty, smoking is bad and smokers are not only killing themselves - they're killing everybody else too. I hope the ban takes proper effect as soon as possible.
George Cowley, Columbia, USA Minnesota is the state where absolutely NOTHING is allowed. It is filled with feel-good, socialist control freaks. They spend their days inventing methods to impose their will on the public.
Tom, Minnesota, USA
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version(By Alex Brandon / AP)
Paul Pierce hasn’t said what he plans to do next season, and in fact has said virtually nothing publicly since his melancholy postgame remarks the night the Wizards’ season ended. David Aldridge reported that many around the league believe Pierce will opt out of the second year of his Washington deal to join his hometown Clippers. Randy Wittman said he’d be surprised if Pierce didn’t return to the Wizards. Others wondered whether Pierce could be mulling retirement.
Pierce increased the uncertainty by declining to speak to reporters on the day of Washington’s exit meetings. (Although he did wear a Nats hat while walking around Verizon Center that afternoon.)
But Pierce broke his silence this week with an appearance on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio. Pierce told hosts Ben Lyons and Ryan Duffy on “The Players Tribune” show that he’ll be making his decision in the next couple of weeks, but when asked about the end of this season, he sure sounded like a Washington Wizard.
“Man, it was a good run,” Pierce began. “We really have a really good young team, and a couple budding superstars. It was tough. It especially really hurt us when John [Wall] broke his hand. Even though he came back, that really kind of hurt our rhythm, because we [were] playing so well. We felt like we were the better team if we had stayed healthy, but we lost some heartbreaking games.
“You know how the playoffs are,” Pierce went on. “Every game is close, and it all came down to the end, but I’m happy with the way guys fought. Nobody expected us to beat the Raptors. I thought we were better than Atlanta. We fell up short, but I really like our team, I really like the young budding stars. And we’re definitely disappointed, and would have gave Cleveland probably a better challenge than Atlanta, I think, but it was tough.”
That’s a lot of present tense — we have a good young team, I really like our team. Look, I have no idea what Pierce will do, and both the Clippers and retirement seem like viable options. But here was Pierce later, when asked about mentoring Wall and Bradley Beal.
“I didn’t know how much of a student of the game John was and Brad was,” Pierce said. “They really love the game, they watch it all the time, they watch college, they love the game of basketball. On the bus drives, on the airplane rides, that’s where we develop the chemistry: playing cards in the back of the bus, going out to dinners. We had times during the season where we had team dinners at least once a month; they [were] like they really didn’t do that too much, so we tried to implement those things and just form a good bond with them.
“And the good thing is, these guys know I’ve been in the NBA 17 years, so I’ve got a lot of stories to give them,” Pierce said. “And when I give them old stories, they want to know how was KG, how was all the former guys I played with. And they’d just sit around the locker room and we’d just talk about it, and I think right there develops the chemistry: the respect they have for me, but also the respect I have for them.”
Pierce said he’s going on vacation to Mexico with his family next week, where they’ll discuss his options and figure out “the best way to move forward.” He said he should know something “in the next couple weeks,” which is good, since he has until the end of June to opt in for his $5.5 million player option. He said his body is only now starting to heal from the past season, and that he still has “some bumps and bruises.”
“These seasons, as you get older, they just are so long and draining,” Pierce said in the radio interview. “This last playoffs really took a lot out of me, not only physically but emotionally, because I think I put so much into the game that it takes a piece of you. It’s really all got to do with how my mental state of mind’s gonna be this summer. Because I do feel like I can still play this game. I mean, I showed that this year, that I still have something left in the tank. But it’s just the mental part of getting ready in the summer and getting ready for a long year. Those are the things I’ve got to think about.”
And lest you had any doubts, Pierce closed his interview by blurting out “I called game!”We have been making one crucial error since beginningless time. An error that is responsible for every bit of our suffering. And Geshe Kelsang sums it up with astounding concision in his latest book:
What does taking rebirth in samsara mean? It means that in each of our lives due to ignorance we grasp at our body or mind as our self, thinking, “I, I”, where there is no I, or self. Through this we experience the sufferings of this life and countless future lives as hallucinations endlessly. ~ Oral Instructions of the Mahamudra
We are not our body – we say “my body”, it is our possession. We are not our mind – we say “my mind”, it is our possession. We are neither a body nor a mind, we are a person.
Yet whenever we perceive our body or our mind we think we are totally in there. We conflate or identify ourselves as them. So when the non-me-body gets sick, we get unhappy, “I’m sick!” and when the non-me-thoughts get unhappy, we get unhappy, “I’m unhappy!”
We have thoughts, ideas, memories, etc; but we are not these. You’ve heard of all that mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy that’s around these days? A lot of it is based on Buddha’s wisdom that we are not our thoughts. When we observe our thoughts at the beginning of the clarity of mind meditation, for example, there is space between us and them. I don’t have to follow them, I don’t have to be helplessly swept up by them, I don’t have to identify with them, I don’t even have to think them. I can let them all go. Why? Because they are not me and I am not them.
I think we could also say “when” in the quote above, ie, “when there is no I, or self”. This is because there has never been an I or self to be found anywhere, ever – in the body, in the mind, in the collection of the body and mind, or anywhere else.
There is also no body to be found. Or mind. Or other people. Or Trump world for that matter. Try pointing to it — you can only point at a version, your subjective version.
There are no inherently existent or real things. When we look, we can’t find anything anywhere ever. We are left looking at space-like emptiness. This is because nothing exists from its own side.
Carrying on from There is nothing out there out there.
The emptiness of our body
To understand and believe this, we need to go looking for things ourselves. This doesn’t have to be too difficult if we know how.
And the way we can do this is through what is called “the four essential points” or steps, of the traditional meditation on emptiness, by which we can come to understand the true nature of our self, our body, and everything else. These are:
Identifying the negated object Ascertaining the pervasion Ascertaining the absence of oneness Ascertaining the absence of difference
It is easiest to do this contemplation first with our body, perhaps because, as a physical object, it generally feels chunkier than our self or our mind and so is easier to examine.
Step One: Identifying the negated object
We start by ‘identifying the negated object”, setting up the target carefully so that we can then shoot it down with the arrow of wisdom. No target, no point shooting any arrows. In the case of the body, we need to bring to mind the body that we normally perceive.
Our body takes up an inordinate amount of our attention at the moment. We don’t like it when it is stiff, or puts on weight, or is sick. We like it when others say nice things about it, even if they’re not strictly accurate. We are a little bit obsessed with our own body, to be honest, and sometimes someone else’s as well, especially if there is any hope or fantasy of it commingling with ours. Attachment to bodies is one of the three main attachments of samsara (the other two being places and enjoyments).
(I’m not saying we shouldn’t take care of our body, of course. Please keep eating and showering 😉 But we can stop being quite so preoccupied with our body, abandon attachment to it, enjoying enormously the space, ease, and confidence that opens up when we do.)
What exactly is it that we are so attached to? What comes to mind when you think “My body”? You can use an exaggerated version first – for example, someone tells you, “Whoah, you’ve put on weight!” The fat-seeming body suddenly feels very real and solid, existing from its own side. Get a sense of that.
Then what comes to mind when you think, “My body that is just sitting here”?
This is a real body, my real body. It seems to be really sitting here, a solid, singular, monolithic entity, independent of everything, including its parts, including thought. And I cherish and protect it above all else. I don’t want it to have the slightest pain or ugliness or insult. This particular body is very important, more so than anyone else’s. If a neighbor’s body is sick, “Oh, they’ll get over it.” But my body?!
You can also check out this first article, Body image: a Buddhist perspective for more on how to identify our body.
Okay, that’ll have to do for now. This meditation carries on here.
Meanwhile, your comments are welcome, and you might also want to check out Introduction to Buddhism where these four points are explained very clearly.
Also, contemplating the dreamlike nature of reality (as described more here for example) helps tremendously in loosening us up and preparing us to think about emptiness logically, to reason our way into reality using analytical wisdom.
Related articles
Appearance and reality
The Non-Thingyness of Things
There is no depth other than emptiness
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Like this: Like Loading... RelatedHundreds or even thousands of 3DS gamers are finding themselves banned today, loading up their handhelds and receiving error code 002-0102 when trying to access certain features. The bans seem focused around modded and jailbroken 3DS handhelds, though no one in that community has quite figured out the exact cause of the bans.
Some say it is only if you pirated games, others have been banned without any piracy. Some theories focus on certain titles, such as the recently released Fire Emblem Echoes, but no one is sure if that’s the definite reason for the bans. Whatever Nintendo used to detect these modders and decide that they were worthy of a ban isn’t known, but we do know that it was a lot of 3DSes and they’re all getting error code 002-0102 when trying to hop online.
The eShop and browser work fine, but other apps, such as Friends, YouTube, and online multiplayer simply won’t work, instead giving the 002-0102 error. The idea seems to be to lock out these users from others. Even Pokemon Bank is inaccessible, which has caused a lot of frustration for those who have stored all of their Pokemon on the online service.
Modding your 3DS does go against the terms of service, and pirating games is even worse. Still, the 3DS modding scene had grown quite large as of late, and Nintendo had seemed to turn a blind eye toward most of their activities. The Pokemon games almost rely on “cheating” for many of the professional level events.
As of now, no one knows if the 002-0102 bans are permanent. Those who have called Nintendo support have gotten mixed messages. If you are receiving this error and have definitely done nothing wrong then you can contact Nintendo support right here and try to get your console un-banned.For Paul Curry's optical illusion and dissection puzzle, see Missing square puzzle
Curry's paradox is a paradox in which an arbitrary claim F is proved from the mere existence of a sentence C that says of itself "If C, then F", requiring only a few apparently innocuous logical deduction rules. Since F is arbitrary, any logic having these rules proves everything. The paradox may be expressed in natural language and in various logics, including certain forms of set theory, lambda calculus, and combinatory logic.
The paradox is named after the logician Haskell Curry. It has also been called Löb's paradox after Martin Hugo Löb,[1] due to its relationship to Löb's theorem.
In natural language [ edit ]
Claims of the form "if A, then B" are called conditional claims. Curry's paradox uses a particular kind of self-referential conditional sentence, as demonstrated in this example:
If this sentence is true, then Germany borders China.
Even though Germany does not border China, the example sentence certainly is a natural-language sentence, and so the truth of that sentence can be analyzed. The paradox follows from this analysis. The analysis consists of two steps.
First, common natural-language proof techniques can be used to prove that the example sentence is true. Second, the truth of the example sentence can be used to prove that Germany borders China. Because Germany does not border China, this suggests that there has been an error in one of the proofs.
The claim "Germany borders China" could be replaced by any other claim, and the sentence would still be provable. Thus every sentence appears to be provable. Because the proof uses only well-accepted methods of deduction, and because none of these methods appears to be incorrect, this situation is paradoxical.[2]
Informal proof [ edit ]
The standard method for proving conditional sentences (sentences of the form "if A, then B") is called a "conditional proof". In this method, in order to prove "if A, then B", first A is assumed and then with that assumption B is shown to be true.
To produce Curry's paradox, as described in the two steps above, apply this method to the sentence "if this sentence is true, then Germany borders China". Here A, "this sentence is true", refers to the overall sentence, while B is "Germany borders China". So, assuming A is the same as assuming "If A, then B". Therefore, in assuming A, we have assumed both A and "If A, then B". Therefore B is true, by modus ponens, and we have proven "If this sentence is true, then 'Germany borders China' is true." in the usual way, by assuming the hypothesis and deriving the conclusion.
Now, because we have proved "If this sentence is true, then 'Germany borders China' is true", then we can again apply modus ponens, because we know that the claim "this sentence is true" is correct. In this way, we can deduce that Germany borders China.
Formal proof [ edit ]
Sentential logic [ edit ]
The example in the previous section used unformalized, natural-language reasoning. Curry's paradox also occurs in some varieties of formal logic. In this context, it shows that if we assume there is a formal sentence (X → Y), where X itself is equivalent to (X → Y), then we can prove Y with a formal proof. One example of such a formal proof is as follows. For an explanation of the logic notation used in this section, refer to the list of logic symbols.
X := (X → Y) assumption, the starting point, equivalent to "If this sentence is true, then Y" X → X law of identity X → (X → Y) substitute right side of 2, since X is equivalent to X → Y by 1 X → Y from 3 by contraction X substitute 4, by 1 Y from 5 and 4 by modus ponens
An alternative proof is via Peirce's law. If X = X → Y then (X → Y) → X. This together with Peirce's law ((X → Y) → X) → X and modus ponens implies X and subsequently Y (as in above proof).
Therefore, if Y is an unprovable statement in a formal system, there is no statement X in that system such that X is equivalent to the implication (X → Y). By contrast, the previous section shows that in natural (unformalized) language, for every natural language statement Y there is a natural language statement Z such that Z is equivalent to (Z → Y) in natural language. Namely, Z is "If this sentence is true then Y".
In specific cases where the classification of Y is already known, few steps are needed to reveal the contradiction. For example, when Y is "Germany borders China," it is known that Y is false.
X = (X → Y) assumption X = (X → false) substitute known value of Y X = (¬X ∨ false) implication X = ¬X identity
Naive set theory [ edit ]
Even if the underlying mathematical logic does not admit any self-referential sentences, certain forms of naive set theory are still vulnerable to Curry's paradox. In set theories that allow unrestricted comprehension, we can nevertheless prove any logical statement Y by examining the set
X = d e f { x ∣ x ∈ x → Y }. {\displaystyle X\ {\stackrel {\mathrm {def} }{=}}\ \left\{x\mid x\in x\to Y\right\}.}
Assuming that ∈ {\displaystyle \in } takes precedence over both → {\displaystyle \to } and ↔ {\displaystyle \leftrightarrow }, the proof proceeds as follows:
X = { x ∣ x ∈ x → Y } {\displaystyle X=\left\{x\mid x\in x\to Y\right\}} Definition of X x = X → ( x ∈ x ↔ X ∈ X ) {\displaystyle x=X\to (x\in x\leftrightarrow X\in X)} Substitution of equal sets in membership x = X → ( ( x ∈ x → Y ) ↔ ( X ∈ X → Y ) ) {\displaystyle x=X\to ((x\in x\to Y)\leftrightarrow (X\in X\to Y))} Addition of a consequent to both sides of a biconditional (from 2) X ∈ X ↔ ( X ∈ X → Y ) {\displaystyle X\in X\leftrightarrow (X\in X\to Y)} Law of concretion (from 1 and 3) X ∈ X → ( X ∈ X → Y ) {\displaystyle X\in X\to (X\in X\to Y)} Biconditional elimination (from 4) X ∈ X → Y {\displaystyle X\in X\to Y} Contraction (from 5) ( X ∈ X → Y ) → X ∈ X {\displaystyle (X\in X\to Y)\to X\in X} Biconditional elimination (from 4) X ∈ X {\displaystyle X\in X} Modus ponens (from 6 and 7) Y {\displaystyle Y} Modus ponens (from 8 and 6)
Step 4 is the only step invalid in a consistent set theory. In Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, an extra hypothesis stating the sethood of X would be required, which is provable in neither ZF nor in its extension ZFC (with the axiom of choice).
Therefore, in a consistent set theory, the set { x ∣ x ∈ x → Y } {\displaystyle \left\{x\mid x\in x\to Y\right\}} does not exist for false Y. This can be seen as a variant on Russell's paradox, but is not identical. Some proposals for set theory have attempted to deal with Russell's paradox not by restricting the rule of comprehension, but by restricting the rules of logic so that it tolerates the contradictory nature of the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. The existence of proofs like the one above shows that such a task is not so simple, because at least one of the deduction rules used in the proof above must be omitted or restricted.
Lambda calculus [ edit ]
Curry's paradox may be expressed in Lambda calculus. Consider a function r defined as
r = (λx. ((x x) → y)).
Then (r r) β-reduces to
(r r) → y.
If (r r) is false, then (r r) → y is true by the principle of explosion, which is a contradiction of the equivalence of the β-reduction. So (r r) is true, so its reduct (r r) → y is also true, and, by modus ponens, so is y. As y can be any statement, any statement may be proved true.
Thus (r r) is a non-terminating computation. Considered as logic, (r r) is an expression for a value that does not exist.
In simply typed lambda calculus, such terms, like any fixed-point combinators, cannot be typed and hence are not admitted.
Combinatory logic [ edit ]
Curry's paradox may also be expressed in combinatory logic, which has equivalent expressive power to lambda calculus. Any lambda expression may be translated into combinatory logic, so a translation of the implementation of Curry's paradox in lambda calculus would suffice.
If m is the implication function taking two parameters (that is m A B is equivalent to A → B), then r in combinatory logic is
r = S (S (K m) (S I I)) (K y),
then
r r = m (r r) y.
The paradox may also be produced using the Curry's paradoxical combinator, where
f = λ x. x → y {\displaystyle f=\lambda x.x\to y}
Then
Y f
is the solution of
x = x → y, {\displaystyle x=x\to y,}
so
Y f = m (Y f) y.
Discussion [ edit ]
Curry's paradox can be formulated in any language supporting basic logic operations that also allows a self-recursive function to be constructed as an expression. Two mechanisms that support the construction of the paradox are self-reference (the ability to refer to "this sentence" from within a sentence) and Unrestricted comprehension in naive set theory. Natural languages nearly always contain many of features that could be used to construct the paradox, as do many other languages. Usually the addition of meta programming capabilities to a language will add the features needed. Mathematical logic generally does not countenance explicit reference to its own sentences. However the heart of Gödel's incompleteness theorems is the observation that a different form of self-reference can be added; see Gödel number.
The axiom of Unrestricted comprehension adds the ability to construct a recursive definition in set theory. This axiom is not supported by modern set theory.
The logic rules used in the construction of the proof are rule of assumption for conditional proof, the rule of contraction, and modus ponens. These are included in the most common logical systems, such as first-order logic.
Consequences for some formal logic [ edit ]
In the 1930s, Curry's Paradox and the related Kleene–Rosser paradox played a major role in showing that formal logic systems based on self-recursive expressions are inconsistent. These include some versions of lambda calculus and combinatory logic.
Curry began with the Kleene–Rosser paradox[3] and deduced that the core problem could be expressed in this simpler Curry's paradox.[4] His conclusion may be stated as saying that combinatory logic and lambda calculus cannot be made consistent as deductive languages, while still allowing recursion.
In the study of illative (deductive) combinatory logic, Curry in 1941[5] recognized the implication of the paradox as implying that, without restrictions, the following properties of a combinatory logic are incompatible:
Combinatorial completeness. This means that an abstraction operator is definable (or primitive) in the system, which is a requirement on the expressive power of the system. Deductive completeness. This is a requirement on derivability, namely, the principle that in a formal system with material implication and modus ponens, if Y is provable from the hypothesis X, then there is also a proof of X → Y.[6]
Resolution [ edit ]
Note that unlike the liar paradox or Russell's paradox, Curry's paradox does not depend on what model of negation is used, as it is completely negation-free. Thus paraconsistent logics can still be vulnerable to this paradox, even if they are immune to the liar paradox.
No resolution in lambda calculus [ edit ]
The origin of Alonzo Church's lambda calculus may have been, "How can you solve an equation, to provide a definition of a function?". This is expressed in this equivalence,
f x = y ⟺ f = λ x. y. {\displaystyle f\ x=y\iff f=\lambda x.y.}
This definition is valid if there is one and only one function f {\displaystyle f} that satisfies the equation f x = y {\displaystyle f\ x=y}, but invalid otherwise. This is the core of the problem that Stephen Cole Kleene and then Haskell Curry discovered with combinatory logic and Lambda calculus.
The situation may be compared to defining
y = x 2 ⟺ x = y. {\displaystyle y=x^{2}\iff x={\sqrt {y}}.}
This definition is fine as long as only positive values are allowed for the square root. In mathematics an existentially quantified variable may represent multiple values, but only one at a time. Existential quantification is the disjunction of many instances of an equation. In each equation is one value for the variable.
However, in mathematics, an expression with no free variables must have one and only one value. So 4 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {4}}} can only represent + 2 {\displaystyle +2}. However there is no convenient way to restrict the lambda abstraction to one value or to assure that there is a value.
Lambda calculus allows recursion by passing the same function that is called as a parameter. This allows situations where f x = y {\displaystyle f\ x=y} has multiple or no solutions for f {\displaystyle f}.
Lambda calculus may be considered as part of mathematics if only lambda abstractions that represent a single solution to an equation are allowed. Other lambda abstractions are incorrect in mathematics.
Curry's paradox and other paradoxes arise in Lambda calculus because of the inconsistency of Lambda calculus considered as a deductive system. See also deductive lambda calculus.
Domain of lambda calculus terms [ edit ]
Lambda calculus is a consistent theory in its own domain. However, it is not consistent to add the lambda abstraction definition to general mathematics. Lambda terms describe values from the lambda calculus domain. Each lambda term has a value in that domain.
When translating expressions from mathematics to lambda calculus, the domain of lambda calculus terms is not always isomorphic to the domain of the mathematical expressions. This lack of isomorphism is the source of the apparent contradictions.
Resolution in unrestricted languages [ edit ]
There are many language constructs that implicitly invoke an equation that may have none or many solutions. The sound resolution to this problem is to syntactically link these expressions to an existentially quantified variable. The variable represents the multiple values in a way that is meaningful in common human reasoning, but is also valid in mathematics.
For example, a natural language that allows the Eval function is not mathematically consistent. But each call to Eval in that natural language may be translated into mathematics in a way that is consistent. The translation of Eval(s) into mathematics is
let x = Eval(s) in x.
So where s = "Eval(s) → y",
let x = x → y in x.
If y is false, then the x = x → y is false, but this is a falsehood, not a paradox.
The existence of the variable x was implicit in the natural language. The variable x is created when the natural language is translated into mathematics. This allows us to use natural language, with natural semantics, while maintaining mathematical integrity.
Resolution in formal logic [ edit ]
The argument in formal logic starts with assuming the validity of naming (X → Y) as X. However, this is not a valid starting point. First we must deduce the validity of the naming. The following theorem is easily proved and represents such a naming:
∀ A, ∃ X, X = A. {\displaystyle \forall A,\exists X,X=A.}
In the above statement the formula A is named as X. Now attempt to instantiate the formula with (X → Y) for A. However, this is not possible, as the scope of ∃ X {\displaystyle \exists X} is inside the scope of ∀ A {\displaystyle \forall A}. The order of the quantifiers may be reversed using Skolemization:
∃ f, ∀ A, f ( A ) = A. {\displaystyle \exists f,\forall A,f(A)=A.}
However, now instantiation gives
f ( X → Y ) = X → Y, {\displaystyle f(X\to Y)=X\to Y,}
which is not the starting point for the proof and does not lead to a contradiction. There are no other instantiations for A that lead to the starting point of the paradox.
Resolution in set theory [ edit ]
In Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory the axiom of unrestricted comprehension is replaced with a group of axioms that allow construction of sets. So Curry's paradox cannot be stated in ZFC. ZFC evolved in response to Russell's paradox.
See also [ edit ]I was browsing Reddit the other night and stumbled upon a post of pure gold. A dev by the name of Jeremy Slavitz had launched an app in the app store for iPhones, iPod touches and iPads called wormholes. Hesitantly, I clicked the link only to be taken to the app store where my eyes lit up like gems in my skull. Here, before me, was a pretty good knockoff version of portal for your iDevices.
I quickly hit the download button and sat there for the 30 secconds biting my nails in excitement while waiting for the app to install.
It finnished and I opened it…
It was perfect!
Okay, so not perfect. There are some texture graphics within the game that could be better but this game had already passed all my previous expectations. The controls were nice |
. coli O157 in Northern Ireland. In its “post-exercise report” the FSA declared the operation a success. Elliott says: “If there’s another incident, which I believe there will be, we will have the National Food Crime Unit there, and the expertise will be there to immediately take action.”
Yet one of the striking elements of the horsemeat scandal is how few convictions resulted. “Nobody took responsibility in the first place — it was like the poisoned chalice passed around the [government] departments. A huge amount of credit to Owen Paterson [then secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs], because he stood up and said, ‘Look, give it to me, I will run with it’ — nobody else did.” But, Elliott adds: “I know Paterson found it very difficult to engage with the police... Finally, the City of London police said they’d run with it because they specialise in fraud. That took three months to organise.
A triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, part of the Institute for Global Food Security laboratory’s £5m suite of equipment © Daniel Stier
“Now, if you’re gathering together your posse to chase the bad guy and you give them three months to get away, that’s a reasonable amount of time to escape over the horizon. And that’s what happened.”
A suspicious package caught the attention of customs officers in Nijmegen, eastern Holland. It was labelled as 5kg of baking powder. Why bother importing just 5kg? The officers opened it, and inside was 17 beta oestradiol, an illegal growth hormone used to artificially stimulate growth in meat production. Such drugs have been banned by the EU since 1989. “It was funny,” says Karen Gussow, an inspector at the Netherlands’ Intelligence and Criminal Investigations Service, as she describes what she and her colleagues did next: “We replaced it with actual baking powder.” It was then sent to the intended recipient with a hidden tracking device. He collected his delivery and was followed to a hotel in Emmelord in the north. “He was expecting a package — and we came with it. He got 18 months.”
Laboratory samples used in testing © Daniel Stier
Gussow works in an investigative team of 125 people. They operate within the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, which tracks illegal activity in agriculture and animal health and welfare. “Because we are very focused on fraud we can make links,” says Gussow. Unlike the British unit, they can also make arrests: “We are the in-house police, our capabilities are the same as the police. Everything you see on CSI — we can do that, we just don’t have guns. We can observe and interrogate, we can intercept email and telephone.”
The Dutch unit was cited in Elliott’s report as one that manages enforcement well. It pursued, for instance, the successful prosecution of Willy Selten, the man who ran the cold-storage business where horsemeat was switched for beef. “One of the best jokes I’ve ever cracked was that Selten has traded horsemeat for porridge,” says Elliott. Selten is, however, currently at liberty while he appeals his two-and-a-half-year sentence — the longest ever given in the Netherlands for this type of crime.
Willy Selten, who has appealed his two-and-a-half-year sentence for selling 300 tonnes of horsemeat as beef © Getty
“We act when we find fraudulent cases where we see a relationship with food safety,” Gussow notes. “With Willy Selten — the reason we did it [pursued prosecution], was because it frustrates the traceability of the food. If there’s something wrong with the meat and you have to get it back, you can’t.”
In addition to regulatory inspections and tip-offs or complaints from third parties, the Dutch unit relies on another specialist team which works with anonymous informers and passes on information without any identification as to its source. “None of us knows if it’s one or two people, or whether the source is within the company, or if it’s a neighbour or a driver.”
In a recent case investigated by Gussow’s intelligence team, slaughterhouse meat waste — known as “category 3 animal byproduct” and used in pet food — had been relabelled as fit for human consumption. “It was bought in Germany, stored in a Dutch cold store and sold to other EU countries, where it ended up, indeed, in minced meat and also in sausages.”
Cases like these, Gussow says, “give us in-depth information about what the world really looks like. It gives us a lot of information that we feed into the government who devise regulations and can adjust these, or we feed it into the inspectorate to sharpen inspections. So it completes the learning cycle.” Gary Copson, a police adviser to the Elliott review, says: “We should aspire, over five or six years, to match the Dutch investigations.”
Since 2011, the international police organisations Interpol and Europol have annually co-ordinated their food-fraud investigations under the operational title of Opson — a Greek word for food. When Opson I ran, there were 11 countries involved; now there are 47. Chris Vansteenkiste, Project Manager of Europol’s counterfeiting team, says: “Each year, it’s becoming bigger and bigger, like an oil spot.” Opson V will report its findings in the next few months: previous case stories have revealed a wide range of contraband activity, from counterfeit vodka in Derbyshire, England, to a factory in Abrezzo, Italy, where eastern European curds were being sprayed with chemicals to imitate fresh mozzarella.
Inside the laboratory at the Institute for Global Food Security © Daniel Stier
Vansteenkiste says: “In former days, we had fake champagne, vodka, Johnnie Walker whisky. What we see now is day-to-day consumer goods, [things like] tomato juice and orange juice. You wouldn’t expect it for a low-priced item like tomato juice — for God’s sake, why would they fake it? The answer is people don’t expect it to be cheated, and the profit is very low, but people drink more tomato juice than champagne.”
Tomato juice is usually adulterated by diluting a famous brand name with a cheaper product. Chocolate, coffee and cookies are also targets, says Vansteenkiste. This spread of fraud poses a particular brand risk to companies with established reputations. In response to the horsemeat scandal, PwC, the financial consulting firm, introduced a food-supply-chain consultation as one of its services, and has estimated the global trade in food fraud to be worth around $40bn a year. Hans Schoolderman, European leader of PwC’s food supply and integrity services, says: “Companies think, ‘It won’t happen to me — it will happen to another.’” But the multinational companies that PwC works with need to be aware of the risks: “How are you negotiating contracts with your suppliers — are you putting suppliers under pressure, and could that trigger fraud? It’s about asking your suppliers to provide you with information, it is nitty-gritty and it’s not an easy task.”
A representation of a sample of 'oregano', with different colours for its adulterant parts: olive, myrtle and hazelnut leaves, as well as sumac, phlomis and cistus © Daniel Stier
Vansteenkiste adds that now “we’re seeing a shift in behaviour — in some cases, the target is already known to have a career in the drug-related scene. They have noticed they can earn money [in food fraud] and the chance of being caught is less high. Multinationals have a multi-segment approach, they try to diversify — the [Camorra] in Naples do the same, they diversify.”
Chris Elliott grew up on a farm in County Antrim. “But everybody in Ireland has a farm,” he laughs. “It’s compulsory. A lot of us come from a rural background.” On the farm just outside Antrim Town there were “a few dairy cows, a few beef cows, fields of potatoes and strawberries and raspberries at the right part of the year. Quite typical.”
What we eat and where it comes from, generally, we don’t know any more. It’s a very complex web
At first interested in marine biology, Elliott then became involved in veterinary science. “In the late 1980s and early 1990s there was this drive in looking at the misuse of drugs in animals — and I got very interested in that.” He worked at the Northern Ireland Science Service, a government agency, for 20 years before joining Queen’s University, Belfast, as professor of food safety.
A family farm is one sure way to know where your food comes from. Indeed, Elliott believes that provenance will be at the root of the next big scandal in British food consumption. “What will happen at some stage is that you think something is produced in the UK and it won’t be — that will be a shocker.”
And then there’s fish. “Norway and Russia dominate the world’s fishing industry — they invested heavily and built a huge number of these factory ships. Now, what happens to that fish?” (Elliott likes rhetorical questions.)
“What they do is what’s called ‘H and G’ — they take the head off and cut the guts out. Then they take all of those fish to another country. The vast majority of filleting of fish happens in China because they employ tens of thousands of women to fillet the fish — the women are better at filleting fish than machines, and they’re cheaper.” Next, the fish is frozen into 7.5kg blocks and shipped to South Korea, “because it has the world’s largest cold stores. They have massive cold stores, the size of Wembley Stadium. The buyers go to South Korea and traders will come and buy different amounts in different commodities of fish, and sell them on to other traders and then sell them into companies.”
Shift workers in Qingdao, China, descale, debone and repackage fish products for export © Alamy
It is after the fish is bought in these blocks that the supply chain control is lost. So a fish that was “caught 50 miles off the north coast of Scotland has been to China, has been to South Korea, and probably been to a couple of countries in between. What arrives back in a port in Scotland is a 7.5kg block of fish and you’re told, ‘That’s cod.’” A number of different fish frauds can be committed — Elliott calls them the “sins of sea fish” — substituting species, bulking up fillets with salty water, switching bulk catch for line-caught labels, deceiving on quotas.
“If we think about the UK, virtually all the processed fish that goes into any ready meal or any frozen product will have come through that supply chain.” Elliott makes it clear that the “big guys”, such as the supermarkets who run the greatest reputational risk through mislabelling, will keep close track of their fish supply chains. “They will not buy off intermediaries — they will send people out to the cold stores... They will do quite a lot of testing whenever fish arrives at the port in the UK.”
Simon Haughey, senior research scientist at the institute © Daniel Stier
False identities in a fish finger do not touch quite the same level of taboo as minced horse in a lasagne. (Though Young’s Seafood, which owns Findus UK, whose frozen lasagne tested positive for horsemeat, would doubtless not wish to test that theory.) The cultural sensitivities around food do play a significant part in how regulatory bodies respond to public fears. This, explains Elliott, will be a particular concern in China, where “scandal after scandal” has upset the country’s large middle-class population. Food crime there has involved “gutter oil” being siphoned up from the drains where street food stalls have been trading to be refiltered and resold. Or melamine in milk powder that poisoned hundreds of thousands of babies. To counteract the risk of a domestic boycott of Chinese products and stem the flow of scandals, Premier Li Keqiang declared “zero tolerance” last year for violation of China’s tightened Food Safety Law.
As a self-confessed food-fraud “anorak”, Elliott keeps a close watch on developments around the world, particularly with regard to climate. “What [climate change] does is create massive perturbations in supply and demand. To give an example, in Southeast Asia there was a failure of the cumin crop in the tail-end of 2014. Cumin is sold through very complex supply chains. It’s grown in different regions of Southeast Asia, places such as Vietnam and India, and it’s transported to big processing facilities in Turkey — a big processor of herbs and spices.
“We picked up reports of people getting ill from eating cumin in Canada. They were getting ill from anaphylactic shock from eating curries.” The cumin had been cut with peanut shells. Small retail businesses selling spices in larger quantities may buy direct from their countries of origin — which provides another opening for organised criminals to penetrate supply chains that are not as heavily regulated, says Elliott. (Small businesses with late opening hours are also being looked at as a focus for investigating the distribution of counterfeit alcohol, according to Chris Vansteenkiste.)
Elliott says he declined through fear an invitation from a Turkish processor to fly over and tour its facilities. “I thought, ‘I don’t think I’ll do that, because I’ll probably never come home again.’” There is a distinction between criminals and fraudsters in the food trade — “criminals are quite stupid and will get caught,” he says. “Fraudsters are generally very smart and don’t get caught. It’s fraudsters we’re generally thinking about here”.
Natalie Whittle is associate editor on FT Weekend Magazine
Photographs: Daniel Stier/ Twenty Twenty; Paddy Kelly; Getty; Alamy
This article has been amended since its original publication to correct name of the Camorra in NaplesIran today is a revolution in search of its Yeltsin. Without leadership, demonstrators will take to the street only so many times to face tear gas, batons and bullets. They need a leader like Boris Yeltsin: a former establishment figure with newly revolutionary credentials and legitimacy, who stands on a tank and gives the opposition direction by calling for the unthinkable -- the abolition of the old political order.
Right now the Iranian revolution has no leader. As this is written, opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has not appeared in public since June 18. And the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad regime has shown the requisite efficiency and ruthlessness at suppressing widespread unrest. Its brutality has been deployed intelligently. The key is to atomize the opposition. Start with the most sophisticated methods to block Internet and cellphone traffic, thanks to technology provided by Nokia Siemens Networks. Allow the more massive demonstrations to largely come and go -- avoiding Tiananmen-style wholesale bloodshed -- but disrupt the smaller ones with street-side violence and rooftop snipers, the perfect instrument of terror. Death instant and unseen, the kind that only the most reckless and courageous will brave.
Terror visited by invisible men. From rooftops by day. And by night, swift and sudden raids that pull students out of dormitories, the wounded out of hospitals, for beatings and disappearances.
For all our sentimental belief in the ultimate triumph of those on the "right side of history," nothing is inevitable. This second Iranian revolution is on the defensive, even in retreat. To recover, it needs mass, because every dictatorship fears the moment when it gives the order to the gunmen to shoot at the crowd. If they do (Tiananmen), the regime survives; if they don't (Romania's Ceausescu), the dictators die like dogs. The opposition needs a general strike and major rallies in the major cities -- but this time with someone who stands up and points out the road ahead.
Desperately seeking Yeltsin. Does this revolution have one? Or to put it another way, can Mousavi become Yeltsin?
President Obama's worst misstep during the Iranian upheaval occurred early on when he publicly discounted the policy differences between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mousavi.
True, but that overlooked two extremely important points. First, while Mousavi himself was originally only a few inches to Ahmadinejad's left on the political spectrum -- being hand-picked by the ruling establishment precisely for his ideological reliability -- Mousavi's support was not restricted to those whose views matched his. He would have been the electoral choice of everyone to his left, a massive national constituency -- liberals, liberalizers, secularists, monarchists, radicals and visceral opponents of the entire regime -- that dwarfs those who shared his positions, as originally held.
Moreover, Mousavi's positions have changed, just as he has. He is far different today from the Mousavi who began this electoral campaign.
Revolutions are dynamic, fluid. It is true that two months ago there was little difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi. But that day is long gone. Revolutions outrun their origins. And they transform their leaders.
Mikhail Gorbachev and Yeltsin both began as orthodox party regulars. They subsequently evolved together into reformers. Then came the revolution. Gorbachev could not shake himself from the system. Yeltsin rose up and engineered its destruction.
In the 1980s, Mousavi was Ayatollah Khomeini's prime minister, a brutal enforcer of orthodox Islamism. Twenty years later, he started out running for president advocating little more than cosmetic moderation. But then the revolutionary dynamic began: The millions who rallied to his cause -- millions far to his left -- began to radicalize him. The stolen election radicalized him even more. Finally, the bloody suppression of his followers led him to make statements just short of challenging the legitimacy of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the very foundations of the regime. The dynamic continues: The regime is preparing the basis for Mousavi's indictment (for sedition), arrest, even possible execution. The prospect of hanging radicalizes further.
As Mousavi hovers between Gorbachev and Yeltsin, between reformer and revolutionary, between figurehead and leader, the revolution hangs in the balance. The regime may neutralize him by arrest or even murder. It may buy him off with offers of safety and a sinecure. He may well prefer to let this cup pass from his lips.
But choose he must, and choose quickly. This is his moment, and it is fading rapidly. Unless Mousavi rises to it, or another rises in his place, Iran's democratic uprising will end not as Russia 1991, but as China 1989.
letters@charleskrauthammer.comImage copyright Reuters Image caption Hamza Attou (right) and Salah Abdeslam are seen here at a French petrol station on 14 November 2015
Belgian terror suspect Hamza Attou, accused of involvement in last November's jihadist attacks in Paris, has been handed over to French police.
Mr Attou, 21, was charged for driving fellow suspect Salah Abdeslam back to Brussels from Paris on the night of the attacks, when 130 people were killed.
Hamza Attou had opposed extradition to France but Belgium handed him over on Wednesday, prosecutors said.
Belgium transferred Salah Abdeslam to French police in April.
Prosecutors say another suspect, Mohamed Amri, was with Hamza Attou in the car that picked up Salah Abdeslam on 13 November. Mr Amri is still in Belgian custody. The three were caught by CCTV cameras at a French petrol station on 14 November.
So-called Islamic State said it carried out the Paris bombings and shootings on 13 November, which were at least partly planned in Brussels. Hundreds were also wounded in the attacks.
Belgium is preparing to hand over Mohamed Bakkali to France - another suspect held for his alleged role in the November Paris attacks. But Belgium has set the condition that he must serve any prison sentence in Belgium.
France also wants to question Mohamed Amri and a third suspect in Belgian custody - Ali Oulkadi.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Belgian police arrested Hamza Attou (foreground) on 14 November and Salah Abdeslam in March this year
Who were the Paris attackers?
Paris attacks: Who were the victims?
Paris attacks: What happened on the nightThe NBA had 55 players earning at least $10 million annually two seasons ago. The total this season: 107. With all this big money, who has been worth it? We made six rounds of cuts based on performance and value, using 2016-17 numbers as of April 1. End result: the one player that's hands-down delivering the most bang for his buck. Think you know who it is?
These are the 15 best values among the $10 million club. Highest-paid: Kawhi Leonard ($17.7 million). Lowest: Jrue Holiday ($11.3 million). The formula for picking the best value: scoring + non-scoring contributions divided by salary and multiplied by percentage of games played.
Simply put, this cut measures performance relative to peer salary. We took each player's salary rank and compared it against a composite ranking of game score and RPM. Harden and Westbrook, the priciest players left at $26.5 million each, are gone. On to our final grouping...
Similar to the last cut, but this time we lose those with the highest percentage of games missed compared to salary. This knocks off a handful of stars who aren't on the court enough to advance. Sorry, but we have to split hairs at this point and games missed are not a good return on investment.
To survive, a player's PPG or his RPG+APG+SPG+BPG has to exceed his salary (in millions). We lose Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. Tough to drop players of that caliber, but these cuts are all about value. In reality, stars like these are on another level. For our purposes, we're leveling the playing field and holding everyone -- right or wrong -- to the same standards. Average cap hit in this cut: $20.1 million.
If you're getting paid, you'd better rank in the top 20 in one elite skill (PPG, RPG, APG, BPG, SPG or 3PG). A great shooter (Eric Gordon) or rim protector (Hassan Whiteside) survives here. But those cut tend to be versatile role players and aging vets who make smaller contributions.
If you rate as a negative offensive and defensive player in real plus/minus, you're out. Being negative in one is fine -- you can be so good on one end that it supersedes lesser results on the other (James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Damian Lillard, etc.). But negative in both? So long.
Best Bargain?Donald Trump canceled his appearance Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, saying he would instead campaign in Wichita, Kansas.
Or rather — “Witchita, Kanasas.”
Can't go to CPAC; gotta go to Witchita. pic.twitter.com/48LRIbBx1Z — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 4, 2016
His campaign quickly corrected the misspelling of Kansas but neglected to correct Wichita at that time.
Trump had been scheduled to speak Saturday at 8:30 a.m., but some conservative activists were planning a walkout to protest the Republican presidential frontrunner — who they see as insufficiently sincere.
He had spoken at past CPAC events, but some activists accused organizers of promoting Trump’s candidacy in exchange for donations he made to the event sponsor American Conservative Union.
Trump thanked ACU chairman Matt Schlapp and said he looked forward to speaking next year at the event as president of the United States — but CPAC organizers don’t seem thrilled by the prospect.Unidan, AKA Ben Eisenkop, is an ecosystem ecologist who first rose to fame (infamy?) on Reddit by popping up in posts across the site, answering any queries and concepts pertaining to biology and ecology. Eisenkop will be a columnist for Upvoted, where he’ll be spotlighting a new creature every week.
When we think of Australian animals, we often conjure two separate notions: one containing koalas and kangaroos and another containing horrifying spiders and venomous snakes. While both are wonderful to learn about, there exists a third category that I want to share today, which is one of bizarre preciousness. Therefore, without further ado, I present the numbat.
I first came across the numbat’s existence a few years ago when I was searching for articles regarding the radiotracking of wild animals for a project of my own. I stumbled across an older article by Australian researchers which described their surprisingly large home ranges and locations of their winter burrows. As an American scientist, I was a bit perplexed. Had someone misspelled “wombat”? Was it some kind of Novocain-riddled flying rodent? I needed to know!
I was pleasantly surprised.
The numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus) is an endangered carnivorous marsupial in the order Dasyuromorphia, the same order as the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), which, yes, is not just a cartoon character. With its long bushy tail, red front and banded backside, the numbat almost looks like a chimera of anteater, squirrel and bottle-cleaning brush. The anteater part is quite true, in fact. The numbat’s diet consists mainly of termites, which it uses its bizarrely long, sticky tongue to capture!
Sadly, the introduction of foxes to parts of Australia have led to declines of natural numbat population. However, biological controls and new breeding programs have seen a resurgence of their numbers. Hooray for numbats!
If you’re interested in helping to preserve this animal and its habitat for future generations, please consider a donation to Perth Zoo’s Wildlife Conservation Action.Satanic Occult Symbols In Washington D.C.
by David J. Stewart | March 2007 | updated August 2016 | Click here for background music in external window
"...I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not,
but are the synagogue of Satan." —Revelation 2:9
Mystery Babylon and the Illuminati (1 Hour Free Video by Texe Mars) | Download (63 MB)
The pentagon is an infinite occult symbol — it is the center of a pentagram
and a pentagram fits perfectly inside a pentagon.
THE ILLUMINATI CHRONICLES | SYMBOLS OF THE ILLUMINATI | SKULL AND BONES | OCCULTISTS LOVE SYMBOLISM
New 1,776 Foot “One World Trade Center” Skyscraper Admittedly Symbolic Of Male Phallus
FREEMASONS ARE PHALLIC WORSHIPPERS!!!
Obelisks are erect phallic (penis) symbols related to the Egyptian Sun god, Ra. The four sides of the Washington Monument are aligned with the cardinal directions (i.e., east, west, north, and south). At the ground level each side of the monument measures 55.5 feet in width, which is equal to 666 inches each side. The height of the obelisk is 555.5 feet, which is equal to 6,666 inches. THIS IS THE EXACT RATIO OF KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S GOLDEN IMAGE! (which was 90 x 9 feet, a 10-to-1 ratio). Christians have the cross, but Illuminists have their phallic obelisk! The new grand PHALLUS (obelisk) symbol representing the sinister power of the global Illuminati elite is the ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER, replacing the old World Trade Center in New York. The new architectural wonder is exactly 1,776 feet tall, featuring The Great Pyramid in it's design. This evidences that the satanic plot for World Government has existed for millenniums and is perpetrating from generation-to-generation by occult organizations. “The word 'obelisk' literally means 'Baal's Shaft' or Baal's organ of reproduction. This should be especially shocking when we realize that we have a gigantic obelisk in our nation's capital known as the Washington Monument.” SOURCE: Dr. Cathy Burns, Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated Truly, I hope I'm not the only Christian who has a problem with a giant erect male penis being the symbol of our nation! That is so perverted! Philippians 2:15, “That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” The erect male phallus is an ancient occult symbol of satanic power and strength. Is this the Luciferian ruling elite's way of mocking us as they debase, humiliate, rape and dehumanize us? It's no coincidence that the Washington Monument was erected 6,666 inches tall. It's 66.6 inches wide! It has Satan's markings all over it! Luciferians have hi-jacked our nation, and they are in the process of setting up a police state that will rival World War II fascist Germany under Adolf Hitler. Just wait until American's guns are confiscated. It will happen! 1936 Spain (“The people found themselves helpless... forced to register & surrender arms!”). The Illuminati launched their 1775 plot for World Government the next year in 1,776 during the Revolutionary War. The rebels no sooner broke away from England, establishing their own 13 colonies here in America, but then tried to also overthrow Canada in The War of 1812. The Canadians weren't so easy to defeat, and the Illuminati were instead defeated and pushed back into the U.S. by Canada! The United States was founded by Freemasons, with the primary intent of one day achieving World Government (aka, a New World Order). U.S. President George Washington was a high-level Freemason, as were 8 of the 56 signers of The Declaration Of Independence. The following evidence shows the Masonic control over Washington D.C. (the headquarters of our U.S. federal government)... ABOVE: The mall in Washington DC is laid out so the gardens and streets form the image of an owl. The owl is representative of the mythical goddess, Lilith. Pleas read, Bohemian Grove Exposed for much more information on the owl. The street design in Washington, D.C., has been laid out in such a manner that certain Luciferic symbols are depicted by the streets, cul-de-sacs and rotaries. This design was created in 1791, a few years after Freemasonry assumed the leadership of the New World Order, in 1782. In Europe, occult leaders were told by their familiar spirits as early as the 1740's that the new American continent was to be established as the new “Atlantis,” and its destiny was to assume the global leadership of the drive to the New World Order. The United States of America was chosen to lead the world into this kingdom of Antichrist from the very beginning. The capital is Washington, D.C., which is evidenced by the preponderance of occult symbols. George Washington (a 33° Freemason) selected French Freemason Pierre Charles L’Enfant to design the city’s layout in Washington D.C. The boundaries of the city, established by George Washington in 1791, form a square 10 miles long on each side, centered on the originally proposed location for the Washington Monument. The east-west diagonal of the square crosses over the Capitol building and the north-south diagonal crosses over the White House. The length of the north-south and east-west diagonals is 10 miles times the square root of 2, or 14.142 miles. This distance converts to 43,455 ancient Egyptian royal cubits, the same figure as the ratio between the Great Pyramid and the dimensions of the earth. The height of the Great Pyramid is 481.13 feet, divided by 5,280 =.0911231 miles.
The mean radius of the earth is 3,960 miles, divided by.0911231 = 43,457.
The perimeter of the Great Pyramid is 3,023 feet, divided by 5,280 =.5725 miles.
The mean circumference of the earth is 24,880 miles, divided by.5725 = 43,458.
3,960 miles (radius of the earth) / 14.142 miles = 280 (number of cubits in the height of the Great Pyramid)
24,880 miles (circumference of the earth) / 14.142 miles = 1,760 (cubits in the perimeter of the Great Pyramid) Converting the radius and circumference of the earth to cubits yields the same results.
The first series of symbols I will point out deal with the seat of the executive branch of government, the White House, indicated by the red arrow above. If you are a Google Earth user, you can see these satellite images for yourself at Google Maps.
As you can see by my outline, the White House sits at the apex of an inverted pentagram. This symbol is incomplete by only 2 small pieces, indicated by the yellow lines.
The hexagram is nearly complete, except for 1 small piece on the north-west side, outlined in yellow.
If you draw the pentagram and hexagram symbols together, you can see three sides of a cross. Finishing the symbol on the land sitting in front of the White House reveals a perfectly symmetrical Knights Templar cross.
It has been said the Washington Monument obelisk (bottom arrow) sits due south from the White House. This is not exactly true, as you can see in the photo above. In reality, the obelisk is directly south from the Masonic Temple (top arrow) which sits 13 blocks north of the White House.
The temple is the headquarters of the Supreme Council of Scottish Rites of Freemasonry, modeled after descriptions of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.
As mentioned earlier, the 4 sides of the Washington Monument are aligned with the cardinal directions (i.e., east, west, north, and south). At the ground level each side of the monument measures 55.5 feet long, which is equal to 666 inches. The height of the obelisk is 555.5 feet, which is equal to 6,666 inches. The obelisk is representative of the male sex organ, worship in nearly all pagan cultures. It is a symbol of man's carnal power and might. Satanism and the occult are saturated with sexual perversion, child-molesting, and human sacrifices. Most worshippers in these groups deny such claims, but some have openly professed it, such as the godless bisexual Aleister Crowley. Such immoral occult influences are prevalent in rock music, feminism, and even in Walt Disney movies, such as The CHRONICLES of NARNIA.
In this photograph I’ve indicated both the White House (left) and the Capitol building (right).
The square and compass symbol stretches from the White House to the Capitol.
To the east of the Capitol sits a complete hexagram
A bird’s-eye view of the Capitol building reveals a figure resembling an owl. The owl is a symbol which represents an pagan deity. Nocturnal birds are symbols of sorcery and metaphysics because black magick cannot function in the light of truth (day) and is powerful only when surrounded by ignorance (night). The owl is considered wise because the creature is able to see through the darkness of ignorance and materiality; hence its association with the goddess Athena and its veneration during the nocturnal cremation of care ceremony at the Bohemian Grove. In his book, The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital, pagan David Ovason states that there are... “zodiacs in the city, and at least 1,000 zodiacal and planetary symbols...” SOURCE: The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital; by David Ovason; pg. 10, Harper Collins; 1999 Washington D.C. is absolutely infested with occult and astrology symbols. In his book, Ovason documents the location of over 23 Satanic zodiacs in the federal district alone! Why should God bless America?
Above the dome of the Capitol building stands Lady Libertas, the goddess Isis.
Guarding the entrance to the Capitol building is Nimrod (Baal) in the likeness of the Roman god Mars, whom the Egyptians called Osiris. As you can see from the image below this entrance is identical to that of the Roman Panthenon of the Gods - as well as the Greek Parthenon.
There are several significant buildings in the District of Columbia with these ancient designs, including The White House.
The central part of the Supreme Court building is modeled after the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.
The George Washington Masonic Memorial, modeled after descriptions of the Pharos of Alexandria - another wonder of the ancient world, sits across the Potomac in Alexandria, Virginia just inside the diagonal square border of D.C.
This statue of Washington in the Smithsonian Museum of American History was modeled after descriptions of the statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. The museum is aligned to the cardinal directions, the statue sits at the western end of the main floor facing east. Compare this portrayal of Washington to the images of Zeus and Baphomet - do you notice any similarities?
Satan On Our Dollar
The eye represents Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness, who transforms himself into an angel of light (2nd Corinthians 11:3).
Notice the two circles above on back of every U.S. dollar, saturated with occult symbology!
“Historian/author Ralph Epperson has spent many years researching the history of the Great Seal, and has discovered that those who designed the two circles committed America to what has been called 'A Secret Destiny.' This future 'destiny' is so unpleasant that those who wanted the changes it entails had to conceal that truth in symbols.” SOURCE: The New World Order, back cover, by Ralph A. Epperson; 1990; ISBN: 0-9614135-1-4; publisher: PUBLIUS PRESS, Tucson, Arizona. The capstone of the pyramid is symbolic of the antichrist, who when he comes will complete the pyramid. The Beast System is now being prepared, aka, the New World Order. Below, you can get an idea of the power structure of these occult groups. If you want to do research, look up the various groups on the internet, such as the Mother of Darkness.
The special positions at the top of the pyramid capstone are those who are wholly committed to the Luciferian Ideology, i.e., a Totalitarian Godless Police State |
Matt Stone again. "Absolutely," he says, without a moment's hesitation. "Oh absolutely. They're awesome guys! Trey in particular, he plays the games we play, I play, and it's awesome to have a guy who is the licence but also you can talk games with.
"We would absolutely work with them again."This week marks one year since Dalhousie student Taylor Samson was reported missing to Halifax police, who are still trying to locate his remains.
Samson's death was ruled a homicide four days after he was reported missing and fellow university student William Sandeson was charged with first-degree murder in his death.
In a statement released today, police said they're seeking help from the public to locate Samson's remains, in what is still considered an ongoing investigation.
"We're reaching out to try to assist with bringing some closure to the family, to bring Taylor home," said Const. Dianne Woodworth to CBC News.
"We realize sometimes it's not easy to come forward, but to have closure for Taylor's family would be the start of healing for them," she said.
Family and friends grieving
Samson's mother, Linda Boutilier, marked the one-year anniversary by writing on her son's Facebook page: "If it takes me til my last breath, I am bringing you home."
Many other friends of Samson took to Facebook, writing messages like, "One whole year later and it hurts like yesterday," "Taylor Samson this year has literally been a nightmare without you," and "One year has gone by and it doesn't get any easier not having you here."
Last fall, Boutilier pleaded for help to find her son's body, following a bail hearing for Sandeson.
"I want my son home," she said. "If I have to bury him, I have to bury him. All I have is memories, I don't even have him to hold."
Woodworth said investigators have been in close contact with Samson's family, and keeping them apprised of new developments throughout the investigation.
Investigators searched area in Truro
Last August, police scoured a property in Lower Truro belonging to Sandeson's family, though no remains were located.
Samson was last seen at his home on South Street in Halifax on Aug. 15, 2015, but police believe he was killed at a residence on Henry Street.
Police are asking anyone with information regarding the investigation into Samson's death to contact the Integrated Criminal Investigation Division at 902-490-5016 or Crime Stoppers.As it turns out, most people cannot draw a bike.
Velocopedia is an amusing project by Italian designer Gianluca Gimini. For three years, Gimini has been asking his friends to draw bicycles, which he then renders in 3D. The result is a pretty hilarious reproduction of some very dysfunctional looking bikes. What Gimini has discovered is that most people simply do not know how to draw a bicycle.
The bikes below are missing some pretty crucial parts, or have them incorporated in all the wrong places. Rendered as real (and might I add, quite stylish) bicycles, you end up with some seriously impractical machines that would be pretty interesting to take for a test ride.
Read More 40 Cool Cycling Products to Look Out for in 2016A Seattle man who calls himself “Phoenix Jones” appears to have taken 2010’s comic book film “Kick-Ass” to heart.
Like the main character in the independently produced hero fantasy, Jones has taken it upon himself to dress in a colorful outfit and roam the streets looking for crime.
And on Sunday night, while trolling the streets of the Seattle suburb Lynnwood, he found one.
A man, who asked local reporters to identify him only as Dan, said his car was almost broken into by an unknown criminal when out of nowhere a masked man in a “skin-tight rubber, black and gold suit” rushed in and chased the crook away.
His heroics caught the attention of KIRO Eyewitness News, which went up-close with Jones, the self-named “Guardian of Seattle.”
He carries mace and tear gas, and a stun prod for fighting off criminals. Jones’s outfit was also equipped with stab plates and bullet-proof material, he said.
Jones is just one of a team that calls itself the “Rain City Superhero Movement,” which calls to arms regular citizens who are sick of waiting for others to take direct action against criminals. They base their principles on the “Real Life Superhero Movement,” a website formed after comic book icon Stan Lee’s television show “Who Wants to be a Superhero?” caught on in 2006.
“Officially, a Real Life Superhero is whoever chooses to embody the values presented in superheroic comic books, not only by donning a mask/costume, but also performing good deeds for the communitarian place whom he inhabits,” the “movement” declared on its website. “You don’t necessarily need to engage in a violent fight to be a crime fighter – you might patrol and report whatever crime you see. So basically, terms like ‘good deed’ or ‘crime fighting’ are open to various interpretations.”
Adherents are encouraged to take action in their communities by posting flyers about missing persons, handing out food and clothing to homeless people, raising awareness of unsolved crimes and even donating blood.
The “Rain City” group first made waves in November, when Seattle police were notified that costumed vigilantes were paroling the streets under names like “Buster Doe,” “The Green Reaper,” “Thorn,” “No Name, “Gemini,” “Catastrophe,” “Penelope” and “Thunder 88.”
Back then, “Phoenix Jones” was sporting a different outfit, with a mask, fedora, black cape and tights: more like something seen in “The Shadow” than “X-Men.”
When Jones was interviewed by the local police, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted, he was not in costume and claimed that it was being repaired after he was stabbed while fighting a drug dealer. Police said they weren’t sure if he was really injured or not, and warned him that future crime fighting endeavors could cost him his life.
“I don’t condone people walking around on the street with masks,” Jones was quoted as saying. “Everyone on my team either has a military background or a mixed martial arts background, and we’re well aware of what its costs to do what we do.”
Local police have encouraged Seattle residents to avoid getting involved with actively fighting crime, urging them to report suspicious activity by dialing 911 instead.
This video is from KIRO Eyewitness News in Seattle, broadcast Jan. 5, 2010.
Disclose.tv – Phoenix Jones and the Rain City Superhero Movement VideoNEWPORT, Wales — After four days of monitoring cellphone traffic, questioning Somali officials on the ground and poring over reports from both American and British intelligence agencies, the Pentagon on Friday announced that American airstrikes against the Shabab, the Qaeda-linked militant network in Somalia, had succeeded in killing the group’s leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, one of the most wanted men in Africa.
“We have confirmed that Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of Al Shabab, has been killed,” the Pentagon press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said in a statement. He called the death of Mr. Godane “a major symbolic and operational loss” to the Shabab.
Speaking at a news conference after the NATO summit meeting here, President Obama drew a direct link between the killing of Mr. Godane, who turned an obscure local militant group into one of the most fearsome Qaeda franchises in the world, and Mr. Obama’s plans for the leaders of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The president vowed to hunt down ISIS leaders “the same way” the United States had found Mr. Godane.
Military officials had waited several days to confirm that Mr. Godane was killed in one of the two strikes — on an encampment and on a vehicle south of Mogadishu, the Somali capital. The strikes were carried out by Special Operations forces using both manned and unmanned aircraft, and they were undertaken, Pentagon officials said, based on intelligence that Mr. Godane was at the encampment.ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account
An exasperated Vietnamese-Australian man has shared a photo of his passport to prove his name really is Phuc Dat Bich after he was banned from Facebook several times.
Phuc Dat Bich, 23, told Facebook followers he finds it “highly irritating” that “nobody seems to believe me when I say that my full legal name is how you see it”.
The photo of his passport clearly displays the name – whose correct pronunciation is approximately “Phoo Da Bic” – and has been shared tens of thousands of times.
“I’ve been accused of using a false and misleading name, which I find very offensive,” wrote the Bank of Australia worker.
“Is it because I’m Asian? Is it?”
Phuc Dat Bich – a lover of cars, judging by his page – added his Facebook account had been “shut down multiple times” and he had been “forced to change my name to my ‘real’ name”.
The Standard has approached Phuc Dat Bich for comment.Confronting footage has emerged of the moment an Australian pensioner is knocked out with a sickening coward punch.
Colin Gerrard, 72, was involved in a traffic dispute with a local man outside his daughter's school in Pattaya, Thailand at 4pm on Wednesday.
As the two spoke to a police officer the Thai man appeared to be walking away before suddenly turning around and hitting the elderly man with a powerful blow.
The unexpected punch left Mr Gerrard out cold for about one minute before he came to on the ground, blood pouring from a gash in his face.
Scroll down for video
Confronting footage has emerged of the moment an Australian pensioner (pictured, left) is knocked out with a sickening coward punch
Colin Gerrard (pictured, left), 72, was involved in a traffic dispute with a local man outside his daughter's school in Pattaya, Thailand at 4pm on Wednesday
The attacker, 28-year-old Sumet Rungratanapan, runs a jewellery store and was wearing a large gold ring when he hit Mr Gerrard.
The pair were involved in a minor traffic accident before Mr Gerrard took a machete from his car and smashed the windows of the Thai man's vehicle.
'I was driving my car and I wanted to overtake but the foreigner didn't want me to go in front of him. He moved the car in front of me,' Mr Rungratanapan said.
''After that I said sorry because I scratched his car but then the foreigner was shouting and swearing at me. It made me angry and I started to talk bad back to him.
The pair were involved in a minor traffic accident before Mr Gerrard took a machete (pictured) from his car and smashed the windows of the Thai man's vehicle
'Then I walked over to him and he took the knife and he attacked my car (pictured) with it. I was so angry and I just punched him,' said the Thai man
'The foreigner was shouting to stop the car and come outside. Why was he talking to me, a young person, saying come here, come here, so strongly?
'Then I walked over to him and he took the knife and he attacked my car with it. I was so angry and I just punched him.'
Mr Gerrard can be heard in the video telling the officer he used the machete.
'I bash[ed] his car,' he tells the officer.
'Basically I held the knife to stop him. I said "stop, stop". He attacked me.'
Moments before the punch Mr Rungratanapan says 'I have [a] clip' and appears to watch footage of Mr Gerrard smashing his car before losing his temper.
Mr Gerrard (pictured) can be heard in the video telling the officer he used the machete
A woman holding a child and filming the encounter - believed to be Mr Rungratanapan's wife - says 'How dare you? You cannot use [a] knife.'
The Australian was treated for a cut to the left side of his face, and both men attended Pattaya City Police Station on Thursday for questioning.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Nakhonrat Nonsilad, deputy leader of investigations, said: 'We have to hear both sides of the story and the injured man must get a medical certificate from the hospital as evidence of his injuries.
'Neither man has been charged. We have to wait for the interrogation of all parties, interviews with witnesses and check CCTV footage.'MBTA riders know all about irregular service. But now the T is looking into “evidence of irregular voting patterns” in an online poll that let riders pick the paint schemes for new trains.
The T acknowledged Tuesday that its fun little survey had gone awry. The agency said it would put off the choices on the paint job for now.
“The MBTA has decided to hold the results of the survey in abeyance until this matter has been resolved,” spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in an e-mail.
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Voting for the paint schemes for the new cars on the Green, Red, and Orange lines took place over a two-week period that ended Nov. 3. For each subway line, people were asked to pick their favorite of three exterior paint patterns.
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The T proudly announced the results Tuesday afternoon, saying that more than 175,000 votes had been cast. But questions quickly arose.
Most Orange Line color-pickers who participated in the survey submitted their votes early, shortly after the contest was publicized in late October, results show.
Vote totals were heavily skewed for the Red and Green lines. Hundreds of votes appeared to have originated from the same computer, which submitted as many as three survey responses per second, according to results posted online. Vote totals spiked unusually late in the survey period.
Pesaturo said officials from SurveyMonkey, which hosted the survey, were also looking into the incident.
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Steve Koczela, president of the MassInc Polling Group, said the signs of hijinks were as obvious as a train horn. “If you looked at the trends... or the IP addresses, that’s where the alarm starts to get pretty loud,” he said.
The first of 24 Green Line trolley cars will arrive in 2017; the arrival of the first 152 Orange Line cars is set for 2018; and the first of 132 Red Line cars is scheduled for November 2019.
The MBTA originally announced that the following designs had won the contest:
Green Line
MBTA The T said a “commanding 89 percent” of ballots were cast for this paint scheme.
Orange Line
MBTA 41 percent of ballots were cast for this paint scheme.
Red Line
MBTA 90 percent of ballots were cast for this paint scheme.
Jack Newsham can be reached at jack.newsham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheNewsHam. Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannearBrowser buttons (bookmarklets) are shortcuts that act like a simple browser plugin. Their advantages include:
Fast installation : Just add a link to your bookmarks
: Just add a link to your bookmarks Convenient : Use features while on your current page
: Use features while on your current page Easy to write : Bookmarklets are just like making a webpage; there’s no need to write a whole browser plugin
: Bookmarklets are just like making a webpage; there’s no need to write a whole browser plugin Cross-browser: The same bookmarklet can work in IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari.
Here’s a few bookmarklets I use regularly:
Delicious buttons: Tag a webpage (useful for browsers that don’t have the delicious toolbar, like Opera and Firefox 3)
Google translate: Translate the current page in one click
InstaCalc Bookmarklet: Open a real-time calculator on any site
How easy is it?
Only one way to find out. Try the instacalc bookmarklet right here:
Click this link: instacalc bookmarklet.
A calculator opens in the corner of the page. Type 1 + 1 to see the result.
Select this text 15 mph in fps and click the link again. Voila! The text is automatically inserted.
and click the link again. Voila! The text is automatically inserted. Close the window by clicking the red “x”
Neat, eh? No install, just click and go. To save the bookmarklet, right click the link and “add to favorites/bookmarks”. Now you can open the calculator on any page.
Today we’ll walk through the anatomy of a bookmarklet, dissect a few, and give you the tools to build your own.
Bookmarklets 101
Regular bookmarks (aka favorites) are just locations to visit, like “http://gmail.com”. Bookmarklets are javascript code that the browser runs on the current page, and they’re marked by “javascript:” instead of “http://”.
When clicking a bookmarklet, imagine the page author wrote <script>bookmarklet code here</script> — it can do almost anything. There are a few restrictions:
Restricted length: Most URLs have a limit around 2000 characters, which limits the amount of code you can run. There’s a way around this.
No spaces allowed: Some browsers choke on spaces in a URL, so yourcodelookslikethis. We have a trick for this too.
A simple bookmarklet looks like this:
<a href="javascript:alert('hi');">my link</a>
Click this link to see it in action. This example isn’t too wild, but the key is that bookmarklets let you run code on an existing page.
What do you want to do?
Your bookmarklet should do something useful. Ideas include:
Transform the current page. Do find/replace, highlight certain words or images, change CSS styles…
Do find/replace, highlight certain words or images, change CSS styles… Open/overlay a new page. Open a new page or draw a window on the current one, like a sidebar
. Open a new page or draw a window on the current one, like a sidebar Send data to another site. Post, share, or upload the current URL or selected text (like Google translate).
. Post, share, or upload the current URL or selected text (like Google translate). Look at the bookmarklet directories for more inspiration.
People spend most of their time on other sites. Web application authors, think creatively: how can people use your service when away from your site?
Javascript for Bookmarklets
A bookmarklet can use any javascript command, but certain ones are helpful:
Get current page title: document.title Get the current URL: location.href Get the currently selected text:
// get the currently selected text var t; try { t= ((window.getSelection && window.getSelection()) || (document.getSelection && document.getSelection()) || (document.selection && document.selection.createRange && document.selection.createRange().text)); } catch(e){ // access denied on https sites t = ""; }
Make text url-safe: encodeURIComponent(text) (and corresponding decodeURIComponent() ). The page title or URL may have invalid characters (spaces, slashes, etc.) so it’s a good habit to encode them before sending them over (spaces become %20, etc.).
Dissecting the Delicious Bookmarklet
Here’s the code for the delicious bookmarklet (spaces added for readability):
javascript:location.href='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4; url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)+'; title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)
And here’s what’s happening:
Change to a new URL (to post the item)
Specify query parameters for the current document’s url (location.href) and title (document.title)
Make the paramaters url-safe with encodeURIComponent
Once you tag and save the post, delicious sends you to the original page. How do they know where? Because it was sent along in the original request!
Bookmarklet Interface Ideas
Imagine this: Your users are browsing for cat photos (or the journals of the American Chemical Society, but probably lolcats) when they click your killer Web 2.0 bookmarklet. What happens?
Common techniques are:
Take the user to a new page. Hopefully, you can use some data from the current page, otherwise it’s a regular bookmark.
Hopefully, you can use some data from the current page, otherwise it’s a regular bookmark. Frame the current page, like Google translate or Stumbleupon. This is similar to the first technique, but your site displays the old page inside the window.
, like Google translate or Stumbleupon. This is similar to the first technique, but your site displays the old page inside the window. Overlay a new interface. Use CSS absolute positioning to make a window in a set place, or fixed positioning to have the window follow you as you scroll. Beware the CSS bugs.
Overlaid windows are great, but won’t that be hard to cram into a single line?
The Big Trick: Dynamic Javascript
Direct javascript works fine if you just want to redirect the user to another page, like the delicious bookmarklet. The no spaces, 2000 character limit really hurts when you want a more complicated interface.
There’s a fix: Our bookmarklet becomes a stub to load another (regular) javascript file. Here’s the code (spaces added for readability):
javascript:(function(){ _my_script=document.createElement('SCRIPT'); _my_script.type='text/javascript'; _my_script.src='http://mysite.com/script.js?'; document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(_my_script); })();
Here’s how it works:
Define an anonymous function to download the script
Create a script element, type text/javascript. We can’t use var _my_script because of the spaces, so choose a unique name.
element, type. We can’t use because of the spaces, so choose a unique name. Set the src of the script to our real javascript file. This file could pull down more javascript also.
Add the script element to the current page
And that’s it! Our bookmarklet can now load any javascript we please, without the annoying restrictions. An added bonus: see how many people are using your tool, and you we can change our script (fix bugs or add features) on the server.
Dissecting the Instacalc Bookmarklet
Here’s the steps I went through to make the instacalc bookmarklet
Create a bookmarklet interface
I made a trimmed-down page designed for the bookmarklet. If you click the page it appears fullscreen, but it resizes to the parent container. I planned on hosting this page inside a smaller iframe.
Create a stub bookmarklet
Because I wanted to get the currently selected text and overlay an interface, I knew I couldn’t fit my javascript into 2000 characters. So I used the dynamic javascript technique above to get the real javascript file.
Careful caching
I didn’t want to cache the bookmarklet javascript in case I wanted to change its behavior (but I did cache the other files). I added a dummy query parameter using Math.random(), which forces the browser to download the file each time. Since the script is small, this wasn’t too much of an issue.
instacalc_script.src='http://static.instacalc.com/gadget/instacalc.bookmarklet.js?x='+(Math.random());
Build the interface
The script to build the interface is pretty straightforward. There’s some helper functions for encoding (instacalc stores data using base64). The script gets the selected text, constructs the URL for the iframe, and loads it up. It generates the CSS to have a fixed window on the top right of the screen, and a button to hide the window.
As a slight trick, if the bookmarklet is run again on the same page, it just shows the existing window instead of creating a new iframe.
Tips & Tricks
Keep this in mind when making your bookmarklet:
Make it friendly. Don’t interrupt the user’s flow. Bring up the window on the same page, or a new page that closes. If you must redirect the user to their original page.
This is important: the user was nice enough to use your service, so put ‘em back where they were!
Make it fast. After you’ve got it working, tweak your bookmarklet’s speed using the following techniques
Give people instructions. Bookmarklets aren’t that common, so help people understand your tool. A few instructions (“right click this link and add to bookmarks/favorites”) and a screenshot go a long way.
The gotcha: cross-domain communication
Because of cross-domain security restrictions, your bookmarklets can’t use fancy-pants Ajax techniques to communicate with your site. The easiest way to communicate is through query parameters in a URL.
Debugging
What’s programming without bugs? Use firefox to debug your javascript and CSS. Instead of clicking a bookmarklet each time, just make a page that runs the javascript file directly: <script src="...">. This is what the bookmarklet does.
Once the dummy page is working, try your bookmarklet on other sites. You’d be surprised how other CSS rules can mess up your carefully positioned elements (remember, you’re running in the context of another site).
Links & Resources
I’m sure you’ll come up with crazy ways to use your newfound toy. The main benefits are simple installation, compatibility, and being able to interact with the current page.
There are crunching tools to make your javascript bookmarklet-friendly. But it’s nice to just dynamically load the real script and be done with it.
People have put the delicious bookmarklet on steroids, such as letting you type the tags in the url before hitting the button.
Taking this to the extreme, Greasemonkey is a firefox plugin letting you run really powerful scripts. For example, there was a script to add a “delete” button to Gmail before it was available.
Have fun.
Other Posts In This SeriesGiven to every student when they enroll at Central Michigan University, an ID card is supposed to stay with them from the time they're a freshman until they graduate.
That doesn't always happen. ID cards are lost, broken and destroyed every year.
The Central Card Office makes more than $40,000 replacing ID cards each year, said Coordinator of the Central Card Office Bobby Lane.
In 2013 2,228 ID cards were replaced, 2,072 were replaced in 2014 and 2,146 last year. At $20 a card, that's $44,560 made in 2013, $41,440 in 2014 and $42,920 in 2015.
That's not extra revenue, according to Lane.
“Our office does not get a profit from the cost (of replacing lost ID cards), so the money is our loss too,” he said.
Janel Taylor, Administrative Clerk of the Central Card Office, said because the service doesn't get any of the money students spend on replacing cards, they "operate in the negatives year-round."
Taylor said the Central Card Office reports to Auxiliary Services along with all Residence Halls, University Apartments, Residential Restaurants, the campus bookstore, retail dining, University Center Operations and Printing Services. Any extra funding the Central Card Office might need to pay staff or create ID cards comes from Auxiliary Services' budget, whose goal is to break even each year, according to the 2015-16 operating budget reports.
In the 2015-16 school year alone, Auxiliary Services total revenue was $79.9 million. Last year, it was $70.3 million.
Students who lose their ID cards can apply for temporary ones for $2 at the Central Card Office. This card will be active for seven days, so a student can attempt to find their missing one. Failure to return the temporary card after the week period can result in a $5 fine.
The $20 fee does not just affect people who have lost their ID cards. Students must pay for new cards if the magnetic strip on the back is damaged and card readers around campus, like check-in readers in residence halls or library checkouts, cannot read them.
Lane is trying to reduce the price by half the price of lost cards, so students are not forced to pay the same if they have not actually lost their cards.
Students still have to pay $20 to replace a damaged card.
If a student loses their ID card, they can call the Central Card Office to "freeze" their account. This means if another student finds a lost ID card and attempts to use it, they will not have access to the other student's meal plan privileges or flex dollars.
Using another student's ID card can result in a $25 fine. Students who lend their cards to others can also face a $25 "misuse fee," as well as get their card confiscated.
Taylor, however, said confiscation is "incredibly rare."
"A lot of the locations don't take (misused) ID cards away from students, they just charge the account," she said. "If the location does, they give it to the Central Card Office and we notify (the student)."
Students can pick it up from the card office for free when this happens, Taylor said.
A location where students can get their cards taken away for misuse is anywhere that requires an ID card for entrance, like an on-campus dining hall or the Student Activity Center.
Woodhaven freshman Kaitlyn Bondar lost her student ID card at the Midland Mall.
“I thought (paying $20) was an O.K. price. However, if you have to replace it multiple timest’s kind of outrageous after a while," Bondar said. "It adds up when you have to buy two, three or four IDs."
Caledonia freshman Austin Brege lost his ID card while out with his friends. He left it at a friend’s house and bought a new one before he even realized it was with his friend.
“I looked for (my ID card) for a couple of days and then finally just bought a new one," the Caledonia native said. "Literally the next day, it was at the Towers' front desk. It was a waste of $20.”The Lost Places [Cavaliers of Mars]
Cavaliers of Mars, Open Development
Welcome to the conclusion of “The Apprentice’s Tale,” our serial exploring the world of Cavaliers of Mars through the eyes of a young Martian adventurer.
You can catch up on the previous parts here:
The Lost Places
As I was saying, during my recovery, we began to plan an expedition to the lost places. We traveled to Chiaro. We took up lodging in a tent city in Chiaro-that-is, but within sight of our goal: Chiaro-that-was. Chiaro-that-is is a reasonably hospitable place. Poor, but the basic necessities of life are available. Oases within the city space provide food, along with some yumocs raised for meat. We were just two more would-be tomb robbers spending our last chits on the chance of a fortune.
At night, by blue flames, we would stare out at Chiaro-that-was, silhouetted against the stars. Staring out at what the First Martians left behind.
In that epoch, the world was filled with life. Plants, beasts, and sentient creatures all thrived and multiplied. The First Martians built grand cities along the azure seas, yet still pushed back the many-colored jungles only a little. They even built cities under the oceans, protected by crystal domes from the water and from the great leviathans of that impossible age.
In Chiaro, as in a few other places, they left monuments of unimaginable scale. Here were the pyramid-tombs that must have housed their kings, and sphinxes with their eyes towards heaven. Why they built on this scale is hard for those of us who remain to imagine, but I think they did so simply because they could.
Now, these places are abandoned. No throngs fill the city streets, no worshippers gather at the feet of the pyramids or in the eyes of the sphinxes. Many of the treasures of the First Martians lay untouched, as they have since times undreamt of. Not that that’s ever stopped anyone from dreaming of the treasures themselves.
The First Martians are so long gone that even their ghosts have likely scattered on the winds. Yet their treasures still have guardians. The tomb stalkers are strange, tripodal machines that move quietly through the ruins. Their voices are keening and creaking… I only heard them from miles away, and still the memory makes me shudder. They sweep the abandoned streets of all life, sparing the occasional beast only so that it can chase intruders into their paths.
In Chiaro, I was told many times that those tomb stalkers that can be seen within the ruins are only a fraction of their number. Many more, I was told, lie slumbering beneath the sand.
Of course, the ruins of the First Martians are not the only forsaken places on the Red World. Lesser peoples have risen and fallen, leaving their own abandoned cities and degenerate remnants. These so-called dusk cities lie empty, or inhabited by small, cult-like populations who cling to the homes of ancestors they can no longer comprehend.
All of these lost places are tempting targets for graverobbers and treasure hunters, such as my master and I. We spent weeks in Chiaro-that-was, hunting for an untouched tomb, for a cache of relics no one had yet dared plunder. We carried blue flames to keep the tomb stalkers at bay… perhaps they worked.
Perhaps we would have found our treasure there. But one evening, as the blue star rose and we made camp, my master’s coughing was a little worse than it had been. His body seemed a little more bent than the day before, and it had seemed a little more bent the day before that. As the twilight dwindled, he told me stories about my father. I don’t know if they were true; I hope some of them were.
He talked, and he sang, a little feebly. Old soldiers’ songs, maybe learned on the steppe in his youth. He told me of the end of the world, of the days when the atmosphere processors would breathe their last, of desert winters that would last forever. He kept asking me to refill his cup; when there was no more liquor, I filled it with water. He didn’t seem to notice. And as the ice of night fell around us, my master died. His final words were simple, affectionate, and then he closed his eyes forever.
I packed up our camp. I could hear the tomb stalkers, and had no desire to take any chances. In the icy night, I began my walk back towards the blue lamps of Chiaro-that-is.
And so, in the lost place, I left the man who found me.Bernard Hopkins famously lost his first fight to Clinton Mitchell in Atlantic City before going on to have a sure-fire Hall of Fame career spanning nearly 30 years. If footage exist of that fight, its been lost to history (or at least I can’t find it). The earliest visuals I could find from Hopkins’ pro career was from his 5th pro fight (where he was introduced as Bernard “The Terror” Hopkins) in Rochester NY against Jouvin Mercado in May of 1990:
The all-black look is hard complain about. He sported the same look against Khalif Shabazz one month later, although he was introduced as “The Executioner” in this fight:
He added some pre-fight Executioner accoutrements for the first time in November of 1990 against Mike Sapp:
He added HOPKINS in gold along with some gold trim along the front things for his January 1992 fight against Dennis Milton in Philadelphia:
He repeated this several times (including a slightly longer version against Gilbert Baptist) before changing the waistband to a thin script lettering, along with red Grant gloves, for his first world championship fight, a loss to Roy Jones Jr at RFK Stadium in Washington DC:
He maintained this look until his May 1994 fight against Lupe Aquino in Atlantic City, where he flipped his color scheme, and used non-red gloves for the first time:
He went back to black trunks with yellow/gold trim and added some fringe for his next fight, and second world title shot - in Quito Ecuador against Segundo Mercado. He also had “EX” on his waistband for the first time.
The fight ended in a disappointing draw, and they rematched immediately in Landover Maryland in April of 1995. Hopkins wore nearly the same trunks and won in a TKO.
Hopkins decided that he needed more fringe against Joe Lipsey in Las Vegas in March 1996:
Hopkins stopped John David Jackson in Shreveport, Louisiana in April 1997. He had Grant trunks (same black and yellow/gold color scheme) with Executioner diagonally across the front:
He flipped his scheme again - opting for yellow with black trim against Glen Johnson in his next fight:
Against Simon Brown in January 1998, he introduced a similar template to his John David Jackson fight (except opted for yellow as the primary color):
After he and Robert Allen had a no-contest (Hopkins fell out of the ring when Mills Lane broke up a clinch, a very Hopkins thing to do), Bernard showed up for the February 1999 rematch in a very different look. It signified the end of the first portion of Hopkins career.Constantine‘s season finale was fairly indicative of the series as a whole so far: very, very procedural.
Watching the episode, I had a distinct advantage that the writers and producers did not when making this episode: actually knowing this was a finale. Having not gotten the “back nine” (warning: TV Tropes) ordered, this initial season is composed of one-off episodes with a few drips and drops here and there of an overarching story without really being able to flesh said story out. If the goal (or, perhaps, network mandate) is for a more procedural show, the series’ foundation is already on shaky ground, as genre shows work best when serialized, with a few exceptions here and there.
So, to look at this episode, are we looking at it as an episode or as a finale? As an episode, it’s pretty run of the mill with one or two surprises (okay, two surprises). It does feature the return of Jim Corrigan, who, as a huge fan of his more famous alter ego, I have to remind myself each time he’s on that this isn’t his show, it’s John’s show. And Matt Ryan is doing a great job of portraying Constantine, but he’s sorely lacking for other, more colorful characters. Chas is a fascinating character, but is more often used as cannon fodder, and as we just recently learned, that talent has a finite amount of uses. Zed is never given much more direction than f |
as of the Mahabharata belonged to these Megalithic immigrants. Their appellation Paṇḍava is related to that of the early Paṇḍya kings of Tamil Nadu, and to Paṇḍu-Vasudeva among the early rulers of Sri Lanka.
Debashish Banerji: While the original hypothesis for the demise of the Indus Civilisation was the Aryan Invasion (later replaced by Aryan Migration) many scholars today think of this disappearance as caused by climatic reasons having to do with flooding or drying up of water sources. What is your view on this?
Dr Parpola: It seems likely that climatic changes were the main reason for the disappearance of the Indus Civilisation, but it is very probable that this "systems collapse" had multiple causes.
Vikram Zutshi: What do the numerous seals found in the Indus valley tell us about this fascinating culture?
Dr Parpola: For their inscriptions see my reply to your question three above. The iconographic motifs on the seals include superb creations of miniature art. Constituting one of the most important sources of Harappan religion, they witness the Indus origin of some fundamental constituents of South Asian folk religion, the worship of sacred trees, particularly fig trees, and of sacred animals.
Debashish Banerji: Some scholars have seen the roots of yoga and puja in some of the Indus Valley seals. Do you have any insights on this? On another issue, Mahadevan has posited that the objects in front of the “unicorn” in the unicorn seals is a Soma filter. How do you relate to this seal?Hosting a protest outside your member of Congress' office is the most important thing you can do for net neutrality right now. The Senate will soon vote on the Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to save net neutrality and we need to do everything we can to secure the support of at least 51 senators before the vote.
There's vast public support for net neutrality rules— but we need to make sure that EVERY Senator and Representative is hearing about this from their constituents. Congress needs to hear from us before they vote on the CRA resolution in mid-May, which is why we’re protesting on the 14th.
We need your help to save the future of the internet— sign up now!
After you sign-up, you’ll receive a Team Internet protest guide, access to set-up your event, and an invitation to join an optional training call with staff and other volunteers to help you prepare. We’ll even recruit others from your community to join you! Don’t worry if you’ve never done this before—we’ll support you and give you everything you need to plan a successful net neutrality protest.
***Please be sure to enter your phone number in its proper format—we want to be able to contact you and get you all the support that you need!***
Team Internet is a decentralized group of volunteers working together on our shared goal of maintaining net neutrality and is associated with battleforthenet.comPaul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The cousin of alleged 9/11 hijacker Ziad al-Jarrah has been exposed as a long standing Israeli spy in yet another startling intelligence connection between the Zionist state and the attacks on New York and Washington.
A New York Times report details how Ali al-Jarrah was a highly valued spy for Israel for no less than 25 years, sending reports and taking clandestine photographs of Palestinian groups and Hezbollah since 1983.
According to the article, “From his home in this Bekaa Valley village, Mr. Jarrah, 50, traveled often to Syria and to south Lebanon, where he photographed roads and convoys that might have been used to transport weapons to Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group, investigators say. He spoke with his handlers by satellite phone, receiving “dead drops” of money, cameras and listening devices. Occasionally, on the pretext of a business trip, he traveled to Belgium and Italy, received an Israeli passport, and flew to Israel, where he was debriefed at length, investigators say.”
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
To emphasize how highly regarded he was by Israel, Israeli officials even assured Jarrah that his town would be spared at the outset of the 2006 Lebanon-Israel conflict and that it was safe for him to stay at home.
“I never suspected him before,” said Raja Mosleh, the Palestinian doctor who was his partner for years in a school and health clinic. “But now, after linking all the incidents together, I feel he’s 100 percent guilty.”
Despite living the life of an apparent downtrodden pauper and sympathizing with the plight of the Palestinians, Jarrah was actually in receipt of over $300,000 for his work from Israel.Jarrah’s brother Yusuf was also accused of being a spy by Lebanese officials and arrested with Jarrah last July.
Ali al-Jarrah
Which other members of the Jarrah family were working for Israel as intelligence assets? Surely not Ziad al-Jarrah, one of the infamous “laughing hijackers” and the alleged pilot of Flight 93?
Al-Jarrah’s paper passport was one of those that miraculously survived to be legible, apparently avoiding being consumed by fires that were so intense that it took over 6 months just to identify the actual victims of Flight 93.
Israeli intelligence connections to 9/11 can be traced back to the five “dancing Israelis” who were witnessed setting up video camera equipment pointed at the World Trade Center in New York before the first plane hit the tower. The men were seen jumping and high-fiving with shouts of “joy and mockery” as Flight 11 and Flight 175 slammed into the buildings. They were later seen posing for photographs in front of the debris.
After the men were arrested, the FBI discovered maps of New York City with certain places highlighted, box cutters (the same items that the hijackers supposedly used), $4700 cash stuffed in a sock, and foreign passports.
There were also Israeli news reports that the men were driving a white van packed with explosives that were intended to be detonated on the George Washington bridge.
The men were found to have been working for a removal company called Urban Moving Systems, the owner of which immediately fled the U.S. for Israel after the attacks and was subsequently placed on an FBI terror suspect list.
As the What Really Happened website notes, “The Jewish weekly The Forward reported that the FBI finally concluded that at least two of the detained Israelis were agents working for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, and that Urban Moving Systems, the ostensible employer of the five Israelis, was a front operation. This was confirmed by two former CIA officers, and they noted that movers’ vans are a common intelligence cover. The Israelis were held in custody for 71 days before being quietly released.”
Ziad al-Jarrah infamously appeared in the “laughing hijackers” video with alleged lead hijacker Mohammed Atta, which was released by Pentagon front group IntelCenter in October 2006. The tape showed Atta and Jarrah allegedly attending a 2000 Al-Qaeda meeting and reading their last will and testament.
Segments of the video that were interspersed with footage of the “laughing hijackers,” Jarrah and Atta, showing Bin Laden giving a speech to an audience in Afghanistan on January 8 2000, were culled from what terror experts described as surveillance footage taken by a “security agency.”
News reports at the time contained the admission that the U.S. government had been in possession of the footage since 2002, while others said it was found when the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001, and yet it was still bizarrely reported that the tape, bearing all the hallmarks of having been filmed and edited by undercover US intelligence and having admittedly been in US possession for five years, was released over the weekend of September 31/October 1 by “Al-Qaeda”.
The video also contained segments that were first broadcast in a British documentary called The Road to Guantanamo, which was originally aired in March 2006. The context of the corresponding scene in the dramatized documentary featured U.S. interrogators attempting to coerce Gitmo detainees into confessing Al-Qaeda membership by showing them fake videos where their likeness had been computer generated to appear as if they were in attendance during Bin Laden’s January 8 2000 speech.
Ziad al-Jarrah was questioned by UAE authorities at the request of the CIA in January 2001, eight months before 9/11, about his alleged terrorist activities, but was subsequently released.Image copyright NK News Image caption A group of "young pioneers" on the way home on the Pyongyang metro
While global headlines are dominated by Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un threatening mutual destruction, daily life in North Korea is continuing almost as normal.
Photos taken in September during a visit by a team from NK News show people going about their lives. Only here and there do the effects of sanctions or the anti-US propaganda sneak into the frame.
These North Koreans are having a picnic near the Ullim waterfall near the port city of Wonsan. With food, beer and karaoke, there's nothing to suggest tensions are having any impact on the mood.
Image copyright NK News
These students at a children's camp are sporting bright tracksuits - which if you look closer, all bear the logos of Western brands like Nike or Adidas. Presumably they are copies and the children are most likely not aware of any Western brand image behind them.
Image copyright NK News
This big passenger ferry used to connect Wonsan with the Japanese port of Niigata. Yet due to sanctions imposed in 2006, the ferry service got shut down. That means the vessel has for years been moored in Wonsan, but remarkably still has a crew.
Image copyright NK News
Clams are a very popular treat especially in the country's coastal cities. Most of them are normally destined for export and not for the local population. Since the latest round of UN sanctions in early August banned all exports of seafood, they might now be more available again on the local market.
Image copyright NK News
For a long time, electric bikes imported from Japan or China were only to be found in the capital. But increasingly, they can be spotted also in smaller cities, possibly suggesting that economic development outside Pyongyang is slowly picking up.
Image copyright NK News
But transport often remains extremely basic. Many cities have countless bicycles and here, a man is using an ox-pulled wagon to transport piles of old cardboard for recycling in the city of Hamhung.
Image copyright NK News
The woman in the centre in the next picture has a plastic bag from Japanese-Chinese budget brand Miniso. According to North Korea watchers NK News who provided the photos, Miniso opened the first ever foreign brand store in the capital this spring. Because of tougher sanctions though, the store has since changed its name.
Image copyright NK News
While life largely appears to be continuing as normal, there are signs that the long period of sanctions is taking a toll. Some petrol stations are closed and power shortages have led to people installing small solar panels outside their apartment windows - as can be seen on this apartment tower near the southern border city of Kaesong.
Image copyright NK News
Despite the economic difficulties, the propaganda machine continues to roll. Each year, the Day of the Foundation is celebrated with a mass dance in the capital. This young woman is getting ready for the performance.
Image copyright NK News
The perceived threat from the outside is always present. There are anti-American banners with patriotic slogans, and government guides take visitors to the so-called Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum. Despite the tensions, there are enough smiles to go around.
Image copyright Alamy
North Korea insists it remains ready for war at any time. Below, one of many tank traps stands on the side of a highway. The concrete structure has explosives at the bottom which in case of an invasion will make the huge structure collapse onto the road to block enemy tanks. In the days of intercontinental missiles and nuclear tests, these traps seem archaic yet serve as a reminder of the possibility of war.
Image copyright NK News
All the images are from NK News, a specialist publication on North Korea. During any trip to the isolated country, pictures can only be taken with the approval of government guides who are always present.New data in a study to be released next week on California's death penalty has revealed that the price tag for death is even higher than we thought: $4 billion since 1978. Put another way, we spend $184 million more per year for death penalty inmates than we do on those sentenced to life without the chance of parole. All told, California is on track to spend $1 billion on the death penalty over the next five years.
The new estimate is the result of a three-year comprehensive examination of state, federal, and local expenditures on California's death penalty by Arthur Alarcón, a federal judge on the 9th Circuit, and Paula Mitchell, a Loyola Law School professor. Mercury News called the study "highly credible" and that it made the case for replacing the death penalty "nearly indisputable." Not that anyone was disputing the wasteful spending before -- except for that guy who comments on all my blogs. By now, most folks get that the death penalty wastes hundreds of millions of our dwindling state dollars. Only now we know that it actually wastes billions.
$4 billion and what did that get us? A grand total of 13 executions. That's over $300 million per execution above the cost of life without parole.
Meanwhile, nearly half of all murders in California go unsolved. How many dangerous individuals could we have locked up permanently and taken off our streets over the last 33 years if we hadn't executed those 13 people? How many children and families could have accessed the education and health services they needed, or how many students could have had the opportunity to attend college?
Looking ahead, the study predicts another $9 billion will be spent by 2030. Unless of course Gov. Brown just cuts the death penalty spending already -- and it really is that easy.
The governor has the authority to convert all 714 of California's death sentences to life without the possibility of parole, saving California $1 billion over five years without releasing a single prisoner. Grassroots organizations and thousands of individuals around the state have been asking the governor to do just that since the day he took office, and these new figures are giving the idea more traction with those looking for budget fixes, like CNNMoney.
And here's the kicker: California voters agree. Polls as recent as April 2011 show that Californians support cutting the death penalty [PDF]. A full 63% of likely voters favor the governor converting all existing death sentences to life without parole, with the requirement that prisoners work and pay restitution into the Victims' Compensation Fund (death row inmates are not currently required to work). That support spans party and geographic lines -- majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all across the state agree. It's hard not to when there's four billion reasons.A U.S. Army veteran in Fort Wayne, Indiana, hung a life-sized effigy of President Donald Trump from a noose in the man’s front-yard tree shortly after Trump’s inauguration, and cops say they can do nothing about the display that’s raising concern among his neighbors.
The Trump doll is holding the flag of the former Soviet Union.
The home also displays several banners, including one that reads, “Trump is a disgrace to America & makes me ashamed I ever served,” according to a report by Fort Wayne’s WANE-TV 15.
WND contacted the Secret Service to inquire about whether the agency had opened an investigation into the incident.
“We wouldn’t actually comment on whether or not we’re investigating. That would involve some protective intelligence matters,” a spokesman told WND.
As for Secret Service investigations of effigies of U.S. presidents, the spokesman explained, “It depends on how it’s reported, who reports it. Sometimes local law enforcement shows up and gives us a call. It’s just hard to say in general how things like that are conducted. We are typically notified. From that point on, we don’t really get into or discuss our investigative techniques or anything that involves protective intelligence matters.”
According to WANE-TV 15, local authorities say there’s nothing police can do because the homeowner’s display is protected by the man’s right to free speech.
The station said the homeowner refused to speak to reporters.
Neighbor Jared Paden said, “It was kind of shocking. Honestly, I don’t necessarily like it. I’m not really excited about it being in my neighborhood.”
Paden continued: “I don’t think it’s respectful to Trump and a lot of people that voted for him to be president. I don’t think they should do it, but it’s their right. They have the right of free speech. So I’m not going to say they have to take it down, but I wish they would.”
Neighborhood President Tom Tiernon told WAYNE-TV 15 in a statement: “We’re all for free speech, but we are concerned that a line has been crossed and what to do about it next.”
The neighborhood association is reportedly exploring possible actions it may take to have the Trump effigy removed.
Watch the report:
Just last week, a political science teacher in Crestview Hills, Kentucky, hung an effigy of Trump from his home alongside several upside-down U.S. flags. A large banner read: “‘Just Grab ‘Em By The Pu–y’ Your President.”
The Secret Service investigated an incident in 2010 when an effigy of President Obama was found hanging above a billboard in Plains, Georgia.
And the Secret Service also paid a visit in 2012 to a California man who hung an Obama effigy from a tree as a Halloween decoration.
The man quickly expressed regret and removed the display.
“I started thinking how bad it looked, and I took it down immediately,” Eddie Million of Moreno Valley told reporters. “If I had to do it all over again, I absolutely wouldn’t have done it. It was not meant to offend anybody. It was just supposed to be a decoration.”
Another man in Aspen, Colorado, got a visit from the Secret Service when he displayed a yard sign that read, “Kill Obama.”
Also in 2014, the agency investigated when an Obama face mask was found hanging from an overpass in Grain Valley, Missouri.
At the time, University of Missouri-Kansas City political science professor Max Skidmore told Kansas City’s WDAF-TV 4: “You’re never going to eliminate hate and you don’t want to eliminate political dissent, ’cause that’s part of the system. Condemning the president, condemning the government is a long and honorable tradition, but threatening is another issue.”This step will only cover the construction of the fret board itself, and the inlays. I'll explain putting the frets in in a later one.
Before starting my fret board, I bought some Fender standard fret wire, 24 pre-cut frets cost me the equivalent of about US$10 or so. I would have preferred a cheaper roll of wire, but had nowhere near me to buy it in that form.
I started with a thin pine offcut about 60mm long, 7mm thick and 45 mm wide. I recommend using wood wider than this, though, as it eliminates the need for binding or in my case, wooden "wings" to make it wider.
I used wood planes on the sides of my fret board to taper it slightly towards one end, so that my 'wings' would go all the way to the end, then 220 grit to 800 grit sandpaper for a few hours, to give the top surface of the wood a radius. If you're luckier than me and do not have to make additions to your initial piece of wood, you will still need to taper it to fit flush with the neck. If you're not sure what the radius should look like, look for guitar fret board radius cross-sections online. They vary from instrument to instrument, so choose a radius that you think will suit your style of playing. There should be no bumps or dips in the surface when you look along the top and hold it as shown in pictures 3,4 and 5. The wood is shiny in these pictures purely from the fine sandpaper, there is no oil or varnish on it.
I then cut it to the correct length, in my guitar's case that was 508mm.
Next up, I used two pieces of wood, about 8x8mm square in cross section and 700mm long. I cut them to the same length as the main part of the fret board and used wood planes and sandpaper to taper them at one end, so that they would fit approximately flush with the edges of the neck. I then glued and clamped these wood strips to the sides of the main part of the fret board, using four clamps and a couple rubber bands. Once this glue was dry (about 8 hours later) I added another part, cut from the same pieces of wood, shown in the picture directly after the one showing the clamping, at the wider part of the fret board. The ends of this piece were then sanded down to be flush with the outside wood strips. I didn't worry about clamping it, but I did leave it for a few hours to dry properly before proceeding.
I sanded and planed the strips to all be flush on the surface and underside with the wood, and ensured that the radius remained uniform on both the main piece of wood and the outside strips.
Then, I added some paint. I masked off the main piece of wood, and painted the three parts I had added. I took the masking tape off while the paint was wet, otherwise it would have likely been messed up when I peeled the tape off. I painted over the paint with another layer, just to cover up any patches where it was too thin.
Once the paint was dry, I made cuts in the wood in which to insert my fret marker "inlays". I didn't have any materials suitable for making convincing inlays of a colour I liked, so I cut shapes out of the fret board about 1-2mm deep and filled them with red paint. Before I could do this, I had to know where the markers needed to be. I calculated where my frets would be using this online fret calculator: https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator
My scale length was not absolutely certain at this point, but as long as you are within 3mm above or below the final position, your markers won't look very out of place. The frets need to be absolutely precise later on, but the markers don't have to be perfect for the guitar to function. I marked only very lightly in pencil where the frets would be and used a plastic stencil I made to assist in making all the markers the same. I centered the stencil for each fret that needed a marker and made a cut for the outline of the shape, then I removed the stencil, cut the outlines a bit deeper, then chiseled the diamond shapes out using the same craft knife.
Look up standard fret marker locations if you're not sure where the markers should be.
I then filled these shapes with paint, but to ensure that the paint dried faster and evenly through each marker, I painted in layers and only once each layer was dry, I would paint the next one over it. Try to keep your painting neat, but you can remove excess paint a little later.
Once all the cutouts have been filled with paint and are flush with the wood surface, Use fine sandpaper to remove the excess that is on top of the wood where it shouldn't be. The last few pictures show how I did this and how it worked out pretty well for me.
When I was happy with the surface of my fret board, I varnished it. I didn't use a paintbrush, I only wanted a very thin layer of varnish that would protect the wood by seeping into it very slightly, and not being thick enough to make it permanently glossy as this would interfere with playing and look awful after some time playing the guitar. I used 2 ply toilet paper (because it holds together well and doesn't leave dust) to apply some varnish to the fret board, then wiped it "off" again. It's impossible to really wipe varnish off, so all this does is removes most of the surface varnish and lets only a small amount stay behind, which will be flatter and more practical for this application. This must be done quickly though, to avoid any ugly smears or bubbles in the texture. Leave the fret board somewhere where it's unlikely to get dust, pollen or hair on it while it dries.
After a day or more, when the varnish is dry, inspect the fret board for any areas that may have defects, and try to fix those at this point. For example if there is a hair stuck in the surface, remove it and if a noticeable outline remains, use some varnish on your finger to lightly patch the area up and smooth it off, and wait again for that to dry. Patience is important with varnish, as I've learned the hard way more than once.
Once the fret board was complete, I marked on the body where I would need to cut out a place for the wide end of the fret board to fit. There is no picture of me making this cut, but you can see the difference in the next step's pictures.A South Chicago man was fatally shot and three other men were wounded in separate shootings since Saturday morning, police said.
Police responding to a call of shots fired Saturday morning found a 22-year-old man fatally shot in the South Chicago neighborhood, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The call to police came at 11:16 a.m., and when police arrived to the 8100 block of South Chappel Avenue, they found a man, identified as Savoy Young, unresponsive in an alley with multiple gunshot wounds to the body, according to police spokeswoman Ana Pacheco said and the medical examiner's office.
Young, of the 8200 block of South Luella Avenue, was pronounced dead at 11:38 a.m. at the scene, according to the medical examiner's office.
Detectives are investigating. No further information was immediately available.
In the latest incident, a 28-year-old man was in critical condition after being shot around 1:10 a.m. in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side, said Chicago Police spokesman Officer Amina Greer.
The man was walking out of a Road Ranger store in the 3400 block of South California Avenue when a white SUV pulled up and someone inside fired shots, police said.
The man was shot in the left thigh and was driven to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was listed in critical condition, police said.
No other information about the shooting was available.
Around 11:50 p.m., a 22-year-old man walked into Holy Cross Hospital after being shot in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood, Greer said.
The man told police he was walking in the 6000 block of South Maplewood Avenue when an attacker walked up to him and fired shots.
He was struck in the leg and managed to walk into Holy Cross Hospital where he was listed in good condition, police said.
Around 10:05 p.m., a 30-year-old man was shot during an attempted robbery in the South Austin neighborhood on the West Side, said Chicago Police spokesman Officer Hector Alfaro.
The man was sitting in a parked vehicle in the 700 block of North Central Avenue when an attacker approached him, announced a robbery and fired shots, Alfaro said.
The man was hit in the arm and was transported to Mount Sinai Hospital where his condition stabilized, Alfaro said.
No one was in custody as a result of the shooting as of Saturday evening.Photographers have captured a dramatic fight to the death between a snake and a crocodile at Lake Moondarra near Mount Isa in north west Queensland.
Ms Corlis says she was shocked when the snake began to eat the crocodile. "It was just unbelievable, we were sort of thinking the snake had bitten off a little more than it could chew, pardon the pun, but it did actually eat the crocodile." (Contributed: Tiffany Corlis)
Tiffany Corlis took several pictures on her smart phone. The pictures were quickly shared around the world. She says the crocodile put up a fight, but was no match for the snake. "(The crocodile) was fighting at the start, it was trying to keep its head out of water and survive. But as the morning progressed you could tell both of them were getting a little weaker as the struggle was going on, finally the croc sort of gave in." (Contributed : Tiffany Corlis)
Marvin Muller took dozens of shots showing intricate details of the animals' fight to the death. He has now sold his pictures to an agency, which has syndicated the images all over the world. "I was up until one o'clock in the morning uploading them because they wanted to put them in newspapers all over Europe and the US," he said. (Contributed: Marvin Muller)
Marvin Muller snapped this picture of the final moments of the epic wrestling match. The entire battle took about four hours and attracted the attention of several people with cameras at Lake Moondarra. "Pretty cool experience, not something you think you're going to see but I guess up in Mount Isa in the outback you see some pretty cool things," Mr Muller said. (Contributed : Marvin Muller)
Ms Corlis says the scuffle attracted a lot of attention, with several people taking pictures on their smart phones.
She says everyone got quite close to the action.
"We were probably a little too brave, a little too crazy," she said.
She says the sight became even more interesting once the snake had finished eating.
"You could see the crocodile in the snake's belly which I think was probably the more remarkable thing," she said.
"You could actually see its legs and see its scales and everything, it was just amazing."
Ms Corlis says the incident has not discouraged her from swimming at Lake Moondarra in the future.
"I think I'll just send someone else in first."Two Dunwoody students who recently returned from West Africa were blocked from enrolling in DeKalb schools this week as a precaution against the spread of Ebola.
DeKalb school officials said the father worked for CARE, a humanitarian organization, as a finance controller in the Liberia/Sierra Leone office. He returned to the United States on Sept. 14 with his family and tried to enroll the children Wednesday at Dunwoody Elementary and Dunwoody High.
According to school officials, the family had a letter from CARE saying more than 21 days had passed since their return from the United States, which is beyond the quarantine period for Ebola. But school officials turned the students away because the district requires confirmation from the CDC or local health department, not from an employer, said spokesman Quinn Hudson.
The district said the family understands and is cooperating.
The DeKalb County school district also announced Thursday new students from Ebola-affected West African countries would be limited from classes on school campuses.
New students from countries including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and other affected areas in Africa won’t be enrolled or allowed to attend classes “without proper medical documentation and approval by the superintendent,” according to a released statement from the school district.
Following DeKalb’s announcement, Cobb County school officials also said they planned to follow similar precautions.
“We’ve been in talks with the Department of Public Health for about a week now…on what we might need to do as a district” in response to the Ebola virus and keeping it out of schools, said Angela Huff, chief of staff for Cobb schools.
“Our protocol will be very similar” to DeKalb. Unlike DeKalb, Cobb has not had to turn away students, Huff said.
DeKalb’s superintendent is urging principals and administrators to be observant for anyone exhibiting a fever in the school and immediately ask if they have traveled to or come into contact with someone who has traveled to an Ebola-affected region.
If school officials encounter someone they believe exhibits symptoms, they are to immediately separate the person from contact with others and report it.Intel has announced the release of a new smartwatch slash bracelet thing-a-ma-jig aimed at "fashion forward women".
Mica, which stands for My Intelligent Communication Accessory, was unveiled at an event in New York last night.
The "feminine communications accessory" will go on sale in early December and offers access to text messages, Yelp, Gmail, Facebook events and Google Calendar. It features a touchscreen made of sapphire glass, which Apple is rumoured to be using in its own watch, if it ever gets released.
Yeah, you could get all of that on your phone, but Intel is hoping that women are eager to strap a rather flashy, blinged-up gizmo to their wrists instead of carrying around a mobe. It has worked with Opening Ceremony, a global retail chain, to design the gizmo.
So what do women want? According to Intel, they'd love a bracelet composed of semi-precious gems and snakeskin. Mica features "cutting-edge design" and comes in a number of styles, allowing customers to choose from "black water snake skin, pearls from China and lapis stones from Madagascar". If that sounds too normal, you can also opt for "white water snake skin, tiger's eye from South Africa and obsidian from Russia".
"Our pioneering collaboration with Opening Ceremony and the introduction of this category-defining smart jewellery piece advances wearable technology as a distinctively stylish accessory that places importance on both aesthetics and functionality," said Ayse Ildeniz, vice president and general manager for business development and strategy, New Devices Group at Intel Corporation.
"MICA captures Intel's philosophy that technology should enhance jewellery in order to make wearable technology truly 'wantable', in addition to seamless and productive."
It will first be sold by just a few retailers, including at the New York department store chain Barney's.
"Mobile technology really guides everything we do," said Daniella Vitale, Barney's chief operating officer. "The issue for many consumers on wearable technology lies in the fact that the devices typically are not attractive and are often times cumbersome.
"Intel had the prescience to create something functional but also beautiful and chic. We are excited to be the first on something that mirrors the Barneys strategy of a beautiful, exclusive and unique product."
The Mica will cost $495 and includes two years of wireless data from AT&T. It is available in the US only, charges using micro USB and has a battery life of up to two days. ®Not long after the rip-roaring Lotus Evora 400 reminded us just how good a Lotus can be, a new champ is at the top of the heap. Lotus today revealed the Evora Sport 410, a faster, lighter, and more powerful distillation of the Evora.
Combining the 410-hp supercharged V-6 engine from the track-carving Lotus 3-Eleven with 154 pounds of weight loss, the Lotus Evora Sport 410 sprints from 0-60 mph in just 3.9 seconds with a top speed of 186 mph. “The result is dynamically excellent and nothing short of superb,” said CEO Jean-Marc Gales in a statement.
Customers have the choice between a six-speed manual gearbox with a lightweight flywheel, or an available six-speed automatic gearbox paired with aluminum steering-wheel-mounted shifted paddles. And if the manual wasn’t already the no-brainer option, it’s the only way to get the 410’s Torsen limited-slip differential.
A standard carbon-fiber package helps cut down on mass, and includes a new carbon-fiber engine cover. It includes a louvered section consistent with the look of classic Lotus cars, and increases downforce by 15 percent without increasing drag. The weight-loss regime also includes a carbon-fiber roof panel, front access panel, and front splitter. Lightweight 10-spoke forged aluminum wheels wrapped in Michelin Sport Cup 2 tires complete the high-performance package.
Inside, the Lotus Evora Sport 410 adds standard carbon-fiber sport seats lined with Alcantara, which also lines the steering wheel and center console. (There is an optional leather seating package.) New one-piece door-trim panels are lighter than before, and the armrests and storage compartment have also been removed to keep weight down. You can even have the speakers removed if you order your Evora 410 without an infotainment system. This car is no pretender.
Because the weight reduction pushed the curb weight just under 3,000 pounds, Lotus was says it was able to adjust the Evora’s suspension for even greater agility. Revised damping, improved geometry, and a 0.2-inch lower ride height than the Evora 400 are said to yield better handling without compromising ride comfort. In Gales’ words, “The Evora chassis was already the best in the business – the Evora Sport 410 takes it to a whole new level.”
All of these improvements are visible in the Lotus Evora Sport 410’s performance around the historic Hethel test track. Thanks to its lower center of gravity and improved power-to-weight ratio, the Evora Sport 410 can make the rounds at Hethel three seconds faster than the Evora 400.
Total production is limited to 150 cars. While the Evora 400 represented a strong start for Lotus, a brand which has been looking to prove itself again after the disaster reign of former CEO Dany Bahar, the Lotus Evora Sport 410 might just be another return to form.Police in a Chicago suburb said they are investigating a hate crime attack that began as road rage. (Published Friday, Sept. 11, 2015)
Police in a Chicago suburb said they are investigating a hate crime attack that began as road rage.
Police didn’t detail specifics of the crime, but a Sikh organization said in a statement that Sikh American Inderjit Singh Mukker was assaulted by a suspect in Darien.
The Sikh Coalition said in the statement that a confrontation occurred when Mukker, a cab driver and father of two, turned onto Cass Avenue to go to a grocery store. A suspect pulled up along Mukker and yelled "terrorist," and "Bin Laden," the coalition said.
Mukker pulled over to let him pass, but the suspect also stopped, according to the coalition.
Mukker's car window was down when the suspect "began beating and punching him in the face ferociously," Sikh Coalition Legal Director Harsimran Kaur told NBC Chicago. "
"It's very frightening he had broken cheek bones," said Mukker's father, Sadhu Singh Rihiraj. "He couldn't see anything."
Kaur added that Mukker was likely targeted because he was wearing articles of his faith.
The victim was treated and released from Hinsdale hospital.
No charges have been filed in the attack, according to police, who added that the 17-year-old suspect is at a local hospital for an unknown reason.
Police also said they have spoken to the Sikh Coalition to assure them that they will deliver a thorough investigation.President Barack Obama convenes a meeting in the Situation Room |
superficial to one who has read a great deal on the subject. For example, Talbot speculates that Alger Hiss, a senior State Department official accused of spying for the Soviets, didn’t want to recognize Whittaker Chambers, the chief witness against him, because the two had perhaps engaged in a homosexual liaison.
While that may be true, I’ve always found Hiss’s own reasons compelling: Chambers had gone by another name when he had first known him; it had been many years since they had met; and Chambers’s weight had changed dramatically. That seems to better explain why Hiss claimed he didn’t know Chambers until he had a face-to-face meeting with him. Then, he recognized his long-ago tenant.
Talbot sprinkles a little sexual innuendo throughout the book. Personally, I find that takes away from the telling of history because anyone can say anything about someone else when the person is no longer alive to dispute it. In most cases, these suspicions are neither provable nor relevant. Fortunately, these are minimal interruptions to the overall tale.
Talbot makes a compelling argument that a lot of the abuses of the intelligence apparatus that we are dealing with now had their genesis under Allen Dulles’s version of the CIA. He traces the notion that the CIA is “above the law” and unanswerable to oversight to the McCarthy hearings, where Dulles earned the undying loyalty of the CIA by refusing to turn over Sen. Joe McCarthy’s targets for questioning.
McCarthy was clearly overreaching in his pursuit of suspected Communists and homosexuals as alleged national security threats but there should have been another way to deal with that than by claiming the CIA was above the law. That single act of defiance, perhaps more than anything else, paved the way to the egregious CIA abuses that have occurred in the years since, including the illegal wiretapping of elected officials, opening them up to blackmail.
In another part of the book, Talbot details the rise of Nixon under, in part, Dulles’s sponsorship. Most of us know that Nixon received illegal campaign donations when he was running for president. But Nixon also shook down those who wanted him to run for Congress, claiming he couldn’t afford to live on the salary of a Congressman and that he’d need supplementary income if he were to run. These are the kinds of juicy details Talbot’s book provides in spades.
As CIA Director
President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Dulles as the fifth CIA director and the first civilian director in 1953, but, as Talbot makes clear, Dulles overrode some of Eisenhower’s wishes by collaborating with his brother, John Foster Dulles, who was Secretary of State. By and large, Eisenhower was okay with letting the Dulles brothers run U.S. overt and covert foreign policy as they helped shape the worsening Cold War.
Their hard-line anti-communism and sympathy for colonialism included organizing coups in Iran in 1953 and in Guatemala in 1954 and blocking a political settlement of the Vietnam conflict that would have involved elections leading to the likely victory of Ho Chi Minh. (John Foster Dulles died in 1959. The international airport outside Washington D.C. is named in his honor.)
One chapter focuses on the killing of “dangerous ideas” in the form of a lecturer at Columbia University, Jesús GalÃndéz. He and compatriots had fought in the Spanish Civil War and fled to the Dominican Republic, only to find that they had “left Franco’s frying pan and landed in Trujillo’s fire.” GalÃndéz later escaped the Dominican Republic for America and wrote a damning 750-page essay called “The Era of Trujillo,” as his PhD thesis.
Talbot reveals the role of CIA operative Robert Maheu and ex-FBI agent John Frank in the kidnapping of GalÃndéz and his delivery to Trujillo, who tortured him, boiled him alive and fed him to the sharks. With the help of Dulles’s CIA, GalÃndéz died in 1956.
Talbot also argues that the CIA was “too modest” when it claimed it was not responsible for the death of Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba who was assassinated just days before John Kennedy was inaugurated in 1961. The CIA basically handed Lumumba over to the people who killed him, making the Agency, at the very least, strong accessories to the plot, and hardly the failed-plot-bystanders, the story that CIA officials sold to the Church Committee.
Though Eisenhower had given the Dulles brothers a long leash for their foreign policy schemes, President John F. Kennedy had different ideas. As president, he wanted to run his own foreign policy, and this deeply rankled Allen Dulles. However, in his first months in office, Kennedy acquiesced to the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. Furious that he let the CIA sell him on the scheme that was hatched under Eisenhower, Kennedy vowed to rein in the freewheeling CIA.
Dulles hadn’t had to answer to anyone for a long time. But his sloppy Bay of Pigs operation cost him all credibility with Kennedy, who took the high road publicly, refusing to blame the CIA outright. But in private, he made it clear the Agency was not to be trusted and that he wanted to shatter it into a million pieces. The enmity between the pair grew.
Allen Dulles also defied Kennedy’s wishes when the President promoted an opening to the Left in Italy. Under Dulles, the CIA continued working against those same forces while supporting the Right as the spy agency and its predecessor, the OSS, had done since World War II.
Attorney General Robert Kennedy was so suspicious of Dulles’s secret reach that after the Bay of Pigs fiasco he found Dulles’s sister working in the State Department and had her fired. President Kennedy ousted Dulles in November 1961, replacing him with John McCone.
But Dulles did not go quietly into the cold night, as Talbot tells it, but ran, essentially, a government in exile from his home on the Potomac. Talbot details some of the comings and goings and how Dulles may have used his own book tour to help plan and plot the assassination of President Kennedy.
The JFK Assassination
Toward the end of the book, Talbot focuses nearly as much on President Kennedy and the plot to assassinate him as he does on Allen Dulles, with mixed results. While Talbot has the facts right in the broad strokes, if not all the small details, his focus was, in my opinion, a tad misplaced in spots. For example, he appears to believe E. Howard Hunt’s deathbed “confession,” which many in the research community do not.
Hunt, a career intelligence officer who became infamous as a leader of Nixon’s Watergate burglary team, implicated President Lyndon B. Johnson in the plot to kill Kennedy, which has never made sense to me. If LBJ was so ruthless that he killed his way to the presidency, why did he decide not to run again in 1968? Historically, when people have killed their way to the throne, they do not voluntarily abdicate it.
And Hunt’s “confession” seemed motivated more by the goal of leaving his family a little money after his death than by a desire to tell the truth. Indeed, even Talbot is puzzled at things Hunt appears not to know that he would necessarily have known had he been privy to the inner workings of the plot.
Clearly, Talbot focuses on Hunt because of Hunt’s well-documented long-term friendship with Dulles. And, I do believe, from my own research, that Hunt was likely in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, presumably as paymaster, his usual role in operations, based in large part on the fuller evidence from which Talbot created his abbreviated summary on that point. But I’m not persuaded, by this presentation or my other research, that Hunt knew the details of the actual plot.
From my own 25-plus years of research into the documentary record of the Kennedy assassination, I have come to believe it more likely that Richard Helms, James Angleton and David Atlee Phillips were the top plotters, not Dulles. But, to Talbot’s point, all of these men were beholden, at different levels, to Dulles; in fact, Angleton carried Dulles’s ashes at his funeral in 1969.
David Atlee Phillips gained power in the CIA because of his successful operations during the 1954 overthrow of Arbenz in Guatemala under Dulles. Helms was apparently insulated from the Bay of Pigs disaster in April 1961, perhaps by Dulles to keep a loyal person at the upper echelon of the CIA.
Given the hostility between Dulles and Kennedy, it remains a historical anomaly that Dulles managed to finagle his way onto the official investigation of Kennedy’s assassination. In that position, Allen Dulles was more responsible than anyone for the deliberate obfuscations of the Warren Commission. Dulles spent more minutes working for the commission than any other member. I agree with Talbot that the body should more appropriately have been named “the Dulles Commission.”
Talbot repudiated the recently resurfaced canard that Robert Kennedy had asked LBJ to appoint Dulles to the commission, a point lawyer and former House Select Committee investigator Dan Hardway has also recently made in detail recently with additional evidence. (See Section VIII in Hardway’s article “ Thank you, Phil Shenon.”)
Dulles really did have ties to the family of Ruth and Michael Paine, the couple that housed the Oswalds in the months before the assassination. And Dulles really did monitor New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s case against Clay Shaw through the man Garrison had hired to provide “security,” Gordon Novel.
One of the most interesting people Talbot examined in the latter part of his book was JFK adviser and historian Arthur Schlesinger, who apparently had a distaste for Dulles and the CIA’s actions professionally while maintaining a personal and even warm relationship with Dulles though Schlesinger came to question that friendship in later years.
One of Talbot’s chapters, “I can’t look and I won’t look,” is named for something Schlesinger said when confronted with evidence of conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination. Here was a man so wedded to his circle that he did not want to believe someone he knew and admired could be responsible for such a heinous crime.
Toward the end of his life, Schlesinger reflected on his “truce” and friendship with Dulles’s protégé Richard Helms and later CIA Director William Casey. Talbot quoted Schlesinger as saying, “I did wonder at one’s [meaning his own] capacity to continue liking people who have been involved in wicked things. Is this deplorable weakness? Or commendable tolerance?”
The same must be asked of the public’s tolerance of secret operations that run counter to the principles of democracy in an open society. Is it commendable to tolerate assassinations and the darker deeds in the name of preserving the republic, or, more accurately, protecting the holdings of corporate leaders in the republic, or is it our weakness, as citizens of a democratic republic, that we have not raised our voices in protest of a secret, parallel government that has and no doubt will continue to pursue an independent path, out of control of our democracy?
That is the question that Talbot’s book asks between the lines. The Devil’s Chessboard gives us essential information to ponder before we make our answer.
Lisa Pease is a writer who has examined issues ranging from the Kennedy assassination to voting irregularities in recent U.S. elections.The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a British environmental advocacy group that focuses on business sustainability, said Wednesday that 343 companies listed on the S&P 500 participated in its carbon survey this year, adding that their results show a “tipping point” has been reached when it comes to corporate acceptance of climate change.
The group’s annual S&P 500 Climate Change Report (PDF) found that 92 percent of the participating companies conducted “board or executive-level oversight” on climate change strategies, and that 83 percent incorporated climate strategies into risk management portfolios. Both of those numbers are up over 2011’s report.
In all, 81 percent of the companies identified physical risks due to climate change, and 74 percent “identified climate change opportunities” that simultaneously boost efficiency and profits. In one of the biggest shifts the CDP noticed, 52 percent of the survey’s respondents actually reported making emissions reductions, up by 23 percent over last year’s survey.
Some of the largest companies CDP cites for not responding include Apple, Amazon.com, Tyco International, Caterpillar, Metro PCS, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Priceline.com, General Dynamics, Tyson Foods, Sysco, Marathon Petroleum and Berkshire Hathaway.
The CDP’s 2012 report also gave special recognition to companies that disclosed the most information about their emissions and took the largest steps toward better environmental stewardship. Their list of “disclosure and performance leaders” includes Microsoft, Google, Sprint, AT&T, Home Depot, News Corp., Best Buy, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, ConAgra Foods, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Johnson & Johnson, UPS and Lockheed Martin, among others.
“The best interests of investors are catalyzing US companies to improve the management of environmental risk, which is vital if we are to forge a more sustainable economy,” CDP chairman Paul Dickinson said in a media advisory. “This report shows us that the powerful American corporation is responding to a growing market demand and increasingly understands that transparency and action on climate change is a business imperative. Failure to act could result in a competitive disadvantage.”
The CDP’s 2012 results seem to largely reflect attitudes among nearly half of the world’s business investors, if a recent Bloomberg poll is to be believed. That survey found about 49 percent of investors agreed that moving to limit the pollution that drives climate change will have “not much impact” on profits. A full 78 percent also said they believe climate change is a moderate or severe threat. Just 19 percent said they didn’t think climate change posed a threat at all.
Among the general public, concern about the threats posed by climate change has been waning even though almost 70 percent of Americans accept that climate change happening — a number that’s risen dramatically of late due to recent increased awareness of extreme weather events like hurricanes and droughts.
——
Photo: Shutterstock.com, all rights reserved.We’re asking divers and boaters to report any damage they observe to the coral reef ecosystem offshore of Delray Beach and Boynton.
March 2, 2013, the Texas, the largest dredge in the US, moved into position to begin the massive Delray beach renourishment project. The project which runs roughly from Linton Blvd. north to Atlantic Ave., will add 1.2 million cubic yards of sand to 1.9 miles of beach. The project is expected to take 30 to 45 days for completion.
March 1, was the beginning of sea turtle nesting season, but the contractor was granted an extension to allow dredging to continue during the nesting season. The contractor was also granted a variance from the State to extend the turbidity silt plume to 1000 meters (3280 ft.) from the beach discharge point, because they argued they could not comply with the standard 150 (492 ft.) meter zone due to extremely high pumping rates and silt content in the offshore dredge borrow area.
This is the first beach renourishment project since this area was designated by the federal government as habitat critical to the survival of staghorn coral, which was added to the Endangered Species list in 2008. Oddly the permit issued for this project makes no mention of staghorn coral, but does address sea turtles and manatees as ESA listed species that occur within the project area. There is abundant growth of staghorn coral on Seagate Reef, less than 500 ft. from the offshore sand dredging location.
Silt accumulation on the reef can severely affect the survival of the resident staghorn coral. We are asking local divers and boaters to keep a close eye on this area and report any abnormalities to Reef Rescue.
To add insult to injury the Boynton Beach Inlet dredge project is starting the same time as Delray. This project last performed in 2008, had numerous permit violations documented by Reef Rescue that resulted in enforcement action being taken. These two projects encompass over 7 miles of coastline. That’s a lot to monitor. And that’s why we are asking for your help. Report your observations by calling (561) 699-8559. If you get an answering machine, leave a message, we are in the water and will get back to you ASAP. Your information is invaluable.
26.509905 -80.002441
AdvertisementsMany web applications allow users to store images for later. For example, you may want to allow users to upload a profile picture that gets displayed later on in the application. This post demonstrates how to upload an image to a web application and store the image in a database. Then we will see how to display that image in a browser.
PersistedImage
The key to storing an image in a database is to use @Lob annotation in JPA and make the datatype as a byte array. Here is an example class that stores byte array in the database.
@Entity data class PersistedImage(@field: Id @field: GeneratedValue var id : Long = 0, //The bytes field needs to be marked as @Lob for Large Object Binary @field: Lob var bytes : ByteArray? = null, var mime : String = ""){ fun toStreamingURI() : String { //We need to encode the byte array into a base64 String for the browser val base64 = DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary(bytes) //Now just return a data string. The Browser will know what to do with it return "data:$mime;base64,$base64" }
Kotlin has a ByteArray class. In Java you would use byte []. The effect is the same either way. When persistence provider scans this class, it will store the byte array as a Lob in the database. Nevertheless it’s not enough to simply store an image in the database. At some point in time, the user will most likely wish to see the image. That’s there the toStreamingURI() method comes in handy.
The first line uses DatatypeConverter to convert the byte array to a base64 string. Then we can append that string to “data:[mime];base64,[base 64]”. In our example, we use Kotlin’s String template feature to build such a String. We start with the data: followed by the mime (such as /img/png). Then we can add the base64 string created by DatatypeConverter. This string can get added to the src attribute of the html img tag as shown in the screen shot below.
The browser knows how to display this string as an image.
File Uploads
It’s worth while to discuss how files are upload in Spring. Spring has a MultipartFile class that can get mapped to the a file upload input tag in the form. Here is how it looks in the HTML code.
There are a couple of things that are critical for this to work. First, we have to set our applications.properties file to allow large file uploads.
spring.http.multipart.max-file-size=25MB spring.http.multipart.max-request-size=25MB
Next our form tag has to set the enctype attribute to “multipart/form-data”. Finally we have to keep track of the name attribute on our input tag so that we can map it to the server code. In our example, our input tag has it’s name attribute set to “image”.
On the server end, we use this code get an instance of MultipartFile.
@RequestMapping(method = arrayOf(RequestMethod.POST)) fun doPost( //Grab the uploaded image from the form @RequestPart("image") multiPartFile : MultipartFile, model : Model) : String { //Save the image file imageService.save(multiPartFile.toPersistedImage()) model.addAttribute("images", imageService.loadAll()) return "index" }
We annotate the multipartFile parameter with @RequestPart and pass to the annotation the same name attribute that we set on our input tag. At this point, the container will inject an instance of MultipartFile that represents the file that the user uploaded to the server. The MultipartFile class has two attributes that are critical to our purposes. First it has a byte array property that represents the bytes of the uploaded file and it has the file’s MIME.
We can use Kotlin’s extension functions to add a toPersistedImage() method on MutlipartFile.
fun MultipartFile.toPersistedImage() = PersistedImage(bytes = this.bytes, mime = this.contentType)
This method simply returns an instance of PersisitedImage that can get stored in the database. At this point, we can easily store and retrieve the image from the database.
Application
The demonstration application is a regular Spring MVC application written in Kotlin. You can refer to this post on an explanation on how this works. Here is the Kotlin code followed by the HTML code.
Kotlin Code
package com.stonesoupprogramming.streamimage import org.hibernate.SessionFactory import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller import org.springframework.stereotype.Repository import org.springframework.stereotype.Service import org.springframework.ui.Model import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestPart import org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartFile import javax.persistence.* import javax.transaction.Transactional import javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter @SpringBootApplication class StreamImageDbApplication fun main(args: Array) { SpringApplication.run(StreamImageDbApplication::class.java, *args) } @Entity data class PersistedImage(@field: Id @field: GeneratedValue var id : Long = 0, //The bytes field needs to be marked as @Lob for Large Object Binary @field: Lob var bytes : ByteArray? = null, var mime : String = ""){ fun toStreamingURI() : String { //We need to encode the byte array into a base64 String for the browser val base64 = DatatypeConverter.printBase64Binary(bytes) //Now just return a data string. The Browser will know what to do with it return "data:$mime;base64,$base64" } } //This is a Kotlin extension function that turns a MultipartFile into a PersistedImage fun MultipartFile.toPersistedImage() = PersistedImage(bytes = this.bytes, mime = this.contentType) @Configuration class DataConfig { @Bean fun sessionFactory(@Autowired entityManagerFactory: EntityManagerFactory) : SessionFactory = entityManagerFactory.unwrap(SessionFactory::class.java) } @Repository class ImageRepository(@Autowired private val sessionFactory: SessionFactory){ fun save(persistedImage: PersistedImage) { sessionFactory.currentSession.saveOrUpdate(persistedImage) } fun loadAll() = sessionFactory.currentSession.createCriteria(PersistedImage::class.java).list() as List } @Transactional @Service class ImageService(@Autowired private val imageRepository: ImageRepository){ fun save(persistedImage: PersistedImage) { imageRepository.save(persistedImage) } fun loadAll() = imageRepository.loadAll() } @Controller @RequestMapping("/") class IndexController(@Autowired private val imageService: ImageService){ @RequestMapping(method = arrayOf(RequestMethod.GET)) fun doGet(model : Model) : String { model.addAttribute("images", imageService.loadAll()) return "index" } @RequestMapping(method = arrayOf(RequestMethod.POST)) fun doPost( //Grab the uploaded image from the form @RequestPart("image") multiPartFile : MultipartFile, model : Model) : String { //Save the image file imageService.save(multiPartFile.toPersistedImage()) model.addAttribute("images", imageService.loadAll()) return "index" } }
application.properties
spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create-drop spring.jpa.properties.hibernate.current_session_context_class=org.springframework.orm.hibernate5.SpringSessionContext spring.datasource.driver-class-name=org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver spring.http.multipart.max-file-size=25MB spring.http.multipart.max-request-size=25MB
index.html
Conclusion
Spring and Kotlin make it easy to embed images in a database and display those images in a browser. The main take away is to define a byte array property as a Lob on persisted image and then convert it to a base64 String when you wish to display it. Here are some screen shots of the working application.
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You can get the source code for this project at my GitHub here or watch the video tutorial on YouTubeby
Nazareth.
For more than 15 years, the Middle East “peace process” initiated by the Oslo accords has been on life support. Last week, United States president Donald Trump pulled the plug, whether he understood it or not.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu could barely stifle a smile as Trump demoted the two-state solution from holy grail. Instead, he said of resolving the conflict: “I am looking at two states or one state … I can live with either one.”
Given the huge asymmetry of power, Israel now has a free hand to entrench its existing apartheid version of the one-state solution – Greater Israel – on the Palestinians. This is the destination to which Netanyahu has been steering the Israel-Palestine conflict his entire career.
It emerged this week that at a secret summit in Aqaba last year – attended by Egypt and Jordan, and overseen by US secretary of state John Kerry – Netanyahu was offered a regional peace deal that included almost everything he had demanded of the Palestinians. And still he said no.
Much earlier, in 2001, Netanyahu was secretly filmed boasting to settlers of how he had foiled the Oslo process a short time earlier by failing to carry out promised withdrawals from Palestinian territory. He shrugged off the US role as something that could be “easily moved to the right direction”.
Now he has the White House exactly where he wanted it.
In expressing ambivalence about the final number of states, Trump may have assumed he was leaving options open for his son-in-law and presumed peace envoy, Jared Kushner.
But words can take on a life of their own, especially when uttered by the president of the world’s only superpower.
Some believe Trump, faced with the region’s realities, will soon revert to Washington’s playbook on two states, with the US again adopting the bogus role of “honest broker”. Others suspect his interest will wilt, allowing Israel to intensify settlement building and its abuse of Palestinians.
The long-term effect, however, is likely to be more decisive. The one-state option mooted by Trump will resonate with both Israelis and Palestinians because it reminds each side of their historic ambitions.
The international community has repeatedly introduced the chimera of the two-state solution, but for most of their histories the two sides favoured a single state – if for different reasons.
From the outset, the mainstream Zionist movement wanted an exclusive Jewish state, and a larger one than it was ever offered. Some even dreamed of the recreation of a Biblical kingdom whose borders incorporated swaths of neighbouring Arab states.
In late 1947, the Zionist leadership backed the United Nations partition plan for tactical reasons, knowing the Palestinians would reject the transfer of most of their homeland to recent European immigrants.
A few months later they seized more territory – in war – than the UN envisioned, but were still not satisfied. Religious and secular alike hungered for the rest of Palestine. Shimon Peres was among the leaders who began the settlement drive immediately following the 1967 occupation.
Those territorial ambitions were muffled by Oslo, but will be unleashed again in full force by Trump’s stated indifference.
The Palestinians’ history points in a parallel direction. As Zionism made its first inroads into Palestine, they rejected any compromise with what were seen as European colonisers.
In the 1950s, after Israel’s creation, the resistance under Yasser Arafat espoused a single secular democratic state in all of historic Palestine. Only with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Palestinians’ growing isolation in the early 1990s, did Arafat cave in to European and US pressure and sign up for partition.
But for Palestinians, Oslo has not only entailed enduring Israel’s constant bad faith, but it has also created a deeply compromised vehicle for self-government. The Palestinian Authority has split the Palestinian people territorially – between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza – and required a Faustian pact to uphold Israel’s security, including the settlers’, at all costs.
The truth, obscured by Oslo, is that the one-state solution has underpinned the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians for more than a century. It did not come about because each expected different things from it.
For Israelis, it was to be a fortress to exclude the native Palestinian population.
For Palestinians, it was the locus of national liberation from centuries of colonial rule. Only later did many Palestinians, especially groups such as Hamas, come to mirror the Zionist idea of an exclusive – if in their case, Islamic – state.
Trump’s self-declared detachment will now revive these historic forces. Settler leader Naftali Bennett will compete with Netanyahu to take credit for speeding up the annexation of ever-greater blocs of West Bank territory while rejecting any compromise on Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Palestinians, particularly the youth, will understand that their struggle is not for illusory borders but for liberation from the Jewish supremacism inherent in mainstream Zionism.
The struggle Trump’s equivocation provokes, however, must first play out in the internal politics of Israelis and Palestinians. It is a supremely clarifying moment. Each side must now define what it really wants to fight for: a fortress for their tribe alone, or a shared homeland ensuring rights and dignity for all.
A version of this article first appeared in the National, Abu Dhabi.By Will Grant
BBC News, Caracas
Mr Chavez is seeking greater economic independence from the US
Venezuela has announced a $16bn (£10bn) investment deal with China for oil exploration in the Orinoco river.
The move comes shortly after Venezuela signed a similar agreement with Russia, which is estimated to be $20bn (£12bn).
President Hugo Chavez said the deals would boost oil production in Venezuela by about 900,000 barrels per day.
Investors in Venezuela's oil industry have complained for months that a lack of government investment in infrastructure has hurt production.
Multi-polar world
Speaking on state television, Mr Chavez said the deal with China was over three years and that the investment would go towards developing heavy crude oil resources in the Orinoco River belt.
For President Chavez it is part of a wider effort to increase his base of bilateral partners in the oil industry.
The socialist leader often speaks of what he calls a "multi-polar world" in which Latin American countries are less dependent on Washington.
However, US companies and the US government are still the mainstay of the Venezuelan energy industry.
The Venezuelan leader will hope that these multibillion dollar deals, signed with countries which are more friendly to his "21st Century Socialist Revolution", will give him further economic independence from Washington.For the first time, astronomers have snapped photos of auroras lighting up Uranus's icy atmosphere.
"The last time we had any definite signals of auroral activity on Uranus was when NASA's Voyager 2 probe swung by in 1986," said study leader Laurent Lamy, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris in Meudon, France.
"But this is the first time we can actually see these emissions light up with an Earth-based telescope."
Uranus Auroras Seen in Stroke of Luck
Auroras are light displays often seen at the highest latitudes of Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn—all of which all have magnetospheres that act as shields against incoming solar storms. (See "Photos: Multicolored Auroras Sparked by Double Sun Blast.")
Auroras tend to surround a planet's poles, where magnetic field lines converge and funnel incoming charged solar particles into the planet's atmosphere. There, the particles collide with air molecules, making the molecules glow.
Scientists tried unsuccessfully to detect auroras on Uranus in 1998 and 2005. In September 2011, Lamy and his team learned of an impending solar storm directed toward Uranus, which sits about 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) from Earth.
The team timed their Hubble observations specifically to coincide with the solar storm, and about six weeks later, Hubble spotted the auroras flaring up in Uranus's upper atmosphere. (Related: "Solar Flare: What If Biggest Known Sun Storm Hit Today?")
"We definitely had luck on our side to catch these faint flashes," Lamy said.
Oddball Planet May Influence Auroras
The auroras' unusual appearance might have something to do with the planet's oddball orientation.
Unlike the other seven planets, Uranus's magnetic axis is 60 degrees off from its spin axis. In addition, spin axis itself has a bizarre 98-degree tilt relative to the solar system's orbital plane. In other words, the planet seems to roll around on its side as it orbits the sun.
Uranus's auroras are very short-lived, and Lamy speculates that's because of the difference between the orientation of the incoming solar particles and the planet's unusual magnetic field.
"These auroras will offer clues as to the exact location of the magnetic axis... which then allow us to tell for the first time which parts of the magnetosphere is active," Lamy said.
"There is no doubt Uranus is a mysterious planet. We just don't know too much about [it]—especially its magnetosphere—but it's finally slowly revealing its secrets."
Uranus Observations "Urgent"
Now that his team has proven that Hubble can spot auroras on Uranus, Lamy hopes to get more of Hubble's observation time.
"We have had virtually no observations of these events for nearly a quarter century, but now we know we have a unique tool at our disposal," he said.
"Unfortunately Hubble is nearing the end of its life, so it's quite urgent we get as many opportunities as possible to observe these distant auroras before it closes its eye for good."From 1d4chan
Black Dragons Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Battle Cry Fire and Bone Founding 21st Founding Successors of Unknown (believed to be the Salamanders, possibly tyranids as well) Successor Chapters None Chapter Master Volos Primarch Possibly Vulkan Homeworld Gauntlet (semi-mythical, Chapter is officially Fleet-based) Specialty Assault, having pointy retractable arm-blades Allegiance Imperium of Man Colours Black with a white Aquila and markings
The Black Dragons are a Space Marine Chapter in Warhammer 40,000. Part of the 21st or Cursed Founding, the Black Dragons suffer from mutation like the other Chapters of that founding. Specifically, they suffer from a mutated Ossmodula, which causes some gnarly bone growths to grow out of their forehead and forearms. It's unknown what mutation the Adeptus Mechanicus was trying to cure, as their Parent Chapter is unknown (they might've actually been trying to make them bigger and stronger- seems lots of Black Dragons are too large to fit regular Power Armour). Heavy speculation is that the Black Dragons are descended from the Salamanders, and those with more pronounced bone extensions are noted to have darker skin, reminiscent of the Salamanders' mutated melanchrome. The "osseovirus" responsible for the mutations was later isolated by the Haemonculus Coven known as the Hex and used to create the bone-mutating weapons known as the ossefactors.
Black Dragons: The official chapter of Baraka and Dudepeel
Interestingly, rather than try to cure the bony crests, the Black Dragons instead embraced the mutation, having those with forearm blades coat said blades in adamantium and then inducted into special squads known as "Dragon Claws", and having them serve as Assault Marines (Space Marines + Wolverine/Baraka = awesome). They also incorporate this embracing of the mutation into their worship and doctrine as a chapter: such as the Chaplain calling upon the Emperor to "Curse thy servants" during prayer. This has raised more than a few eyebrows among the Inquisition, and several Chapters of Space Marines, such as the Dark Angels and the Marines Malevolent, have refused to fight alongside them (as if anyone wants the MMs anywhere near them, especially Salamanders descendants). Despite this, the Black Dragons are one of the few Chapters of the Cursed Founding still active as part of the Imperium of Man in late M41, where they committed nine of their ten companies to the 13th Black Crusade. They'd probably get on well with the Space Wolves.
They appear to have gained Primaris reinforcements with the dawn of the Dark Imperium, despite being a Cursed Founding (Or due to being so badass). The new KillTeam release mentions Black Dragon Reivers, and their prominent bone blades being used in KillTeams.
There is a novel featuring them, The Death of Antagonis. Quite a nice read, even while the description is misleading; the front and back covers feature Black Dragons fighting zombies, and while that does happen it's barely a third of the book. The last zombie "disappears" around page 90, and Exterminatus is declared 20 pages later; the next 200 pages take place on city world Aeghis Mortis and the main enemies are Tzeentchian marines lead by a Rogue Cardinal who is on a jolly trip to discover a world engine. One member of the chapter gets convinced by an Inquisitor to try and purge his mutated brothers, but when they both fall to Chaos he gets his ass killed for treachery and not embracing his brothers' mutations as a means to be even more effective killing machines. Not to mention the asshole Inquisitor got his stomach slit open by a pissed off Canoness.When Rob Wise left the Marine Corps to join the Army a decade ago he may have looked forward to a better life, starting a family and receiving support from the people he worked for.
The Marines have been known to be less than accepting of new wives and fledgling families. I've met more than one soldier who left the Corps for the Army after hearing that if the Marines had wanted him to have a wife, it'd have issued him one. After all, the hard charging, oft-deployed life of a junior Marine can take its toll on girlfriends, wives, and troops alike.
That's worth mentioning because Andy-Lee Fry at The Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville, Tn., where Wise and his wife Ashley are stationed, tells a story all too common in the military—and Ashley's dedicated response.
Following Rob's second Iraq combat tour he started having flashbacks. Vivid moments of surprising intensity that mentally flung him back to battle when hearing a loud noise, or catching a sudden movement from the corner of his eye.
Ashley told Fry the situation demanded professional attention when Rob took all the weapons he had in their home, some booze, went to a local hotel and after |
room for error. Heading into the introduction of a revised version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), he knew he would likely lose the votes of Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Susan Collins (R-ME)—which he subsequently did after his bill’s introduction. That meant just one more defection would deny him the 50 votes necessary for passage.
Needing still to placate factions from both sides of his party, McConnell bent to the base.
His revised bill does nothing to lesson the massive Medicaid cuts that were a prominent feature of the first version. The bill would still reduce funding for the government insurance program for the poor and disabled by more than 30 percent. Nor does the revised bill alter the original bill’s reforms to Obamacare’s tax credits. Those will still be made less generous and available to fewer consumers.
Instead, McConnell offered his party’s moderate members money to help combat the nation’s opioid crisis and additional money to help stabilize private insurance markets, funded in part by keeping in place some of Obamacare’s taxes on the rich.
The money devoted to both of these is hardly insignificant. Funding for market stabilization was upped by $70 billion to around $182 billion, and the legislation allocates $45 billion for opioid treatment, recovery and research. But while substantial, such investments will likely do little to mitigate one of the original bill’s most politically toxic features: the estimated 22 million individuals who will end up losing their insurance coverage over the next decade.
The only movement that McConnell would make on that front was a vague suggestion that future lawmakers would somehow reverse the very cuts that he was shepherding into law. And shortly after the new bill was introduced, it became apparent that move might not be enough. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), whose state expanded Medicaid, hinted that he would vote against the motion to proceed, but a spokesman told The Daily Beast that the senator is undecided.
Collins told reporters she could only vote in favor of a motion to begin debate on the bill if the Congressional Budget Office’s score, set to be released on Monday, shows there “would be far fewer changes in Medicaid than I believe there are now.”
“I do not think that we should rewrite an important, vital entitlement program without having extensive hearings and making sure that we understand the implications,” she added, in a stinging rebuke to the strategy Senate GOP leaders have employed in writing the legislation behind closed doors, and using the budget reconciliation process to shut out Democratic involvement.
The full Senate will vote on the bill next week after the CBO score is released, a GOP aide told The Daily Beast, so McConnell has precious little time to twist arms. And in some respects, he’s already made the critical decision on where he wants the legislative language to go. His revised bill inches the legislation closer to the preferences of his party’s base, and not just in the decision to leave the original Medicaid cuts intact.
The bill allows, for the first time, tax-favored Health Savings Accounts to pay for insurance premiums—a conservative demand. It also allows insurers to skirt a number of the coverage requirements that they must contend with under Obamacare, while simultaneously offering at least one plan that adheres to those standards. This amendment, which insurers have warned would destabilize markets, was pushed strongly by Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Ted Cruz (R-TX). The two senators virtually demanded it in exchange for their votes.
When push came to shove, McConnell capitulated and those senators rewarded him. While acknowledging that the legislation is not a “total repeal” of Obamacare, Cruz indicated that he would vote in favor of the legislation as is.
“I think this new bill represents a substantial improvement over the previous version. And there are several changes that significantly improve our ability to reduce premiums,” Cruz said.
Cruz did not seem concerned about how far the bill goes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, shrugging off suggestions that he capitulated to GOP leadership by accepting anything less than a full repeal.
“If it were up to me, we would have taken up and voted on a full repeal as Congress had done many, many times. The conference decided otherwise. That was not my decision,” Cruz told reporters.
McConnell’s decision to curry favor with Cruz’s camp is not entirely unexpected. GOP leadership in the House similarly moved their bill in a more conservative direction in order to win the necessary votes. It resulted in narrow passage.
Whether the Senate will follow that pattern seems less certain. Senators from Medicaid expansion states, such as Portman, Dean Heller of Nevada, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, now face a difficult decision of whether to sink a bill that could be their party’s last chance for a de-facto repeal-and-replacement of Obamacare. Each has signalled discomfort with the very contours of the BCRA that remain in place in version 2.0.
Even before McConnell introduced his revised version there was evidence that his members weren’t particularly enthused or interested. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) decided to introduce an entirely separate piece of health care legislation—one that would give certain amounts of money to individual states while providing only very basic demands on what they could do with it—just minutes before McConnell’s unveiling.
And earlier in the week, Democratic senators told The Daily Beast that Republicans were signaling a willingness to working with them on bipartisan fixes to the current law. Those talks won’t formally begin until the revised BCRA gets a vote—if it gets a vote at all—and it’s not particularly likely that they will be any more successful.
Lawmakers have focused in particular on the the possibility of stabilizing the private insurance markets—specifically, the creation of a reinsurance fund. But Republicans have demonized the fund in recent years as an “insurance bailout.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) spearheaded a successful effort to nix it from the Affordable Care Act, and Sen. Paul said the inclusion of it in the new bill would amount to “subsidizing the death spiral of Obamacare.”
“That’s what the insurance bailout superfund is. They call it ‘stabilization fund.’ But that fund, that stabilization fund, is to subsidize the death spiral of Obamacare, not fix it,” Paul told reporters on Wednesday.Christian protesters stage sit-in at MP Andrew Nikolic's office over asylum seeker policy
Updated
A group of Christians protesting over children being kept in immigration detention has ended an eight-hour sit-in at the office of federal MP Andrew Nikolic.
Eight people from the group Love Makes A Way began the protest inside his Launceston office about 10:00am (local time), while another 10 protesters held signs outside.
Mr Nikolic met two of the protesters who said they would not leave until the Government had given a timetable for the release of children.
At the end of the day, Mr Nikolic left the office and lights were turned off.
A group spokesman said the protestors agreed to leave the office to avoid setting off fire alarms.
Earlier, Pastor Jeff McKinnon said the peaceful protest sought to highlight the plight of the children because the group felt the Government had ignored other attempts to seek policy change.
"We believe it's absolutely essential, while there's so many children held in detention in such a cruel way, that somebody needs to speak up and do something, and we believe this is a simple way to do that," he said.
"Experts have called these detention centres 'factories of mental illness' and'state-sanctioned child abuse'.
"Jesus commanded his followers to protect the little ones, so we feel compelled to follow his way and call [on] MP Andrew Nikolic to become a policy champion for the release of all children and their families from detention."
Police visited the office briefly and spoke to staff and protesters.
Another protester, James Oakley, said members had been warned they were risking arrest.
Mr Nikolic told them his Government's policies had reduced the number of children in immigration detention.
He said more than 2,000 children were held under the previous Labor administration, but that had been reduced by more than 40 per cent under his Government's watch.
Tasmanian parenting author Steve Biddulph expressed support for the group.
"As a Christian, I believe the very core of our lives should be about welcoming the stranger and those in need," he said.
"Love Makes A Way is faith in action at a time when governments are behaving in abominable ways to vulnerable people.
"Non-violent action of this kind is what our faith is all about, as it peacefully reminds people who might have lost their moral compass that there is right and wrong."
Mr Nikolic declined to be interviewed by the ABC.
Topics: immigration, launceston-7250
First postedGregg Rosenthal outlined the NFC playoff picture on Monday, with the Packers sitting pretty and the surging Seahawks closing in on a postseason home game of their own.
Let's turn our attention to the AFC postseason outlook, which threatens to closely resemble last January's seeding.
Patriots and Broncos still reign atop AFC
Less than two months after meeting in the AFC Championship game, New England and Denver engaged in an offseason arms race to maximize the Super Bowl windows for their twilight quarterbacks. Here they are, standing eight months later as the prohibitive favorites for the top two seeds.
Having eviscerated the other three AFC division leaders by an average score of 43-19, the Patriots currently boast not only the most complete team but also a forbidding homefield advantage. If the Broncos can build on the impressive showings from their defense and ground attack in Week 13, a return trip to the Super Bowl is attainable even if they have to go through Gillette Stadium.
Colts are flawed favorites in AFC South
In addition to enjoying a two-game advantage over the second-place Texans, the Colts have confidence in the cavernous disparity between Andrew Luck and the rest of the division's quarterbacks. Indianapolis is on track to host another playoff game. The question is how far this team can go after watching the defense get bullied by the Pats, Broncos and Steelers. The combined record of the teams the Colts have beaten this season is 33-62. The combined record of teams to whom they have lost is 34-14.
Seeking a reason for optimism? Luck is coming off his best game of an incredible season with the play-making tag-team of Coby Fleener and Donte Moncrief elevated to featured roles. The league's top-ranked offense still has room to grow.
Bengals far from a lock in AFC North
The Week 6 tie essentially gives the Bengals a two-game edge in the division, but the schedule is far from inviting. They still have two matchups against the Steelers, to whom they have lost four of six games since Andy Dalton was drafted in 2011. Marvin Lewis' squad also travels to the 7-5 Browns and hosts the Broncos.
Cincinnati has the trump card over Baltimore thanks to a pair of head-to-head victories, but Cleveland and Pittsburgh still have a chance to sweep the season series.
Wild-card contenders need three more wins
Seven wild-card contenders have at least seven wins, which means it will take 10 or possibly even 11 victories to gain entry to the postseason. The field is crowded enough that no single member of the group has more than a 55 percent chance of making the dance, per Football Outsiders' playoff odds.
The Chargers are the lone team with eight wins, but that's counterbalanced by the toughest schedule of the bunch. The reeling Chiefs actually have a greater chance (54.8 versus 37.8) of making the playoffs, according to Football Outsiders metrics.
The Dolphins stand at 47.8 percent, compared to 44.8 for the Ravens, 34.1 for the Steelers, 10.7 for the Bills, 10.0 for the Browns and a scant 6.8 for the Texans.
Purely from a talent standpoint, the Ravens are the cream of this crop -- even with a patchwork secondary.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast recaps every Sunday game from Week 13 and debates whether Johnny Manziel deserves the starting job. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.Undated picture of International Space Station. Thomson Reuters NASA added a new member to its International Space Station (ISS) supply team that just dialed up the pressure on preexisting members SpaceX and Orbital ATK.
On Thursday, the agency announced the awardees of its second round of Commercial Resupply services contracts — an agreement wherein NASA pays commercial spaceflight companies to ferry uncrewed cargo to, and sometimes from, the International Space Station.
NASA granted the first round of CRS contracts to aerospace juggernauts Orbital ATK and SpaceX in 2008, but this second round saw a new addition to the well-established team: the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems.
And right now, SNC has something that Orbital and SpaceX do not: A winged spacecraft that is designed to land on a runway — similar to NASA's Space Shuttles — after returning from a trip to space. In fact, some even call it a "mini-Shuttle."
The spacecraft is poetically called "Dream Chaser." It's about 30 feet long with a wingspan of nearly 23 feet across — about half the wingspan of a Learjet 45, which is a relatively small business aircraft. Moreover, Dream Chaser can reportedly survive 210 days in space, though it's not been tested, yet.
The Dream Chaser, designed by Sierra Nevada Corporation in partnership with Lockheed Martin, is the only winged craft in the running. Ken Ulbrich/Wikimedia Commons Dream Chaser has been the prized jewel of SNC since the company first unveiled its design plans in 2004. The advantage Dream Chaser brings to NASA's ISS supply team is that it can carry cargo from the ISS to a runway on land.
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft can also ferry cargo back to Earth, but upon returning from space it parachutes into the ocean (like in the photo below). And Orbital's Cygnus spacecraft is designed to burn up upon reentry, meaning no returned supplies for those missions.
SpaceX on Flickr The reason it's so important for certain missions to return cargo to the land is so scientists can get their hands on their experiments as quickly as possible.
With a spacecraft like Dream Chaser, scientists will be able to get their data three to six hours after it has left space, which is critical for certain scientific experiments that assess the biological impact of low-gravity in space, ISS Chief Scientist Julie Robinson said during the NASA announcement on Thursday.
"There are a lot of reasons to use animal studies to look at things like balance and sensory motor effects (of microgravity), and those are going to change so rapidly on return that we need to have the animals back right away," Robinson told Reuters.
Photo by Jason Hayes on Wikipedia So far, SNC has performed one flight test, which it completed in 2013. The flight itself was reportedly flawless, but upon touchdown, the left landing gear failed to deploy. As a result, the spacecraft went skidding off the runway and eventually flipped over. Surprisingly, it only suffered minor damage.
SNC's corporate vice president, Mark. N. Sirangelo, told NASA Spaceflight last October that the company is planning a second flight test sometime early this year.
NASA said its CRS2 contracts will cover uncrewed-cargo missions starting in 2019 and running through 2024. And as of right now, SNC will be reaping all of the missions that require this time-sensitive cargo returns.
The pressure is on for SpaceX, which could switch up the game. Although its Dragon spacecraft can only land via parachutes, SpaceX has publicly announced plans to develop another spacecraft, called Red Dragon, designed to touch down on land using rocket jets to slow it down upon descent. The idea is still in the design phase, right now.Almost exactly a year after we launched civil-disobedience actions in Washington to protest the Keystone XL pipeline, folks across Texas are doing the same thing today.
Or rather, they’re doing something bolder and more courageous — instead of trying to make a political point, they’re actually announcing plans to put their bodies on the line to stop the construction of a portion of the pipe.
I know what you’re thinking: We won at least a temporary victory, blocking approval of Keystone. That’s why Mitt Romney keeps talking about how his first task in office will be getting it going. Indeed, we did carry the day — but only on the portion of the pipeline that crossed the border with Canada and connected to Alberta’s tar sands. The largest civil-disobedience action in the last 30 years — 1,253 arrests over two weeks — was enough to persuade the Obama administration to postpone approval of the border-crossing permit.
But unrelenting pressure from the oil industry was enough to persuade Obama to give the pipeline companies a few slices off the loaf. In fact, the president promised to “expedite” approvals for the southern portion of the pipeline, stretching from Cushing, Okla., to Port Arthur, Texas. It was a real low point for the Obama administration, a perfect emblem of its bankrupt “all of the above” energy “strategy.”
And now Transcanada is ready to begin construction — and a brave crew of local residents is ready to try and stop them.
All along, the pipeline has drawn many different kinds of foes. In this case, environmentalists worried about oil spills and global warming are joined by Tea Party conservatives outraged that a private company is allowed to grab land from people who don’t want to sell it.
It’s hard to predict how it will all turn out. From the beginning of this fight, the oil and pipeline companies have seemed to hold all the cards. A survey of energy “insiders” conducted last fall found 91 percent thought Transcanada would win a permit for the whole route. Instead, just this one portion has been approved. But building even this portion is going to take a fight. Texans aren’t known for submitting quietly to outside authority — if a foreign corporation is going to take their land, it won’t be without a real struggle.
And this one takes place against a special backdrop — the unrelenting heat and drought that have marked one of the toughest summers in American history. If there were ever a moment to take a stand, this is it. Everyone who cares about the future owes these Texans a debt — and in fact, you can help pay their legal costs with a donation.
This comes on the heels of protests in West Virginia blocking mountaintop-removal coal mining, in Montana protesting plans for new coal-export facilities, and on the railroad tracks of the Pacific Northwest stopping trains with coal headed for Asia.
A lot of people are waking up — and the noise that will come from Texas in the next few weeks will add to that loud and lovely din.10nm chips have the potential to revolutionize mobile tech for everyone from manufacturers to users. It makes perfect sense, then, that Qualcomm Technologies is announcing a collaboration with Samsung Electronics to use its revolutionary 10nm FinFET process for the newly announced premium-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor.
Keith Kressin, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Ben Suh, senior vice president, foundry marketing, Samsung, show off the first 10 nanometer mobile processor, the Snapdragon 835, in New York at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit.
These processors are made of nanomaterials—molecules and atoms less than 100 nanometers (nm) in size that exhibit different properties than their larger-particle counterparts: some enhanced nanomaterial characteristics include lighter weight, higher strength, and greater chemical reactivity. Because of these special qualities, nanomaterials have the potential to transform a number of industries from consumer tech to energy and health.
So exactly how small is 10nm? It’s the size of a few dozen water molecules, or 1,000 times smaller than a strand of hair*. Chips at the 10nm size have a significantly smaller footprint than their 14nm predecessors, which means device manufacturers have more usable space to support larger batteries or slimmer phone designs.
Less space doesn’t mean less processing horsepower, however. The 10nm node will help Snapdragon 835 processors achieve high quality power efficiency and performance while opening up territory for new mobile experiences.
Samsung’s new 10nm FinFET process, for instance, allows up to a 30 percent increase in area efficiency with a 27 percent improvement in performance or up to 40 percent less power consumption compared to the previous version. These process improvements, combined with a more advanced chip design, can create significant battery life enhancements.
Despite its diminutive form, a chip of this size can open up critical space and introduce major performance gains, giving Snapdragon 835 users more room in their devices for cutting-edge features and superior mobile experiences.
Stay tuned for much more information coming up on the ground-breaking Snapdragon 835.Generally, mountain lions are calm, quiet and elusive. They are most commonly found in areas with plentiful prey and adequate cover. Such conditions exist within Point Reyes National Seashore. Mountain lions are an important part of the park ecosystem, helping to keep deer and other prey populations in check. Although lion attacks are rare, they are possible, as is injury from any wild animal. Even so, the potential for being killed or injured by a mountain lion is quite low compared to many other natural hazards. There is a far greater risk, for example, of being killed in an automobile accident with a deer than of being attacked by a mountain lion. We offer the following recommendations to increase your safety: Do not hike alone. Hike in groups, with adults supervising children. Keep children close to you. Keep children within your sight at all times. If you see a mountain lion: Stay calm. Hold your ground or back away slowly. Face the lion and stand upright.
Hold your ground or back away slowly. Face the lion and stand upright. Do not approach a lion. Never approach a mountain lion especially one that is feeding or with kittens. Most mountain lions will try to avoid a confrontation. Give them a way to escape.
Never approach a mountain lion especially one that is feeding or with kittens. Most mountain lions will try to avoid a confrontation. Give them a way to escape. Do not run from a lion. Running may stimulate a mountain lion's instinct to chase. Instead, stand and face the animal. Make eye contact. If you have small children with you, pick them up if possible so they don't panic and run. Although it may be awkward, pick them up without bending over or turning away from the mountain lion.
Running may stimulate a mountain lion's instinct to chase. Instead, stand and face the animal. Make eye contact. If you have small children with you, pick them up if possible so they don't panic and run. Although it may be awkward, pick them up without bending over or turning away from the mountain lion. Do not crouch down or bend over. Biologists surmise mountain lions don't recognize standing humans as prey. On the other hand, a person squatting or bending over looks a lot like a four-legged prey animal. If you're in mountain lion habitat, avoid squatting, crouching or bending over, even when picking up children. If the mountain lion moves in your direction or acts aggressively: Do all you can to appear intimidating.
Attempt to appear larger by raising your arms and opening your jacket if you are wearing one. Wave your arms slowly and speak firmly in a loud voice. If looking bigger doesn't scare the mountain lion off, start throwing stones, branches, or whatever you can reach in its direction without crouching or turning your back. Don't throw things at it just yet. There is no need to unnecessarily injure the mountain lion. With that said, your safety is of the utmost importance and the National Park Service won't necessarily prosecute you for harassment of wildlife if something you throw at an aggressive mountain lion does make contact. During the initial stages of a mountain lion encounter, the idea is to convince the mountain lion that you are not prey and that you may be a danger to it.
If the mountain lion continues to move in your direction: Start throwing things AT it. Again, your safety is more important than the mountain lion's. If the mountain lion attacks you: Fight back! A hiker in Southern California used a rock to fend off a mountain lion that was attacking his son. Others have fought back successfully with sticks, caps, jackets, garden tools, and their bare hands. Since a mountain lion usually tries to bite the head or neck, try to remain standing and face the attacking animal. IMMEDIATELY REPORT ALL SIGHTINGS, ENCOUNTERS OR ATTACKS
If you are involved in a face-to-face encounter with, or an attack by, a mountain lion, contact a ranger at one of the park's visitor centers as soon as possible or call 415-464-5170. The threat to public safety will be assessed and appropriate action will be taken. Back to Your Safety
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Wellston, MO– Former St. Louis City police officer Eddie Simmons is speaking out after witnessing police shoot at an unarmed man during an incident that he says, went too far. To make things even crazier, the officer involved never even bothered to report the shooting to his department.
Simmons was driving down the road when he saw it all unfold. The officer involved was in pursuit of the suspect who had allegedly stolen a car, when the suspect jumped out and began to try to run. That is when Simmon’s says the officer went too far and shot at the unarmed suspect.
“He pulled his gun out, I’m thinking, I know he’s not- before I could get it out of my mind, I know he’s not- POW… yes, he did.” Simmons told KMOV. “There’s no such thing as warning shots in Missouri, there is no such thing as that. To fire your gun because you cant catch a person? No.” he continued on to say.
When questioned by the media after Simmons came forward calling out what he saw, the department had no idea what they were talking about. The officer involved just “forgot” to report it since his shot had missed the suspect. He claims that his weapon had gone off “accidentally.”
Shockingly, the department is actually defending the reckless officer, and his only consequence has been a five-day suspension for failing to report the incident and for violating pursuit policy.
“If this officer concealed the shooting in the first place, can his version of events be trusted? That’s possible and we took that into consideration,” said Wellston Police Department Chief G.T Walker told KMOV after being questioned on the officer’s integrity. “Prior to this, he’s been a good officer. We haven’t had any problems with him… With an accidental discharge, that would be a bit different because there was no criminal intent,” Walker said. “I do believe him [the officer],” he continued on to say.
The officer was wearing a body camera at the time, but as usual, it was not turned on.
In 1985, the Supreme Court ruled on the case of Tennessee v. Garner, a 15 year old boy who was shot in the back of the head by a police officer as he attempted to flee after a robbery. The court ruled that cops could no longer legally kill someone only for attempting to escape. The officer must now have a reasonable belief that the suspect poses a dangerous threat to someone or had committed a violent felony.
This officer claims it was an accident, however, his integrity is severely questionable having already concealed that he shot at an unarmed suspect in the first place. Had the roles been reversed, and the suspect accidentally shot at the officer, nobody would just take his word for it without so much as an investigation. In fact, if anyone at all who is not protected by a badge “accidentally” fired at someone they would be arrested and investigated, without question.
This mentality that the police are infallible needs to end. The real world is not an episode of Law and Order where the ends always justify the means.Lead author Edward Patz, James and Alice Chen professor of radiology, launched a biotech company last year to supply the therapy for use in future clinical studies.
A recent study from the Duke Cancer Institute could signal new options for leukemia patients resistant to traditional therapies.
In their research, the investigators applied a synthesized antibody to blood samples extracted from 11 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), a form of blood cancer that primarily affects the elderly. This approach was designed to target and take down complement factor H, a protective protein involved in maintaining the cancer cell's environment. Edward Patz, James and Alice Chen professor of radiology and lead author of the study, explained that by reducing CFH, the patients' blood cells became more responsive to chemotherapy than before.
Published in PLOS ONE, the team's findings follow on the heels of a 2016 study, where they found that their CFH antibodies could markedly reduce the viability of various lab-grown cancer cells.
“When the antibody was discovered in patients with lung cancer, we wondered if the body was making it to protect against metastasis and progression of the disease,” Patz said. “We tested a recombinant form of this antibody in a number of different tumor types, including CLL.”
Patz said that this study took things one step forward, using real tumor samples from several patients with leukemia. The team's rationale for choosing CLL as their first test case was two-fold, he noted.
First, CLL has tumor cells present throughout the blood, making the process of gathering patient samples more straightforward.
Beyond ease of access, Patz noted that he and his colleagues had found existing reports which had linked the CFH protein to chemotherapy-resistant forms of CLL. By shutting down CFH, the group hypothesized, CLL cells that hadn't previously benefited from chemotherapy drugs might become more susceptible.
Their study showed that using the CFH antibody was most effective with blood cells that were resistant to a particular drug, rituximab.
“Our pilot study confirmed that if CFH could be knocked out—which we accomplished by employing this antibody—the chemotherapy would then be reactivated in patients with rituximab-resistance and increase cancer cell death,” Patz said.
Patz noted that his group was the first to be successful in targeting CFH in leukemia patients, despite many other on-going efforts. Part of their success lied in how they designed the antibody, he explained.
“While some had tried using smaller [forms of antibody], they couldn’t specifically target the [CFH] protein,” he said. “We pioneered a method to target CFH so that it would have limited side effects on surrounding non-cancerous cells.”
At the cellular level, the antibody is designed to target and bind to compatible regions of CFH. By doing so, the body's natural immune system is made to recognize the protein and degrade it. The group's research ultimately shows that removing the protein from cancerous cells and tissue could be harnessed as a real therapy for patients.
Patz has used his success with the antibody to launch Grid Therapeutics in Durham, which will be involved in manufacturing the antibody for future use. The company is set to face its first test in about 18 months, where it will try the antibody against solid tumors—such as lung cancer or bone cancer—in a Phase 1 clinical trial.This is the first post in my C++ accelerator library series. It is about VexCL, a header-only C++ library for accelerator programming, developed by Denis Demidov and others. The library is released under the MIT licence.
VexCL supports OpenCL and CUDA as accelerator backends. For the CUDA backend it is important to note that the CUDA SDK must be installed on systems running VexCL code, because kernel code is generated and compiled at runtime.
LAb[au] : Spectr|a|um, image by Marc Wathieu
The central memory abstraction concept in VexCL is a vex::vector. The template represents contiguous data on one accelerator. It can also act as segmented data container that manages disjoint blocks of memory on multiple accelerators. The library considers device bandwidth measurements when choosing memory segment sizes or a user-defined device weighting function. Explicit copy functions allow programmers to move data from, to and between accelerators. An iterator as well as a range-based syntax is supported. Additional data types include sparse matrix types vex::SpMat as well as vex::multivector types, representing lists of vectors that can be processed in a single step.
Concurrent execution of multiple kernels or of copy and kernel operations is partially supported by VexCL. Copy operations are synchronous by default but can be configured to be asynchronous. Each container has associated command_queues that are used to enqueue operations. A command_queue has a finish() method that blocks until all commands in the queue have completed. This is not the most elegant way to handle concurrency, but VexCL does not abstract away the option for parallel execution of operations, which is nice.
VexCL supports numerous parallel primitives such as inclusive_scan, exclusive_scan, sort, sort_by_key and reduce_by_key. But the core functionality of VexCL is its kernel generation from vector expression mechanism. If X, Y and Z are a vex::vector type, the expression
X = 2 * Y - sin(Z);
generates a single kernel that is automatically executed on all accelerators that the vectors occupy:
kernel void vexcl_vector_kernel( ulong n, global double * prm_1, int prm_2, global double * prm_3, global double * prm_4) { for(size_t i = get_global_id(0); i < n; i += get_global_size(0)) { prm_1[i] = ( ( prm_2 * prm_3[i] ) - sin( prm_4[i] ) ); } }
This expression template mechanism has many features, including numerous built-ins, support for constants, access to vector indices, inclusion of user defined functions, tagging of data to avoid reading memory more than once, temporary values, random numbers, permutations, slicing, reducing, reshaping, scattered data interpolation and fast Fourier transform. A performance improvement can be expected from expression template generated kernels, since such fused kernels save on memory reads and writes over individual calls to BLAS functions.
Programmers may also generate kernels by feeding a vex::symbolic type to an algorithm. The symbol records any arithmetic operation it is subjected to and an accelerator kernel can be generated. As an alternative, the function generator also accepts a function object that can then be used in vector expressions. And finally, a custom kernel can be specified in source code and registered with VexCL through the shorthand VEX_STRINGIZE_SOURCE macro or by creating an instance of vex::backend::kernel.
VexCL is inter-operable with ViennaCL, Boost.Compute and CLOGS. The library is available on github, the documentation is available here.
Denis Demidov mentions performance results of VexCL are published in one of his papers and are included in one of his recent talks.
I would categorize VexCL as a high productivity prototyping library that can also be used in scientific production code. It is particularly well suited to implement numerical analysis. I see minor problems when it comes to kernel caching, the fact that the CUDA SDK is required and the lack of elegant concurrency constructs. Nevertheless, the number of features in VexCL is enormous. VexCL is an excellent example of how sophisticated C++ programming techniques can lead to efficient code as well as a beautiful and concise interface.Image caption An eyewitness in Stratford said he was woken by a large explosion
Five men and a woman suspected of terrorism offences have been arrested in London as part of an intelligence-led investigation involving MI5.
One of the six, who are aged between 18 and 30, was Tasered by police. Eight homes in west, east and north London and one business have been searched.
It is understood the arrests relate to a possible plot involving Islamist extremists, with potential UK targets.
Three of those held are brothers - one an ex-police community support officer.
He served with the Metropolitan Police for more than two years before resigning in September 2009.
The force said he had not been "deployed in any specialist or sensitive roles".
The brothers, aged 18, 24 and 26, were detained in Abbey Road, in Stratford, east London, during an operation involving armed officers.
The BBC understands they are Jahangir, Mohammed and Moybur Alom.
Richard Dart, a Muslim convert who uses the name Salahuddin al Britani, was also detained in the raids, it is understood. He features in a YouTube video which criticises the Royal Family and British military action in Muslim countries.
The Metropolitan Police said the arrests were not linked to the Olympics or Paralympic Games.
It is understood that police involved in the long-running operation decided to act on Thursday on the grounds of public safety.
'Black-clad figures'
The UK terrorism threat level is unchanged from "substantial", which means a terrorist attack is a "strong possibility". There are two higher levels - "severe", meaning an attack is "highly likely", and "critical", meaning an attack is "expected imminently".
Some - if not all - of those arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism are British nationals, BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw says.
They include a 21-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman, who were detained at separate addresses in Ealing, west London, while a 29-year-old man was arrested in an Ealing street. The woman is married to one of the men.
All six have been taken to a police station in south-east London.
The 24-year-old man who was Tasered during his arrest in Stratford did not need hospital treatment, police said.
An eyewitness to the Stratford raid, Mark Window, told the BBC he had been woken up by an explosion at 04:15 BST.
"I looked out my window, saw loads of mini-explosions going off still, loads of black-clad figures milling around," he said.
"One was halfway up a ladder, through a window, and you realise it's some sort of police operation going on instead of kids messing about with fireworks which is what you think when you first wake up."
Trainee taxi driver Stephen Maguire, 23, said he heard the police from his bedroom in Eastbourne Road, which overlooks the front of the house.
"I heard the biggest bang ever and I saw a massive cloud of smoke and torches going up at the windows," he said. "It sounded like they were gunshots but they weren't."Briton reiterates he might not need to move from Sky to win French race
He’s played a supporting role in this year’s Tour de France but after finishing second in the race and also second in the 2011 Vuelta a España, Chris Froome has confirmed that he will return to the latter race this year aiming for success.
“I am going to go on from here to the Olympics and then the Vuelta a España, if all goes well, and see how the legs are there,” he told reporters after today’s race finish. “I will try to do something there.”
Froome was unquestionably one of the strongest riders last year and indeed might have won had he not held back on several occasions in support of the designated team leader Bradley Wiggins. Spanish rider Juan Jose Cobo swooped on the stage to L’Angliru, |
about "several serious constitutional concerns" over how "Christian worship seems interwoven into the Clemson football program."
Responding to what it says was a complaint sent to it by a member of the public, the FFRF had one of its five staff attorneys investigate the program via open records requests over the constitutionally protected separation between church and state.
It uncovered a host of issues, from Swinney directly hiring the team chaplain (even Clemson policy says the players should choose), to coaches participating in testimonials and bible studies, to buses being organized to transport the entire team to "Church Day" at a local Baptist Church.
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The letter, in great detail, cites various university policies and case law that are violated by these actions. It's a thorough letter. And it goes after Swinney, who it claims as a public employee is barred from participating in any official capacity in the religious activities of his players or underlings.
"Fire the coach, stop praying and start playing," Annie Laurie Gaylor, the co-founder and co-president of FFRF told Yahoo Sports. "I think this coach has really crossed the line."
The FFRF claims Swinney clearly shows favor to one religion – by hiring a chaplain of that religion, for instance. Thus, it says, the environment is coercive because players of different faith or no faith feel pressure to conform to the wishes of the guy who holds playing time and advancement over them.
Clemson denies that Swinney or the athletic department has done anything wrong and has announced no further investigation into the situation.
"We believe the practices of the football staff regarding religion are compliant with the Constitution and appropriately accommodate differing religious views," the school wrote in a statement, declining further comment. "Participation in religious activities is purely voluntary, and there are no repercussions for students who decline to do so."
Clemson isn't bothering to defend each item of complaint at this point. Regardless, there are some simple and common sense solutions that quite frankly someone at Clemson should have enacted a long time ago. You didn't need to be a constitutional scholar to realize it might be best to let the players choose their chaplain (or, better yet, not have one at all), or steer clear of "Church Days" and certainly don't organize group busing options, even if privately paid for, to faith-based events.
The issue is not new. Although the FFRF says it mainly deals with complaints about public high schools, two decades ago it did take on some coaches at the University of Wisconsin. And just last year, Oakland University, a public school in Michigan, dismissed its women's basketball coach for undisclosed reasons, although it came following player complaints that included discussions of faith and invitations to attend the coach's church.
Swinney is just one of a number of football coaches who are extremely outspoken about their faith and run programs at public schools that seem closely aligned with Christianity. If Swinney is, at the very least, walking a Constitutional line, then he sure isn't the only one.
"They are mixing their athletic mission and their religious mission and pushing prayer and Bible study on a captive audience," Gaylor said. "It's an abuse of power and an abuse of conscious."
As a thumbnail, the FFRF says a coach should never discuss religion with a player, let alone stop practice for prayer sessions or sponsor after-hour testimonials. Should a player come to him seeking religious guidance, he should encourage him to seek out the innumerable faith-based groups on a major college campus. Clemson boasts 41 of them, ranging from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes to groups and congregations for Catholics, Mormons, Muslims, Jews and others. There is even the Secular Student Alliance of Clemson for atheists, agnostics and others.
"The religious counseling should be outside the athletic department," Gaylor said.
This is not only the law, but seems reasonable in a vacuum. The thing is, college football doesn't exist in a vacuum. Football players are often extremely devout, perhaps because of the randomness in which success, failure and injury can occur.
Likewise, players and their parents often seek college coaches who will help develop them not just athletically, but with academics, maturity, leadership and, indeed, spiritually. They want this. It's part of the deal with sports, so ingrained – rightly or not – in the culture that few even blink at it anymore.
And since only a few religious-based schools play major college football – BYU (Mormon); SMU (Methodist); TCU and Baylor (Christian); Notre Dame and Boston College (Catholic) – this takes root in public schools that traditionally field the best teams.
Moreover, Swinney, who Clemson declined to make available for comment, is not hiding his faith. He openly discusses it with fans, the media and recruits. He's preached at mega-churches across the South.
If you agree to play for him, you know his religion is part of the equation. Some players, no doubt, come because of his intense devotion. Others are willing to go along because they either find him agreeable in other ways, think he'd be a terrific coach or just want to attend Clemson.
The university itself noted, "we are not aware of any complaints from current or former studentathletes about feeling pressured or forced to participate in religious activities."
Gaylor responds by just pointing, again, to the First Amendment. She finds bringing religion up in the recruiting process for a public school particularly troublesome and the lack of internal complaint irrelevant or even potential evidence that players fear speaking up.
"He may be self-selecting a pious bunch in recruiting," she notes. "If so, that's an even worse violation. Public universities are paid by our tax dollars. They are not to be exclusionary Christian clubs."
Swinney would take a great player from any religion. The first order is to win. He is mostly an uplifting speaker, big on self-accountability and realizing what it takes to succeed in life.
That isn't the issue though. The courts are consistent that an individual should be protected from ever being put in that position where they have to ignore or complain about a religious message. Also, people's views change, especially during the formative years of ages 17-23 on a college campus, so what they were once receptive to (or vice versa) could shift dramatically. This is why the burden is on the government employee turned would-be messenger to keep the message to his or herself.
The FFRF says it isn't currently pursuing a legal case against Clemson and isn't starting a broad based push against the inclusion of religion in college football programs at public universities, although it could probably do both. It says it just responds to public complaints. Of course, this may cause more complaints about other teams.
Her advice to Swinney or anyone else is simple: get out of coaching or go work for a religious-based school.
"He missed his calling," Gaylor said. "Why doesn't he become a minister and leave the football team alone?... These coaches need to separate their religion from their job."
For Dabo Swinney, where religion is at the core of his life, his family, his work, his everything, that may be a challenge. If he wants to coach at a big public school, though, it may be one he needs to attempt.AURORA | The effort behind Aurora Public Schools’ Digital Badging Initiative isn’t just working toward readying students for post-grad opportunities. It’s also launched a miniature film festival.
The public is invited to what district officials have dubbed the first-ever Aurora Borealis Film Festival, a showcase of film work done by APS students at four district schools that also give students the opportunity to earn digital badges, which signify that students have demonstrated certain skills aligned with state standards, including critical thinking, invention, information literacy and others.
“Film gives students a platform to share their ideas, opinions, and thoughts about the world in which they live,” said APS Technology Coach and project organizer Nicholas Steinmetz. “Many students seek to address issues such as social or world problems, and they love to tell stories through film.”
The district will screen the student works beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 11, at the district’s Professional Learning and Conference Center, 15751 E. First Ave. in Aurora. The event is free and will include short films, commercials and other video styles.
All of the films showcased were entirely written, produced, edited and finalized by APS students only. Each film was limited to five minutes in running time, and all genres were accepted with the caveat that the submissions be “rated G” and appropriate for school.
Middle School Submissions
“Magic Show,” by Sean Landwehr and Alondra from Vista Peak Exploratory
“Kindness,” by Saryeah Baez-Little, Isabella Chambers, Nahomy Ramirez, and Adriana Green at Vista Peak Exploratory
“Brought to Life,” by Adriana Green, Nahomy Ramirez, Saryeah Baez-Little, and Isabella Chambers at Vista Peak Exploratory
“Spray Away,” by Oscar Aranda and Stephano Lorandi at Vista Peak Exploratory
“Sham Wow,” by Isabella Chambers, Adriana Green, and Saryeah Baez-Little at Vista Peak Exploratory
High School Submissions
“Straight Outta the Playground,” by Rachael Smith, Matthew Krohn, Aldo Zepeda, Jerika Miller, Haley Wilkinson at William Smith H.S.
“3:45,” by Esmeralda Soto-Rendon, Christopher Castaneda Gaucin, Leng Yang, and Nolin Boyd at Vista Peak Prep H.S.
“Car Radio Music Video,” by Rachael Smith, Matthew Krohn, Aldo Zepeda, Haley Wilkinson, Jerika Miller at William Smith H.S.
“Always Tip the Server,” by Rachael Smith, Haley wilkinson, Sergio Trujillo, Roberto Medoza-Vargas, Anthony Davis at William Smith H.S.
“The Children’s Story,” by Christopher Ediger, Nathaniel Dixon, Emily Yoder, Bianca Moncada at Vista Peak Prep H.S.
“Hide For Your Life,” by Rachael Smith, Matthew Krohn, Travis Cotter, Haley Wilkinson, Roberto Mendoza-Vargas at William Smith H.S.
“Fight,” by Sam Delossantos at Vista Peak Prep H.S.
“Sleeping Sound,” by Jasmin Hernandez and Trinell Samuels at Vista Peak Prep H.S.
“7 Minutes,” by Gabriela Escobedo at Hinkley H.S.
“Tech Theater News Story,” by Trinell Samuel and Julianna Luce at Vista Peak Prep H.S.Witness the rebirth of a genre in Lumo – a classic isometric adventure with a modern twist for gamers young and old alike! As a contemporary take on the long-lost isometric platform genre, Lumo can be enjoyed by anyone looking for an absorbing, challenging and rewarding adventure. But for those who lived through the golden age of videogames – the 80s and early 90s – or know about the games and culture from that time, layer upon layer of nods, winks and touches to those times help build upon an experience that’s as heart-warming as it is exciting! With over 400 rooms across four unique zones, six hidden mini-games and all kinds of secrets to uncover, Lumo is a true voyage of discovery. How much you discover just depends on how hard you look…
Show MoreAP Photo Postscript Death of an Insurrectionist How Warren Hinckle, dead at 77, changed American journalism.
Jack Shafer is Politico’s senior media writer.
If muckraker, journalistic impresario and scoundrel Warren Hinckle, who died last week at 77, is not getting the media sendoff befitting someone of his accomplishment and influence, he has nobody to blame but himself. The New York Times filed a lengthy obituary, and Hinckle’s hometown newspaper in San Francisco saluted him, but most of the nation’s other leading dailies gave his death a bye, which is a shame. There were a handful of appreciations in the left corners of the Web, yet none of them conveyed the force he exerted on journalism in his prime. He embraced the role of attack dog, formulated like this for a 1981 Washington Post profile: “What journalism is all about is to attack everybody,” he said after downing his fifth screwdriver. “First you decide what's wrong, then you go out to find the facts to support that view, and then you generate enough controversy to attract attention.” The people who believe that the journalist should never be the story never met Warren Hinckle.
Hinckle mostly added footnotes to the art of journalism during the past 40 years, but during his prime, which ran from 1965 to 1975, he practiced journalism like a political insurrectionist, rushing into combat with one eye patched (from a childhood injury) and even sporting a cape on occasion. In his prime, he changed American journalism for good by creating Ramparts, which served as a media crawlspace for investigative reporters and culture critics in the 1960s. The magazine’s influence was immense: Its spirit was evident when the New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, and in 1968, when 60 Minutes got up and running; and it permeated Rolling Stone, launched in 1967 (and which the always acerbic Hinckle denounced as “counterculture bullshit”). The Ramparts lineage goes on: Mother Jones, which used the collapsed Ramparts as a kind of parts car; the alt-weeklies, which got started about the time that Ramparts died in 1975; and more recently sites like Gawker and the Intercept.
Story Continued Below
Muckraking had long existed in America before Ramparts, of course, and books, other magazines, and newsletters like I.F. Stone’s Weekly sought to keep a vigil against the evils of the leviathan state and the modern corporation. But Hinckle’s Ramparts, which he all but willed into being in the mid-’60s, broke big stories about the CIA infiltrating American student organizations, published diaries by Che Guevara and Eldridge Cleaver, helped persuade Martin Luther King Jr. to oppose the Vietnam War, and charted a path for adversarial journalism that informed a whole generation of reporters and editors. The magazine was as fearless as Hinckle, which is to say very, very fearless. Get a load of some of the bylines that appeared in the magazine.
But Ramparts wasn’t a bottle of medicine you drank just because it was good for you. Its design was slick and hip, thanks to its art director, Dugald Stermer, and a levity graced its pages. A Hugh Hefner interview featured a foldout picture of Hef; a piece about assassination conspiracies used a photo of John F. Kennedy as an element in a jigsaw puzzle. It was loads of fun.
Hinckle could have parlayed the half-decade he spent inventing Ramparts with Robert Scheer and the other talents into a sinecure at a journalism school or secure place in the New York magazine hive. But as Hinckle told anybody who asked, he wasn’t interested in rehashing his Ramparts glories, saying almost everything he had to say about it in his 1973 memoir, If You Have a Lemon, Make Lemonade: An Essential Memoir of a Lunatic Decade. Peter Richardson, who wrote an excellent history of Ramparts—A Bomb in Every Issue—wrote this week about the difficulty in pinning Hinckle down for an interview to talk about those years. Why had Ramparts been so successful, so trailblazing, Richardson asked Hinckle when he finally happened to run into him at a book fair. “Probably because the rest of the press was so shitty,” Hinckle responded, giving Richardson all of an hour to ask his questions.
Hinckle’s reluctance to hash over Ramparts, which he left in 1969, surely had to do with his self-sense that it was only a part of a bigger career, which included the launch and quick fizzle of the Ramparts-like Scanlan’s Monthly in 1970, and which gave Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman the opportunity to create their joint masterpiece “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” the first example of gonzo journalism. Hinckle produced a half-dozen other books, edited a Francis Ford Coppola-owned weekly in San Francisco, penned columns for the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, and the San Francisco Independent, and published his own newspaper, the Argonaut. But none of these enterprises or efforts inspired other journalists the way Ramparts did. The magazine’s salvos so angered the CIA that it violated its charter against domestic spying by opening a file on Hinckle and company.
Although wildly productive, Hinckle’s flighty course must have been related to his affection for booze, which Thomas McGuane has called writer’s black lung disease. Like a mad general invading a continent, he had a habit of outrunning his supply lines of available cash. Although he was good at raising money, persuading people like Martin Peretz to fund him, he was even better at spending it on big magazine projects, promoting them with full-page ads in the New York Times, and staging Manhattan news conferences to publicize them. Long before Tina Brown showed up on American shores to play the impresario of magazines, Hinckle was creating big buzz with his self-promotion.
The facts never restrained Hinckle from chasing what he thought was a good story, surely an influence for developing journalists to avoid. At Scanlan’s he ran a memo purportedly by Vice President Spiro Agnew. White House Counsel John Dean’s first order from President Richard Nixon was to look into the matter. “The president wants me to turn the IRS loose on a shit-ass magazine called Scanlan’s Monthly,” Dean would later write in Blind Ambition, “because it printed a bogus memo from the Vice-President’s office about canceling the ‘seventy-two election and repealing the Bill of Rights.” The FBI, Dean offered, was also looking into the bogus story, which has never been substantiated.
“Paranoia is a little like dog shit,” Hinckle wrote in his memoir. “Once you step in it, you can never be sure it is not still with you. You try to scrape it off your shoe and walk on, looking back frequently to see if you are leaving any tracks, continually sniffing the air around your own person so as to be doubly sure, pitting one sense competitively against another, challenging the nose to be sensitive to what the eye cannot see.” No paranoid, Hinckle was doomed to live his post-Ramparts life forever being pestered about this first, fantastic act. It’s to his credit that he was more invested in his present and his future than his glorious past. But just because he was, doesn’t mean we have to be.
*******
The best Hinckle profile was written by my former colleague Jack Boulware in SF Weekly in 1996: Part 1 and Part 2. Hinckle once chewed me out for attempting to interview him at the pre-death wake he held for his dog Bentley at Stars restaurant in San Francisco in 1996. Hinckle, who had invited all of the city’s top journalists and power brokers to the afternoon affair for drinks, stared at me with his unpatched eye and shouted, “How dare you ask me questions at a time like this!” Bentley, I emphasize, wasn’t even dead yet. “Because you invited me, Warren,” I said. Send death notices to Shafer.Politico@gmail.com. My email alerts love muck, my Twitter feed is a lemon, and my RSS feed has writer’s black-lung disease.
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PostscriptLois McMaster Bujold has been nominated for the Hugo Awards eleven times and won five times. Ten of those nominations and four of the wins were for items in the Vorkosigan saga. From Shards of Honor in 1986 to Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, out this week, the series is still going strong. It’s a wide-ranging series, set in the Wormholm Nexus in the twenty-sixth century, exploring issues of genetics, loyalty, family and love.
When I wrote about it here I said:
It’s a series of standalone volumes that you can start almost anywhere, a series where very few of the books are like each other, where the volumes build on other volumes so that you want to read them all but you don’t need to for it to make sense. It’s science fiction, specifically space opera set in societies where the introduction of new technologies is changing everything. Some volumes are military science fiction, some are mysteries, one is a romance (arguably two), some are political and deal with the fates of empires, others are up-close character studies with nothing more (or less) at stake than one person’s integrity. It’s a series with at least three beginnings, and with at least two possible ends, although it is ongoing. Lots of people love it, but others despise it, saying that technologies of birth and death are not technological enough. As a series, it’s constantly surprising, never predictable, almost never what you might expect—which may well be what has kept it fresh and improving for so long.
If you love it and want to fill in the time between volumes, how do you find something else like that?
Well, the obvious thing is Bujold’s other books. She has written three things not in this universe, the Chalion books (posts), the Sharing Knife series (post), and the standalone The Spirit Ring. All of them are fantasy. They all have the solid worldbuilding of her Vorkosigan books and I like them a lot—but they don’t scratch the same itch. I want to read them when I’m in quite a different mood.
I don’t think anyone is writing anything self-proclaimed as influenced by Bujold—it’s too soon, I think, and Bujold is still active. I also don’t see much that does seem to be influenced by the Vorkosigan saga—if you can, please let me know.
If what you like about the Vorkosigan books is the worldbuilding, the way the technology changes over time, the complexity of history, the impact of the uterine replicators, the way all the books are different from each other and you can start anywhere, then I suggest C.J. Cherryh’s Alliance/Union novels (post). Cherryh also has the same kind of feminist angle on the future, with women soldiers (post) and thoughts about what cloning means (post). There’s a lot of thematic similarity, but I should warn you that Cherryh is grim. Some awful things happen in Bujold, but the overall effect of the Vorkosigan books is uplifting. Cherryh can be more like the middle part of Memory going on relentlessly. I love Cherryh, but she’ll never be comfort reading.
Another writer who writes planets and spaceships and very solid futures, and who has the same kind of areas of concern is Melissa Scott—The Kindly Ones (post) has just been released as an e-book.
If you like empires and spaceships and divided loyalties, try Helen Wright’s A Matter of Oaths (post). This was written too early to be influenced by Bujold, or I’d swear it was—and the influence can’t have gone the other way either, as it’s the same year as Shards.
Cherryh and Scott and Wright all have space stations with their own smell, in the same way Bujold does. They’re also good at having people actually work and thinking about the kind of details like Docks and Locks and bod pods that would need to be thought about. There’s also Walter Jon Williams’s Angel Station (post). And similar, though in many ways completely different, are the early SF novels of Samuel R. Delany, particularly Nova (post) and Babel 17 (post). If you like this multi-dimensionality, you’ll like Delany.
If you like the way Bujold writes SF romance, I can only think of Doris Egan’s Ivory series. If you’ll settle for snappy dialogue and plots like the romance parts of Shards, Komarr, and A Civil Campaign, then try Georgette Heyer. (Currently being re-read by Mari Ness here on Tor.com.) Start with Cotillion (post), though the very best one is A Civil Contract (post). They are Regency romances, written in the first half of the twentieth century. Warning: many of them have occasional appalling moments of anti-Semitism and classism. I started reading them because people kept saying that Shards was like a romance novel, and I asked what romance novels were like it. They’re not like Shards. But they are a bit like ACC, and they have the same kind of humour arising from character. You might also like Jennifer Crusie—Maybe This Time (post) is a ghost story, but the one most like Bujold is Faking It about an artist and a con artist. They’re set in modern Ohio. (Everything in this paragraph could do with new editions with covers that imply “Men read this too.” This is an unforeseen advantage of e-readers.)
If you like the way Cetaganda and Komarr are SF mysteries, there’s Adam-Troy Castro’s Andrea Cort series, and Charles Stross’s Halting State. In fantasy mysteries there’s Melissa Scott’s A Point of Hopes. The mystery series that Bujold acknowledges as an influence, and which has clearly been an influence in all kinds of ways are Dorothy Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey books (post). You might also try Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder books.
If you like the adventures of Admiral Naismith and the Dendarii Free Mercenaries, then you might like MilSF: the work of David Weber, David Drake, Elizabeth Moon (post), and Walter Jon Williams Praxis books (post) and Baen books, who tend to specialise in that kind of books. You might also enjoy R.M. Meluch’s Merrimack books (post).
If you like the fast paced adventure with the feeling that there’s something more there behind that, then James Corey’s Leviathan Wakes (post) and series might work for you, as might M.J. Locke’s Up Against It.
If you’re looking for other SF with a disabled protagonist then I have very little to offer. There’s Bob Shaw’s Night Walk, about a blind man who can see through the eyes of other people or animals. There’s Elizabeth Moon’s Speed of Dark (post), about a high functioning man with autism. This really is an area where Bujold is doing something really unusual.
If you like the glitter of neo-feudalism, the way an oath is breath and how there’s inheritance and mobility and loyalty and obligation running both ways, again this isn’t done well very often. Apart from Tolkien, obviously, try Dorothy Dunnett’s King Hereafter. Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover books (post) contrast a feudal society with a galactic one.
If you like characters you can really get to know and really care about as they grow and change, try Daniel Abraham’s Long Price books (post, fantasy), Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy (post, historical novel) and Cherryh’s Atevi series (post, SF, not as grim). There are also Brust’s Dragaera books (post). They’re fantasy, well, maybe, and they have a really great world that’s slowly revealed over the course of the series, which has been written out of order, just like the Miles books… meaning you can have similar arguments about publication vs chronology, if you enjoy those. You might also like the Patrick O’Brian books, which are historical novels set in the Napoleonic Wars, but which have a number of surprising similarities to Bujold.
What have I missed? Other books like the Vorkosigan series? Other ways you like Bujold?
Jo Walton is a science fiction and fantasy writer. She’s published two poetry collections and nine novels, most recently the Hugo and Nebula winning Among Others. She reads a lot, and blogs about it here regularly. She comes from Wales but lives in Montreal where the food and books are more varied.IN TAHRIR SQUARE and Homs, Egyptians and Syrians have risked their lives to demand basic democratic freedoms. In Britain, that nation of shopkeepers, the young take to the streets to smash windows and steal trainers and television sets. Greeks are rioting because they can see their economic future being washed down the drain of the euro. And for the past few weeks in New York City many hundreds and sometimes thousands of young Americans have been marching, or camping out in Zuccotti Park in the financial district, to “Occupy Wall Street”, because they are demanding—well, what exactly?
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To judge by the diversity of their slogans, placards and websites, you pays your money (metaphorically) and you takes your choice. But there is no mistaking the gist.
These people do not believe that the business of America should be business. A “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City” summons all those who feel “wronged by the corporate forces of the world”. Corporations “place profit over people”, “run our governments”, take bail-outs “with impunity”, poison the food supply, block green energy, “perpetuate colonialism at home and abroad”, muzzle the media and use student loans to “hold students hostage”. The protests have already spread to Los Angeles, Boston and Chicago, and were this week heading towards the nation's capital. Explicitly invoking the spirit of Tahrir Square, the organisers of a rally planned for Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, are demanding “just solutions to the crises we face”. In “creative acts of civil resistance” demonstrators will demand peace, freedom and “inherent rights”, including the inherent right “to grow edible natural food”.
It is easy to demand “just solutions”. But this is so far a movement without detailed policies. You might call them the Rorschach protests. Politicians and newspaper commentators stare at the inkblots and see what they want to see. If they see nothing very coherent, they offer suggestions of their own. For example, Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times, moving from the sublimely vague to the ridiculously precise, advises the Wall Street demonstrators to demand a financial-transactions tax, the closing of the “carried interest” loophole and stricter capital requirements (he suggests the Basel 3 standards) for big banks. Good luck with those catchy slogans, Comrade Kristof.
What the broader American left would love to see in the protests is a progressive counterpart to the conservatives' tea-party movement. And why should that be so impossible? The tea parties, remember, also started with little more than a (strikingly ungrammatical) cry of pain. “This is America,” yelled Rick Santelli, a financial reporter, from the Chicago futures exchange in 2009. “How many of you people want to pay for your neighbour's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills?”
Mr Santelli's televised rant against bail-outs has gone down in history as the birth harangue of the tea-party movement, which went on in double-quick time to capture the Republican Party and yank the whole of American politics sharply to the right. Like the Occupy Wall Street crowd, the tea-partiers did not have much by way of detailed policy when they started. That lot wanted to bash big government and restore individual liberty. This lot wants to bash big business and restore social justice. So why can't Occupy Wall Street become a tea-party movement for the other side, one that might jolt the Democrats out of their torpor, tug them left, and switch back on some of the electricity that Barack Obama generated when he was running for president?
One reason is that nothing sucks the energy out of a protest movement faster than winning power. And although Mr Obama still has his tax-the-rich moments, he knows he will not be re-elected by lurching too far left. The man who could use a fresh wad of donations from Wall Street as 2012 approaches is not going to align himself with those who would tear it down. Nor they with him: to many of the demonstrators, all politicians, including Mr Obama, are “Republicrats”, each as rotten as the other.
You've had your revolution already
The other reason to doubt whether Occupy Wall Street will become a tea-party movement of the left is its fixation on protest. But Zuccotti Park is not Tahrir Square and America is not Egypt. It is not even France. In France street demos are tolerated, sometimes glorified, as a way to blow off steam and win the attention of deputies who neglect voters or forget their election promises.
America is different. It is, indeed, the sort of democracy that some people in Tahrir Square lost their lives asking for. With endless elections and permanent campaigns, it is exquisitely sensitive to voters' wants. Its parties are bitterly polarised, so it is wrong to say that its politicians are all the same. It has its party machines, but groups that organise hard can use the primaries to prise them open. True, elections cost money; but Mr Obama proved that money soon flows to unknowns with momentum.
The tea-partiers grasped all this. They, too, took to the streets. Some strutted about in tricorn hats. But at the same time they learned their way around the machinery of elections and how to scare the bejesus out of any candidate they did not like.
The people behind Occupy Wall Street could follow suit if they wanted. Yes, they have every right to protest. Marches and sit-ins have played an honourable part in American history. The right of the people peaceably to assemble is enshrined in the first amendment. Nothing in the constitution says that you have to have a 12-point policy plan from McKinsey, or the permission of the New York police. If nothing else, these protests highlight the misery of millions during the present slump. But to bring about real change in a real democracy you also have to do real politics. It just takes work—and enough people who think like you.
Economist.com/blogs/lexingtonWynot had its start by the building of the railroad through that territory. [7] According to tradition, it was derived from an old German settler's common answer of "Why not?" [8] [9]
Census Pop. %± 1910 258 — 1920 368 42.6% 1930 348 −5.4% 1940 416 19.5% 1950 233 −44.0% 1960 209 −10.3% 1970 226 8.1% 1980 222 −1.8% 1990 213 −4.1% 2000 191 −10.3% 2010 166 −13.1% Est. 2017 179 [3] 7.8% U.S. Decennial Census[12]
2010 census Edit
As of the census[2] of 2010, there were 166 people, 77 households, and 51 families residing in the village. The population density was 922.2 inhabitants per square mile (356.1/km2). There were 89 housing units at an average density of 494.4 per square mile (190.9/km2). The racial makeup of the village was 99.4% White and 0.6% from two or more races.
There were 77 households of which 23.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.8% were married couples living together, 5.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.2% had a male householder with no wife present, and 33.8% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 13% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.16 and the average family size was 2.71.
The median age in the village was 50 years. 21.7% of residents were under the age of 18; 1.7% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 19.2% were from 25 to 44; 30.6% were from 45 to 64; and 26.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 48.2% male and 51.8% female.
2000 census Edit
As of the census[4] of 2000, there were 191 people, 83 households, and 52 families residing in the village. The population density was 997.8 people per square mile (388.1/km²). There were 90 housing units at an average density of 470.2 per square mile (182.9/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 100.00% White.
There were 83 households out of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.2% were married couples living together, 10.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.3% were non-families. 32.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.00.
In the village, the population was spread out with 26.2% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 27.2% from 25 to 44, 18.8% from 45 to 64, and 21.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 101.4 males.
As of 2000 the median income for a household in the village was $27,750, and the median income for a family was $38,750. Males had a median income of $21,389 versus $19,688 for females. The per capita income for the village was $14,937. None of the families and 3.4% of the population were living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and 16.2% of those over 64.Copyright by WHTM - All rights reserved (Photo submitted by Pennsylvania State)
Copyright by WHTM - All rights reserved (Photo submitted by Pennsylvania State |
, parliamentarianism v extra-parliamentarianism, party v movement – as if one ruled out the other. The question for the 21st century is not reform v revolution, but rather what kinds of reforms, with what kinds of popular movements behind them engaging in the kinds of mobilisations that can inspire similar developments elsewhere, can prove revolutionary enough to withstand the pressures of capitalism."I appreciate you letting me practice this style on your Dashi! You look gorgeous!" Zephyr said like a proud artist talked about its work
"Ya, whatever." replied Rainbow Dash, blushing. She couldn't believe herself how Fluttershy made her help this arrogant stallion.
"You know... you could made a perfect model with your... You..." he said with a rotating gesture of his hoof.
"Shut up, Zeph. I just accepted because I owed big to your sister. So stop flirting like a colt and just do that last job or I swear I'lll..." said the mare, irritated and impatient.
"Whoa! Whoa, there. That's bad for you mane." he replied with a suave voice.
"I don't care! Do that last style for Celestia's sake so I go...."
"Taking a nap somewhere on a cloud?" he cut her.
"Huh?"
"You know.... we could go there now so you, I mean we would be more... relaxed." he said with his usual flirting voice. That was it. Dash, stood up and left the place in a gush of wind startling the stallion and make him lose his balance. "Hey! Where are you going? I'm not done yet!" he shouted at the flying mare. She stopped and hovered.
"You are so toxic I need to take a breath of...." she began but shook her head to clear her mind before resuming. "I'm out of here! I got enough of you! Tell Fluttershy that she can keep that cider. I couldn't hold up in my stomach anyway just thinking how I got this."
"B-but you promised..." he stumbled on his words. "H-how am I supposed to practice my art?"
"Try with you mom!" she said before taking off. Realizing what she just said, she came back.
"Y-you changed you mind?"
"No! And I was referring to her mane!" she replied before leaving again.
Zephyr sighed, defeated. Her mother knocked at the door before opening the door. "Zephyr? Are you all right? I heard a noise coming from your room..."
"Yeah, mom." he said with a sad tone. "Dash just... She ditched me. Again."
"Oh dear." she replied with her soft voice. "C-can I be of any help?"
Zephyr's moral began to raise back. "Are you free right now?"
Lovely work
_______
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Zephyr: I appreciate you letting me practice this style on your Dashi! You look gorgeous!Rainbow Dash: Ya, whatever -blush-I really like these two together ^^__________Writen byYelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman AP Photo/Kathy Willens Joe Hadeed of Hadeed Carpet Cleaning got seven negative reviews on his company's Yelp page, and a recent court ruling means those once-anonymous reviewers may have to identify themselves, the BBC reports.
Hadeed believes that the negative reviews weren't actually written by customers at all, which would make their statements defamatory. Hadeed sued those anonymous reviewers.
He issued a subpoena to Yelp to learn the identity of the anonymous posters, but Yelp refused to respond to it, claiming anonymous speech was protected by the First Amendment.
The court agreed that Yelp must turn over its data on the reviewers. Here's the relevant bit from the BBC:
In a statement, the judge said: "Generally, a Yelp review is entitled to First Amendment protection because it is a person's opinion about a business that they patronized."
He added that users had the right to express themselves anonymously without fear of being identified just because another person disagreed with them.
However, the statement went on to say: "If the reviewer was never a customer of the business, then the review is not an opinion; instead the review is based on a false statement."
Yelp disagreed with the ruling, because it believes free speech, even anonymous negative commentary on the businesses in its database, will be stifled if commenters are worried their identities may be discovered:
We are disappointed that the Virginia Court of Appeals has issued a ruling that fails to adequately protect free speech rights on the internet, and which allows businesses to seek personal details about website users — without any evidence of wrongdoing — in efforts to silence online critics.... Other states require that plaintiffs lay out actual facts before such information is allowed to be obtained, and have adopted strong protections in order to prevent online speech from being stifled by those upset with what has been said. We continue to urge Virginia to do the same.Thespian and anti-apartheid campaigner who now runs the city’s oldest head shop wants drug possession laws to go to pot
If Lee Harris fails to pick up a single vote in the London mayoral election, he can be certain of winning the prize for best campaign launch party. The Cannabis is Safer Than Alcohol party (Cista) candidate raved until the early morning to roots reggae and dub at the Mau Mau Bar on Portobello Road. He is 79.
“Lee for mayor!” performers and crowds chanted throughout the night. Their exuberance contrasted with the softly spoken, unassuming character who has run Portobello’s Alchemy head shop for the past 45 years.
Earlier that evening, over coffee in a nearby Italian restaurant, Harris sat flanked by two supporters, aged 72 and 19, leaning forward over the table as he outlined his mayoral campaign agenda. You can guess what comes top of the list. “The archaic laws that have gone on here, the last 70 years of drug prohibition, have caused more harm than good,” he said.
“People should not be penalised or criminalised for possession of cannabis or growing a few plants. Young people in their hundreds of thousands have had job prospects, travel prospects ruined and they have a criminal record and I think it’s time that stopped.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest The sign at Portobello Road’s Mau Mau Bar on the night of Lee Harris’s campaign launch party Photograph: Damien Gayle for the Guardian
Cista sprang on to the political scene last year with a last-minute bid for seats in the general election. Bankrolled by tech entrepreneur Paul Birch, who made millions from the sale of the social network Bebo to AOL, the party’s aim is to push the issue of cannabis law reform on to the political agenda.
But Harris’s candidacy, and indeed his career as the proprietor of London’s oldest head shop, stems from an extraordinary mea culpa. He was originally a moral crusader and believes his actions played a pivotal role in the criminalisation of drug possession.
Originally from South Africa, Harris fled to the UK in 1956, aged 19, after his leftwing politics and anti-racist views made him a target of the apartheid regime. He trained for the theatre and acted with Orson Welles. But his early adventures in the UK club scene left him horrified.
“I discovered all these kids in the West End who were on purple hearts [amphetamine pills], 80 or 90 a weekend, and I became a moral crusader and I helped change the law,” he said.
Harris wrote to the Labour backbencher Ben Parkin, who asked questions in parliament and passed his number to Anne Sharpley, a reporter on the Evening Standard. He took her around the West End clubs and she began the press hysteria that was to lead to the Misuse of Drugs Act in 1964.
“It was quickly hurried in, amphetamines were banned, and personal possession was made a crime,” Harris said. “Personal possession has been a crime since then. It’s one thing I bitterly regret.”
For soon after, following a mind-blowing encounter with the poet Allen Ginsberg at the Royal Albert Hall, Harris went on to become a key player on London’s underground scene. After writing a couple of critically acclaimed plays, he helped found the influential Drury Lane Arts Lab and wrote for International Times. Later he was to found and edit the UK’s first ever drug culture magazine, Home Grown.
By the 90s, he was connecting generations by arranging Ginsberg’s last ever UK performance at the psychedelic rave club Megatripolis. He opened his Portobello shop, Alchemy, an emporium selling pipes, bongs, posters and books, in 1972 and continues to run it to this day.
Harris was also to find himself a victim of the very law he had helped to pass. “I’d gone in this little dive, this was February 1967, and I’d bought a five shilling deal of cannabis, it was so tiny,” he remembered. “And I walked out the club and I was grabbed by these plainclothes police and spreadeagled against the wall and they found the little piece.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Crowds at the Mau Mau Bar enjoyed ‘an evening of Hempathy’ with Harris Photograph: Damien Gayle for the Guardian
It was just the first of several brushes with the law that Harris has suffered over the years. But he counts his difficulties as nothing compared with those faced by London’s African Caribbean community since their arrival, alongside his, in the 1950s.
He said: “They came, and everywhere in this area [Portobello Road] and in Brixton there were signs saying ‘no coloureds’. Kelso Cochrane was murdered in 1959 by the skinheads, and no one was ever charged. Then the police persecuted them for smoking ganja. The riots of 1980 in Brixton and Bristol started from raids in cannabis clubs.
“I think London, which I would represent, owes a deep apology and a thanks to the Afro-Caribbean community who came with their lovely music and their warm personalities to cold, grey, unfriendly London.”
Sadiq and Zac who? Don’t discount the other London mayor candidates | Dave Hill Read more
In the event that he does wake up on 6 May to find himself installed in City Hall, Harris does have other plans for the city. He wants an end to gentrification, with residents properly consulted about changes their area. He wants the city to make more use of green energy. He says London’s transport strategy is confused and needs to be rationalised.
It is clear though, that his main focus is drug decriminalisation, not just of cannabis. LSD, psilocybin and other psychedelics should all be available, without fear of arrest, for people who want them. Those who have problems with harder drugs should be helped, rather than criminalised. “Condemnation doesn’t help, it only oppresses,” Harris said.
His prospects of victory are not good. The London mayoralty is a two-horse race between the Conservative’s Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan of Labour. And even some of Harris’s own supporters don’t want him to win. One woman, speaking later in his closed shop as we waited for his party to begin, said she feared that the pressures of the top job would be too great for a man of his age.
The locals gathered in the Mau Mau Bar treated Harris like a hero. Performers paid tribute to a man legendary for his kindness, his tolerance and his parties. Harris held court, introducing each act, welcoming guests and connecting strangers. He drank only water, but ventured outside several times for a cigarette.
Several days later, I received a call from Harris. He’d dialled a wrong number, but it nevertheless became a chance for a catch-up. “I’ve been aching all week, recovering from that lovely party on Saturday night,” he said, adding that he had been out until 4.30am. “Thank you so much for coming, it was lovely to meet you. One love!”Paris - French authorities have ordered a probe after more than 50kg of seized cocaine worth millions of euros went missing from the Paris police headquarters.
The theft was discovered on Thursday and a probe was launched, the police said. The cocaine was seized in raids that took place in July and was stored in a secure room.
"If the investigation shows that the law has been broken, very firm measures will be immediately taken", the police said.
The revelations are a major embarrassment for the Paris criminal police, whose headquarters overlooking the Seine and located near the famed Notre Dame cathedral have been immortalised in several books and films.
The headquarters attracted unwelcome attention in April when two elite French police officers were charged with raping a Canadian tourist there in a case that has sent shock waves across France.
The 34-year-old woman said she was raped in the police headquarters at night. She met the officers during a night of heavy drinking at an Irish pub and agreed to follow them to their workplace.… Because there’s *always* room in your house for another personalized art piece. You know you want your first initial framed and written like this; trust me, right now I’m regretting not making an “L”! Lucky for me {and for you!}, a botanical letter takes all of 30-45 minutes to make. Rest assured that I’ll be hitting the drawing board again very soon to create different letters using the same technique outlined in this tutorial!
I love botanical letters because they remind me of fairytales I would read as a little girl. Mainly, I remember big, beautiful “O”s beginning the “Once upon a time”; I loved those “O”s as much as the illustrations in the book! While embellished letters may look difficult to create, they’re actually a lot easier than you think — especially with the aid of a printer. Today I am going to show you how to create a letter with a botanical theme. Suggestions for use of your gorgeous design follow at the end of this post.
First, you’ll choose a nice serif font on your computer and print the letter you wish to embellish as a large-ish size. The letter I have chosen is “J”, and the font is Century. Once you print your letter, choose a piece of paper to create your illustration on. I have 70 lb. Strathmore drawing paper {cut to 5″x7″} all lined up for use here.
Put the printout behind your drawing paper, and tape both to a sunny window. Lightly trace around your letter with a pencil.
Your pencil tracing will end up looking like this:
Now, this next part is where your imagination comes in! I am using a botanical theme today, but you can use virtually any design scheme you want. The point, really, is to just fill in the letter with a pattern or illustration. I’m going to show you what I did, and you can either emulate my steps, or create your own with a different theme! You’re creative, and the sky’s the limit — do what you want!
I decided it would be easiest to begin by drawing some twisted tree branches in pencil.
After I drew these tree branches, I kept embellishing with florals and botanicals, as you can see in the photos below. To get inspiration for these illustration elements, I Google Image searched “vintage botanical illustration”.
It is fine to take a lot of time making your pencil drawing inside the letter. Your main goal is to get the letter to a point where it’s all filled in with your pattern or illustration; basically, it should look like a letter even without the presence of the outline you made in the very first step.
Once you have created your pencil drawing, you’ll want to go over it with ink.
I personally have chosen to use a dip pen {with a Leonardt EF nib} and sumi ink for two reasons. The first of these reasons is I intend to watercolor over the ink, and I know that sumi ink is waterproof. The second reason — and the reason I chose sumi ink over Micron pens — is sumi ink stays vibrant even after erasing pencil lines. I notice that generally when I erase pencil guidelines after using Micron pens, the top layer of the lines I drew with the pens is erased off, leaving the piece a bit dull.
Even though I am using a dip pen and ink, you should feel free to use what you like and feel comfortable using. Micron pens, Pilot G2 pens, ballpoint pens … whatever! Really: suit this projects to your needs.
Once you have gone over your letter with ink, wait for the ink to dry, then erase your pencil lines.
As I mentioned, I have chosen to fill in my botanical letter with watercolors. I know, big shocker there, right? I use watercolors for so many projects because they’re very easy to use: they’re not messy, they’re easy to blend, and they cover large areas of paper in a short period of time. I got this super-cool travel set in an Altoids tin from Greenleaf & Blueberry.
I like to do one color at a time, so I started with greens.
Then I did browns.
Followed by reds and some purples …
And then yellows!
Believe it or not, that’s it. A botanical letter will take you all of 45 minutes to make {that’s a conservative estimate}, and you can do a lot of really cool things with it. You can:
Frame it and display it in your home {of course}.
Give it as a gift to a friend.
Use it to embellish a wedding suite — ohh, and how cool would it be to make three botanical pieces: the initial of the groom, an ampersand, and the initial of the bride?!
Use it to make personalized stationery.
Keep the piece black and white and have it made into a stamp.
Have it printed on a tote bag, a phone case, or whatever using a site like Zazzle.com.
I used these for something a little different/unique: a booklet to be used at a celebration of life gathering for my great-grandmother! Basically, I scanned the botanical letters into my computer and mass-printed them using the FedEx self-service printers and 65 lb. card stock from my local craft supply store.
My family and I assembled 100 of these booklets; each featured the botanical letter glued onto the front of a 5″x7″ DIY card {created from standard, 65 lb. card stock.}. We then sewed a little story about my great-grandmother inside {pairing sewing and paper is always a good thing}, and also tucked a lovely vintage photo inside. We finished up the packet with string and a 1″ x 2.25″ rectangle with my great-grandmother’s name written on it in Kaitlin style calligraphy. I loved how all the packets turned out because of the intricate beauty of the botanical letters. It really is amazing that the letters take such a small amount of time to create; they look a lot more complicated than they actually are, and I truly mean that. Give creating one a try, and you’ll see what I mean!
I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial today and drew some inspiration from it! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments! Also, please accept my apologies if I haven’t responded to your comment on another blog post. I think it’s the coolest thing when you leave comments, and I always respond to comments … eventually!
Thanks again for reading this blog. I really love that you do! I hope you’re having a great weekend, and I’ll write again soon.
Warmest wishes always,Mystery and crime-solving adventures have always presented a fascinating alternative to typical fantasy role-playing game (RPG) fare, while also presenting a formidable design challenge for the Dungeon Master (DM). At first glance, it is apparent that the mystery fiction author has a pronounced advantage over the RPG adventure designer; the former has control over the actions of all characters involved in the story, while the latter only has control over the non-player character (NPC) criminals and neutrals. As a result, the challenge behind writing a mystery adventure involves how the DM can bring the protagonists (in this case, the heroes) to a solution to a crime at an engaging pace and appropriate difficulty while having no control over the primary characters whatsoever.
The solution to this problem dates back to 1928.
In that year, S.S. Van Dine, a popular detective fiction writer best known for his Philo Vance stories, drafted a short piece for American Magazine titled, “20 Rules for Writing Detective Fiction.” The very first rule states, “The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the
mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.” The detective should know nothing beyond what the reader knows or could reasonably infer. Apparently, the key to good detective fiction is providing a stream of clues for the protagonist to connect, and the reader derives entertainment from having a sporting chance of reaching the correct conclusion before the detective in the story. In order to do that, mystery writers must deliberately set aside a portion of narrative control so that the reader can make deductions as their protagonists do, and it is precisely that portion of narrative control that DMs do without every time they sit behind the screen.
For a DM, writing a detective/mystery adventure therefore involves providing that stream of clues, but since there is no race to the end of a finite book, it doesn’t matter how long it takes the players to reach a conclusion. Instead, the focus must fall on what clues to provide and the timing of their provision.
Thus, a DM could draft a functional mystery-solving D&D adventure by following a few of Van Dine’s maxims and accounting for conditions peculiar to the fantasy RPG genre. Following the steps below should be enough to help a DM to get started.
Step I: Detail the Crime.
While the default crime for most mysteries is murder – Van Dine states that no other crime is worthy of 300 pages of reader effort – a DM has much greater latitude. Readers looking for inspiration may find some in the Crime Scene Sunday category of this blog, accessible through the category selection box in the upper right corner of the screen.
Detailing the crime is simple. Choose a crime, identify the victim and identify the perpetrator. Choose a motive; some of the best are derived from the Seven Deadly Sins: envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath. Decide where the crime took place and determine what physical evidence was left behind by the perpetrator, as well as what precautionary steps the perpetrator may have taken to conceal the crime before or afterward. Decide if any witnesses were present, and what they saw. Keep this information at hand while drafting the adventure, since all clues leading to the solution must be consistent with the crime detail.
Step II: List the Clues.
Working from your crime detail, decide what relevant clues may be available to investigating heroes. These can include physical clues, like scraps of clothing, dropped items, items stolen or left behind; eyewitness accounts, which can create more questions than they answer; information available through rituals or other magical means and information either known or readily available to the heroes that has bearing on the case.
Step III: Add the Red Herrings.
While red herrings, or misleading clues, can serve a wide variety of adventure design functions, they represent false clues for mystery adventure purposes. Hint at more than one possible motive, leave behind physical evidence implicating innocent parties, have a witness lie about was seen, offer extraneous information and account for any steps taken by the perpetrator to cover up the crime.
Step IV: Start Feeding the Heroes Clues.
Begin with giving the heroes a list of what they could learn at the crime scene. Encourage them to add to this list, adding new physical clues, bits of information and interviewing people present at or near the time of the crime (and have answers for expected questions prepared in advance, based on your crime detail). A good method is to make a chart containing fields for what the heroes know, unanswered questions, suspects and prevailing theories the heroes hold at that point in their investigations. If the heroes stall in their investigations, use an NPC to feed them another clue or point them toward another NPC who has something to hide. Eventually, they heroes will identify the perpetrator.
Example crime: the murder of Althea, the baron’s daughter.
Step I. Althea was murdered by Oksana, one of her ladies-in-waiting. The motive was wrath. Oksana was secretly in love with a commoner in a nearby town; due to an unrelated misunderstanding between the two women which resulted in Althea being gravely offended, Althea sought to hurt Oksana by having her love arrested on trumped-up charges. It turns out that a recent change in the law, of which Althea wasn’t aware, made the charges a capital offense; before Althea could intervene, Oksana’s lover was executed. Enraged, Oksana concealed her lover’s sturdy hunting knife and made her way to the castle garden and hedge maze, where Althea was known to walk alone each morning. Oksana hid in the maze, striking as Althea rounded a corner. By virtue of luck, the knife pierced Althea’s heart on the first stroke. Oksana left the knife, which had her lover’s initials burned into the handle, sticking out of the victim’s chest.
Step II. There were no witnesses to the crime itself, but the castle gardener, a lecherous fellow who always kept an eye out for the beautiful Oksana, was pleasantly surprised to watch Oksana disrobe by the castle midden, wrap her outer garments around a large stone and throw them into the cesspit, not far from a flower bed he was weeding. The gardener was paying little attention to what she was throwing away, and didn’t notice the heavy bloodstains on the clothes. He has been warned about his wandering eye by the baron, and won’t share what he knows willingly. Another lady-in-waiting, Clarice, knew that Oksana had an argument with the victim, but didn’t know what caused the conflict. Percival, one of the scullery boys, once saw Oksana walking with her lover in the town. Everyone knows about the lover’s execution that took place the day before the murder. The only physical evidence left behind are the knife and a few strands of red hair (Oksana’s) found on the blond-haired victim’s gown.
Step III. Red herrings include a lute string found near the body (this was dropped by a court minstrel earlier on the morning of the murder), a pruning hook left in the hedge maze near the body (absent-mindedly left by the gardener, who is already under suspicion for his lechery) and the fact that the victim recently and publicly spurned a red-haired suitor, a wealthy man from the province’s growing merchant class, who happens to have the same initials as the executed lover. Some heroes may take the fact that Althea was killed with a pinpoint strike to the heart to suggest that she was murdered by a trained killer.
Step IV. The heroes will probably gravitate toward the initials on the knife handle first. Castle staff will associate the letters with the spurned merchant, since nobody but the executioner knew (or cared) about the initials of Oksana’s dead lover. Fortunately for the merchant, he was in the company of the local church abbot for the entire morning on the day of the murder. And he’s too much of a fop to own a hunting knife. The lute string will probably be next; the minstrel was performing for the baron and his lady at the time of the crime. The pruning hook places the gardener at the scene, but he had a long conversation with one of the stablemen at the flower bed he was weeding while the crime was being committed. The heroes will only know about Oksana’s red hair if they think to ask if anyone in the castle has red hair, but the hair alone isn’t enough to prove anything. If questioned, Oksana will state that she and the victim reconciled an hour before the murder, and the hair was probably transferred when they embraced in forgiveness. Only the executioner will link the initials on the knife to Oksana’s lover; he will also remark that Percival said he saw the lover on one prior occasion in town, but the executioner didn’t have time to ask where or when.
The heroes may have a break in the investigation when the gardener realizes that the heroes are seriously considering Oksana as a suspect. At that point, he may tell her what he saw her do and try to blackmail her for his silence, demanding carnal attentions as payment. This could lead to Oksna behaving strangely, like trying to recover the bloodstained clothing from the cesspit in the dead of night to escape the gardener’s growing power over her. Heroes observing such an act will probably have enough information to identify her as the perpetrator.
If the heroes confront Oksana, either from the executioner’s leads or by being caught trying to retrieve and destroy evidence, she will confess.
As this example demonstrates, it’s not very difficult to draft a basic mystery adventure, and with these four steps, you’re ready to draft your own.
AdvertisementsA tsunami warning has been canceled following a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which struck 58 miles east of the Philippines. The quake had initially been reported as a magnitude 7.9, but was later downgraded.
The tsunami warning had remained in effect for Indonesia and the Philippines nearly two hours after it has been lifted for Japan, Taiwan and several other Pacific states and islands. The Pacific Tsunami warning Center would later cancel the warning for the Philippines, Indonesia, and Belau.
The tsunami scare followed a magnitude 7.6 quake that was centered 58 miles east of the town of Sulangan and had a depth of 20 miles, the US Geological survey said. The agency had initially reported the quake as a magnitude 7.9.
The earthquake destroyed roads and bridges in the Philippines as people are fleeing to higher ground, Reuters cites Samar congressman Ben Evardone as saying. A 54-year-old woman was confirmed dead after her house collapsed in southern Cagayan de Oro, the towns mayor Vicente Emano said. Her grandson is in hospital receiving treatment. Seven houses in total were reportedly destroyed in the town.
Flash flooding was also reported in the region, while several towns and cities were without power in the central and southern Philippines, AP cites local radio as saying.
The head of the Philippine seismology agency, Renato Solidum said that residents living along the coastline of eastern Samar Island, which was some 66 miles from the quake's epicenter, had been advised to evacuate to high ground in case of a tsunami.
The Philippines are located on the southern part of the Pacific Ring of fire, a 40,000 km long horseshoe-shaped area where 90 per cent of the world’s earthquakes take place.
In February, more than 20 people were killed when a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck Negros – the third largest island in the country – leaving massive property and infrastructure damage in its wake. And in 2004, at least 230,000 people were killed in over a dozen countries throughout the region following a massive quake and tsunami.Third Party Ownership – a Brazilian perspective
The Portuguese connection
Should FIFA decide to ban TPO, it would also affect the ability of Portuguese clubs to buy Brazilian players. Portugal is considered a hub for the transfer of Brazilian footballers (David Luiz, Deco and Ramires are just a handful) and the country's clubs have a very sophisticated way of using TPO. The country's top three clubs, Benfica, Sporting Lisbon and FC Porto have their own investment funds which are recognised by the Portuguese Securities Commission. Benfica's fund, the Benfica Stars Fund is also partly owned by the Banco Espirito Santo.13
The practice is so widespread that, for example, Benfica's latest annual report shows that it owns 100% of the economic transfer rights to only nine players in its 27 man team. 14 For FC Porto, the figure is seven out of 27.15 The club argues that the system enables them to compete on the transfer market with more wealthy clubs and to build a competitive enough team for European level competitions.16
Types of TPO in Brazil
As is commonly understood worldwide, TPO in Brazil is the ownership of economic rights in a player, the underlying asset of which is the player's future transfer fee and sometimes even their future earnings. The economic rights of a player are derived from the player's federative right. This is the right of a club to be able to register a player with a national football association, by virtue of an employment contract between the club and the player, so that the club can field that player in competitions.
More specifically, the economic rights are the rights to receive compensation arising out of the early termination of this employment contract; so if a player's employment contract expires before they are transferred, the economic rights no longer exist and the third party investor risks making no return on its investment.17
In Brazil, there are three common ways in which TPO occurs. The first is when a youth player is first registered with a club; the talent scout, agent or youth club that discovered him may take a small percentage of the player's economic rights to benefit if he is transferred again.18 The second possibility is when the club transfers some economic rights (usually between 20-50%) of a player that is already registered with them. This usually occurs when a club want to raise money and a player begins to show potential.19
The third is when an investor owns 100% of a player's economic rights and then loans him out to a club.20 This is exactly what happened when Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano joined West Ham from Corinthians in 2006 and both players had 100% of their economic rights owned by investors Media Sports Investment (MSI) and Global Soccer Agencies (GSA). This type of ownership also occurs in the form of "straw man" clubs which are small clubs set up especially to loan players out to proper clubs.21
Of course, as we are now aware, the English Premier League did not appreciate the notion that Tevez and Mascherano's owners could have such power as to "materially influence [West Ham]'s policies or the performance of its team". 22 This does raise the question of what the potential risks are of having so much TPO activity in Brazil.
The dangers
As with TPO anywhere in the world, the usual concerns apply. Integrity could be compromised through match-fixing; if investors own rights in various players at different clubs they can, at least theoretically, fix the outcome of a match. There is also a risk of money laundering as investment funds can often have complicated ownership structures which make it difficult to discern who the ultimate beneficial owner is.
There is the ethical argument that the players are restricted in their freedom to decide on their futures as the third party investor would have a say in when the player will be transferred and where to. Though it must be noted that, generally in Brazil, contrary to the Tevez and Mascherano scenario, third party investors prefer to own less than 50% of a player's economic rights giving them less control over these issues. 23 It is argued that bigger percentage would usually deter a club from selling a player for as long as possible and potentially depreciate his value.24
As Brazilian players are generally very young with low levels of education, there is also the potential for them to be exploited through unscrupulous contractual clauses. Indeed, the lack of transparency and the fact that TPO agreements are usually confidential makes it difficult to ensure this does not happen.
There is also the argument that a third party investor would have an influence over clubs which would damage the reputation of football. After all, an investment of a player's economic rights is an investment like any other which the investor will want control over in order to maximise potential profit regardless of how it affects the sport. It is rumoured that third party investor Kia Joorabchian had a long term relationship with Corinthians and would influence transfer decisions made at the club.25 Another instance of this conflict is when Internacional unwillingly sold Oscar to Chelsea; 25% of the player's rights were owned by investor BMG and it is highly likely that they would have had some say on his transfer. 26
Perhaps the biggest conflict of interest issue in Brazil is the involvement of agents in the ownership of players. There are less than 20 private entities that control Brazil's TPO market and almost all of them have links to agents.27 High profile examples include Kia Joorabchian, who was not only responsible for the Tevez and Mascherano saga but whose company also had a 50% stake in Chelsea's Ramires.28 Another agent, Jorge Mendes, has an investment company called Gestifute which had a 35% stake in Deco.29 This is despite Article 29 of FIFA's Regulations of Players' Agents stating that agents are prohibited from receiving any payments from a club on the transfer of a player.30 This lack of separation between agent and owner is something that needs to be addressed in order to boost the reputation of TPO as an acceptable financial tool.
Regulation rather than prohibition
As the use of TPO is so widespread in Brazil, the concerns mentioned above need to be addressed so that it does not become such an exploitative practice so as to encourage those responsible for regulating the sport to ban it. At the moment, Brazilian legislation mirrors the same on the fence stance as Article 18bis of the FIFA Regulation on the Status of Transfer of Players. 31 Under Article 27-B of Law No. 9615 of 24 March 1998, the so called "Pelé Law", any clause where there is a third party influence on transfer related matters or in a player's performance is null and void.32 However the notion of "influence" is not defined and is a high threshold to meet.
Other than the Pelé Law, TPO in Brazil is governed predominantly by federal law. For example, Article 286 of the Civil Code supports the transfer of economic rights as it deems them to be the transfer "credit rights" which are recognised by the Brazilian courts.33 Moreover, as a TPO agreement is a private contract between a club and an investor, it is usually the general contractual principles of the relevant jurisdiction that apply.
In April 2013, the Brazilian Ministry of Sport made clear its intention to attempt to ban TPO.34 However, given how widespread the practice is, this could negatively impact football in Brazil. Rather, the practice would benefit from new legislation controlling it. Introducing requirements such as the mandatory disclosure of agreement terms and limiting the number of players a third party investor can own in one club or one league would go a long way in ensuring that TPO becomes a more transparent and legitimate practice.
Powerful sanctions also need to be put in place to prevent agents from dealing in economic |
back, playing with your phone, with the vehicle in charge — will happen before 2030. Yes, Tesla just showed off some wonderful self-driving features, and nearly every automaker has a team working furiously.
The technology is within reach now, but the liability (who’s responsible in an accident) is a huge question mark. It’s only going to work really well if cars can talk to and avoid each other, Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication? Sure, but it will be many years before most cars have it.
Closed communities, with only a few roads, slow traffic and common destinations — the clubhouse, the supermarket, the library — we can do that right now.
Jigar Shah (right) at SXSW Eco 2014 suggests charging for mobility by the mile. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)
And this scenario says goodbye to car ownership. I led a panel on car sharing at SXSW Eco in Texas last week, and it’s sweeping the country from established players like Enterprise and new peer-to-peer companies like Getaround that help people share their own vehicles. Autonomous cars fit the car sharing model like a glove.
“It costs $900 a month to own the average car, and I think many people would rather pay a cost per mile when they need to drive,” said Jigar Shah, author of "Creating Climate Wealth," at SXSW Eco.
Here’s the scenario: Happy Acres Retirement Village owns (or leases) a fleet of 10 self-driving mini-cars. As a homeowner, I can summon one with my phone and pay 50 cents a mile, get driven on my errands, and then send the car back to the motor pool, where it will park itself. I’ll get billed automatically as part of my regular monthly fees.
Costs will be low because there’s no overhead for drivers or office staff. The cars themselves will do all the paperwork. We’ll see this at least in pilot form before 2020, guaranteed.
Related on MNN:
Seniors, not hipsters, will get self-driving cars first
Autonomous vehicles will be ready soon — to ferry retirees around closed communities.According to the Global Language Monitor, the English language this week crossed a threshold as the "one millionth word" entered the lexicon. That word? "Web 2.0."
Global Language Monitor has a methodology by which it measures "new" words entering into English. Though "Web 2.0" has been around for years, GLM's method of counting requires "a minimum of 25,000 citations with the necessary breadth of geographic distribution and depth of citations."
"Web 2.0" met that test this week, as did "n00b" (word 999,998). Both words passed into mainstream usage today, according to GLM. Also on the listed of official new words this week: slumdog, cloud computing, Octomom (seriously, Octomom), sexting, defriend, and recessionista.
The very precision of the "one million word" claim is patent nonsense, of course, depending entirely on how you count words, what's excluded, and what the criteria is for something going "mainstream." GLM does not count, for instance, "the 600,000 species of mold" as separate words, nor do "the tens millions of lesser known chemical substances" make the list.
Stung by criticism from linguists, GLM's FAQ includes the question, "A number of linguists disagree with the Million Word March. Why?" And, in case the answer to that one doesn't clear things up, there's a second question: "Every so often, we hear arguments about the insurmountable obstacles in the path of estimating the number of words in the English Language. How do you answer these arguments?"
So, even if we English speakers are saddled with terms like "Web 2.0," "Octomom," and "Brangelina," we still have the privilege of working with one of the most supple languages in the world.
The answer to both questions is that estimates are used in everything from astronomy (how many stars are there?) to climatology (how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere?); language should be able to use the same techniques.
Which is all true, of course, but the cautious language of approximation and guesswork is totally absent from the announcement. "As expected, English crossed the 1,000,000 word threshold on June 10, 2009 at 10:22 am GMT," said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor. One is reminded of history's repeated prognostications about the year, month, and hour of the world's end.
But the larger point, one that goes far beyond the Million Word March, is that the vibrancy of English, which began in the late 16th century, continues undiminshed. The language has seen an explosion of words ever since the "new learning" of the Renaissance imported thousands of Greek and Latin terms into English, and a massive stock of French words still lingers in the language thanks to the Norman Conquest.
So today's international linguistic diversity is nothing new for the language. Many of the most recent words are American rather than from the UK, while others are Indian ("slumdog" and "Jai Ho!" were just behind "Web 2.0"). By some measures, English now has more words than any other in the world.
Simon Winchester, who wrote a wonderful book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and the mad, American, penis-slashing Civil War vet who made such a tremendous contribution to the work, celebrated English diversity this week in a fine Telegraph essay.
"I just cannot imagine any other language offering such opportunities for gaiety and fun," he said. "Reading recently that both the Germans and the Chinese have cracked down on the names people are allowed to have, and knowing that the French and the Italians still have gloom-laden academies to protect the so-called purity of their languages, strips out all the amusement and joy that is so very apparent in the tongue we speak so happily. I feel for them, poor deprived purists."
So, even if we English speakers are saddled with terms like "Web 2.0," "Octomom," and "Brangelina," we still have the privilege of working with one of the most supple languages in the world. Want to write entirely in English but adopt a Latinate vocabulary? You can. An Anglo-Saxon vocabulary? You can. French? Mais oui. An Indian vocabulary? We're getting there—and have been ever since "pyjamas" and "mulligatawny" entered the language.
So here's to English in all its crazed, orthographically challenged, multinational glory; may it live long and prosper, like some open source wiki run amok across the earth.Report: Dashcam equipment in Chicago police vehicles ‘intentionally’ destroyed
80% of Chicago dashcam audio systems are malfunctioning due "to operator error or in some cases intentional destruction."
DNAinfo Chicago has reported, after a review of over 1,800 police maintenance records, evidence that some Chicago police officers may have deliberately disabled dashcam equipment in their own vehicles:
“Chicago Police Department officers stashed microphones in their squad car glove boxes. They pulled out batteries. Microphone antennas got busted or went missing. And sometimes, dashcam systems didn’t have any microphones at all…
“Police officials last month blamed the absence of audio in 80 percent of dashcam videos on officer error and ‘intentional destruction.’”
The Chicago Police Department has issued about 850 dashcam video systems in police vehicles throughout the city. But a police department review showed 80 percent aren’t recording audio, according to DNAinfo. The widespread failure of audio recording became apparent in the aftermath of the shooting death of Laquan McDonald in October 2014.
The DNAinfo report continues:
“Between Sept. 1, 2014, and July 16, 2015, maintenance technicians assigned to troubleshoot and repair dashcam systems reported 90 incidents where no microphones were found in squad cars, according to police logs.
“Another 13 inspections during that period turned up only one microphone in squad cars that were supposed to be equipped with two audio recording devices, according to the logs.
“On 30 occasions, technicians who downloaded dashcam videos found evidence that audio recording systems either had not been activated or were ‘intentionally defeated’ by police personnel, the records show.”
Dashcams, like body cameras, are invaluable tools for accountability. Having an objective video recording of police activity and incidents helps ensure accountability, protecting both the public from abuses and police from false accusations. They can’t prevent every problem – much depends on what angles are captured and, ultimately, on the willingness of police supervisors to take disciplinary action and prosecutors to bring criminal charges, if warranted.
But if police are engaging in the “intentional destruction” of camera equipment, this is a very serious problem for police accountability and legitimacy. Police misconduct inflicts grievous harm on victims and on the community at large. It also costs Chicagoans millions: Chicago taxpayers have paid over $520 million in litigation surrounding police brutality over the last decade.
Cameras have been shown to significantly reduce complaints of excessive force and provide critical evidence in lawsuits about alleged police brutality. In San Diego, public complaints dropped by more than 40 percent after the city’s police department adopted body cameras. And a study conducted in Rialto, Calif., revealed a 60 percent reduction in the use of force and an 88 percent reduction in complaints against the police in a single year after officers started wearing body cameras.
But none of the investment in camera technology is worth anything if safeguards aren’t in place to make sure police actually use them.
Not all police officers are dishonest. But the city must take severe and immediate disciplinary action against any officers deliberately tampering with video and audio equipment. The public rightly expects basic honesty from those entrusted with protecting public safety. And in a time of intense public scrutiny of police conduct, more transparency and accountability can only help restore faith in local law enforcement.Japanese is a notoriously difficult language to learn, particularly for those only used to the Latin alphabet. There are also three different types of writing systems to grapple with: Katakana, Kanji and Hiragana. The eloquent squiggles and stripes might appear alien, but one of these Japanese writing systems, Katakana, is essentially phonetic.
To make it a bit easier to learn, British design consultancy johnson banks has developed a typographic style that incorporates both English language and Japanese script – which they call Phonetikana. They have created a typography incorporating phonetic sounds with the Katakana letterforms.
As such, it makes it a little easier to remember what each of the 48 characters in Katakana script sound like.
Check out some of the examples below and see what you think. Sayōnara!
Image credit: johnson banks
Image credit: johnson banks
Image credit: johnson banksIt really is pretty awesome watching the Republican panic about Mike Huckabee set in, especially as he moves ahead in the polls in several states. This quote from Sullivan really sums it up:
Every complacent secular Republican who has scorned those of us worried about the fundie right is beginning to squirm in the face of Huckabee’s surge.
And squirm is putting it lightly. Also via Sully, Ace:
Not that what one blogger thinks matters that much, but if Huckabee gets the nomination, I’m voting Democratic. It’s not just an idle threat; I just won’t vote for him and in fact won’t even vote third party or stay home.
Dan Riehl:
That Presidential “R” in 2008 will stand for nothing I believe in. The guy is slick but doesn’t even look competent. And if Republican primary voters are that stupid, they deserve to lose next Fall. To pass over McCain, Thompson, Romney and Giuliani ONLY because someone’s slick and a Jesus Freak, which makes him your average televangelist – forget it.
We will pause for a moment to let it sink in that the Dan Riehl right now views actual social cons as “Jesus Freaks.” Moving right along, Captain Ed (not freaking out like the others, but seeing the writing on the wall):
Huckabee has gained credibility at an amazing rate in this race. The biggest question is why. It appears that the evangelicals have begun to make their voice heard in this race. For months, they complained about the lack of choice for their constituency, even at one point threatening to splinter into a third party. Instead, they seem to have collected themselves and looked for the most representative candidate in the race — and Huckabee has the strongest record on pro-life and social-conservative causes.
james Joyner has a solid round-up of what the op-ed writers are saying, including Peggy Noonan:
I wonder if our old friend Ronald Reagan could rise in this party, this environment. Not a regular churchgoer, said he experienced God riding his horse at the ranch, divorced, relaxed about the faiths of his friends and aides, or about its absence. He was a believing Christian, but he spent his adulthood in relativist Hollywood, and had a father who belonged to what some saw, and even see, as the Catholic cult. I’m just not sure he’d be pure enough to make it in this party. I’m not sure he’d be considered good enough.
I simply can not tell you how much I am enjoying this. The GOP has been pandering to these stupid bastards for years, and every time I pointed it out I was called “anti-Christian” or something or other. Those of us who saw what the party was becoming were told to shut up, that it was good politics.
Enjoy your new GOP, folks. And here is something else to think about- are the evangelicals going to support Romney or Giuliani if you do manage to trash Huckabee enough to secure the nomination for them? Will the eye for an eye crowd learn to forgive and forget? Have fun!
*** Update ***
Someone else is enjoying this as much as me:
This, to me, is the critical distinction between a Christianist and a mere Christian. One wants to infuse politics with religion; the other wants to respect both, separately, and to keep religion private. I should add I do not want to banish the word “God” from the public square. But I do want that invocation to be as thin and as empty and as formal as the Founders intended. The current Republican party has reinvented itself as a force on opposite grounds. The party of Huckabee and Romney, the party of Hewitt and Dobson, the party of Ponnuru and Neuhaus is emphatically not a secular party. And that is why part of me, I confess, wants Huckabee to win. So he can lose. So the GOP can lose – as spectacularly and humiliatingly as possible. If we are to rid conservatism of this theocratic cancer, we need to start over. Maybe it has to get worse before it can get better. But it is certainly too late for fellow-traveling Christianists like Lowry and Krauthammer to start whining now. This is their party. And they asked for every last bit of it.
Can schadenfreude be fatal?As with any other dynamic running process, the MySQL database also needs sustained management and administration of which monitoring is an important part. Database monitoring allows you to find out mis-configurations, under or over resource allocation, inefficient schema design, security issues, poor performance that include slowness, connection aborts, process hanging, partial resultsets etc. It is giving you an opportunity to fine tune your platform server, database server, its configuration and other performance factors. This article provides you an insight into monitoring your MySQL database through tracking and analyzing important database metrics, variables and logs using mysqladmin.
Is your MySQL server running?
Obviously availability or up-time is the primary concern of any production deployment. But at the same time it does not guarantee that the running server will accept connection or whether it is running out of space. Still, it is worth to know about the server status. There are many methods to detect a running MySQL server:
1. Ping the server
mysqladmin –u root –p ping
Returns 0 if server is running and 1 if not. Even for access denial cases, 0 will be returned since server is still running. A remote server can be pinged by specifying the host name (IP or Domain if DNS resolution is available).
Eg: mysqladmin -h db.myserver.com –u root –p ping
or
Eg: mysqladmin -h 100.100.100.100 –u root –p ping
A running server will return:
mysqld is alive
2. Get the database server status
Eg: mysqladmin -h 100.100.100.100 -u root -p status
or
service mysqld status
3. Get server version
mysqladmin -u root -p version
The results will include version, uptime, threads, slow queries etc.
Get the MySQL Server Metrics and Optimize Database
The important metrics (server status variables) that reflect the health and status of a MySQL server are:
Aborted_clients: number of connections aborted because client did not closed the connection properly. Possible reasons are: client did not close connection using mysql_close() before exiting, client was sleeping for a time interval (seconds) more than that is set in the variables wait_timeout or interactive_timeout without notifying server and client program ended abruptly during a data transfer. After aborting a connection, server will log the details in error log:
[Note] Aborted connection 854 to db: ‘customers’ user: ‘john’
Aborted_connects: number of failed connection attempts. Possible reasons could be: a client without required privileges tried to access a database, client used wrong password, the connection packet was missing some required information, and there was a delay more than the connect_timeout seconds to receive a packet from the client. Check error log to find out the affected user and grant needed privileges. It can also be due to an attack like spamming, DOS or brute force.
A common reason for above scenarios can be: the max_allowed_packet variable that contains the maximum memory size in bytes is too small or queries needed more than the allocated memory for mysqld. You can increase this memory through any of the following methods:
[mysqld]
max_allowed_packet=32M
OR
shell> mysqld –max_allowed_packet=32M
OR
shell> mysql –max_allowed_packet=32M
Other reasons could be related to network protocols, faulty hardware, OS thread level issues etc.
Connections: number of connection attempts (both successful and failed)
Uptime: number of seconds server has been up. A smaller value my point to intermediate shutdowns or server crashes.
Threads: number of active threads (client connections). This should reflect an average concurrent amount of connections. Otherwise the Aborted_clients and Aborted_connections should be examined for high values.
Threads_connected: number of threads created to connect clients at the current moment. A zero and too high values can be issues. Too high can be due to either smaller thread_cache_size value or too many concurrent client connections happening. This need to be investigated against database attacks especially DOS.
Threads_created: Threads created to handle connections. An optimal setup ensures threads to be reused through thread cache. A too high value for this variable can be due to smaller thread_cache_size value and it should be increased.
Questions: number of queries received from clients since last server start.
Slow queries: number of queries that have taken more than long_query_time seconds. Identify the slow queries and optimize them for improving performance. Check whether the database uses proper indexing and queries are utilizing this.
Open tables: number of tables that are currently open. A low value for this and high value set for table_cache means memory is free and table_cache size can be reduced and vice versa.
Bytes_received: bytes of data received from clients.
Bytes_sent: bytes sent to clients.
Max_connections: maximum permitted number of simultaneous client connections.
Max_used_connections: maximum number of concurrent connections occurred at any time. If max_used_connections/max_connections is high like more than 75%, there are chances for server to run out of connection slots and denies further connections.
Max_execution_time_exceeded: number of SELECT statements that caused a time out in execution. Check the slow query log and error log to find and optimize slow queries, if this value is high.
Check above 2 values for abnormal hike in traffic.
The server status variables can be displayed by issuing the SHOW STATUS command:
mysql> SHOW GLOBAL STATUS;
+————————–+————+
| Variable_name | Value |
+————————–+————+
| Aborted_clients | 0 |
| Aborted_connects | 0 |
| Bytes_received | 155372598 |
| Bytes_sent | 1176560426 |
| Connections | 30023 |
| Created_tmp_disk_tables | 0 |
| Created_tmp_tables | 8340 |
| Created_tmp_files | 60 |
…
| Open_tables | 1 |
| Open_files | 2 |
| Open_streams | 0 |
| Opened_tables | 44600 |
| Questions | 2026873 |
…
| Table_locks_immediate | 1920382 |
| Table_locks_waited | 0 |
| Threads_cached | 0 |
| Threads_created | 30022 |
| Threads_connected | 1 |
| Threads_running | 1 |
| Uptime | 80380 |
+————————–+————+
OR
shell> mysqladmin -u root -p extended-status processlist
+—-+——-+———–+—-+———+——+——-+——————+
| Id | User | Host | db | Command | Time | State | Info |
+—-+——-+———–+—-+———+——+——-+——————+
| 51 | monty | localhost | | Query | 0 | | show processlist |
+—-+——-+———–+—-+———+——+——-+——————+
Uptime: 1473624 Threads: 1 Questions: 39487
Slow queries: 0 Opens: 541 Flush tables: 1
Open tables: 19 Queries per second avg: 0.0268
To see values of specific variables, use LIKE clause with or without patterns:
$ mysql -u root -p
mysql> SHOW GLOBAL STATUS LIKE ‘aborted_connects’;
mysql> SHOW STATUS LIKE ‘Key%’;
+——————–+———-+
| Variable_name | Value |
+——————–+———-+
| Key_blocks_used | 14955 |
| Key_read_requests | 96854827 |
| Key_reads | 162040 |
| Key_write_requests | 7589728 |
| Key_writes | 3813196 |
Check Logs Frequently
The slow query log and error log needs to be checked regularly to detect issues. An effective method is to monitor and investigate both logs and server status variables to identify issues and space for further optimization.
InnoDB Table Monitoring
The command SHOW ENGINE INNODB STATUS can be used to detect aborted or rolled back transactions. This indicates presence of deadlocks and the InnoDB configuration as well as client application’s deadlock handling mechanism should be enhanced. Below are some server status variables for InnoDB that need to be monitored:
Innodb_row_lock_waits: number of times operations on InnoDB tables had to wait for a row lock.
Innodb_buffer_pool_wait_free: number of times InnoDB had waited for memory pages to be flushed. This happens when there are no free pages available for writing and InnoDB flushes some pages first and waits for this operation to be finished. A too high value indicates that innodb_buffer_pool_size is too small and needs to adjust according to the work load.
Summary
The mysqladmin tool along with other MySQL administrative tools is sufficient enough for properly monitoring the MySQL database. Regular monitoring, investigation of any issues and performance degradations and taking corrective measures on a daily basis will make your database robust and well optimized through an evolution process. This is the desired and feasible way of adapting your MySQL database to fulfill its responsibilities like a faultless engine working harmoniously.Earlier this week the Guardian reported on claims made by hostages held by the Islamic State, identifying the speaker in the James Foley video as being an Islamic State member based in Raqqa, an Islamic State stronghold in north-central Syria. Based on that claim, and information in the James Foley video it’s possible to narrow down the location the video was filmed at.
In the video there’s not a great deal of information, however, it is possible to determine some information from the images.
It appears to be a hilly area, with barely any plants or grass, and in the distance we can see a green plain below the hills. In the below map we can see Raqqa, surrounded by green plains, with hills to the south
The position of the shadows in the video suggest this was filmed in the morning, with the camera pointing northwards. Based on that it seems reasonable to search the hills to the south of Raqqa for a possible location. But what details are available in the video to match to the featureless terrain in the area?
It appears the video was filmed on an area of raised ground, with the edge of the raised area circled in red in the below image.
Also visible is the edge of a track, circled in green, leading to a break in the rocks, circled in purple, which is also visible in this picture.
In this image, filmed face on to James Foley, the break in the rocks is visible on the left, with another small break in the rocks visible on the right.
It also appears that in the distance there’s no obvious structures beyond what may be trees or small individual buildings.
After examining the hill in the area, I believe this is a likely match for what’s visible in the video.
The below images show the track entrance to the area, and you can see in the satellite map images the rock outcrop would be partly covering the entryway, as it does in the video.
Also visible on the satellite map imagery is the raised area the video is filmed on.
Based on that information it appears these are the approximate positions of what we can see in the video.
When the camera is positioned to the right it appears trees are visible in the distance that are a possible match to the trees on the road to the north-west. It’s also worth noting buildings or other structures are not visible on the satellite map or on the video.
In the below images we see the view north, through the break in the hillside.
Again, we see very little beyond fields, and the occasional tree or structure. For example, this tree is roughly 1km directly north of the camera.
Having reviewed locations along the hills south of Raqqa this appears to be the only location which fits what little information is available in the video. Along the hills this appears to be the most isolated spot with any sort of road access, with most other areas with road access appearing to have structures that would be visible in the video. Based on all available information we can say that at the very minimum the James Foley video was filmed in the hills south of Raqqa, and likely at the location shown above, supporting the claims made in the Guardian that Raqqa is the possible location of the remaining hostages.
Update ISSE Net has produced this interesting counter-argument to the above location being the site of the James Foley execution.Of course, that could take a while. As technology rapidly remakes most parts of our lives, the furniture industry remains largely slow-moving and low-tech. For many retailers, midcentury furniture designed 60 years ago still qualifies as “modern.”
Even so, in recent years a number of furniture designers have been struggling to adapt — in ways big and small, subtle and not so subtle — to new forms of technology and the proliferation of devices like the iPad, e-readers and ever-thinner flat-screen TVs.
In a way, they have no choice.
“The rate of technological change has gotten so fast that we need to inform the design to reflect it,” said Ryan Anderson, director of future technology for Herman Miller.
In decades past, he added, designers had time to anticipate where technology was headed and to plan for it. Today, he said, “the space and the furniture have to be cognizant” of it almost instantly.
One way that Herman Miller is trying to do that is by hiring someone like Mr. Anderson. Two months ago, his job didn’t exist. Now, he works with the design team to come up with answers to vexing Internet-age questions like what the home office should look like when the iPad and other tablets and laptops have freed us to work anywhere. It’s still unclear, he said, whether people prefer to use such devices on a work surface or, say, on the couch.
But what is clear from a design standpoint is that, going forward, the company’s furniture can’t layer on technology as an afterthought, said Gretchen Gscheidle, who leads product development at Herman Miller and works closely with Mr. Anderson. She added, “We need to have our products accommodate that technology.”
Many companies agree and are taking that idea literally, judging by all the new furnishings that incorporate Apple devices. Consider the iCon Bed from Hollandia, its headboard equipped with speakers, an amplifier and docking stations for two iPads. Or the Fleur de Noyer chest of drawers by Think Fabricate, which features what the company calls “Fleur de Tech” — a fancy way of saying it has a built-in charging station for electronic devices.
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One of the most talked about of these mash-ups is the D’E-light by Flos, a sleek table lamp equipped with a dock for Apple devices. Andrew Shabica, a product manager for the company, said it made sense to take an everyday object like a lamp and combine it with the iPad or iPhone, “which has become a staple of our lives.”
Mr. Starck designed the lamp (he hasn’t abandoned the material world yet), and his involvement ensured not only a cutting-edge product but also one that was stylish too, Mr. Shabica said: “He can take our ideas and add geometry, lines. Rather than simply, ‘It’s a couch with an iPad docking station.’ ”
Some designers, however, are wary of this kind of mash-up, for obvious reasons. After all, the chair with the built-in eight-track player was once cutting edge, too.
“Technology moves at such a rate that it’s going to be redundant in a matter of years,” said Edward Barber, a co-founder of the London design studio Barber Osgerby. “As soon as the charging docks change, suddenly the lamp is redundant.”
So, it’s not surprising that retailers like CB2 and M2L are taking a more pragmatic approach, producing furniture that isn’t about incorporating gadgets, but rather about adapting to the way people use them at home.
The Scene XXL chair, designed by Gijs Papavoine for Montis and recently introduced by M2L, for example, comes with the option of an attached “tablet table” and an upholstered high back for privacy when typing or making phone calls. The Tucker laptop table from CB2 flips open to store a laptop or iPad inside and is low enough to use as a work surface while sitting on the couch. The company’s Andes bed has an attached nightstand with cord management built into the design, something unheard of a few years ago. But today, said Ryan Turf, CB2’s general merchandise manager, “we understand that a lot of people go to bed and put the iPhone next to their bed and still need to charge it.”
And as Mr. Anderson of Herman Miller noted, even in the age of Wi-Fi, cord management is still one of the biggest challenges facing designers.
“Seeing a beautiful piece of furniture in a beautiful space littered with cords and cables is not a great experience,” he said. “Making them discreet is important.”
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IT may not be possible to make them disappear, but as Harry Allen, an industrial and interior designer, noted, in many ways, “the physical world is disappearing.”
You can see it in desks like the Dyvel Table, an elegant glass-and-wood piece that has done away with drawers altogether. Or in the way lightweight flat-screen TVs and iPods have all but eliminated the need for big entertainment units.
“What’s interesting, from a design standpoint,” Mr. Allen said, “is that the computer gets rid of so many things. You don’t need clocks because they’re on our phone. You don’t need file cabinets because they’re on our phone. A lot of things that used to take up room, like records and books, you don’t need.”
Mr. Allen recently designed two apartments for women in their 20s and recalled thinking, “What is this apartment going to be filled with?” In the end, he left the spaces largely empty, with the idea that they would eventually be filled with art and personal artifacts.
It’s an aesthetic that the industrial designer Karim Rashid has been championing for years. Long before Ikea announced that it was making its Billy bookcase deeper because so many people were using it to hold everything but books, Mr. Rashid ditched all the bookcases in his home, along with his books, CDs and DVDs, as part of his own effort to dematerialize.
Mr. Rashid envisions a world in which furnishings “will start speaking or feeling the technology,” and cites possible near-future advances like upholstery that reacts to temperature, tiny speakers built into seating, and wallpaper embedded with liquid crystals that turn a wall into a giant TV screen. “That’s the epitome of dematerializing,” he said.
Still, “it’s amazing how little there is out there,” he added with puzzlement. “It’s almost like the domestic environment is the last to change.”
Many designers find his assessment frustratingly accurate. Asked to name a product that perfectly fuses furniture with new technology, Mr. Barber said, “Honestly, I can’t think of one.”
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While the furniture industry is good at thinking up new “trinkets,” observed Yves Béhar, founder of the design and branding firm Fuseproject, it has been slow to address essential changes in the way we live — in particular, our ergonomic needs.
“Sitting in my couch to watch TV versus sitting in a couch to type on my computer,” Mr. Béhar said, are two different needs. “We’ve had technology in our living rooms for 10 or 12 years, and furniture has not changed at all in response.”
The cautious approach taken by the furniture giant Ikea illustrates the problem. Before Ikea adapts its designs to reflect a trend in technology, said Marcus Arvonen, a senior designer for the company, the trend generally has to be very well established. The company doesn’t want to rush into a trend that doesn’t pan out, for one reason or another.
“We’re not doing frontier solutions for a small group of early adopters,” Mr. Arvonen said, but for a mass market. Ikea itself, he added, started using Wi-Fi in its Swedish headquarters only three years ago.
In an ideal world, technology would be integrated into homes in a more “magical” way, Mr. Behar suggested, in furniture with modularity at the core. In other words, he said, “you would be able to modify the couch that you’re using in a way that makes it adapt to new technologies.”
Until that happens, Mr. Béhar and others might want to check out Jonas Damon’s Alarm Dock for Areaware. Little more than a block of beechwood with a docking station, it turns an iPhone into a nightstand alarm clock.
Yes, it’s simple and retro-looking. But it also acknowledges a new truth: the device itself has become the furniture.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Traffic deaths in the United States rose about 9 percent in the first nine months of 2015 compared to same period a year earlier, the U.S. Transportation Department said on Friday, as low gasoline prices increased road travel.
The department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not offer an explanation for the increase in traffic deaths to an estimated 26,000 in the first nine months of 2015, the highest level since the same period in 2008.
The northwestern United States reported a 20 percent increase in road deaths, higher than any other region.
The NHTSA said 94 percent of crashes result from human error, and that it is working to address driver behavior.
“We’re seeing red flags across the U.S. and we’re not waiting for the situation to develop further,” NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said. “It’s time to drive behavioral changes in traffic safety, and that means taking on new initiatives and addressing persistent issues like drunk driving and failure to wear seat belts.”
The fatality rate for the first nine months of last year was 1.1 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, compared to 1.05 deaths per 100 million miles during the same period the previous year. That represented the highest fatality rate since 2012.
Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a group funded by insurers, called the increase in traffic deaths troubling but not unexpected.
“There is a strong correlation between economic conditions and the number of traffic deaths,” Rader said.
More people drive more miles when the economy is improving.
“New vehicles are safer than the ones they’re replacing,” Rader added. “Beyond safer vehicles, we know what policies work to reduce road deaths - strong laws that are vigorously enforced to increase belt use and decrease impaired driving and speeding.”
U.S. traffic deaths had been falling, with a 22 percent decline from 2000 to 2014.
The rate of road deaths was greater than the growth in vehicle travel. The Transportation Department said last month U.S. drivers logged 2.88 trillion miles in the first 11 months of 2015, up 3.5 percent over the same period in 2014, and on pace for the highest yearly total on record.
A drop in gasoline prices and lower unemployment means more people are driving and they are logging longer distances, increasing the likelihood of accidents. Traffic was up 3.5 percent in first nine months of 2015, compared to the same period the year before, according to government figures.RadioShack is hanging by a thread. The beleaguered electronics retailer has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in two years and is shuttering more stores right away.
RadioShack had tried to stay in business through a partnership with Sprint after it filed for bankruptcy and closed approximately half its stores in 2015.
Yet, on Wednesday evening, RadioShack filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware and said it would close 200 stores immediately and is "evaluating options" for the remaining 1,300 stores.
RadioShack listed assets and liabilities in the range of $100 million to $500 million each and said it still has 5,900 employees.
RadioShack was founded almost 100 years ago and rose to success on the back of consumer technology, becoming a popular place to |
if its next aircraft program will be a larger business jet or a CSeries stretched beyond 160 seats.
After expecting to deliver just seven of the aircraft in 2016 because of engine supply issues, it anticipates shipping 30 to 35 of the planes next year, reaching a full run rate of 90 to 120 planes in 2020 with US$3 billion of CSeries revenues.
The company anticipates delivering 135 business jets and up to 85 commercial jets next year, which is less than analysts were expecting.
Bellemare has announced two waves of jobs cuts this year to eliminate 14,500 employees and reduced its financial risk.
"We have made huge progress in 2016," Bellemare told analysts. "Our turnaround plan is in full motion."
2017 revenue forecasted to grow
The goal is to generate more than US$1.75 billion in pre-tax profits by 2020 in part by streamlining operations while expanding revenues to US$25 billion from US$16.5 billion projected in 2016.
In 2017, consolidated revenue is forecast to grow by one to three per cent with cash flow use improving to range between US$750 million to US$1 billion.
Earnings before interest and tax are expected to be in the range of US$530 million to US$630 million, which represents a year-over-year improvement of about 50 per cent at the mid-point of the range.
Meanwhile, Bellemare said Bombardier has put the resources in place to try and meet its commitment to deliver 204 Toronto streetcars by the end of 2019.
"We are very confident that we will get close to this," he said after a Toronto Transit Commission report on Wednesday expressed doubts about the revised delivery schedule for the streetcars.A Michelin-recommended restaurant has been forced to up sticks and move after its new-found recognition gave rise to a stellar 120 percent rent hike.
Forty-year-old Kai Kai Dessert, located on Parkes Sreet, Jordan, is known for traditional sweets such as tong yuen and sweet walnut soup. The neighbourhood institution was featured last month in the Michelin Guide 2016’s street food section.
Restaurant management recently posted a notice thanking everyone for their support and saying that they were honoured to have earned their coveted Michelin star.
The shop’s owner, who inherited the family business from his father, said that he had received a notice that their monthly rent has been bumped from HK$100,000 to HK$220,000, Ming Pao reported. It would have been difficult to carry on, he said, if it were not for a regular customer who agreed to let out his space on nearby Ning Po Street for $90,000 monthly—lower than the property’s market value.
Kai Kai Dessert will be reopening at its new location in March.Known for Tramps like Us, Kiss & Never Cry, and Ginban Knight.
Born: December 1st, (year unknown) in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Kantō Japan.
Interests: Writing, drawing, figure skating and blogging.
Married to: Shinji Asano (artist, painter).
Inspirational Influences: Year 24 Group, Moto Hagio, and her husband.
Her Aspirations: Ogawa grew up alongside her elder sister, who was nine years her senior. At a young age she saw her working for the infamous Moto Hagio as an assistant. Seeing this was difficult for Ogawa, and deterred her from pursuing her own dreams of being a mangaka. She heard how difficult the life of a mangaka was, and decided to pursue something more realistic.
Her Education and Career: She studied at the Tama Art University of Tokyo, Japan. After graduating she began working for the national newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun as a reporter. She worked with them until 1998.
New Beginnings: During her time at the newspaper she worked a night shift, which became increasingly difficult when her husband made his debut as an artist. Inspired by her husband’s accomplishments, she decided she wanted to work for herself, and began entering contests with her own manga submissions.
Her Early Work: In 1994 she won the first-manga award Mimi & Kiss from Kodansha. This spawned her debut work, Kiss the Unpainted the Face also published in 1994. Once she left the Yamiuri Shimbun she published another work Baby Pop in 1998. That year she began working as a mangaka full-time and has created many notable series since.
Critical Success: Ogawa’s most popular series, Kimi Wa Petto, not only received an award from Kodansha in 2003 in the Josei category (tying for first place alongside Chika Umino’s Honey and Clover), but was also reimagined for a theatrical release in South Korea in 2011, as well as for a TV drama in Japan in 2003.
Her Work Schedule: For her bi-weekly serials she drafts the story at home for the first week, then works on the animation at her workplace with the help of her assistants the following week.
Her Advice for Drawing: Her backgrounds are inspired directly from photos she takes. This makes them more realistic and accurate.
Her Personal Life: Ogawa appears to travel a lot, going to countries like South Korea and France, which she documents in her personal blogs. She notes that this was made possible when she decided to work independently, leaving the Yamiuri Shimbun. She also frequents art galleries, which is likely due to her having a painter husband. She will occasionally hold meet and greets in Japan, and continues to work on her manga throughout the year.
Her Health: She broke her right wrist in July of 2013 which caused a small hiatus in her work. But as of late 2013, she went through surgery and was back to work shortly afterwards.
Her Interests: Art galleries, traveling, food, the Silent Hill series and shoes (according to her blog posts).
Where is She Now? She is currently working on Ginban Knight which is serialized in the magazine Kiss by Kodansha. It is now on its sixth volume and is ongoing. She also blogs infrequently on her own personal pages, (links here and here).
Notable Works
Baby Pop (1998) 2 Volumes
Kimi wa Petto/Tramps like Us (2000) 14 Volumes
Baroque (2005) 6 Volumes
Kiss & Never Cry (2006) 11 Volumes
Ginban Kishi/Ginban Knight (2012) 6 Volumes ~ Ongoing
My Personal Thoughts on Ogawa’s Work
Ogawa’s work is mature, unconventional and honest. She draws from different scenarios, making for interesting dynamics among varying ages, classes etc. She’s not afraid to get her hands a little dirty, and it makes for more engaging reading that resonates with older audiences. Her art style reflects this, as her characters have drastic contrasts in style; their hair styles, dress and overall design makes them stand out amongst one another. She might not be the most prolific josei manga artist, but she definitely has note-worthy works that deserve to be looked at. Tramps like Us is one of my favourite manga series of all time, and I’ve admired her work ever since I stumbled across it years ago. Check out her work. You won’t be disappointed.
Sources
http://wol.nikkeibp.co.jp/as/cfl/0710/
http://ogawayayoi-ehsblog.blogspot.jp/
http://www.linkclub.or.jp/~asasin/archive.htmlWill Grigg says he dreamt of scoring against Manchester United as a youngster, after netting twice in MK Dons’ 4-0 victory over the Red Devils at stadiummk.
The 23-year-old, on a season-long loan from Brentford, opened the scoring after midway through the first half when he raced onto Ben Reeves’ cutback to slot home from 10-yards.
Grigg then doubled his and the Dons’ advantage with the cheekiest of goals in the 63rd minute, a cheeky chested finish past United keeper David De Gea from another Reeves pass.
“There a millions of children, and probably adults, that can only dream about scoring against Man Utd and I was one of those as a kid,” Grigg told the media after the match. “It’s a great feeling and I just can’t wait to see my friends and family and celebrate with them.
“It would have been nice to have scored a hat-trick but I was tiring and the Gaffer saw that. It was great to see Benik come on and kill the game off for us.
He continued: “It was fantastic to just be involved in that game and it was a great feeling to walk out and see the stadium like that.
“We felt before the game that if we turned up tonight we’d have a chance to pull off a result and a good performance and we did that.”
Although the players will be given time to enjoy and celebrate their outstanding triumph, Dons boss Robinson will soon have them focused on this weekend’s Sky Bet League 1 clash with Crawley Town, one which Grigg understands is an important one.
“As expected everybody is on a high but although the boys are pleased at the moment but we know we’ve got a big game coming up on Saturday against Crawley and once we’re back in on Thursday that will be our only focus.”Photo: Mark Nolan
There’s been a lot of talk recently about how to improve the game of hockey– bigger nets, smaller goalie gear, smaller goalies, more teams, and so on. But I would ask a different question: What’s so wrong with it right now?
It’s true that it’s getting harder out there for goal scorers. Last season saw the lowest league-leading scoring total since Stan Mikita could only muster up 87 points in 1967-68 (in a 74 game season). The days of Gretzky scoring more than 200 points per season are long gone.
But so are the days when only a few teams in a given year had a real chance to win it all. During the high-scoring days of 1969-1993, eight different teams won the Stanley Cup. In those 25 years, Montreal won it nine times. Edmonton won it five times. In the 20 years since, 11 different teams have won the Cup, and only Detroit has won it more than three times.
The scoring hay-day created some historic moments and essentially shaped the brand of hockey that fans expect from the stars of our game today, but I think many of those championship teams would be hard pressed to be in the top four or five in today’s NHL. The way the game is played today hardly resembles that of the ’80s Oilers, but that’s not to say that today’s NHL is worse. Far from it.
With the decline in goal-scoaring has come incredible parity across the league. What’s better from a fan’s perspective, seeing lots of goals or seeing your team in a battle every night? In today’s NHL, every game is important. Anybody can beat you if you have an off night. That’s the spirit of competition in a nutshell.
Strong competition was one of the driving forces behind the last few lockouts– maintaining a level playing field for all teams by preventing one team from simply forking over enough money to buy success. We’ve seen that come to fruition over the last two decades, and the league and the game are in better shape because of it.
Yes, the game is hard and only getting harder. But therein lies the beauty. Achievement in the face of adversity tastes that much sweeter. The season Jamie Benn had last year is equally impressive as any previous scoring champion who put up 30+ more points, if not more so, because he did it in one of the best defensive seasons in history. He found a way to score when the game was at its strongest. That’s quite a feat, and he doesn’t get enough credit for that.
I’m all in favor of tweaking rules that will speed up the game, increase player safety, and create more offense. Recent subtle changes have made a very positive impact on the game without changing the face of what we already love. No-touch icing has made the game much safer. Removing the two-line pass and giving a penalty for shooting the puck over the glass have helped create minor advantages for the offensive team. Those are great changes, in part because they made the game better without making it easier.
That’s where the current conversation goes wrong. It seems based on the premise that it should be easier to score goals.
If you are just looking to create more goals, making nets bigger or goalie pads smaller are obvious quick fixes. But to a lot of hockey fans (and players) out there, it’s not just about going to the rink and seeing as many goals as possible. It’s the game itself that we love. Call me a purist, call me afraid of change, but the game has evolved over time, and I think people appreciate that.
The numbers don’t lie in that scoring is down, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hockey is still the fastest game on earth. It’s still the most dynamic combination of speed and athleticism in the sports world. So if it’s not broken, why fix it?
Andrew Gordon plays right wing for Linkoping HC of the Swedish Hockey League. He previously played for the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, and Vancouver Canucks of the NHL, and won two Calder Cups with the Hershey Bears.
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PinterestI have updated the reflection package on hackage to use an idea for avoiding dummy arguments posted to the Haskell cafe mailing list by Bertram Felgenhauer, which adapts nicely to the case of handling Reflection. The reflection package implements the ideas from the Functional Pearl: Implicit Configurations paper by Oleg Kiselyov and Chung-chieh Shan.
Now, you no longer need to use big scary undefineds throughout your code and can instead program with implicit configurations more naturally, using Applicative and Monad sugar.
*Data.Reflection> reify ( + ) ( reflect < *> pure 1 < *> ( reflect < *> pure 2 < *> pure 3 ) ) > 6
The Monad in question just replaces the lambda with a phantom type parameter, enabling the compiler to more readily notice that no instance can actually even try to use the value of the type parameter.
An example from the old API can be seen on the Haskell cafe.
This example can be made appreciably less scary now!
{-# LANGUAGE MultiParamTypeClasses, FlexibleInstances, Rank2Types, FlexibleContexts, UndecidableInstances #-} import Control.Applicative import Data.Reflection import Data.Monoid import Data.Tagged newtype M s a = M a instance Reifies s ( a,a → a → a ) ⇒ Monoid ( M s a ) where mempty = tagMonoid $ fst < $> reflect a `mappend` b = tagMonoid $ snd < $> reflect < *> monoidTag a < *> monoidTag b monoidTag :: M s a → Tagged s a monoidTag ( M a ) = Tagged a tagMonoid :: Tagged s a → M s a tagMonoid ( Tagged a ) = M a withMonoid :: a → ( a → a → a ) → ( ∀s. Reifies s ( a, a → a → a ) ⇒ M s w ) → w withMonoid e op m = reify ( e,op ) ( monoidTag m )
And with that we can cram a Monoid dictionary -- or any other -- with whatever methods we want and our safety is assured by parametricity due to the rank 2 type, just like with the ST monad.
*> withMonoid 0 ( + ) ( M 5 `mappend` M 4 `mappend` mempty ) 9
[Edit: factored Tagged out into Data.Tagged in a separate package, and modified reflection to use that instead, with an appropriate version bump to satisfy the package versioning policy]In recent years, Armenia has become home for a number of immigrants from across the globe
Photo: Gevorg Ghazaryan
Lamarana Jiba, 27, moved to Armenia seven years ago from Guinea. She begins to cry when she talks about her homeland and her family she has left behind. But a smile comes appears on her face when her son Alvin runs up to her, saying ‘Mom, let’s go!’ in Armenian.
“I love Armenia. It’s safe and quiet here. It’s my second home. My son Alvin was born here three years ago. He speakers better Armenian than I do, and goes to kindergarten. He has friends here, and is a citizen of Armenia. I met my husband here, [who is] also from Guinea. He is a programmer by trade, but he couldn’t find work here in his field. He works as a DJ in Yerevan in order to provide for us,” she says.
Lamarana worked in a laboratory in Guinea. Her life turned upside down when conflict erupted in her country. It was then that she met an Armenian who offered to help relocate her to Armenia.
“Armenia is a calm place, the people are kind, they’ll help you. Don’t be afraid,’ he said. This man adopted me so that I could live in Armenia. I feel good here, as if I’m in my native country. I learned to cut and sew, I do African braids for those who want, and it’s even very stylish and in fashion now. I am always ready to work.
“I learned Armenian by talking to people, and through courses. I do everything like Armenian women. You should see how I’ve prepared conserves in glass jars for winter,” Lamarana says.
She is expecting a second child, and is sure that she will be able to stay in Armenia. She likes everything here, but is concerned about the issue of finding work.
The Coordinator on External Relations of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Anahit Hayrapetyan says:
“Armenia is a small country and is currently under a blockade; it has a number of economic problems and yet a number of foreigners from a number of far-away countries for various reasons come here, largely because of conflicts and wars in their home countries … Armenia then becomes their second home,” says Anahit Hayrapetyan.
61-year-old Paola left her family in Cuba and has been working for three years in Armenia. She says that she was promised to be taken to Russia, but instead she ended up in Armenia, which she hadn’t even heard of before.
“Armenia is now my country. In terms of integration I feel great here. People here are sociable, friendly and accepting. And everything is still great. In Cuba I worked in construction and I was going to retire soon. Here, I’m looking for work, but not knowing the language creates some pretty serious problems. It’s a difficult language, and you have to work on it in order to learn it,” says Paola.
An accountant by profession, 41-year-old Arlet from the Congo moved to Armenia together with her daughter. They lived here for seven years and left only a few months ago. When we met while they were still here, Arlet said that she found out about the existence of Armenia through the internet.
“I like Armenian food like lavash and tolma. I have good friends; Armenians are nice, they help you out if you need it. The only thing they can’t learn to do is not be surprised when they see dark-skinned people. My daughter went to school here … and several times during dance classes I saw how the other parents wouldn’t let their kids holy my daughter’s hand…”
“In Armenia, skin color is still a problem. I sent resumes to various places, but when they saw me they didn’t hire me: they probably thought that I’m unclean because of the color of my skin. But if we have a fight, you’ll see that I bleed the same red blood. It’s definitely not black,” Arlet says while smiling, speaking fluent Armenian.
The Swiss humanitarian fund KAZA helps with Armenian language instruction. Working for those who are looking for refugee status in Armenia and for those who already have refugee status, KAZA organizes a ‘Join in Society’ program with the help and support of the UN Fund.
“The program consists of three components: a course in the Armenian language, inter-cultural, monthly meetings and master classes. This is all connected to inter-cultural integration, variety and development. We organize tours around Yerevan and outside of it as well at least three times a year,” says the leader of the program Sona Khlgatyan.
She says that all the elements have but one aim: to help people adapt to this new atmosphere, to live and to integrate into local society.
The program is, for the most part, meant for emigrants who live in shelters and have been waiting for a long time to find out whether they’ll receive emigrant status or not. This is often a stress factor for people. The main aim is to change up people’s daily routine and to make them more motivated and interested in order to better adapt to life in Armenia.
Sona Khlgatyan says that in the informal, friendly atmosphere of the ‘Armenian over coffee’ course that she is taking, there are 39 asylum-seeking emigrants who are learning conversational Armenian. The themes are taken from many life situations such as doctors’ visits, bartering at markets and buying in shops.
“If you want to integrate yourself into this society, then first of all you must use the language. It’s true that Armenian is a difficult language and the difficulty of my course consists of the fact that it is taken by people from many different cultures that speak in various languages. We try to make the lessons accessible for all so that everyone feels involved. Our studies are conducted in about 4 languages: Armenian, Russian, English and Spanish, but the idea has worked out and when we help and understand each other, we move forward,” says Sona.
“Refugees and those requesting refugee status like Armenia because they like the atmosphere, they say that here they are well accepted. After getting over the language barrier, which is a serious problem for any foreigner, they find it easier to talk to people and they feel more confident when they look for work. I often hear the words ‘I’ll stay, live and work in this country,’” says Anahit Hayrapetyan.
She believes that all residents of Armenia could help refugees to feel like complete members of society by helping them get acquainted with the culture and traditions of the country.
“Variation gives new life to our country, and we are so badly in need of this. The expression that ‘an immigrant doesn’t arrive in another country simply with a bag strapped to his back’ is completely applicable to those that come to live in Armenia,” believes Anahit.Quantity: Change country: -Select- American Samoa Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Republic Bahrain Belarus Belgium Bhutan Bolivia Brazil Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Cambodia Canada Central African Republic Chile China Colombia Comoros Cook Islands Costa Rica Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Estonia Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) Fiji Finland France French Polynesia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guam Honduras Hong Kong Hungary India Ireland Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kiribati Korea, South Laos Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Madagascar Malaysia Malta Marshall Islands Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Nauru Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nigeria Niue Norway Oman Palau Papua New Guinea Philippines Poland Puerto Rico Romania Russian Federation Saint Helena Saint Pierre and Miquelon San Marino Saudi Arabia Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia Sri Lanka Sweden Switzerland Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Turkey Tuvalu Ukraine United Arab Emirates United States Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Venezuela Vietnam Western Sahara Western Samoa Yemen There are 6 items available. Please enter a number less than or equal to 6. Select a valid country.
Postcode: Please enter a valid postcode. Please enter five or nine numbers for the postcode.of Montreal – Kevin Barnes on “Aureate Gloom” and Why He Doesn’t Get Taylor Swift After the Flood – of Montreal is Playing Under the Radar’s SXSW Day Party Today at 5 PM
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The indie rock culture wars are finally over. That's the only real conclusion you can draw when indie bands win Grammys and underground music publications routinely give their most glowing reviews to Top 40 pop stars. For anyone who came of age in the post-Nirvana era of Pavement, Guided by Voices, and Yo La Tengo—bands that could flirt with mainstream approval but never quite escape being placed in the "other" category—this is a strange watershed moment, one that seems to have washed away a whole culture with its arrival. Count of Montreal's Kevin Barnes as one who is still getting used to the new terrain after the flood.
Though he has benefited greatly from living in our genreless present, finding a loyal audience despite the fact that he reinvents his band's sound every 18 months, Barnes admits that he longs for indie rock's divisive past. Perhaps that's why he revisited one of music's most subversive epochs for of Montreal's 13th album, Aureate Gloom, turning his ever-shifting focus to the New York underground scene of the 1970s. It was that brief moment, before punk became codified into leather jackets and safety pins, that it seemed possible that a new generation of outcasts would rebuild rock and roll from its foundation. In reality, that's exactly what Patti Smith, Television, and Talking Heads were doing, even if they wouldn't be the ones to reap most of the rewards, and it's this reactionary spirit Barnes attempted to channel during a chaotic three-week recording session at the Sonic Ranch in El Paso, Texas.
Having recently separated from his wife and longtime muse, Barnes could hardly have chosen a better template upon which to build his new set of songs. Where previous record, Lousy with Sylvianbriar, dipped into the American roots rock canon, here Barnes has made his most deliberate rock album, with glammy guitars and strung-out arrangements establishing a darkly chaotic mood. Heavy with grief and confusion, it's also Barnes' most unguarded effort as a lyricist, addressing the dissolution of his relationship with uncomfortable directness. Today, however, Barnes seems to have pushed all of that aside, and he's more interested in talking about the spirit of New York punk, the banality of Taylor Swift, and why he is willing to sacrifice everything to pursue his craft.
[Of Montreal are also playing Under the Radar's SXSW day party at Flamingo Cantina today (Thursday, March 19) at 5:00 PM.]
Matt Fink (Under the Radar): Since you took a lot of influence from the New York punk scene of the '70s, did you set out to make an album that would reference that era or did you find yourself using those references in the album-making process?
Kevin Barnes: It usually works that I'll start with an idea that slowly gets bigger and bigger in my mind, as far as what new direction I want to go in. That's why I made Lousy with Silvianbriar, which was tough, folky, and—I hate to use this word—but "Americana" inspired. I wanted to do something different from that but sort of use that as a launchpad, because there were things that I liked about making that record, which was mainly getting a band together and recording it as a band in the studio with a tape machine and doing it the way all my favorite records were made. So I wanted to continue on in that direction, but musically I wanted to do something that was more adventurous and take more chances sonically. So that was where my head was at, and I always gravitate toward these things organically, and then move on to the next thing. So I was in that state of mind, thinking about Patti Smith and the early punk scene that was happening in New York in the early and mid-'70s and how it all came out of The New York Dolls and Patti Smith and Television and Richard Hell and The Voidoids and Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers and all that stuff. I was really getting deep into that mythology, and I got the Richard Hell biography, which was really great. Basically, I was smitten and deep into that world.
But, musically, I don't know how much it sounds like that stuff. It's very much collagey, in that this one section sounds like T. Rex and this other section sounds like Television and the next section feels like something else. It's not really an homage to any of those bands. If I didn't say it, I don't know if anyone would even pick up on the influence.
Listening to the record, I was thinking about whether I could actually trace that influence, and I think where I can hear it most is in the attitude. A lot of the '70s New York music has a defiant swagger to it, and I heard that in this record.
Yeah, I think that's what appealed to me—that rock and roll swagger that was backed by a poetic sensibility. It's not how punk evolved into this screamy, bratty thing. Its origins were in people like Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine and Richard Hell, and all of them probably consider themselves poets as much as musicians. So it's not just about people getting fucked up and wearing ripped up clothes; it's sophisticated thinkers who were making this music. If anything, that was a big inspiration for me. How do you make something that has the cool aspects of rock and roll? That's a weird word to use anymore, but I feel like the spirit of rock and roll is this rebellious and sexual and dangerous spirit that can still exist. So I wanted to use that but also combine it with these other elements that could be more intellectual or academic or funky or whatever it is. That's the wild thing—there's so many different ways that you can shoot off into these other directions, but the source is still the same.
On a certain level, it's kind of a reaction to the direction modern music is moving in. I feel like it's becoming more and more detached and vapid and stylistic in a way I can't really identify with very much. It feels like male estrogen is dominating. [Laughs] That might seem like a strangely misogynistic thing to say, but I don't think it is. Patti Smith is every bit as powerful as Johnny Rotten, even more powerful in my mind. She's more of a hero in my mind than so many dudes. But the spirit that is behind the creation of things...it's very interesting.
When I was growing up and getting into music, there was a very definite us versus them mentality, as far as cliques would form and music would be a defining characteristic of the clique. "We're the kind of people who listen to this kind of music, and those are the kinds of people who listen to that kind of music." For me, because I'm obsessed with music, it would be hard for me to hang out with a bunch of jocks who only listen to country music. They might be nice, but I wouldn't do it. I wanted to hang out with people who liked the kind of music I liked, and I wouldn't take seriously mainstream things that seemed like products. So now Taylor Swift's record comes out and people seemingly take it seriously, like it's any other thing that's good. But it's obviously not good; it's terrible. But people I know and respect will listen to Taylor Swift, and she'll be just another thing they listen to. They don't have this violent reaction to her, like, "Fuck her! She needs to go away!" [Laughs] They're like, "Oh, cool! A Taylor Swift song! That's fun." I feel like we, as a culture, are becoming so strangely homogenized that people can accept everything and nothing is bad. We have no concept of authenticity or good or bad or phony or legitimate—it's all just blending together. Things that not that long ago would have seemed campy...there's almost no concept of camp anymore. So it's a strange time to exist.
I did this thing in Chicago at this art museum for a David Bowie exhibition, talking about Bowie and playing some of his songs. And I was thinking about how you can compare Bowie to Lady Gaga, and you could say on some level they are similar. But what Lady Gaga does is in no way subversive—at least I don't think so. I think she's way more of a cartoon and safe. I don't think there are that many parents who say, "You can't listen to Lady Gaga! She'll make you gay." But thinking about Bowie in the London in the '70s, it must have been dangerous to be Bowie or to be a Bowie fan. I imagine people got beat up all the time. But no one is going to beat you up because you like Lady Gaga.
So it's strange how things have evolved, and on some level, it's great that no one is getting beat up because they like Lady Gaga. But on the other side of the coin, that must mean music isn't as important. It's not as divisive and it probably won't have the same cultural or historical impact. I was reading some stupid article on Kesha and how she's suing her producer because he treated her badly and gave her an eating disorder. But people like Kesha will pop up, and Iggy Azalea is the Kesha of the moment. Now those people can pop up, become a sensation, play Saturday Night Live, get on the radio, do some big tours, and do a big collaboration with some other established artist, and then disappear. But it doesn't matter because there's no real soul in it or intellectualism in it. It doesn't create any real sense of community. The one thing about Lady Gaga is that she has been able to establish a sense of community, so she has established an us versus them with her Little Monsters or whatever. But with the other people, they're just like a new product that's exciting, like the new iPhone or whatever. But it's very disposable and has almost no lifespan potential. It just needs to be somebody, and it could be anybody.
That's an interesting point, especially in regards to Taylor Swift, because if everything is celebrated it's almost impossible to be subversive. If all music is more or less legitimate, how can you subvert expectations?
Yeah, and the more commercially successful you are, the harder it is. But someone like Taylor Swift, I don't even know if she's real. She kind of seems like a cyborg with her willingness to just become a brand. It's so bizarre to me the way corporate America has gotten behind music. I saw that Usher is releasing a song at the bottom of a cereal box, like he's sponsored by Honey Nut Cheerios or something, and he's releasing his new song as the prize at the bottom of the box. [Laughs] And it's like how Taylor Swift life-size cutouts are in Subways all over the country, and you walk into Target and all the TV screens have Taylor Swift on them. And then you watch a music video, and you're like "Wait. Is this a Target commercial or is this an actual Taylor Swift video?" But it doesn't really matter which one it is. So it's weird in that the blending of it is so confusing, but it's so wildly successful.
I don't think I would have heard any of her music without having a nine-year-old daughter that is super excited about contemporary things like that. She can listen to it and watch the video and be like, "Wow! It's cool!" She doesn't have the same hang-ups that I have, which is interesting to me. It forces me to potentially have a different perspective on it and see it through her eyes and why she likes it. Is that why it's popular? I grew up in a different time and these things were seen as a threat to what I do. These things can't be celebrated, because if we're numbing ourselves with garbage like this...it must be how a chef feels every time he passes a McDonalds. "We can't allow this. If people are accepting this and celebrating this, how can they possibly get into what I do?" But on the other hand, it's good that so many people like that [kind of music], because naturally there's going to be a reaction to that, where people say, "Oh, I hate that shit. There's got to be something better," and they'll look for something that is not that. On a certain level, you need something terrible that's not you to make you seem better. [Laughs]
I remember reading a lot of the Taylor Swift reviews, and the point that turns up over and over is that the songs might not have a lot of depth but they're extremely well crafted, which seems like a strange way to praise them.
Totally. Because then it's not really about art anymore, it's kind of an imitation of art, like, "You're really good at imitating this thing that we like," but it's not coming from an organic place necessarily. It's like a bunch of scientists cracking a code, like, "What do people react to? There are certain beats and melody lines that people like. And you can't go minor too long, but it's probably good to go minor for just a little bit so the major moments feel more uplifting." The thing that blew my mind from the two songs that I heard from her was how self-referential it was, like a wink the whole time, like "Everybody knows my backstory." I'm always listening to lyrics, and I wish I didn't know this, but I know she has a lot of songs about famous boyfriends that treated her badly, like John Mayer. And this record has a lot of references to that, like, "They say I can't keep a boy" and then looking at the camera with a wink, because we're all privy to her personal information. It's creepy in a way.
This new of Montreal record has some of your most personal writing, given the subject matter. Was it hard to know where to draw the line for exposing too much about yourself or for the people involved?
Yeah, I totally crossed the line. I shouldn't have said the things I said or exposed. I'm going to make life difficult for a couple people, so on a certain level I can see it was sort of reckless and irresponsible of me to sing such personal lyrics. Hopefully nothing too terrible happens. [Laughs] On a certain level, I can't see how else to write. If I want to write about my personal life, which is the most natural thing for me to do, I need to expose certain things. I don't want to be censoring myself, and I don't want to be self-conscious about the process. It's kind of a fine line between exposing too much and trying to hide too much.
When you're writing these songs, do you have a sense of how vulnerable |
-elisp-sections () (setq imenu-prev-index-position-function nil) (add-to-list 'imenu-generic-expression '("Sections" "^;;;; \\(.+\\)$" 1) t)) (add-hook 'emacs-lisp-mode-hook 'imenu-elisp-sections)
Which provides rough structure to the init file with section headings that look like
;;;; BINDINGS... ;;;; HOOKS...
So when I imenu (using helm-imenu in my case), I get this:
And boy that’s nice.
How about this:
(defun init-imenu (p) (interactive "P") (find-file-existing "~/.emacs.d/init.el") (widen) (helm-imenu) (if p (init-narrow-to-section)))
Bind that globally, and any time you get the urge to change your emacs config, you can immediately jump to the desired part of your config, by section or by function. init-narrow-to-secion is just:
(defun init-narrow-to-section () (interactive) (save-excursion (beginning-of-line) (unless (looking-at "^;;;;") (re-search-backward "^;;;;" nil t)) (push-mark) (next-line) (re-search-forward "^;;;;" nil t) (previous-line) (narrow-to-region (region-beginning) (region-end))))
Which is sometimes nice.
The downside is that dependency is now handled by order of code (from top to bottom) rather than the more robust require system. But it’s a small downside, which hasn’t caused me much pain, and one that can be remedied as needed by pulling any of your more library-ish stuff into a separate file and requiring it when desired.
(Probably obvious, but I’m talking about settings and hooks and bindings and one-off functions here. My plugins are not inlined in my init.el. That would be craaazy.)
You?
I challenge you to challenge yourself to consider why you care about emacs startup time. Is it the same reason I cared? Because all the emacs literature told you you cared?
Or perhaps someone out there has a head-slappingly simple system for auto-loading and configuring everything with no added complexity, in which case, I’m very curious to hear about it.
I’m also interested how folks with non-trivial emacs configurations are organizing them. Or if you adopt the one-big-ass-init-file approach, I’m curious to hear how your milage varies.Apple says that it intends to bolster the U.S. manufacturing sector by creating a $1 billion “advanced manufacturing fund” — with some of that initial money going toward a company the tech giant is prepared to partner with, chief executive Tim Cook said.
The announcement, which Cook made Wednesday on CNBC, comes after months of focus by President Trump on jobs, manufacturing and the global economy. Cook did not appear to suggest that his company's decision was influenced by Trump. But the president has showered praise on companies such as Carrier, SoftBank and Charter Communications for promising to hire more American workers — even if some of those pledges predated Trump's tenure.
Unlike those firms, Apple's announcement was not a hiring promise; the company simply said that it was hoping to promote U.S. manufacturing with its new fund.
“We've talked to a company we're going to invest in already,” Cook said.
Apple intends to invest in programs that can train workers how to code, Cook added. But much of the money for this effort will be borrowed rather than drawn from its substantial cash reserves.
Cook has spoken previously about the shortage of U.S. workers who can perform advanced manufacturing. Advanced manufacturing differs from typical manufacturing in that it often requires specialized skills to produce highly engineered components that go into Apple's products.
“The U.S., over time, began to stop having as many vocational kind of skills,” Cook told “60 Minutes” in 2015. “I mean, you can take every tool and die maker in the United States and probably put them in a room that we’re currently sitting in. In China, you would have to have multiple football fields.”
Apple has taken some steps to highlight a commitment to U.S. jobs. In 2013, the company announced that it would begin manufacturing its high-end Mac Pro computer in Texas.
But in recent years, the Mac Pro's reputation has faltered amid complaints that the device is difficult to upgrade and poorly suited for next-generation computing. The share of Apple customers who use the Mac Pro are in the single digits, according to company executives in a recent interview with a number of Silicon Valley journalists — raising questions about the state of Apple's U.S. manufacturing presence.
An Apple spokesman declined to comment for this story. Cook said Apple would release more details about its plans for the manufacturing fund later this month.
Even as it pledges to spend big on what Trump views as a major priority, Apple and other tech companies still have billions of dollars in revenues stashed overseas. Bringing that money home would likely incur a hefty tax bill — which is why Trump has proposed slashing corporate tax rates in a way that encourages businesses to repatriate those funds.
Cook said that he's hopeful the Trump administration can succeed with that push.
Labor economists say that restoring U.S. manufacturing jobs will be difficult at a time when automation is increasingly threatening to replace many workers. Businesses may move their factories back to the United States, but because American workers are still more expensive to employ than robots, those corporate decisions may not lead to an uptick in hiring.
“The mentality is, ‘Can we increase our output first by becoming more efficient by using better technology as the first resort?’ ” Augustine Tantillo, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, told the Los Angeles Times.
Analysts predict that even highly specialized industries such as law or radiology may be shaken up by artificial intelligence. And the trend isn't just problematic for older workers; by 2030, more than a third of all U.S. jobs may be done by robots, according to a recent study by the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.Massive opportunities in urban transportation are emerging as the industry transitions from per-vehicle to per-mile economics
Growing up, I dreamed of owning cars I would be proud to wax, polish, and cruise around my neighborhood. Today, I dread the prospect of being weighed down by a rapidly depreciating hunk of plastic and metal. Now all I want is a pleasant transportation experience.
Millennials share my sentiment toward vehicle ownership, and many of them are embracing the convenience of ride sharing.
The trillion-dollar auto industry is being turned on its head. Automotive companies are getting squeezed as car sales drop and newcomers eat their margins.
As part of this shift, the industry is transitioning from per-vehicle to per-mile economics. Historically, the automotive industry has been measured by how quickly it assembles cars, pushes them to customers, lends money against them, and collects money to maintain and upgrade them.
Tomorrow, the industry will be measured by how many miles it moves passengers, and how much margin it generates on every mile traveled.
Vehicles will travel 3.17 trillion miles in 2017 — a 7.8% increase from five years ago. The trend will continue: The rise of electric vehicles and automated driving mean we can expect a lower environmental and labor impact, as well as lower prices.
Automakers should not worry about being put out of business. Some will not survive the evolution. A but a number of them will be key players in tomorrow’s per-mile realm. Some will become white-label, commodity producers of vehicles for Uber, Lyft, or Zoox fleets. Others, such as GM, Audi, and BMW, may choose to compete with the ride-sharing giants and operate their own fleets.
Which businesses are positioned to capture the majority of the dollars for the many billions of miles driven? A few possibilities:
Insurance: Robo-taxi technology has almost arrived. So far, there isn’t a legal framework in which an operator can offer autonomous services. Such a framework would help to set limits on the liabilities of passengers, operators, and technology vendors. When the limits of those liabilities are known, insurers can design and offer policies for each group. Startups will need to take a leadership role in helping insurance companies model the risk of computer vision, AI and other technology malfunctioning. Given the expectation of slower auto sales, incumbent insurance companies should be delighted to pursue this nascent market, which could turn into the bulk of their business someday.
Robo-taxi technology has almost arrived. So far, there isn’t a legal framework in which an operator can offer autonomous services. Such a framework would help to set limits on the liabilities of passengers, operators, and technology vendors. When the limits of those liabilities are known, insurers can design and offer policies for each group. Startups will need to take a leadership role in helping insurance companies model the risk of computer vision, AI and other technology malfunctioning. Given the expectation of slower auto sales, incumbent insurance companies should be delighted to pursue this nascent market, which could turn into the bulk of their business someday. Compliance: Limiting operators’ liabilities will require strict safety regulation compliance. These regulations could include building and running simulations on the AI, as well as monitoring and auditing tele-operations (i.e., humans remotely overseeing the autonomous vehicles).
Limiting operators’ liabilities will require strict safety regulation compliance. These regulations could include building and running simulations on the AI, as well as monitoring and auditing tele-operations (i.e., humans remotely overseeing the autonomous vehicles). Distribution: Today, Uber and Lyft own the primary channels to ridesharing. Their vast network of drivers and colossal cash coffers have allowed them to lock down the industry and squash competitors. So far, neither of them is building their own vehicles. Traditional automakers have an opportunity to rethink the experience of passengers, as well. If they start from first principles, they will find themselves designing and building very different vehicles than what they’ve made in the past. New and emerging companies, such as Zoox (disclosure: my firm is an investor), are being built from the ground up to design and operate sophisticated transportation robots for this new era of driverless transportation.
Today, Uber and Lyft own the primary channels to ridesharing. Their vast network of drivers and colossal cash coffers have allowed them to lock down the industry and squash competitors. So far, neither of them is building their own vehicles. Traditional automakers have an opportunity to rethink the experience of passengers, as well. If they start from first principles, they will find themselves designing and building very different vehicles than what they’ve made in the past. New and emerging companies, such as Zoox (disclosure: my firm is an investor), are being built from the ground up to design and operate sophisticated transportation robots for this new era of driverless transportation. In-vehicle services: Forget mobile devices; “driverless” is the new platform. Highly personalized, rich environments can be created to stimulate and engage with passengers. Voice interfaces can tune the experience in the vehicle, and serve as a concierge for not only that a single trip or a series of trips over multiple vehicles and in multiple locales. Imagine tours provided by robotic cars that “know” passenger tastes, preferences, and previous destinations. Your driverless tour guide showing you around Bangkok “knows” your preferences from your prior tours in Rome and Sao Paulo. They can tap into your social media profile to recommend dining, shopping and entertainment experiences.
Forget mobile devices; “driverless” is the new platform. Highly personalized, rich environments can be created to stimulate and engage with passengers. Voice interfaces can tune the experience in the vehicle, and serve as a concierge for not only that a single trip or a series of trips over multiple vehicles and in multiple locales. Imagine tours provided by robotic cars that “know” passenger tastes, preferences, and previous destinations. Your driverless tour guide showing you around Bangkok “knows” your preferences from your prior tours in Rome and Sao Paulo. They can tap into your social media profile to recommend dining, shopping and entertainment experiences. Autonomous technology: It is well-established that companies who build unique technology that enables autonomous driving are positioned to reap massive benefits. Non-auto-tech companies are seeing the opportunity and snapping up innovative companies. Intel paid a premium for MobileEye and positioned itself as a major Tier 2 automotive supplier. The channel that Intel acquired through this purchase will enable Intel to sell many other technologies, such as chips, sensors, and software, into the automotive supply chain.
Trillions of dollars worth of new opportunities abound in the coming era of autonomous travel. If history has taught me anything, it’s that this new paradigm will spur entirely new ways of living that we haven’t yet considered. As for myself?
As a gearhead, I’m most looking forward to getting from A to B by robot, and manually pushing performance cars to their limits on racetracks.What a day. I can’t say neither side is throwing punches any longer in the epic fight over what’s left of Yahoo. Microsoft and Yahoo are done, for the most part, with sternly worded letters.
Yesterday Yahoo made two announcements/leaks. First, that they were very close to agreeing to terms that would combine Yahoo and AOL as an alternative to the Microsoft deal. And second, that they will run, ahem, a two week test of Google Adsense on 3% of their Yahoo search results page, instead of their own ads.
Microsoft responded that the Google deal is a precursor to handing over de facto monopoly power of the search advertising space. And they threw their own curve ball as well: News Corp. has switched teams and is now in Microsoft’s camp.
The formal entry of AOL into the discussions suggests Time Warner wants to offload the asset soon. If a Microsoft/Yahoo deal goes through, the only realistic suitor for AOL is Google, and that gives them little negotiating leverage.
The News Corp news is more interesting. In a move reminiscent of the Italians switching sides in World War II, they’ve abandoned their Yahoo soul mate for a more compliant Microsoft. They put in a bid for Yahoo in February (more), which was reportedly countered just a couple of weeks ago. My guess is the counter offer wasn’t very interesting, so they switched sides. You gotta love News Corp., they’re always there for you when they need you.
But by far the most interesting news is the Yahoo/Google alliance. Industry insiders still question whether regulators would allow the deal, but Yahoo’s been whispering around Silicon Valley that a business partnership with Google, as opposed to a merger, would stand a much higher likelihood of getting approved.
What Is Yahoo’s Strategy – Scorched Earth, Or Knife To The Nose?
Yahoo has put costly severance plans in place to both retain employees and make themselves a less attractive acquisition candidate. But top talent has left anyway, and just about everyone at Yahoo seems to be looking for a job (even execs I’ve spoken with). Meanwhile, the Google deal shows they would rather give up the search marketing game, their biggest asset, than become part of Microsoft.
Their actions, which appear to be based on destroying their market value as a counter to the Microsoft bid, benefit neither their stockholders nor their employees. And by setting up Google as the only real option in search marketing, they are disrupting what little market balance and competition exists in that space today.
I can’t decide if nose knifing or scorched earth is the best way of describing what they’re doing, but I have to ask: If Yahoo “wins” this epic battle with Microsoft, will there be anything left at the end to celebrate over?
It’s time to end this thing before Yahoo ends itself. I don’t care if they throw AOL, MySpace, and half the rest of the Internet into the deal along with Yahoo. But the health of the Internet demands a counter balance to Google. Yahoo-Microsoft, given the current state of things, is the only reasonable outcome.One of the things people marvel at with Donald Trump is how successful he’s been over the last year with these gyres and tirades which are full not only of what are often demonstrably false claims but increasingly hyperbolic warnings about the future. In his statement yesterday Trump said “If we do not get tough and smart real fast, we are not going to have a country anymore. Because our leaders are weak, I said this was going to happen – and it is only going to get worse.”
As I’ve written, I think this was much more effective in Republican primaries than with a general election electorate. But the pattern is clearly still there. In pure Trump whether it ends up being effective or not. Some claims get dropped. Others come up repeatedly even though they’re shown to be demonstrably false. Many see this as part of Trump’s spellbinding but horrifying magic. But I hear something different, something others in business may recognize. For Trump, mass casualty terror is like a sell point in a high pressure sales pitch. Glengarry Glen Ross meets Joseph Goebbels.
Trump’s tirades are part and parcel of a certain kind of high pressure sales technique. Which makes sense because that’s what Trump does for a living. Most people don’t change a lot once they’ve lived almost 70 years. There’s a certain kind of salesperson who’s approach is to wear you down, attract and terrify you with an escalating array of blandishments and warnings. It’s gonna get bad, real bad … unless you do this, and it’ll be amazing.
There’s a closely related negotiation variant, which someone who knows Trump from the business world describes here.
If you know the type, you know that whether any of these things are true or even relevant is largely beside the point. Hear the pitch again a few days later and the mix of threats and promises is likely as not to be totally different. Also note that when Trump gets asked just what his plans are or what he’s going to do to make everything great, virtually always his response is simply to say it will be amazing.
You can see something similar in the way he adopts horribly demeaning nicknames for opponents – “Little Marco”, “Lyin’ Ted”, “Crooked Hillary” – and then drops them and calls them great guys as soon as the fight is over. That makes sense. None of it’s real. It’s just part of the sale. He used to say wonderful things about Hillary Clinton. Sometimes the comedy of it is something Trump himself has to note it. After finally dispatching Ted Cruz and moving on to Hillary Clinton, in one recent speech he said: “Ted Cruz is no longer a liar, we don’t say Lyin’ Ted anymore”We love Ted, we love him, right? We love him. Now we don’t want to say Lyin’ Ted. I’d love to pull it out and just use it on lying, crooked Hillary because she is a liar.”
Quite apart from the hideousness of many of his statements and proposed policies, one thing that is hard to ignore in virtually everything Trump says is that there’s little sense he believes any of it. Or perhaps better to say, little reason to think he’d thought of it or believed it until it became situational helpful to do so. Of course, every politician panders to the needs of the moment to some degree. But usually it is at least in tension with pre-existing or longstanding beliefs or positions. Trump has no such tension. This is obviously a great indictment of Trump’s character. But the framework and practice of high pressure sales is a much more helpful and explanatory way to understand almost everything Trump does. The details don’t matter. It’s about the sale.Battle of Waterloo preparations: Anyone up for a game of cricket?
As most Europeans know, this year marks the 200 year anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Of course, a huge amount has been written and said about the famous battle and the major impact it had on the future of Europe. But considerably less has been said about a game of cricket that the English played just before the battle.
Who would have imagined that any army just about to do battle with as mighty a foe as Napoleon would prepare by playing a sport? And yet that is exactly what the English did back in 1815. The Brussels Times looked into why the match was played, other historical aspects of it and how the game is developing in Belgium.
For most Europeans, cricket is a pretty complex and undecipherable game which they know relatively little about. Whilst they probably do know that it’s a big part of English sporting culture that takes a long time to play and involves drinking lots of tea, how many would make a connection between the game and one of Europe’s most famous battles?
It sounds very unusual and improbable that a country that was just about to take on another country in a major battle would play a sport not long before hostilities began but that is exactly what happened.
The match, which was between English soldiers, turns out to have been the first recorded game of cricket in Belgium. Disappointingly for statisticians, the result is not known as, in those days, results were only recorded when a bet was placed on it. A thousand guineas was the going rate at the time. Ironically, things seem to have turned full circle as now cricket is full of stories of allegations of illegal betting and involving sums a lot larger than a thousand guineas.
It took place in Engheim, west of Brussels, where a garrison of English guards was stationed. That means that his visit to Engheim would have had a practical use as it gave him the chance to discuss battle preparations and issue instructions against the quiet backdrop of a game of cricket. Wellington had a reputation for great calm in battle and was greatly respected by his troops. Throughout the battle and while his infantry were under intense pressure from French attacks, he would ride up and down the ridge with an outward display of indifference. The idea of organising a cricket match seems to fit into that mindset of keeping calm in the face of great adversity, a characteristic of British national identity.
An interesting parallel could be made between the game of cricket played before the Battle of Waterloo and the historical image of Drake finishing his game of bowls before taking on the Spanish Armada. “The match was probably played to allow the guards to relax and pass the time while they were waiting for the battle to start. It was like a show of the officers’ nonchalance at the impending dangers of battle and a kind of ‘stiff upper lip’ attitude. The message was that everything is under control,” said Nick Compton, Chairman of the Royal Brussels Cricket Club.
The match, which took place on 12 June, was organised by the Duke of Richmond, who was at the time one of the best players in England. His wife was to organise the famous ball ahead of the Battle of Waterloo three days later on 15 June. There is also an interesting connection between the duke and Lords, the home of English cricket, as it was the Duke of Richmond who provided a financial guarantee for Thomas Lord to create the cricket pitch at Lords.
The match itself will be re-enacted on 18 June at the Royal Brussels Cricket Club between a team of serving English guards and a team picked by the chairman of the local cricket club. Matches have taken place in 1965 to commemorate the 150 year anniversary and again in 1990 for the 175 year anniversary.
Whilst the cricket match was the first one in Belgium, perhaps not so surprisingly it took a while for the game to catch on and even then it was mainly played by British delegations rather than Belgians. A big development came fifty years later when, in 1865, Brussels Cricket Club was born. It was given a pitch on the Bois de la Cambre in 1866. Antwerp Cricket Club was founded in 1880. But even then, right up until after the Second World War, the game was mainly played by the English. That has gradually changed with growing numbers of cricketers from mainly Commonwealth countries such as South Africa or Pakistan. There are now some 22 cricket clubs in Belgium with around 600 players registered and a Belgian national cricket team. Efforts are being made to encourage Belgians to play more too. A club full of Flemish players called the Meise Wolverines has been set up in recent years.
Belgian cricket is still in its infancy. The country did not play in the World Cup in March this year. But who knows if they will some day in the future. England have famously lost to cricketing minnows such as Ireland and, most recently, to Bangladesh. Maybe it could be Belgium’s turn one day. At the very least wouldn’t it be great to see Belgium take on England somewhere near Waterloo some day?
By Julian HaleYou never know what to expect from programmers once boredom starts to muddle with their otherwise highly rational brains.
Last week, one bored coder took to Reddit to show off an dreadfully designed volume control implementation, ironically urging fellow members to one-up his effort and “make the best volume slider.” “Best” meaning “the worst” in this case, of course.
The shitty slider that started it all.
Over the next days, hundreds of coders accepted the challenge and flocked to the popular Programmer Humor subreddit to square off in a heated contest to design the shittiest possible volume slider.
Needless to say, the heaps of entries that followed did not disappoint.
So without further ado, here are some of the most infuriating volume control toggles this bored collective of programmers came up with over the last few days:
Because adjusting the volume is like a game of Snake
Roll the dice
Connect the dots
The wheel of volume
The Super Mario solution
Based on the laws of physics
Curling
For more impractically creative volume control implementations, head to the ProgrammerHumor subreddit or take a peek here.
Got a shitty volume slider idea of your own? Show us your worst down in the comments.
Read next: Samsung's insane 32:9 gaming monitor laughs at your dual monitor setupThe timbre of the telling is rich, mellow, surprisingly monotone, yet absolutely compelling:
“When the first man and first woman lived at Shining Rock, everything was available and easy to procure, and the Cherokee had all the food they could eat. The hunter went out every day for meat and said to his son, ‘Don’t follow me.’ But the child did, and while his father was washing the deer he had killed, a drop of blood fell into the river. The drop of blood became a child — a wild child — who played with the son, and one day said to the son, ‘If something happens to your father, we’ll starve to death. Where does he get his game? We should follow him.’
“So, the two boys did, to a cave. Every day, the hunter rolled away the stone at the entrance to the cave, and an animal would sprint out. The hunter would kill the animal, then roll the stone back over the entrance. ‘We can do that, too,’ said the wild child to the son. And so they followed the hunter to the cave, and watched as he rolled away the stone and rolled it back. While he was washing his kill, the children rolled away the stone. A deer ran out of the cave and they shot it with their arrows, but missed. Every type of game on the earth continued to run from the cave, and the boys used every arrow without killing a single animal. They tried to roll the stone back, but it wouldn’t budge. From that day forward, people have had to hunt for food.”
The voice belongs to Freeman Owle, the renowned storyteller for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who live in the Qualla Boundary in western North Carolina. Owle describes his repository of stories as just that — stories, rather than myths or fables — and in nearly every one, like in this parallel of Christianity’s Garden of Eden, a river runs through it.
• • •
You can’t separate the Cherokee from Their rivers. “Holistic” is the word Dr. Barbara Duncan, education director for the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, uses to describe how, for the Cherokee, a river was at once a source of food, medicine, sport, celebration, cleansing, trade, and navigation. Protecting the river was vital to the health and well-being of the tribe.
So, stories sprang up around this river knowledge, and in turn, those stories reinforced certain cultural codes of conduct. Duncan sees this dynamic at work in Owle’s creation tale: “The human child and the wild boy aren’t like the good and evil twin archetype,” she explains. “One acts the way people are meant to, and the other is a trickster. Violating the cultural norms means bad things happen.”
The wild child emerged from breaking a river taboo: a single drop of blood fallen into the clean river. To understand what made blood in river water taboo, it helps to know about the ritual called “going to water,” a cleansing practice performed every morning to start the day. Regardless of the season or weather, Cherokees would go to the river to pray and submerge themselves. In fact, the word for “going to water” in the Cherokee language is interchangeable with the words for bathing and submerging. (The daily ritual was also why the native people thought the Europeans, who didn’t bathe as frequently, were dirty.)
A ceremonial dip in the river was thought to wash away illness and bad thoughts. Cherokees bathed at the new moon, and upon returning from war, men would go to the water to purify themselves before re-entering the community. The practice was so sacred that it was considered taboo to spit or go to the bathroom in the river — or contaminate it with animal blood, as the hunter in Owle’s story accidentally did.
These bans were an eye-roller for missionaries and anthropologists, who considered them sheer superstition. But, Duncan points out, we now know that those instincts were sound. The Cherokee never suffered from typhoid or dysentery, diseases connected to poor water sanitation.
“The old Cherokees would wade out waist deep just after daybreak and throw the water over their heads and say, ‘Wash away anything that may hinder me from being closer to you, God.’ And then they would add their own intentions — for a good life, or for a good relationship with brothers or sisters. Seven times, they would throw the water over themselves. Or, they would duck in the water seven times. And when they got out of the water, they had to look into a crystal — likely a quartzite crystal found in geodes — and if it was inverted, pointing down, then they had to go back and do it all over again.”
When the Cherokee talk about “the waters,” they aren’t talking about lakes, or the ocean. They’re speaking of rivers and the watershed as a whole. In western North Carolina, there were no lakes. Lake Lure, Fontana Lake, and Santeetlah Lake are all recent, man-made, hydroelectric lakes. Cherokee towns were situated by rivers, and always on the west side, because in the going-to-water ritual they faced east, and the names were inseparable from the river descriptions. Oconaluftee: “going really fast.” Tuckasegee: “the turtle place.” Antokiasdiyi (French Broad): “the place where they race,” because it was wide enough for canoes.
In some stories, monsters lived where certain rivers joined. The Cherokee still refer to Murphy, where the Valley and Hiawassee rivers come together, as “the place of the leech.” Versions vary, but all involve a leech, often as big as a house:
“Three leeches lived in the river at Murphy. And there was something so large in this deep hole that if you came around the edges of it, it would move and splash, so that waves would come out to the edge of the banks and wash animals and people into the water, and then it would eat them.”
River stories were (and still are) told simply, but they served as warnings, and explained the inexplicable. Children, listening at the feet of their elders, learned from these stories that the river could be dangerous and that they must respect its power.
“The Cherokee people believe in little people, spirit-type peoples, and some are associated with the water. In the rivers we have what are called cannibals, and a lot of Cherokee people don’t even like to talk about cannibals because it’s bad to mention them. These cannibals down in the low, watery areas, in deep holes, sometimes come out in the middle of the night and steal away the souls of people while they’re sleeping. In the morning, the person would look perfectly normal, but they wouldn’t wake up. So the old folk would say, ‘The cannibals took them away.’”
• • •
The term “Beloved Man” (and Beloved Woman) was a title given to warriors who had become too old to fight, but because they had lived lives of service and had impeccable character, their word was trusted. Beloved Men were sought out for advice by tribal members and attended treaty negotiations with colonial governors. The high honor hadn’t been used since 1801, but the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Tribal Council approved a resolution to name Jerry Wolfe as a Beloved Man in 2013.
Wolfe is that rare individual: a full-blooded Cherokee. Like Cherokee children of his generation, he attended boarding school only steps from the Oconaluftee River. At 18, he enlisted in the Navy and fought in the invasion of Normandy.
Today, Wolfe is 92 years old. His voice is reedy. As he speaks, he looks straight ahead, and in a single sentence, words cascade like the rivers he reveres: “The beginning of water is just a very small trickle in the very tops of the Great Smokies, and as it rushes down the mountain valleys it meets up with other little trickles, and the waters grow from a creek to a branch, and then to a small stream, and then it continues on and on, adding on and adding on, and the rivers go through the mountains, through Chattanooga, connect up with the Ohio River and the Mississippi, and it winds up in the Gulf of Mexico.”
For Wolfe, a special importance of rivers centers on stickball, a Cherokee sport and a rehearsal for battle, known as “Little Brother to War.” An early cousin to lacrosse, stickball contests in the 1830s could include as many as 600 people, and combatants died in these fierce, bare-chested, man-to-man tournaments.
River stories go back thousands of years, and in the telling and retelling, time has worn them smooth and mysterious.
Wolfe’s voice is steady as he recalls stickball’s go-to-water rituals: “The old medicine man or conjure man helped the ball teams, and danced all night. But during the dances all night long, the players were taken to the river seven times, from the beginning of night until daybreak. For power. You took your ball sticks to the river with you. And he would go through rituals and prayers, and he’d say” — here, Wolfe continues the narration in Cherokee, a language that sounds both guttural and smooth to the untrained ear — “and everyone would dip their sticks in the river, always upriver, and then take a sip of water from the stick drippings. That connected you to the river. To give you strength.”
Duncan says going to water also served an interesting emotional purpose. “They go to water before the game, yes, and during the night to try and make bad things happen to the opposing team,” she says. “But it was considered bad form to get angry, so afterward they went to water again, to wash those feelings away. Grudges weren’t carried into the community.”
Women were involved as well, participating in the last dance ritual, right at daybreak. Women also played the sport until 1870, when they were banned because the game was thought to be too rough. In 2000 they began playing again.
“There was a young man who took good care of his elderly grandmother, and the other kids in the village began to get jealous because his grandmother bragged on him. They became really mean, so he decided he needed to go away for a while. And he left his grandmother.
“When he came back a few days later, he was different. She didn’t know how. He said, ‘I have to stay in one of the outside buildings tonight. I can’t come in the house. Don’t open this building for three days.’ She waited three days, and there was a huge, giant snake inside that building. It was all that was left of him, and it went into the river and disappeared. She waited for him, day after day, to come back. But he never did.
“And the people of the village made fun of her and said, ‘If you like him so much, why don’t you just join him?’ So she waded out into the waters and disappeared. If you go down at the right time of day or night, you might see the old lady sitting out on the rock in the middle of the river. Then, suddenly, she’ll disappear.”
This strange story of the boy and his grandmother has many versions, but no one simple meaning, no easy takeaway wisdom for the modern listener. These river stories go back thousands of years, and in the telling and retelling, time has worn them smooth, rendering them mysterious, like runes. But they live on in the oral tradition of Cherokee storytellers and in the land itself.
Today, Interstates 40 and 26, and Highway 129 (known to motorcyclists as the Tail of the Dragon, which runs along the Little Tennessee River) follow the landscape of these stories — the same rivers and ridges the Cherokee used to navigate the Great Smokies 10,000 years ago. If you look carefully at mountain riverbeds, you might recognize the V-shaped placement of stones known as weirs, thousands of years old, which the Cherokee used to catch fish. According to Wolfe, “big brown trout, rainbow trout, speckled trout” all went into woven baskets. But never catfish, which are bottom-feeders. Bones from trout, brim, and redhorse have been discovered in artifacts, but no catfish bones. Even today, the Cherokee do not eat catfish.
Every spring the floods would come, yet the weirs stood fast. The enduring design is more than a testament to Cherokee engineering. It reflects an abiding acceptance of the river’s ways, its habits and temperament. Floods were part of nature, and the Cherokee never tried to dam, divert, or interfere with the river. Floods brought new, rich dirt for crops, as well as a new coating of sand for the dirt floors of their dwellings.
Tellingly, the Cherokee people do not interrupt. They don’t try to correct, whether it’s a river brimming its banks or a person sharing a story. Instead, they pay attention. They listen quietly. Like Wolfe and Owle’s stories, rivers have turns and twists, additions and branches. And in all cases, the rivers of the Cherokee cannot be interrupted.
“We may run into a stone, like death,” Owle says, “but that’s not the end, only the beginning. It’s only the end of the day, and more life will come the next day, on and on.”
Illustrations by Kyle T. Webster.A bill to require criminal background checks on private gun sales passed the Oregon House on |
excess of $18 billion.
The lawsuit had been expected, and analysts believe any fine will be far below the theoretical maximum. Although U.S. authorities sued Toyota for up to $58 billion for environmental violations around the turn of the century, they agreed a settlement that cost the Japanese carmaker about $34 million.
“We have not enumerated a maximum possible penalty, and will decline to speculate on what the court may ultimately choose to do,” said U.S. Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle.
Equinet analyst Holger Schmidt cut his rating on VW shares to “reduce” from “neutral”.
“We continue to believe that no one is able to make anything else than a wild guess on potential fines,” he said.
During December, VW’s shares had been recovering as the carmaker announced incrementally positive news such as simple fixes for about 8.5 million affected cars in Europe.
The stock fell on Tuesday 22 percent below pre-scandal levels, with analysts particularly concerned about the impact on VW in the United States, where the firm has long struggled to make inroads and tougher regulations mean it faces bigger potential fines.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), accuses VW of four counts of violating the U.S. Clean Air Act, including tampering with the emissions control system and failing to report violations.
“The United States will pursue all appropriate remedies against Volkswagen to redress the violations of our nation’s clean air laws,” said Assistant Attorney General John Cruden, head of the Justice Department’s environment and natural resources division.
The lawsuit is being filed in the Eastern District of Michigan and then transferred to northern California, where class-action lawsuits against VW are pending.
“We’re alleging that they knew what they were doing, they intentionally violated the law and that the consequences were significant to health,” said a senior Justice Department official.
VW’s cheating of diesel emissions tests allowed it to avoid a costly revamp of engines to meet new U.S. standards.
The Justice Department has also been investigating criminal fraud allegations against VW for misleading U.S. consumers and regulators. Criminal charges would require a higher burden of proof than the civil lawsuit.
The U.S. lawsuit also alleges VW gamed emissions controls in many of its 3.0 liter diesel models, including the Audi Q7, and the Porsche Cayenne.
VW’s earlier admissions eliminate almost any possibility that the automaker could defend itself in court, Daniel Riesel of Sive, Paget & Riesel P.C, who defends companies accused of environmental crimes, said.
To win the civil case, the government does not need to prove the degree of intentional deception at VW – just that the cheating occurred, Riesel said. “I don’t think there is any defense in a civil suit,” he said.
Instead, the automaker will seek to negotiate a lower penalty by arguing that the maximum would be “crippling to the company and lead to massive layoffs”, Riesel said.
Even after VW first admitted to using cheat devices in certain models, the automaker “failed to come forward and reveal” that other vehicles contained such devices, the government said.
To cheat the emissions controls, VW installed software that allowed the vehicles to detect when they were being tested on a flatbed. When the vehicles detected they were actually on the road, the software caused the emissions control systems to underperform or shutdown, the government said, allowing the cars to emit dangerous levels of air pollution.
The civil lawsuit does not preclude the Justice Department from pursuing criminal charges against VW, said the Justice Department official.
VW said in a statement: “Volkswagen will continue to work cooperatively with the EPA on developing remedies.”
“We will continue to cooperate with all government agencies investigating these matters.”ESPN FC: New man at Manchester United
Manchester United believe they have made significant advancements in their pursuit of Bayern Munich's Toni Kroos, sources close to Old Trafford have told ESPN.
After two months of negotiations, the United hierarchy is now confident the principles of an agreement are in place for the 24-year-old to become the first of potentially six high-profile signings.
'I could shut out United with a pub team' Roy Hodgson may not be completely confident of guiding England to World Cup glory but the national team manager has no doubts about his coaching ability, claiming he could keep Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie at bay with just about any side.
Click here to read more
Kroos is about to move into the final year of his contract at Bayern, with the two parties way apart on terms. That may mean the German Double winners could consider selling the player this summer rather than see him possibly leave for free 12 months later.
United also remain extremely hopeful of bringing in Southampton left-back Luke Shaw, despite talks having been slow.
Although Bayern will resist the transfer of Kroos, and there is every chance the saga could rumble on until after the World Cup, those two players are currently seen as the most likely to join out of an extensive list of high-profile targets.
Louis van Gaal, whose appointment as successor to David Moyes was confirmed on Monday, has a significant rebuilding job with several players moving on and Ryan Giggs, who will be his No. 2, also hanging up his boots. United plan to spend at least £150 million improving four key areas: central midfield, central defence, left-back and overall squad pace.
United won't retire Giggs shirt Manchester United will not retire their No.11 shirt following Ryan Giggs' decision to hang up his boots.
Giggs, who made a record 963 appearances for the club, is concentrating on his new role as Louis van Gaal's assistant manager and the club will reallocate his number.
Giggs' retirement and Rio Ferdinand's departure means the club have four key shirt numbers up for grabs next season: No.11, No.7, No.9 and No.5.
Van Gaal's interest in Borussia Dortmund centre-back Mats Hummels is widely known, and the club have themselves tracked their midfielder Marco Reus for some time. There remains a degree of difficulty in extracting either player from the Westfalenstadion with the club having lost several high-profile players, such as Robert Lewandowski and Mario Goetze, to Bayern.
Surprisingly, United may enjoy more success in bringing in one of Arturo Vidal from Juventus or Barcelona's Cesc Fabregas. While there is a belief that the Chilean midfielder can be secured relatively cheaply in relation to his standing, Barca may also be "open-minded" about offers for Fabregas.
Fabregas is not strictly for sale, but Barca will consider approaches. Sources have stated that both United and Arsenal have been made aware of the situation.
This article originally appeared on ESPN FC
© ESPN Sports Media LtdA new study in the journal Nature Astronomy reports that the south polar region of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus is warmer than expected just a few feet below its icy surface. This suggests that Enceladus' ocean of liquid water might be only a couple of miles beneath this region -- closer to the surface than previously thought.
The excess heat is especially pronounced over three fractures that are not unlike the "tiger stripes" -- prominent, actively venting fractures that slice across the pole -- except that they don't appear to be active at the moment. Seemingly dormant fractures lying above the moon's warm, underground sea point to the dynamic character of Enceladus' geology, suggesting the moon might have experienced several episodes of activity, in different places on its surface.
The finding agrees with the results of a 2016 study by a team independent of the Cassini mission that estimated the thickness of Enceladus' icy crust. The studies indicate an average depth for the ice shell of 11 to 14 miles (18 to 22 kilometers), with a thickness of less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) at the south pole.
"Finding temperatures near these three inactive fractures that are unexpectedly higher than those outside them adds to the intrigue of Enceladus," said Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "What is the warm underground ocean really like and could life have evolved there? These questions remain to be answered by future missions to this ocean world."
More information about this study is available from ESA, the European Space Agency, at:
http://sci.esa.int/cassini-huygens/58877-enceladus-south-pole-is-warm-under-the-frost
News Media Contact
Preston DychesJet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.818-354-7013preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov2017-068The queen! Whew! As mentioned, the Privant line has a wide selection of middle forms, but they can all evolve into Reginant and retain their stat balance, just powered up. They might have slightly different forms and colors as well but I’m not gonna draw that just now haha.
It crossed my mind that Reginant could be the female-only evolution and Oberant the male-only one, but I dislike gender-split evolutions. In addition, pokemon gender is irrelevant for evolution or breeding in the Gods and Demons universe. All pokemon can be any gender and any two (or more) pokemon can breed, since pokemon are more on the side of being elemental spirits and less on that of animals.
Trivia: Kalamatos in Gods and Demons was a Meditant a long (loooooong) time ago. (Part 4 of 4)
Privant → (lv. 25) Sarjant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
Privant → (lv. 25, Power Lens equipped) or (Fire Stone) Pyrant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
Privant → (lv. 25, Power Anklet equipped) or (Thunder Stone) Fulgurant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
Privant → (lv. 25, Power Bracer equipped) or (Citrine Gem) Soldant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
Privant → (lv. 25, Power Belt equipped) or (Kunzite Gem) Rhinant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
Privant → (lv. 25, Power Weight equipped) or (Crystal Gem) Quarzant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
Privant → (lv. 25, Power Band equipped) or (Dawn Stone) Meditant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
Privant → (lv. 25, Choice Band equipped) or (Dusk Stone) Reclusant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
Privant → (lv. 25, Choice Specs equipped) or (Shiny Stone) Oberant → (lv. 55, Dragon Scale) Reginant
#077 - Reginant (Regina (latin, queen) + ant)
Queen Pokémon
Bug/Dragon-type
They are rare to see in the wild as generally only one will lead a nest. They are long-lived and are figures of wisdom as well as destructive power.
Base Stats: (Varies*) (600)
Ability: Intimidate/[Queenly Majesty]
Learnset: Dragonbreath, Dragon Claw, Outrage, Imperial Wrath, Wing Attack, Air Slash, Hurricane, Hyper Beam, Crunch, Guillotine, Flamethrower, Scary Face, Dive Bomb, Airdrop, Attack Order, Defend Order, Heal Order
*Base Stats:
From Sarjant: 100/100/100/100/100/100
From Pyrant: 90/90/95/120/95/110
From Fulgurant: 90/90/95/110/95/120
From Soldant: 90/120/95/90/95/110
From Rhinant: 120/85/140/85/85/85
From Quarzant: 120/90/95/95/110/90
From Meditant: 95/90/90/110/120/95
From Reclusant: 85/120/85/85/85/140
From Oberant: 85/85/85/140/85/120Hours before passing the baton of the Congress, which she had helmed for 19 years, to her son Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi sparked a buzz within the party and outside by hinting at retirement. On Friday, speaking to reporters in Parliament, she said, “My role is to retire.”
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However, an alarmed Congress leadership swiftly clarified that she has retired as president of the Congress and not from public life. Speaking to The Indian Express, senior leaders said the party and its new president would need Sonia as a “mentor” and in an “advisory role”. Going one step further, former union minister Veerappa Moily said Sonia shouldn’t forget that she is also “mother to the entire cadre of the party” and should continue to play a “mother’s role”.
Also Read | Live updates: Rahul Gandhi to take charge as Congress’ President
On Saturday, Rahul will take over as Congress president at a time when the party finds itself in a severe political crisis. The transition bears an uncanny resemblance to the time when Sonia took over and the party clocked its worst performance since Independence in the 1999 elections, winning 114 seats. The Congress bounced back in 2004 and retained power in 2009 — it also won a string of Assembly elections from 2004 to 2014.
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Today, as Sonia makes way for Rahul amid a string of electoral setbacks following the Lok Sabha elections, senior leaders called upon her to guide her son and party through tough political battles ahead.
Sonia’s one-line remark on Friday was in response to a question on what role she would assume after Rahul takes over the party amid speculation that she would be a “patron”.
Following the buzz triggered by the remark, Congress communication chief Randeep Surjewala tweeted: “Would sincerely request friends in the media to not rely upon innuendos. Sonia Gandhi has retired as President of Indian National Congress and not from politics. Her blessings, wisdom and innate commitment to Congress ideology shall always be our guiding light.”
Speaking to The Indian Express, Moily said that Rahul as president would have his own working style, systems and processes, and that his performance in Gujarat, irrespective of Monday’s outcome, has been “wonderful”.
“He has upscaled himself to a level where the Congress and the country can look forward to his leadership. He has created that environment. He was reluctant to take over this kind of leadership. But having taken it up, he should go the full way… There is no question that there will be two centres of power. She (Sonia) may be thinking ‘why should there be two centres of power’,” Moily said.
“But at the same time, her leadership is not just mechanical, it is spiritual and more emotional for the party… We also look up to her as mother of the party. So, she should continue to play that kind of a motherly role, not only as mother to Rahul Gandhi… She should not forget that she is also mother to the entire cadre of the party… It will give additional strength to the party,” he said.
Moily said Sonia should continue to be an “active mentor”. “That kind of an inspiration, guidance we should continue to get. And she is capable. She can inspire. Her health may not permit her, she will always be active in the mind of the people. The party is very emotionally attached to her… The 19 years were very memorable for the Congress. The party got united. Before she took over, the party was split,” he said.
Stressing that the party still looks up to Sonia, Moily said, “That does not mean that Rahul Gandhi as Congress president will be deterred. He will not find any discomfort, the party will not find any discomfort. She has to play an active mentor-mother’s role.”
Former union minister Ashwani Kumar said that “in a tough political battle ahead, Rahul Gandhi will need Sonia Gandhi’s counsel at every stage”.
“Sonia Gandhi’s judgement of people and matters will be of immense benefit to him. He will be well-advised to represent change with continuity. Transition of power in democratic politics is a process in continuum. There cannot be a rupture with the past,” he said.
“The moderate centre which Sonia Gandhi espoused should be Rahul’s Bible…Sonia Gandhi’s leadership was known for aspiring for consensus and the moderate centre and Rahul will gain immensely from following her,” he said.
Asked about Sonia’s remark, Kumar said, “As an individual, we should respect her choice if she does not want any formal position. Having provided solid leadership to the Congress, she is also entitled to leisure and rest at this stage of her life.”
Another former UPA minister Kishore Chandra Deo said Sonia will perform an advisory role. “As far as the Parliamentary party is concerned and even the AICC, I am sure she will be open to meeting people and giving whatever advice is needed and exchanging views on important issues,” he said.
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Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhury said it was not easy for party members to accept that Sonia was going to quit politics. “(She) may say. It is part of her nature, her personality is such that she has never aspired for a post or clung to power…For those of us who are around, it is not something that we can accept easily,” she said.Those people who are acquainted with ancient Greek mythology will know with no doubt the word Cronus, he was the father of the Greek Olympian Gods.The word Chronos means time in Greek and Latin and thus from the two words we get the words chronometer and chronology. Therefore in the programming lingo crontab means something that deals with the time.
To make it short Cron is a daemon that executes scheduled commands.
The cron daemon start at boot time in al GNU/linux system and usually it has already some maintenance works programmed from the installation (log rotation, check of some programs, etc.)
Cron jobs are largely used in the automatic maintenance and administration of systems, you can find a flavour of cron in most UNIX systems and so also on GNU/Linux. Crontab is the program used to install, deinstall or list the tables used to drive the cron daemon. Each user can have their own crontab, and though these are files in /var/spool/cron/crontabs, they are not intended to be edited directly.
Crontab Syntax and use
The configuration of crontab it’s in a text file with a particular format, to edit it go in the terminal and write:
crontab -e crontab -e
Modify the file as you wish and save it.
You can check the current crontab for your user with the command:
crontab -l crontab -l
That’s the general format available in Crontab:
MIN HOUR DOM MON DOW CMD
Field Description Allowed value MIN Minute field 0 to 59 HOUR Hour field 0 to 23 DOM Day of Month 0 to 31 MON Month field 1 to 12 DOW Day Of Week 0 to 6 CMD Command Any command to be executed
A field may be an asterisk (*), which always stands for “first-last”.
Ranges of numbers are allowed. Ranges are two numbers separated with a hyphen. The specified range is inclusive. For example, 8-11 for an “hours” entry specifies execution at hours 8, 9, 10 and 11.
Lists are allowed. A list is a set of numbers (or ranges) separated by commas. Examples: “1,2,5,9”, “0-4,8-12”.
Step values can be used in conjunction with ranges. Following a range with “/” specifies skips of the number’s value through the range. For example, “0-23/2” can be used in the hours field to specify command execution every other hour
Instead of the first five fields, one of eight special strings may also be used:
string meaning ------ --------- @reboot Run once, at startup. @yearly Run once a year, "0 0 1 1 *". @annually (same as @yearly) @monthly Run once a month, "0 0 1 * *". @weekly Run once a week, "0 0 * * 0". @daily Run once a day, "0 0 * * *". @midnight (same as @daily) @hourly Run once an hour, "0 * * * *".
The “sixth” field (the rest of the line) specifies the command to be run. The entire command portion of the line, up to a newline or % character, will be executed by /bin/sh or by the shell specified in the SHELL variable of the crontab file.
Crontab commands are executed by cron when the minute, hour, and month of year fields match the current time and when at least one of the two day fields (day of month, or day of week) match the current day.
Conclusions
The Linux Cron program is an efficient way to schedule a background job at a particular time and day. The easiest way to schedule jobs if you use Gnome is to use the gnome-schedule application. The task scheduler offers you three choices for getting a new task. You will be able to choose a resorting task, which is the basic use of gnome-schedule as a frontend for cron. Additionally, you’ll be able to create custom schedule templates; for instance, if you would like to run programs on certain holidays, you are able to make a template for that task so you don’t have to re-create the cron rules every time. Most of the users won’t require this feature, but it’s really nice to have.
Numerous benefits of these crontabs are seen when applied in terms of scheduling particular tasks at unseasonable times of the day, which can be on vacations and iniquitous hours of the night. For instance, maintain a routine backup your system or to check out if you have any new email.
These types of server side programming give numerous benefits. For example, part of your business entails that you send out an e-mail to your contributors updating them on specific information and reminders, every day at 3 am in the morning. Thus you can do it with a cron in your system while you can rest at that time.
Have you ever used cron before? If not, then you should use it. It really helps you to scheduling task in you Linux system.
Helpful Cron Sites
Popular Posts:
None FoundMr. Ramirez, 23, lives in an apartment inside the barn filled with the smell of cows.
Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, said too many of North Carolina’s 15,000 tobacco workers also lived in poor housing — often with too few showers, toilets without partitions and broken washing machines that prevent workers from cleaning their sweat-drenched clothes. He talked of workers dying of heatstroke and growers cheating workers on wages, while using Mexican labor brokers who demand bribes from the migrant workers.
“All these problems can’t be resolved unless these workers are organized and can flag the problems themselves,” Mr. Velasquez said. “Workers need to be able to speak up without fearing retaliation.”
In May, Mr. Velasquez’s union protested at the shareholders’ meeting of R.J. Reynolds, one of the largest purchasers of North Carolina tobacco. He is urging the company to require growers to assure freedom of association, without fear of retaliation, to ease the way to unionization.
David Howard, an R.J. Reynolds spokesman, said that the company had pushed growers to improve housing and training to comply with labor laws, but that it was resisting what it considered unreasonable demands from the union, known by its acronym, FLOC. “R.J. Reynolds cannot protect freedom of association by compelling growers to collectively bargain with FLOC, no matter how many times FLOC asks us to do so,” he said.
The Equitable Food Initiative is pursuing a different approach. At farms that have agreed to abide by the initiative (now independent of Oxfam America), substantial training on food safety is provided, coupled with higher pay to motivate workers and reduce turnover. At each participating farm, a leadership committee that includes top managers as well as migrant laborers is supposed to air any problems, like abusive crew leaders and threats of bacterial contamination.
So far, 12 growers have joined the initiative, but just six of their farms, starting with a California strawberry farm, have been certified, covering 2,000 workers. The group hopes to certify 100 farms over the next few years.
Kurt Schweitzer, president of Keystone Fruit Marketing, is proud that his company’s Vidalia onion farm in Walla Walla, Wash., which supplies Costco, has been certified. He said the workers had received extensive training and were paid at least $15 an hour. “This really shows these workers that their jobs are important,” he said.Raid on Mexican jail uncovers 19 prostitutes, 100 fighting cocks and two sacks of cannabis
Mexican police discovered more than they bargained for when they carried out out a surprise search at a prison in Acapulco.
The spot-check revealed two peacocks, 100 fighting cocks, 19 prostitutes and a whopping two sackfuls of cannabis.
Prisoners had also managed to smuggle in 100 televisions, several bottles of alcohol and knives.
Peacocks and prostitutes: Police stand guard at the Acapulco jail yesterday, after a search revealed stacks of contraband
Guerrero state spokesman Arturo Martinez said federal and state police searched the prison before dawn yesterday.
He did not give a reason for how the women, animals and drugs got into the institution - but described the peacocks as 'pets'.
Cock fighting is a popular pastime in parts of Mexico.
The resort city has been plagued by crime since last year when gangs began fighting for power after the arrest of Edgar Valdez Villarreal, also known as 'La Barbie'.
The operation was called 'Guerrero Seguro'.But the media have been harder on him than on any other Cabinet member. A week does not pass without the publication of explicit articles or opinion pieces calling on Tillerson to resign (such as here, here, here, and here ).
Rex Tillerson should be the darling of the liberal media. He supported sticking with the Iran deal, which basically allows Iran to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. He opposed stating the obvious : that Israel's capital is Jerusalem. And he supported the ridiculous Paris climate change treaty.
Why?
Because Tillerson has been working assiduously to cut the staff of the State Department. He wants to cut the State Department staff by 8%. Liberals are horrified. They don't have the faintest idea how many people should be working at the State Department. All they know is that however many there are, there shouldn't be fewer. Even worse, Tillerson hasn't filled many senior political positions at the State Department, and he's been criticized for not consulting with the staff there – he makes them feel unimportant!
The media are full of stories of the "understaffed" State Department.
Vox says the understaffed State Department makes the situation with North Korea more dangerous.
The result is a North Korea crisis where America's typical tools for crisis management – high-level statements and consultation with allies – aren't functioning. And experts agree that the consequences are unpredictable, but potentially severe.
We need a fully staffed State Department to "make high-level statements." Or do we? But in the same article, Vox, incredibly, admits that perhaps the State Department just doesn't matter:
It's more than possible that all of this amounts to nothing – that we muddle through this latest North Korea provocation and future ones on the strength of America's long-term commitment to South Korean and Japanese security[.]
Here's another great quote from the WaPo where in one sentence it also says the understaffing will have a terrible effect – and no effect at all!
The lack of movement on filling ambassadorial posts is not likely to damage U.S. credibility or leverage abroad right away, diplomats and others said, but it threatens to undermine the work of a department that is understaffed and facing severe budget cuts.
Many at the State Department have nothing to do.
Some try to conduct policy meetings just to retain the muscle memory and focus, but, said another department employee, "in the last couple months, it's been a lot more sitting around and going home earlier than usual." Some wander around the streets of Foggy Bottom, going for long, aimless lunches. "I'm used to going to three or four interagency policy meetings a week," the employee added, referring to the meetings in which policy is developed in coordination with other government departments. "I've had exactly one of those meetings in the last five weeks." Even the torrent of inter-department email has slowed to a trickle. The State Department staffer told me that where she once used to get two hundred emails a day, it's down to two dozen now. "Not since I began at the department a decade ago has it been so quiet," she said. "Colleagues tell me it's the same for them."
Morale is down:
Nick Burns was an Under-Secretary of State in the Bush administration. He told The New Yorker that Tillerson's cuts "will decimate the Foreign Service." "My fundamental concern is that [Tillerson] is so decimating the senior levels of the Foreign Service that there's no one to show up at meetings where the US needs to be represented," a retired diplomat told The New Yorker. "Whether it's the oceans, the environment, science, human rights, broadband assignments, drugs and thugs, civil aviation – it's a huge range of issues on which there are countless treaties and agreements that all require management. And, if we are not there, things will start to fall apart."
Oh, no...no one to represent us on the environment, human rights, or broadband assignments! Even worse:
"There's no one protecting the institution of the State Department," one foreign service officer told Foreign Policy. "They don't give a [s---] about what's happening to us."
The State Department has meanwhile been losing a lot of its two-, three-, and four-star generals. Yes, the State Department compares its senior diplomats to four-star generals.
The new AFSA data focuses on the top-ranking career officials – meaning people who have spent their lives in the State Department. This includes minister counselors (the equivalent of two-star generals), career ministers (the three-star equivalent), and career ambassadors (the four-star equivalent). The number of people in each of those posts has declined dramatically since President Trump took office in January. The number of minister counselors in the State Department has gone down by 15 percent, career ministers by 42 percent, and career ambassadors by a whopping 60 percent.
But Secretary Tillerson keeps morale up by finding valuable work for the staff to do: processing Freedom of Information Act requests.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's assignment of as many as several hundred State Department officials to quickly clear a huge backlog of public records requests is being met with deep skepticism by rank-and-file employees. Tillerson says his goal is transparency. But many State workers fear the real reason is political: expediting the public release of thousands of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's official emails. The staffers also suspect the move – which will reassign many of them from far more substantive duties and has already sparked a union complaint – is meant to force many of them to resign out of frustration with what are essentially clerical positions.
I love this man.
By the way, nowhere in any of these articles is there any concrete mention of how the work of the State Department has actually suffered due to the lack of staffing. Nowhere does any of these articles talk about the failures of the "fully staffed" State Department, whether on the Iran deal or the dubious global warming treaty. In fact, reading any of these articles, you'd be hard pressed to find any serious discussion of the duties of the State Department. After all these gallons of virtual spilled ink, it's impossible to figure out exactly what it is that the State Department does.
That's why I think Rex Tillerson is one of the greatest secretaries of state ever. Intentionally or not, he is terrorizing and demoralizing the fat, bloated, and largely unnecessary Department of State. While he may have liberal views, it is obvious he has no influence with Trump, so he does no harm there. His legacy is cutting self-important "four-star generals" down to size by making them process FOIA requests and driving countless others off the public teat. I say he's a great man and the perfect choice to steer the State Department into the ground.
Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.Sony is expected to launch the Z4 generation of its flagship devices soon and we've already seen initial rumors for the lot the Xperia Z4, a compact version, a phablet version and a Z4 Tablet. A new rumor alleges that there will be one more device, a 13" tablet.
Dubbed the Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra (not to be confused with the Z4 Ultra phablet), the rumored specs sound more like a wishlist than those of an actual 2015 device. We start off with the unusual screen, Triluminos IPS with X-Reality, of course, which will supposedly have 3,840 x 2,400 resolution that's 16:10 4K UHD.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 with a max CPU clockspeed of 2.86GHz will provide the oomph, coupled with an unlikely 6GB of RAM (2x 3GB LPDDR4). There will be 64GB of storage and PS4 Remote Play support, which sound more believable.
The camera is also trumped up an 1/2.3" Exmor RS sensor with an f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* lens and just 8MP resolution. Thats probably the Superior Auto resolution as the rest sounds like an improvement over the Xperia Z3 camera with a better lens (Zeiss f/1.8 instead of Sony G Lens f/2.0).
The Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra will be a slinky 8.6mm thick and pack a massive 12,100mAh if the rumored specs are to be believed. The image by itself is quite suspicious, holding a massive 13" tablet with such thin bezels will not be comfortable. Also, why is it portrait-oriented (going by the logo and front-facing camera).
All in all it sounds too good to be true. We'll gladly admit if we are wrong and Sony does pull this out monster at CES or MWC 2015, but for now we're skeptical to say the least.
Source (in Chinese)Image copyright AFP
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have made renewed attacks on each other's fitness for office as polls suggest the race for the White House is tightening.
Mrs Clinton - who has seen her national opinion poll lead shrink in recent days - targeted her Republican rival's temperament and attitude to women.
Mr Trump said she would be followed into the White House by criminal investigations.
He has gained ground on Mrs Clinton in some swing states, polls suggest.
Thursday's campaigning included a rare appearance by Mr Trump's wife Melania.
Live coverage of Friday's campaign
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Trump targets Clinton territory
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Daily dig: Melania's anti-bully crusade
In her first speech since July's Republican convention, the former model spoke about being an immigrant and a mother and said her husband would "make America fair".
She also vowed, in a speech in the Philadelphia suburbs, to lead a campaign against cyber-bullying if she becomes first lady, and to combat a culture that has "gotten too mean and too rough".
She made no reference to her husband's record of name-calling on social media.
Please enable Javascript to view our poll of polls chart. About BBC poll of polls The BBC poll of polls looks at the five most recent national polls and takes the median value, ie, the value between the two figures that are higher and two figures that are lower. See individual polls
Mr Trump has gained ground on Mrs Clinton in a number of swing states, including Florida and North Carolina, according to polls. Some national tracker polls are now suggesting the two candidates are neck-and-neck.
The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project estimates Mrs Clinton's odds of winning the necessary 270 Electoral College votes on Tuesday at about 90%, down from 95% last week.
The momentum appears to be with Mr Trump, who has joked about having to stay on message, as the final weekend of campaigning approaches.
He has capitalised on a new FBI investigation into a Clinton aide's emails.
Image copyright AP Image caption Melania Trump vowed to fight cyber bullying if she becomes first lady
"Here we go again with the Clintons - you remember the impeachment and the problems," Mr Trump said at a rally in Jacksonville, Florida, his fourth appearance in the state.
"That's not what we need in our country, folks. We need someone who is ready to go to work."
Later, at a night-time rally in North Carolina, he delivered a speech on defence in which he said he could not imagine Mrs Clinton as commander-in-chief.
Mrs Clinton continued to focus on Mr Trump's character, telling a rally in North Carolina: "He has spent this entire campaign offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters.
"This has never happened to a nominee of a major party."
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Pharrell Williams and Bernie Sanders get behind Hillary Clinton
She added: "If Donald Trump were to win this election we would have a commander-in-chief who is completely out of his depth and whose ideas are incredibly dangerous."
President Barack Obama has been working almost as hard as Mrs Clinton, as he attempts to rally support among young voters and African Americans.
Analysis of early voting returns suggests black voters may not be turning out in the kinds of numbers they did for Obama in 2012.
Alluding to Mr Trump's past as a reality TV show host, Mr Obama told students at Florida International University in Miami: "This isn't a joke. This isn't Survivor. This isn't The Bachelorette. This counts."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Life on the US-Mexico border
Mrs Clinton also got a boost from her one-time rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders. He appeared alongside her at a rally in North Carolina on Thursday evening, praising her commitment to increasing the minimum wage and tackling inequality.
Music star Pharrell Williams was also at the event, hailing Mrs Clinton's record on women's rights.
The US election explainedHappy 36th Birthday Roger Federer!
Not that he needs reminding. The press and critics alike have been quick to remind Federer of his age for the last 6 years now. And he has proven in 2017 that age simply does not matter. He has |
protect animals from sexual assault.”
In addition to better laws, the country needs enforcement officers who are properly trained, educated and connected to all the other players, so that they can be enforced. In Canada, officers from 40 per cent of Humane Societies and SPCAs enforce the federal animal cruelty legislation, but there’s no funding for them, no training, no access to services. The majority of that work is paid for through fundraising. Cartwright says the federal department of Public Safety could allocate funds for money for education and training.
Although Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale sent a letter of support for next week’s conference, he won’t be there. Nor will Wilson-Raybould or Minister of the Status of Women Maryam Monsef.
“This is political. It’s policy. Yet we have very few political people coming, even though we’ve invited every single MP and every single senator,” Cartwright says, noting the event is being held less than 15 minutes from Parliament Hill.
Even getting a meeting with Goodale to discuss the issue has been challenging — and unsuccessful to date.
“They don’t equate animal protection with community safety, so we need to help them link those two things up,” she says.
“It’s also pretty clear (Monsef) needs to engage in this conversation. If the government really wants to address gender-based violence, they need to include animal protection officers and animal experts at the table. If you leave them out, you’re missing a significant part of the problem that leads to increased gender-based violence against women and their children.”
Ideally, Cartwright would like to get all three ministers in a room and give them a presentation.
“We own 17 million companion animals in a significant number of houses across the country, and yet they’re almost invisible in our legislative and policy framework, no matter where you look,” she says.
“The conversation has to happen. We have to get people talking about this. Its time has come.”Music is a powerful thing: It can raise our spirits, carry us through athletic challenges, and make us weep. Its very fabric is a source of power and intrigue, too, since just a measly few tones might do anything from shatter glass to manifest the Devil’s Tritone.
The Devil's Interval, and diabolus in musica, this combination of tones has led to some of the most chilling melodies in music history, from classical compositions to heavy metal riffs, and even has a reputation for being banned by religious authority in centuries past. As much as it’s inspired composers to explore the dark side in music, however, the Devil’s Tritone—a.k.a. the diminished fifth—also has a stirring effect on audiences for some very technical reasons (no black magic required).
THE RESTLESS, DISSONANT, DEPENDENT TRIAD (SAY WHAT?)
For those of us without conservatory backgrounds, a break-down of the musical terms used to define the Devil’s Tritone can go a long way in helping unravel its eerie mystery.
According to Carl E. Gardner’s 1912 text Essentials of Music Theory, a “triad” in music is composed of three tones—specifically, one starting note plus the third and fifth tones found along its scale (e.g. C, E, G)—that can get together to form either a “dependent” or an “independent” chord. According to Gardner, an independent chord is one that can happily conclude a composition. Meanwhile, a dependent chord contains “dissonant” or tense intervals—such as the tritone.
One example of a dependent chord containing a tritone would be the diminished chord (e.g. C, Eb, Gb). According to Gardner, a chord containing this kind of dissonance is "restless" and shouldn’t be given the last word in a composition lest the audience—and any traditional music theorists among them—are left feeling uncomfortable.
WHAT GIVES THE TRITONE ITS POWER?
Music listeners’ almost instinctive desire to hear a song through to its rhythmic and harmonic conclusion can be an effective (if torturous) tool throughout the fields of music composition and scoring. The last moments of The Sopranos’ series finale are likely extra-irksome to many, for example, not just because of unresolved plot points, but also the unresolved chorus in Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” is left hanging when the screen has gone black.
John Sloboda, a professor of music psychology at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, explained to NPR in 2012 that the dissonant intervals of the Devil’s Tritone are particularly affecting because of this listener’s instinct to find resolution in music, and the fact that we’re used to getting it:
"Our brains are wired to pick up the music that we expect, [and] generally music is consonant rather than dissonant, so we expect a nice chord. So when that chord is not quite what we expect, it gives you a little bit of an emotional frisson, because it's strange and unexpected.
The emotional result of dissonant sounds, then, might not be too different from the one experienced at the bottom of a staircase that failed to mention it’s missing its last step. "[Music] taps into this very primitive system that we have which identifies emotion on the basis of a violation of expectancy," Deathridge said. "It's like a little upset which then gets resolved or made better in the chord that follows."
WHERE CAN I FIND THIS DIABOLUS IN MUSICA?
Some say that the devil’s in the details, and if you listen closely, you’ll indeed spot the Devil’s Tritone giving a certain edge to many popular tunes from different genres. It heats up Busta Rhymes’s “Woo Hah!! Got You All In Check,” the theme songs to The Simpsons and South Park, and West Side Story’s “Maria.” It also gives Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” its signature sting. It’s a favorite among metal bands, too, and can be found in any number of Black Sabbath songs (though guitarist Tony Iommi told BBC News that he simply used “something that sounded right … really evil and very doomy,” and that he “didn’t think [he] was going to make it Devil music”). Prog-rocking Rush even manages to shred its way through both ascending and descending tritones multiple times in its four-and-a-half minute, decidedly epic song "YYZ."
But the Devil's Tritone's deepest roots are in classical music, where it has often served as a leitmotif to signal the presence of something sinister. Professor John Deathridge of King's College London told BBC News that medieval arrangements employed the tritone to represent the devil, Roman Catholic composers sometimes used it for referencing the crucifixion, and by the 19th century "you have got lots of presentations of evil built around the tritone" in classical pieces, as in Beethoven’s 1805 opera Fidelio. When it comes to metal’s cred with tritones, there’s “a big connection between heavy rock music and Wagner,” Deathridge said, and generally such tunes “have cribbed quite a lot from 19th Century music."
Overall, the Devil’s Tritone “can sound very spooky [depending] on how you orchestrate [and] also quite exciting," Deathridge said. "[Wagner's] Gotterdammerung has one of the most exciting scenes—a 'pagan,' evil scene, the drums and the timpani. It is absolutely terrifying … like a black mass.” Musicologist Anthony Pryer pointed out that the leitmotif lives on as an arrow toward evil on-screen, too: "[a] lot of films have what musicians call Captain Tritone in them,” he told BBC News, or moments wherein an enemy officer or such shows up and “out comes the Tritone [as] a sort of badge—here's Mr. Nasty. What's going to happen?"
WAS THE DEVIL’S TRITONE REALLY BANNED BY THE CHURCH?
Over the years, there have been rumors that the diminished fifth tritone was banned by religious authorities, or even that composers were punished for sneaking it into their work. Given that various Christian faiths and organizations have either produced or influenced much of the classical Western canon, though, experts seem to think it’s more likely that musical monks and other religious composers discouraged its use in keeping with “strict musical rules,” Deathridge said. “This particular dissonance … simply won't work technically, [so] you are taught not to write that interval. But you [could] read into that a theological ban in the guise of a technical ban." Pryer notes, too, that the tritone “was recognized to be a problem in music right back to the 9th Century [and] a natural consequence, and so they banned it [and] had rules for getting around it... I don't think they ever thought of it as the Devil dwelling in music.”
According to Pryer, there are a number of non-accursed ways this tritone could’ve gotten its name. “It was called Diabolus in Musica by two or three writers in the medieval or renaissance [because it] was 'false music,'” he explained, since “the intervals weren't natural.” On the other hand, composers and conductors may have found it “devilishly hard to teach the singers not to sing it,” he said.
In the case of Giuseppe Tartini’s “The Devil's Trill Sonata”—one of the absolute toughest pieces a violin virtuoso can take on—the mark of the beast might be twofold. According to Pryer, "He did this incredibly difficult [piece] and claimed in a dream he had heard the devil giving him instructions how to do it … Two centuries later, he would probably have been in a heavy metal band."For a fleeting moment on Monday night, in the midst of a whirlwind opening touchdown drive that gave Oregon its only lead of the national championship game, I could see an alternate narrative unfolding around Mark Helfrich. I could envision a world in which one of the first questions directed to him at a press conference would not be about his communications with his head-coaching predecessor, Chip Kelly, as it had been the day before this game; I could envision a world in which a man who comes across as alarmingly down-to-earth and genial for a major-college football coach — a man who does not even tolerate yelling at his practices — would be elevated into the same genius realm inhabited by that predecessor.
Everything changed soon after this idea arose in my head. I remember thinking, when Oregon faced a fourth-and-3 on its own 45 on its ensuing drive, still up 7-0, still in possession of whatever mythical sense of momentum exists in sports, that maybe Helfrich should go for it right there. That maybe he should push the envelope, attempt to insert the dagger while he could. But he did not. He chose (perhaps wisely, in the moment) to punt, but then the Ducks punted again, and then they punted once more, the first time since 2009 that Oregon had punted three times in the first quarter. By the end of the period, Ohio State led, 14-7, and any momentum Oregon possessed had long since dissipated, especially once the Ducks did choose to go for it (and failed) on fourth-and-goal early in the second quarter.
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More on the College Football Playoff It is impossible to talk about Oregon football without acknowledging that ephemeral sense of momentum. No other program has so thoroughly relied on momentum, both on and off the field, to deliver it to national prominence; no other program grounds its whole philosophy on the deathly impact of forward movement quite like Oregon has over the past half-decade. And that’s why, while it would be patently idiotic to declare Oregon’s 2014 season a failure, this loss still hit harder than it might have elsewhere, including at Ohio State. As amazingly proficient as the Ducks have become over the past several seasons, there is an undercurrent of angst that maybe this whole thing can still be stopped dead in its tracks. There is a worry that maybe the Ducks, after losing a big game every year, are not built to win the big games. There is a worry that if they can get pushed around when everything is at stake, then maybe somehow their formula for success is inherently corrupted.
“It’s not a house of cards,” Paul Swangard, managing director of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center, told me earlier this season. “But it’s still a fan base that doesn’t feel comfortable in their own skin.”
I have no idea if that feeling dissipates after a 13-win season and a Heisman Trophy and a Rose Bowl blowout of Florida State — one hell of a year, really — but I’m guessing it doesn’t. On Wednesday, Marcus Mariota declared for the NFL draft, which means that whatever safety net Helfrich had when he took the job is gone. This is Helfrich’s team now, and while there is little doubt about the man’s fierce intelligence (or his loyalty to the state where he was born and raised), there remains the overarching worry that maybe Helfrich is not big enough for the job, that maybe he is merely a cipher for another man’s ideas, that maybe he does not possess the necessary charisma for such a big position. And even as I write that, I recognize that it is a completely unfair statement, too, but such is the nature of the Oregon experiment: If the program can’t maintain that sense of constant and unflagging momentum, I’m not sure what its identity becomes.
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Sarah Glenn/Getty Images
There has never been a case study in college athletics quite like Oregon’s, which is what makes it so inherently fascinating. The Ducks are the closest thing sports has to a living, breathing, corporate branding campaign, propped up over the past two decades by the largesse of Phil Knight, the same man who could be seen after the game embracing the opposing coach. Oregon’s uniforms are absurd and multifaceted for a reason: They’re a marketing construction, a selling point, and combined with the Ducks’ blur of an offense, they’re the primary reason Oregon has made it this far in the first place. With Mariota at quarterback, the Ducks were almost awe-inspiringly beautiful to watch when their offense was humming; but when they sputtered, they were immediately viewed as a fraud, as false advertising at work, as a postmodern popular trifle devoid of any real substance.
And that’s what was so dispiriting for the Ducks about the second half against Ohio State. They didn’t just lose; they were outplayed on both sides of the ball. The Ohio State defense, determined to slow down Oregon, managed to do just that by emphasizing physicality; the Ohio State offense, determined to run the ball, did exactly what it wanted, running the same play over and over again until the Ducks defense was worn thin. This appeared to be the year that Oregon had finally plugged its holes. This appeared to be the year that the Ducks had finally embraced a physicality that could propel them beyond teams like Michigan State and Stanford. But when it came right down to it, the same thing happened: Oregon became the finesse team that couldn’t play “real football” when it mattered.
“I think they just played their game,” Ducks running back Byron Marshall said afterward. “We tried to play ours, and it didn’t really work out.”
And this probably isn’t fair either, but this is the bargain that Oregon has made. If you sell yourself as something shiny and new and different, and then that shininess fails at key moments, people are going to ask whether that shininess might actually be the thing holding you back.
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Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
And maybe, in the end, such perceptions mean nothing. Maybe Helfrich was correct when he declared, in his postgame press conference, that Oregon’s facilities and infrastructure and coaching staff will continue to propel it forward; maybe Oregon can get back here sooner than we think. If anything, Helfrich is probably underrated as a coach, and if the Ducks find a quarterback to replace Mariota in their system, they may not regress for long.
But there are always existential threats in place. The Pac-12 wound up being slightly disappointing this season, but it probably won’t stay that way. There is the specter of Gary Andersen’s Oregon State and Chris Petersen’s Washington to the north, and the specter of Steve Sarkisian’s USC and David Shaw’s Stanford to the south. There is the possibility that Phil Knight will grow bored or impatient and begin throwing his weight behind other causes; there is the notion that because the Ducks don’t really do much recruiting in the South (they are currently 19th in the country in the class of 2015, according to Rivals), they will never quite be able to build an overtly physical “SEC-quality” defense, as Meyer has at Ohio State. There is the question of whether, at some point, those who find Oregon’s football opulence antithetical to the university’s mission will become the ones who win the day.
Without Mariota, next season is the closest the Ducks will come to facing a “rebuilding year” since they catapulted themselves into the upper echelon. It may be that they have all this figured out; it may be that Helfrich is actually a smarter college coach than Kelly, and that he will tweak the Ducks’ system just enough to keep it pushing forward. But what if the Ducks go 8-4 next season? What if they lose to Michigan State on the road in the nonconference schedule? What if they fail to win 10 games for the first time since 2007? What if their momentum is sapped, if only for a moment? What if they find themselves moving backward?
“We’ve bet the farm on making this one of the championship-caliber programs in college football,” Swangard told me, and now Oregon is here, unquestionably in that company. And it may very well be that the Ducks are here for good, but if there’s one thing we learned on Monday night, it’s that narratives are often here and gone in an instant.
Michael Weinreb (@MichaelWeinreb) is the author of Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games.Nokia Transport App beta is now available for download from Windows Phone Marketplace. Just a gentle reminder, its a Nokia Exclusive!
Nokia Transport app helps you learn the best route for your daily commute, showing your journey on a map or as a list of turn-by-turn directions.
Nokia Transport aggregates information from over 700 of the leading public transit agencies, such as BVG and VBB in Berlin, Rejseplanen in Denmark and DeLijn in Flanders. So you are guaranteed to have the best-in-industry information. Check the timetables to see your scheduled departure and arrival times, as well as how long you’ll be en route to your destination. You can even keep an eye on transit disruptions and delays (right now in Berlin and Potsdam, with more coverage on the way). In 46 countries, 512 cities, and 24 languages— Nokia Transport has got you covered.
Read more on it here.
You can download the app here.GOP presidential candidate and failed former HP CEO Carly Fiorina doubled down on her lies about Planned Parenthood "harvesting" baby parts during an appearance on NBC this Sunday. Meet the Press host Chuck Todd did actually call Fiorina out over the doctored video tapes, but he let a lot go unchecked as well, like her claim that Planned Parenthood receives federal funding for abortions, which they don't.
Fiorina basically said she didn't care what the tapes showed or didn't show, she somehow knows that this practice is happening, so she's standing by her accusations -- fact checkers be damned.
Carly Fiorina Stands By Planned Parenthood Criticism:
Carly Fiorina on Sunday stood by her disputed description of a scene from the videos targeting Planned Parenthood, but refused to say definitively that Republicans should force a government shutdown to defund the organization. "Not at all. That scene absolutely does exist, and that voice saying what I said they were saying — "We're gonna keep it alive to harvest its brain — exists as well," Fiorina said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Fiorina's description during the last GOP debate of a scene she said she saw in the anti-Planned Parenthood videos has been widely disputed in media reports, and there is no definitive proof it existed. The controversy surrounding the alleged scene inspired a Washington Post editorial published this Sunday titled, "Fiorina's falsehoods," which raises questions about the veracity of a number of her claims and her character as a candidate for president. Fiorina dismissed the Washington Post, noting their fact-checker recently raised doubts about her career trajectory. "I don't think the Washington Post has a lot of credibility here," she said. And in a testy exchange with host Chuck Todd, Fiorina repeatedly insisted that the practice she described "is happening." "Planned Parenthood cannot and will not deny this, because it is happening — and taxpayers are paying for it," she said, decrying funding for the women's health organization as a "political slush fund on top of being butchery that Americans…cannot support."
↓ Story continues below ↓ But Fiorina wouldn't commit to endorsing a government shutdown to defund the organization, the strategy many conservatives in Congress have floated as a response to the video. She initially laid the blame for a shutdown on President Obama and Congressional Democrats, declaring that if they're "willing to stand up and defend…this practice and shut down the government over it, then let them explain it to the American people." Pressed on whether she'd back a shutdown to defund the group, Fiorina replied, "there are a variety of ways to deal with this."
Todd and his panel actually went after Fiorina later in the show for refusing to acknowledge the fact checkers on Planned Parenthood, and for her claim that they receive federal funding for abortions, but as they also acknowledged, facts don't seem to matter much to Republican primary voters. That doesn't excuse letting so much of what she said go unchecked while she was still on the air.Eddy Curry during 2001-02. (Getty Images)
Eddy Curry was basketball-famous when he was 16, he was a franchise cornerstone of one of the NBA’s marquee teams when he was 18, and an NBA washout by 25. Drafted directly out of high school to his hometown Chicago Bulls in 2001, Curry showed flashes of All-Star promise at times during his too-brief career, but his role as an everyday player was just about done by 2008, as he played just 26 games between 2007-08 and his last stint with the NBA in 2012.
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Chaos and off-the-court woes followed Curry from his peak as a pro in late 2004-05 until the end of his run, with a since-dismissed sexual harassment suit, the frightening murder of the mother of one of his seven children, and all manner of on-court frustration regarding his underachieving play in the pivot for (mostly) Chicago and New York.
Curry is attempting to make a comeback of sorts with the Champions Basketball League, a traveling collection of ex-NBA semi-stars set to hit the pine in 2017. Until then, he’s decided to act as a motivational speaker, and he recently sat in front of a group of high school athletes from Metea Valley High School in Aurora, IL to discuss some of the drawbacks that come from being too good at too young an age.
From Suzanne Baker at the Naperville Times:
He said his only regret was not attending college and participating in the rites of passage, like living in a dorm, or experiencing the growth and maturity so many NBA players received as college athletes.
“It would be super dope to have a college diploma,” Curry said.
[…]
“I was a kid coming out of high school, literally,” he said.
Story continues
“When I was in Chicago, they babied me in Chicago. They really kind of sheltered and kept us kind of concealed and didn’t let us get into a lot of stuff. Then I went to New York and it was total opposite. It was like boom,” he said.
While he hinted that his lifestyle got a bit wild, Curry shied away details.
Things never really got on track for Curry once he left the comforts of his Chicago home.
This isn’t to say his first few years with the Bulls went swimmingly, either. Drafted No. 4 overall in 2001, Curry was immediately used as a scapegoat of sorts by then-Chicago general manager Jerry Krause for the subsequent deal that sent 20-and-10 man and 1999-00 co-Rookie of the Year Elton Brand to the Clippers for No. 2 pick Tyson Chandler. Brand’s low post game wouldn’t work well alongside Curry’s, Krause argued, while Chandler’s all-around gifts would fit well alongside Curry’s offensive-minded approach.
It wasn’t a terrible plan in the slightest, as Chandler’s continuing long NBA career (working alongside all manner of frontcourt partners) would suggest. Tyson’s first few years, however, were hamstrung by back injuries and timing issues, while Curry was immediately identified as one of the league’s worst defenders, a lacking rebounder (when asked what he could do to improve at that end, then-coach Scott Skiles infamously replied, “jump”) that was terribly foul and turnover-prone.
This was all apparent to anyone who scouted Curry in high school, where he barely averaged double-digit rebounds during his senior year, but Chandler’s presence was supposed to mollify these shortcomings. That idea finally took hold in 2004-05, with Krause since let go by the team, when Chandler (fully healthy, though coming off of the bench) and Curry helped contributed mightily to a Bulls turnaround that saw a team that started 2-13 finish with a 47-35 record and the franchise’s first playoff appearance since Michael Jordan’s retirement.
Curry was sidelined with an irregular heartbeat just before the end of the regular season, though, missing the postseason (Eddy would retire without ever playing an NBA playoff game) prior to his turn as a restricted free agent in the offseason. Chicago, worried about Curry’s health, offered him several life-long contract options that would pay him nearly in perpetuity should his heart issues sideline Eddy for good, while Curry (quite understandably) refused to submit to DNA testing that would help determine if his heart issues were a genetic condition.
Champing at the bit from afar, hardly swayed by former Bull Jamal Crawford’s underwhelming first year with the Knicks and his recent signing of center Jerome James to a free agent deal, was New York president Isiah Thomas. With the Bulls and Curry at an impasse, Thomas structured a sign-and-trade for the center that sent draft picks to Chicago that later turned into LaMarcus Aldridge (immediately dealt for Tyrus Thomas) and current Knick Joakim Noah.
Curry averaged a career high 19.5 points and seven rebounds in his second season with New York, but his pairing with Zach Randolph in his third year was a disaster, and he was more or less done as an NBA mainstay following that stint. The heart issues, thankfully, never became a problem again, but his weight ballooned and despite the strong scoring output he was a minus player overall for a series of disastrous Knick outfits.
In effect, he’d chosen to agree to deal away his best chance at NBA relevance back in 2005.
His situation in Chicago was ideal – and not just because he was working from home, near his supportive parents and in the bubble the Bulls organization apparently provided for him. On the court Curry was allowed to be a situational star for an otherwise-terrible offensive team that badly needed what he was best at. Surrounded by defenders and rebounders, Curry could dominate first and third quarters with his scoring without much expectation for providing things he just wasn’t all that good at.
Could college have changed any of this?
In giving away that a college diploma (which Curry could still earn) is “dope,” Eddy seems to hint that all four years working for free in the NCAA would have done him well. Since Danny Manning was taken first overall by the Clippers in 1988, though, there have been just two seniors and college graduates taken No. 1 overall by the NBA: Tim Duncan in 1997, and Kenyon Martin (a late-bloomer who was considered a fringe lottery pick entering his senior season, in a historically weak draft) in 2000. Top rank players just don’t stay four years anymore, and for good reason.
The lead reason is the idea that working for free in the billion-buck NCAA system is a raw deal, Curry’s NBA career had already hit his peak by what would have been his senior year draft in 2005 (when sophomore Andrew Bogut went first overall). Secondly, and most important to the NBA consumer, is the fact that working even as a bit player in a professional system is far preferable in terms of development than acting as a star within the NCAA coaching system.
The coaching is superior, better suited for the professional game, and there is far more opportunity to work on one’s skills as a young pro as opposed to a college “student/athlete.” To say nothing of the experience gleaned from banging against older combatants in practice, or in even limited game action.
Could the college experience have helped Eddy Curry stay in line once he became a New York Knick at (nearly) age 23 in 2005? That’s tough to assume. One year at college as a prominent athlete, mostly spent at practice, at games, or on the road, isn’t the same as the typical college freshman dorm learning curve.
Teammate Tyson Chandler also came to Chicago at age 18, and he seemed to handle moving half a country away from his California home quite well during his five seasons with Chicago. The Bulls dealt Chandler to New Orleans in 2006 in a money-saving move, and though the then-Hornets played a goodly chunk of its schedule in Oklahoma City that first season, Tyson still handled the change in scenery appropriately.
Other preps-to-pros types like Tracy McGrady and Jermaine O’Neal also handled early-career switches quite well, but McGrady returned to his Florida home, and O’Neal was traded to Indianapolis – working in a county where it is illegal to use a Phillips-head screwdriver on Sundays.
Curry went to New York City, working for a franchise led by Isiah Thomas and James Dolan, at an age where most college graduates move back in with their parents while trying to figure out how to pay off student loan debts some $97 at a time.
Rebounding is something you either have, or you don’t. College rebounding statistics are perhaps the most important crossover NCAA-to-NBA stat to look at when divining a prospect’s pro potential, and for Eddy Curry to barely make a dent on the glass while working in a semi-suburban Chicago prep high school system was a bit of a worry. It’s very much doubtful that some time spent with Billy Donovan in Florida or Bob Huggins in Cincinnati back in 2001 and 2002 would have done much for his all-around game.
For his perspective, as a professional? We’ll never know.
It is still worth gnashing teeth about, because despite his limitations Eddy Curry could have carved out a helpful and prominent NBA career. Especially as you look at Tyson Chandler – who could be the most sought-after player on the trade market in 2016-17 even at age 34 – as he still plugs along.
There’s still time for that diploma, though. Committing to the NBA in 2001 may have taken away Eddy Curry’s chance at making the NCAA Final Four, but it doesn’t stand in the way of him achieving greater things as he heads into middle age.
– – – – – – –
Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!Affiliate Links
Ever since I first used NARS Smudgeproof Eyeshadow Base, it’s been my gold standard for eye primer. Before I tried it, I thought eye primer were a bunch of baloney. Snake oil. Insert your term of choice “load of crap”. But NARS was the first one that actually made my eyeshadow last longer than noon before creasing – much, much longer. It’s not that it couldn’t be improved though. It’s expensive, considering how much you get. It dries down clear, so it doesn’t even out the color on your lids. The wand isn’t entirely sanitary (I only use it on myself, so whatever) and it can be hard to get the product out once you get toward the end of it.
When Dior came out with their Backstage Eye Prime, I was hoping it would solve some of these issues while still being just as awesome. So, obviously, I picked it up and put it through some long-term testing (which, if you’re wondering, means I didn’t get this review done nearly as soon as I meant to).
Packaging
Unlike the NARS primer, which comes with a tube & wand applicator, or most other primers that come in squeeze tubes, the Dior eye primer comes in a little glass pot. It’s exactly the same as the pots that the Fusion Monos come in, except with a silver cap. This definitely has its advantages over the NARS packaging. I still find that using my finger is the most convenient way of actually getting it out and onto my eye – which again, is not terribly sanitary – but at least there’s the option of scraping a bit out to use, or spritzing it with alcohol/taking off the top layer if you need to sanitize it. Unfortunately it’s not any more cost-effective – the Dior primer has.21oz/6g for $28, where NARS has.26oz/7.4g for $25. So the Dior version is actually more expensive.
Color
The main thing I was looking for in the Dior primer was a way to even out the skintone on my eyelids, and it delivered. The extremely heavy swatch should give you an idea of the color – my skin right now is around NW30 in MAC terms. The primer is a fairly neutral light beige. It’s not fully opaque, so it blends in very nicely on my lids. I don’t think anyone on the light-medium skintone range would have any issues with the color, but I could imagine it maybe looking a little ashy against dark skin.
Texture, application & wear
The texture of this primer completely explains why it’s in a pot and not some sort of tube. It’s very dense, thick, stiff and sort of dry-feeling. I know it sounds like it should be incredibly unpleasant – but if you rub your finger around in the pot to warm it up and pat it onto your lid, it really applies very evenly and without tugging. I’ve also applied it with a flat synthetic brush which, eh, it works ok, but not quite as well as the good ol’ fingers.
Wear time… sadly, that’s the spot where it falls a little bit short (for me at least – I don’t think everyone will have the same results). Objectively it’s better than most of the primers I’ve tried (UD Primer Potion, Too Faced Shadow Insurance, Lorac Behind the Scenes) but it’s no NARS. I suspected for a long time that it wasn’t keeping my shadow from creasing for quite as long so I finally did an eye to eye comparison and the results sort of speak for themselves.
NARS after 12 hours:
Dior after 12 hours:
As you can see, the Dior primer had significantly more creasing, which I started noticing around the 7-hour mark. Now- if your eyelids aren’t hooded, or if they aren’t oily, I think the primer will work really well. For example, Sunny loved it. My eyes just happen to be oily and hooded, and it really works against basically every product I’ve ever put on them.
In Short: It didn’t quite meet my needs, but I think it’s well worth trying out.
Dior Backstage Eye Prime ($28) is available at Dior counters and sephora.com“He took part, he volunteered,” Mr. van Huiden said. “You don’t kill so many people without the help of guards.”
Mr. Demjanjuk spent most of the proceedings, which lasted much of the day, lying on his back in a bed set up not far from where Judge Ralph Alt read the sentence in a sweltering courtroom. With his face hidden behind a blue baseball cap and dark glasses, Mr. Demjanjuk remained nearly motionless, occasionally lifting a knee or an arm but showing no reaction to the proceedings.
The verdict comes after decades of legal proceedings in three countries involving Mr. Demjanjuk. After losing his United States citizenship in 1985 for lying about his past, Mr. Demjanjuk was deported to Israel and accused of being a particularly brutal guard known as Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka camp.
But an Israeli high court overturned the conviction and death sentence in 1993, ruling that Mr. Demjanjuk was not Ivan even though it appeared he had been a guard at Sobibor, which was in Poland.
Mr. Demjanjuk returned to the United States, but after more years of legal proceedings he was deported to Germany in 2009 to face trial.
Photo
The long legal battle made Mr. Demjanjuk one of the most well-known war crimes suspects, even though he was said to have ranked low in the camp hierarchy. Victims said that did not matter. “He is a very small fish,” said Rudie S. Cortissos, whose mother was killed in Sobibor. “But whether you are a whale or a sardine, someone who went wrong this way should be punished.”
Mr. Demjanjuk’s defense |
when he steps out of their hideout. Back inside, he staggers out again to be killed in a hail of bullets. This is based on the death of Charlie Bowdre in an ambush organized by Pat Garrett. In fact Scurlock was married to a Spanish woman in 1876 and died peacefully in Texas many years after the period of time covered by the movie. The original "Young Guns II" screenplay accurately portrays Scurlock as heading off to Texas with his bride. It has been reported that Kiefer Sutherland, faced with scheduling conflicts, refused to return to the Young Guns franchise unless his character died in the movie's "Stinking Springs Shoot Out". Writer John Fusco fought against this demand, but ultimately rewrote the scene to accommodate Sutherland's schedule.
References [ edit ]The number of non-veterans using the Department of Veterans Affairs’ health system has risen steadily in recent years, even outpacing the rate of growth for former troops, according to VA data.
Family members of veterans are eligible for VA health benefits under certain circumstances. For instance, the spouses of permanently disabled veterans and troops who died in service can use the system through the VA’s Civilian Health and Medical Program.
The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service this month released a fact sheet that shows VA health-network usage by veterans and non-veterans.
The Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix. (Samantha Sais/Reuters)
This type of information has become increasingly useful in the wake of the VA’s record-keeping scandal, as lawmakers draft legislation to help fix the problems and the agency tries to determine whether staffing levels are adequate.
The numbers could help the VA determine how many patients — and possibly which kind — it should send off for private care. Let’s take a look at what the data shows.
The graph below illustrates the rate of increase for veteran and non-veteran users. Notice how non-veteran usage has increased at a higher rate than veterans every year since 2008.
This next graph shows that non-veterans as a percentage of all users in the VA health system has increased every year since 2008. This year, non-veterans made up nearly 11 percent of all users.
Follow Josh Hicks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. Connect by e-mail at josh.hicks(at)washpost.com. Visit The Federal Eye and The Fed Page for more federal news. Submit news tips and suggestions to federalworker@washpost.com.Ben Carson, the designated nice guy in the GOP race, has made a habit of misunderstanding the Constitution. In particular, he has continually insisted that America is a “Christian nation.” As I wrote two weeks ago, Carson has perpetuated the right's toxic trope that there is (or ought to be) a religious test for office. “This is a Judeo-Christian nation,” Carson said recently on Fox News, “in the sense that a lot of our values are based on a Judeo-Christian faith.”
Beyond his overt religiosity, Carson’s appeal to conservatives so far has been his outsider status. As a non-politician (for most of his life, at least), he’s been able to distance himself from the Washington consensus. The problem, though, is that he either doesn’t understand our political system or he pretends not to in order to appease his uninformed base.
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The retired neurosurgeon put his foot in his mouth again this Sunday on “Meet the Press.” Chuck Todd asked Carson whether a president’s faith should matter to voters. Carson’s response was what you’d expect from a political neophyte running on an openly theocratic platform: “It depends on what that faith is…If it’s inconsistent with the values and principles of America, then of course it should matter. If it fits within the realm of America and is consistent with the Constitution, then no problem.” Todd immediately fired back, asking Carson whether he thought Islam was compatible with the Constitution. “No I do not. I would not ever advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation...I absolutely would not agree with that,” Carson told Todd.
The need to remind conservatives that America is not a Christian nation is becoming tiresome. There’s no debate to be had here. The Constitution doesn’t reference God or Christianity or Christ. Article VI, moreover, says explicitly that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” And the Declaration of Independence, despite a vague reference to a “Creator,” does not in any way endorse Christianity. Carson has willed himself to ignorance on this matter, but these are the facts.
Carson tried to walk his comments back, saying he’d support a candidate of any faith as “long as their life is consistent with things that would elevate this nation, and make it possible for everybody to succeed, and bring peace and harmony.” No one is quite sure (and Carson never explains) what “things” would lift the nation and how, exactly, that would “bring peace and harmony” to the republic. We’re left to ponder the riddle, I suppose.
In any event, Carson is not alone in his obliviousness. His anti-constitutional views will find a receptive audience among the conservative base. Professional huckster and close Carson associate Armstrong Williams articulated on CNN what I imagine is a commonplace belief in GOP circles:
He [Carson] is not trying to be politically correct…Dr. Carson was asked his opinion. His opinion was, the timing at this point, he would not vote for a Muslim in the White House. This is why he’s not a politician. This is why he’s not trying to be politically correct. This is America. It’s a place of freedom of speech…It’s not an issue of religion, it is an issue of one’s belief system.
First -- and perhaps it’s the Trump effect -- when you hear someone on the right described as “politically incorrect,” that typically means they’re fond of being an asshole or, more importantly, saying untrue things. But this is just a clever way of making a virtue of ignorance. Being “politically incorrect” is only noble if it involves the telling of uncomfortable truths. That’s not what Carson or Trump or any of the Republican theocrats are doing when they deny America’s secular political roots.
The sort of theo-political tribalism Carson represents is precisely why we have a wall of separation between church and state. This is a nation of laws, not religious edicts. The establishment clause prevents the state from respecting one religion over another – in any capacity. When Williams says “It’s not an issue of religion, it is an issue of one’s belief system,” he’s not even half right. To begin with, what is a religion if not a belief system?
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But more importantly, the president’s (or any candidate’s) belief system is irrelevant. Luckily we have a system of laws, which supersede the “beliefs” of those charged with enforcing them. When a president is sworn in, he or she vows to “faithfully execute the office of President of the United States” and to “defend the Constitution.”
Carson said that “Islam is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution” and he’s absolutely right in that being president requires subservience to secular laws above all else. But Islam is no more or less compatible with the Constitution than Christianity. One can be a Christian and the president, of course, but only so long as a line is drawn between personal beliefs and public responsibilities. The same is true for a Muslim or a Jew or anyone else, which is why a candidate’s faith doesn’t matter.
I suspect we’ll wait in vain for Carson to acknowledge this.Scotland stands on the edge of history. 4.2 million of us, the largest registered electorate in Scottish history, are weighing up the arguments, considering the implications, calibrating the risks.
There has never been a political debate like this in my lifetime and I’ve been covering politics in Westminster and Scotland professionally since 1979. The UK financial and political establishment has already been rocked to its foundations. A 22-point opinion poll lead evaporated and the referendum is now too close to call.
Last week, we saw an exercise in constitutional panic as UK party leaders, past and present, stumbled blinking across Scotland, making improbable promises of federalism and protestations of undying love, while behind the scenes the UK Treasury tried to engineer a state of financial crisis. Number 10 rounded up supermarket bosses and tried to get them to spread forecasts of inevitable price rises in the shops. UK civil servants briefed the press on RBS’s relocation before the bank’s board had even made the decision to go public.
The UK media descended on Scotland as if upon a foreign country and demonstrated its ignorance of a mature debate that has been going on in Scotland, not just for the past three years but the past three decades.
The BBC managed to shoot itself in both feet. It over-hyped the “more powers” that were being offered by the former prime minister Gordon Brown in his road map. Then, the BBC’s Nick Robinson told the 10 O’Clock News on Thursday that the First Minister had refused to answer his question on the banks, unaware that fully 100,000 people on the internet had already watched a viral video of Salmond doing exactly that, to apparent applause from the international press corps.The level of ignorance about Scotland in the metropolitan media was a revelation, even to me. I spent much of last week appearing on UK BBC radio and TV programmes, repeatedly being told by interviewers that “11,000 jobs RBS jobs were to leave Scotland” when the banks themselves had said there were no implications for jobs.
Numerous outlets reported that Lloyds was to leave Scotland, even though it has been based in London for decades; that BP was going to reconsider its investments, as if an international oil company was going to opt out of the current boom in the North Sea. Of course, large firms moving their registered offices is news. But so many of the stories, such as Sir Ian Wood’s gloomy oil forecasts and Standard Life’s threat to move head office functions, were old news in Scotland. There may be tax implications of bank departures, perhaps even some job losses at the top. But the brass plaque transplant could also be positive.
Not having RBS and Lloyds on the books relieves an independent Scotland of much of the responsibility to bail them out in the next financial crash. Since one of the main indy scares has been that Scotland would be like Ireland in 2008, and likely to drown under the debts of its delinquent banks, you might have thought this at least worth a mention.
The press recycled alarmist stories about “mob politics”, “fear and loathing”, and “savage racism” – even in sober journals like The Spectator magazine which is edited by a Scot. Yet, this campaign has been one of the most peaceable independence movements in history. So far, not a shop window has been smashed, not a punch thrown. The only missile hurled has been one solitary egg, thrown at Labour’s Jim Murphy’s shirt, which he paraded around for days as if it were a sucking chest wound. The secret weapon of the Yes campaign has been its discipline. Those journalists writing of mobs seem to have forgotten what real mobs are like – the poll tax riots, the anti-capitalist demonstrations in London, the student fees takeover of Parliament Square, the miners’ strike.
Laced through these accounts of mob behaviour were dark hints that the ugly face of nationalism and racial hatred was appearing. Better Together’s George Galloway tried to evoke images of fascism at the debate at Glasgow’s Hydro before 6000 young voters, and was righteously booed for his efforts. Who now says that these intelligent 16 and 17-year-olds are too young to vote?
The UK state threw everything it had at the referendum campaign last week – “shock and awe” it was called – but if anything the Yes vote grew stronger. Friday’s ICM poll showing another surge of support for independence was conducted on the very days that David Cameron was pleading with Scots not to give the “effing Tories a kicking”.
The front page of every paper last week and every news bulletin, was leading with stories about the banks leaving, food prices rising, Scottish stocks falling. Yet somehow, the Scottish voters – around half of them it seems – have already discounted the scare. The Daily Record’s front page on Saturday, quoting Deutsche Bank’s claim that independence could “spark the next Great Depression”, took Project Fear to another level.
So, why isn’t it working? Why have so many Scots refused to heed the warnings of press, politicians and banks? This has been a truly bottom-up movement, that rose from obscurity in drafty halls and internet chatrooms; ignored by the establishment and ridiculed by the press; dismissed by polling gurus like Nate Silver who said a Yes was “almost inconceivable”.
It has been mediated through new-fangled social media and old-fashioned word of mouth. The internet has given anyone with a computer the ability to correlate, often in real time, what they are being told is going on with what is really going on. This may be the first election in which the mainstream media ceased to be the mainstream.
Perhaps the atmosphere before the 1945 Labour election landslide was similar to this. That was the last time that ordinary people in this country took charge of the political process by the scruff of the neck and demanded radical change. Certainly, 1997, the year of the Labour landslide and the devolution referendum, was a non-event by comparison. There was none of the optimism, engagement, cultural and political – the fun. The Scottish people have entered history, not to pick a fight with England, but to have a party.
Yet, if Scots take the momentous step of voting Yes on Thursday, the shockwave will be felt across the world. In Europe, governments will look at regional movements like Catalonia in a new light. America will watch in amazement as the old country disintegrates, concerned about the strategic implications for Nato of Trident moving elsewhere. In England, social democrats, who have felt excluded from British politics for that last 30 years of neoliberal economic hegemony, will gain renewed hope that it is possible for people to challenge the political and economic establishment.
No-one will be able repeat the old lie that voting never changed anything. Scotland has moved toward self-government over 25 years, not by taking to the streets but by using the ballot box peacefully, incrementally, tactically. First, it eliminated Tory MPs in 1997; then it voted by a margin of three to one to establish a parliament with tax raising powers; and then, appalled by the poor quality of Labour administration, Scottish voters handed a landslide majority to the SNP in 2011, ensuring that this referendum, the most pregnant constitutional moment in 300 years, will take place.
I am still of the view Scots could have been satisfied by federalism. It’s what the vast majority of Scots have said they want. But David Cameron made it a condition of the UK signing the Edinburgh Agreement in 2012 that there would be a binary referendum splitting the Scottish consensus into boxes labelled independence or the status quo. Even then, most Scots were still minded to vote No. So what happened?
Well, in a nutshell, George Osborne happened. The shock announcement in February that Westminster would rule out any currency union after independence – not even think about it, not even discuss it – was a key moment in the disintegration of the old Union. That was the moment many Scots realised that the Union they thought was a partnership of nations was not a partnership at all. London was claiming exclusive rights to the common currency of the UK. It was as if the whole history of the Union had suddenly been rewritten as an afterthought to the British imperialism.
I never say how I will vote in elections. It is not my role as a journalists to tell people how to vote or promote the interests of any particular party. The only party I’ve ever been involved with is Labour and that was an eternity ago. But this isn’t an election; it is a referendum on the future of the country I live in, and I will be voting Yes.
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REAL SALT LAKE MLS CUP CHAMPIONS 2013?
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Call for assistance
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#believeThis is the mail archive of the binutils@sourceware.org mailing list for the binutils project.
Commit: Remove ARM NOREAD section support from GAS
From: Nick Clifton <nickc at redhat dot com>
To: binutils at sourceware dot org
Date: Thu, 04 Feb 2016 11:57:30 +0000
Subject: Commit: Remove ARM NOREAD section support from GAS
Authentication-results: sourceware.org; auth=none
Hi Guys, I am applying the patch below to remove support for ARM's NOREAD section attribute from the assembler. I am not sure what I was thinking when I approved the patch, but it certainly was not about the spirit of the FSF and what it is trying to achieve. Supporting a feature which is deliberately about hiding code from the user is definitely not something that the FSF wants to promote. I am leaving in the code to detect and report this section attribute via readelf and objdump, but that is all. Thanks to Alan Modra for calling me up on this, and my apologise to all FSF supporters for my lack of judgement in originally approving the NOREAD patch. Cheers Nick gas/ChangeLog 2016-02-04 Nick Clifton <nickc@redhat.com> * config/obj-elf.c (obj_elf_change_section): Remove support for ARM NOREAD sections. * config/tc-arm.c (arm_elf_section_letter): Delete. * config/tc-arm.h (md_elf_section_letter): Delete. * doc/c-arm.texi (ARM Section Attribute): Delete section. * testsuite/gas/arm/section-execute-only.d: Delete. * testsuite/gas/arm/section-execute-only.s: Delete. ld/ChangeLog 2016-02-04 Nick Clifton <nickc@redhat.com> * testsuite/ld-arm/arm-elf.exp: Remove ARM NOREAD section tests. * testsuite/ld-arm/thumb1-input-section-flag-match.d: Delete. * testsuite/ld-arm/thumb1-input-section-flag-match.s: Delete. * testsuite/ld-arm/thumb1-noread-not-present-mixing-two-section.d: Delete. * testsuite/ld-arm/thumb1-noread-not-present-mixing-two-section.s: Delete. * testsuite/ld-arm/thumb1-noread-present-one-section.d: Delete. * testsuite/ld-arm/thumb1-noread-present-one-section.s: Delete. * testsuite/ld-arm/thumb1-noread-present-two-section.d: Delete. * testsuite/ld-arm/thumb1-noread-present-two-section.s: Delete.
diff --git a/gas/config/obj-elf.c b/gas/config/obj-elf.c index 6d6d5f3..f4726ff 100644 --- a/gas/config/obj-elf.c +++ b/gas/config/obj-elf.c @@ -64,10 +64,6 @@ #include "elf/nios2.h" #endif -#ifdef TC_ARM -#include "elf/arm.h" -#endif - static void obj_elf_line (int); static void obj_elf_size (int); static void obj_elf_type (int); @@ -678,11 +674,6 @@ obj_elf_change_section (const char *name, /* RX init/fini arrays can and should have the "awx" attributes set. */ ; #endif -#ifdef TC_ARM - else if (attr == (SHF_EXECINSTR | SHF_ARM_NOREAD | SHF_ALLOC)) - /* ARM can have code section with SHF_ARM_NOREAD attribute. */ - ; -#endif else { if (group_name == NULL) diff --git a/gas/config/tc-arm.c b/gas/config/tc-arm.c index 055e525..be6436e 100644 --- a/gas/config/tc-arm.c +++ b/gas/config/tc-arm.c @@ -24094,16 +24094,6 @@ arm_fix_adjustable (fixS * fixP) #endif /* defined (OBJ_ELF) || defined (OBJ_COFF) */ #ifdef OBJ_ELF -bfd_vma -arm_elf_section_letter (int letter, char **ptrmsg) -{ - if (letter == 'y') - return SHF_ARM_NOREAD; - - *ptrmsg = _("unrecognized.section attribute: want a,e,w,x,y,M,S,G,T"); - return -1; -} - const char * elf32_arm_target_format (void) { diff --git a/gas/config/tc-arm.h b/gas/config/tc-arm.h index 749629c..319b2c2 100644 --- a/gas/config/tc-arm.h +++ b/gas/config/tc-arm.h @@ -114,9 +114,6 @@ extern bfd_boolean tc_start_label_without_colon (void); #define tc_frob_fake_label(S) arm_frob_label (S) #ifdef OBJ_ELF -#define md_elf_section_letter arm_elf_section_letter -extern bfd_vma arm_elf_section_letter (int, char **); - #define md_end arm_md_end extern void arm_md_end (void); bfd_boolean arm_is_eabi (void); diff --git a/gas/doc/c-arm.texi b/gas/doc/c-arm.texi index 886b024..8679424 100644 --- a/gas/doc/c-arm.texi +++ b/gas/doc/c-arm.texi @@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ * ARM Opcodes:: Opcodes * ARM Mapping Symbols:: Mapping Symbols * ARM Unwinding Tutorial:: Unwinding -* ARM Section Attribute:: Section Attribute @end menu @node ARM Options @@ -1239,14 +1238,3 @@ know more about the object-file format used to represent unwind information, you may consult the @cite{Exception Handling ABI for the ARM Architecture} available from @uref{http://infocenter.arm.com}. -@node ARM Section Attribute -@section Section Attribute - -@cindex ARM section attribute -@table @code -@item y -This letter specifies a text section with NOREAD attribute for -hardware that supports execute-only memory region. If not supported -by hardware a section with this attribute will be treated as normal -text section. -@end table diff --git a/ld/testsuite/ld-arm/arm-elf.exp b/ld/testsuite/ld-arm/arm-elf.exp index 258a3ea..a2082a8 100644 --- a/ld/testsuite/ld-arm/arm-elf.exp +++ b/ld/testsuite/ld-arm/arm-elf.exp @@ -312,18 +312,6 @@ set armelftests_nonacl { {"TLS shared library gdesc local" "--no-fix-arm1176 -shared -T arm-dyn.ld" "" "" {tls-lib-loc.s} {{objdump -fdw tls-lib-loc.d} {objdump -Rw tls-lib-loc.r}} "tls-lib-loc.so"} - {"PF_R not present when one noread section" "-static -T arm.ld" "" "" {thumb1-noread-present-one-section.s} - {{readelf -l thumb1-noread-present-one-section.d}} - "thumb1-noread-present-one-section"} - {"PF_R not present when two noread sections" "-static -T arm.ld" "" "" {thumb1-noread-present-two-section.s} - {{readelf -l thumb1-noread-present-two-section.d}} - "thumb1-noread-present-two-section"} - {"PF_R present when mixing noread section with read section" "-static -T arm.ld" "" "" {thumb1-noread-not-present-mixing-two-section.s} - {{readelf -l thumb1-noread-not-present-mixing-two-section.d}} - "thumb1-noread-not-present-mixing-two-section"} - {"Match SHF_ARM_NOREAD with INPUT_SECTION_FLAGS directive" "-static -T arm_noread.ld" "" "" {thumb1-input-section-flag-match.s} - {{readelf -l thumb1-input-section-flag-match.d}} - "thumb1-noread-not-present-mixing-two-section"} } if {![istarget "arm*-*-nacl*"] } {Could Derrick Rose be the NBA equivalent of Adrian Peterson?
The Minnesota Vikings running back recovered from a torn ACL and came back better than ever, winning MVP and challenging for the NFL's single-season rushing record in 2012. He was more explosive, more elusive and arguably even faster than before his injury.
Well, Rose has taken significantly longer to recover from his own ACL tear, but he seems to believe that he too is coming back as a new and improved version. In an interview with Slam Magazine's Adam Figman, the Chicago Bulls point guard spoke about a few aspects of his game.
First, on his strength:
With me, I was always kind of strong, but the way that I play, I hit tricky lay-ups and all of that stuff because going to the hole in my neighborhood, they don’t call any fouls, so I was just used to hitting all types of shots. Now this year, I got a little more strength behind me, so I think going to the hole, taking those shots, I’ll be able to finish a lot stronger this year. There should be a lot more and-1s, hopefully.
Then, on his explosiveness:
I think I’m a lot quicker, a lot more explosive, and I think I’m gonna go this year without that many nagging injuries, just trying to prevent it by stretching and doing all the things I have to do to take care of my body. When you first come in the League and you’re talented and you’re athletic, you don’t care about stretching or anything. You just kind of go out there and overlook that stuff. But now it’s my sixth year, so you really have to look at that and take that more seriously so I can prevent all of the little injuries.
And finally, on his shooting:
I’ve been shooting a lot. A lot. Especially during the ['12-13] season, I’d go out there before games and shoot up a lot of shots. Now you add lifting weights and you’re shooting almost every day, your shot becomes easier, and your confidence grows, and with shooting, there’s nothing like confidence. So I think I’m gonna be a great shooter next year.
So, let me get this straight...
Rose is going to be stronger than before, capable of finishing more plays at the rim, and drawing an even greater number of and-1s. He's going to be more explosive, even though he was already up there with Russell Westbrook as the most athletic point guard in basketball. He's going to be a "great shooter" after years of that emerging as his biggest weakness.
Yikes.
As B/R's Grant Hughes recently wrote, an improved jumper from Rose is key to the Bulls taking that crucial next step. The development of a consistent perimeter game would allow Chicago to "enjoy vastly improved spacing. That would enable the Bulls to do more damage with cutters, on post-ups and in the pick-and-roll."
But it's the other parts of Rose's self-analysis that are even more striking.
I didn't think it was humanly possible for him to get stronger around the basket and more explosive. Quite frankly, I have no idea what that would look like. But if he's right, we may as well start talking about the 2013-14 MVP race as a three-man contest between Rose, LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
That opening game against the Miami Heat is starting to get even more exciting. Is it too early for me to start counting down the minutes?Last week, a reddit post accusing Apple of removing negative reviews for the LG UltraFine 5K Display started making the rounds, suggesting Apple was hiding negative feedback about the new display in its web store.MacRumors has learned that reviews were never made available for the LG 5K Display in Apple's online store, though the reason for that is not clear. It could be that reviews were not activated due to the long delay between when the display was announced and when it became available for purchase.Whatever the reason behind the lack of reviews, the issue has been fixed. As of this morning, the LG 5K Display listing on Apple's website does indeed feature a "Ratings & Reviews" section.Looking back at archived web information from 2016 and early 2017 confirms that the LG 5K Display listing never displayed rating or review details, and if Apple were censoring reviews, the company also likely would have put an end to lukewarm reviews for the 4K LG UltraFine Display. The 4K display store listing has offered reviews since it became available for purchase.Because Apple didn't delete the reviews, the premise behind the original reddit post is flawed. While it's true there's been some negative feedback about the LG 5K Display on Apple's Support Communities, there was no secret censoring of information on the store page.It is not clear if Apple is looking into any of the issues that prompted the reddit post. On Apple's Support Communities, customers complain of issues with the display suddenly shutting off, flickering, or not connecting to a Mac, ports not working sound problems, and more.The LG UltraFine 5K Display has been available for purchase since the middle of December. Apple is currently offering a limited time discount on the display, dropping the price from $1,299 to $974. The special pricing will be available through the end of March.It’s not too far-fetched to see WordPress as a library. You write a post and publish it. Meanwhile, WordPress classifies it and puts it away on its shelves.
But how do you find your post again after WordPress shelved it away? You need someone to help you navigate this huge library and find what you’re looking for. You need a librarian!
That’s the job of the WP_Query class in a nutshell. It’s the librarian of the WordPress database. You talk to it when you want to search through the WordPress database. It’ll help you find the information that you need!
It does this without requiring that you know how WordPress stores that information. That means that you don’t have to know how to write MySQL queries. WP_Query takes care of all that for you. (Yay!) It’ll transform your search request into a safe MySQL query and process it for you.
But how does the WP_Query class do this? That’s what we’re going to look at today. We’re going to explore how it works and what it can do for you. This will help you leverage it to the maximum in the future.
What problem does WP_Query solve?
MySQL queries are a bit of tricky beast. On one hand, they let you do pretty much anything that you want. That said, in the hands of an inexperienced developer, they’re a serious security risk.
The truth is that a lot of us don’t write code that touches MySQL that often. Even with the tools that WordPress gives us, it’s always a bit of a risk. That’s why WordPress put the WP_Query class at our disposal.
Gone is the need to create MySQL queries! You can just fill an array with query arguments instead. WordPress takes care of all the MySQL messiness for you and just returns the posts that you want. That’s pretty sweet.
The life cycle of WP_Query
So what happens when WP_Query needs to fetch posts from the
database? How does it turn an array of query arguments into an array of WP_Post objects? This isn’t a documented process so we’re left to ourselves to figure out what’s going on.
To help us with that, we’re going to break down the process into distinct steps (shown above). These attempt to explain what’s going on inside WP_Query during that process. Let’s take a look at them.
Initializing WP_Query
Before WP_Query can do anything, it first needs to initialize itself. It does this using two methods: init and init_query_flags. init is the main method that WP_Query calls when it wants to initialize itself. It resets all its internal variables to their initial values.
init then calls init_query_flags. This is a secondary initialization method that focuses only on resetting the query flags. This just means setting them all to false.
So why does WP_Query do things this way? Why doesn’t it just do it in its constructor? It’s because WordPress lets you reuse the same WP_Query object to do as many queries as you want. Because of this, it needs these methods to live outside the constructor.
Extracting the WordPress query arguments
Once initialized, WP_Query needs a query to parse. To WP_Query, a query is an array of query arguments. It’s what you use instead of MySQL. It needs this array before it can do anything.
That said, it also accepts the query in the form of a string. It needs to follow the same format as URL query strings (e.g. year=2012&monthnum=12&day=12 ). If this happens, WP_Query will just convert the string to an array of query arguments using wp_parse_args.
These query arguments then get assigned to two internal variables: query and query_vars. There’s no difference between the two nowadays. In the past, query would store the string version of the WordPress query. Meanwhile, query_vars would contain the array version.
Converting the query arguments into query flags
Once WP_Query has an array of query arguments, it needs to convert them into something it can use. That’s the query flags that we discussed earlier. This conversion to query flags happens in the parse_query method.
The name of the method is a bit misleading. There’s no parsing that happens in this method anymore. The method name is just another artifact from when WP_Query used a string instead of an array.
So what happens in parse_query? Well first, it’ll validate all the inputs in the query_vars array. For example, if you set a year, it’ll ensure that it’s a non-negative integer and so on.
Once parse_query has validated the query arguments array, it can start the conversion process. That conversion process is nothing more than dozens of if, elseif and else statements. It uses those conditional statements to inspect all the validated query arguments. It’s during that inspection that it sets the appropriate query flags.
Turning query arguments into a MySQL query
Alright, so parse_query has converted query arguments into query flags. That said, these query flags won’t get posts for us. We still need a MySQL query to fetch them.
Creating this MySQL query is the main job of the get_posts method. The method is a lot like parse_query. It’s just a huge set of conditional statements.
SELECT $found_rows $distinct $fields FROM $wpdb->posts $join WHERE 1=1 $where $groupby $orderby $limits 1 SELECT $found_rows $distinct $fields FROM $wpdb -> posts $join WHERE 1 = 1 $where $groupby $orderby $limits
These conditional statements have a single purpose. That’s to populate all the variables that make up the MySQL query (shown above). To achieve that goal, get_posts needs over 1,200 lines of code. (Wowzers!)
Because of its size, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to go over get_posts in great detail. (It wouldn’t be that useful for us anyways.) That said, there are a few things going on that are worth highlighting.
Subqueries
Right now, our focus has been on the WP_Query class itself. That said, it’s worth mentioning that there are other WP_*_Query classes. get_posts uses a few of them to generate parts of the MySQL query.
The first one is WP_Meta_Query. This is the query that get_posts uses to handle custom field parameters. It uses it to generate part of the join, where and orderby variables.
The next one is WP_Date_Query. get_posts relies on it whenever you use date parameters in your query arguments. Using it, get_posts creates some of the SQL in the where variable.
The last one is WP_Tax_Query. get_posts uses it whenever you use the tax_query query parameter. WP_Tax_Query will use it to generate some of the SQL for the join and where variables. It’s also worth noting that all category and tag query parameters get merged into tax_query argument. So they use WP_Tax_Query as well.
Actions and Filters
get_posts has two action hooks that you can use: pre_get_posts and posts_selection. It also has a countless number of filters that you can use. (Seriously, there’s a lot!) These filters let you make changes to the MySQL query that get_posts is generating. And their large number means that you can make those changes with surgical precision.
But let’s not forget about those two actions that we mentioned at first. posts_selection doesn’t seem to get any use at all. The documentation says that it’s for caching plugins, but they don’t seem to use it now. (Maybe they did at some point?)
Meanwhile, pre_get_posts is the complete opposite. It’s a super useful action hook. So much so that we’re going to take a small break to look at it!
The pre_get_posts hook
pre_get_posts is one of the most powerful hooks in all WordPress. It lets you change the WP_Query object before the get_posts method starts generating the MySQL query. It does that by passing you a reference to the WP_Query object.
This means that all the changes that you make are permanent. There’s no need to use a global variable or return value. You’re always modifying the WP_Query object that get_posts is going to use. (Sc |
K-30 project, but this fell by the wayside.
Since Russia’s relations with Ukraine broke down, a new source of seeker was required for the R-74M, and, after some delay, production was supposed to switch to Radiozavod this year. Meanwhile, the prime contractor for the missile is Vympel, who also built the R-73.
Work is now under way on an improved K-74M2, primarily to arm the PAK FA fighter. This is adapted for launch from internal weapons bays and has a new seeker and rocket motor. Adding a datalink means it will have a lock-on-after-launch mode (its lack of LOAL is one reason it is does not rank higher in this list). The new version is now reportedly undergoing flight test.
– Thomas Newdick, Deputy Editor, Combat Aircraft Magazine – Follow him on Twitter @CombatAir
5. Mitsubishi AAM-5B ‘Mitsubishi Pistachio-crusher’
Seldom discussed is the Japanese AAM-5B. Like most 5th generation AAMs it has broad chord wings, thrust-vectoring and an imaging seeker. Entering service in 2004 the AAM-5 is one of the most modern weapons on this list, and considering Japan’s excellence in the electronics field it is likely that this is an extremely capable weapon. Due to a ban on the export of weapons, relatively few AAM-5s will be produced so, like the ASRAAM, it is likely to be extremely expensive. The small number also means it does not enjoy the benefits of mass testing. The B upgrade offers increased resistance to infra-red countermeasures and greater range.
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4. Raytheon AIM-9X Block II ‘X-ray Volvo’
Reliable and economical, the AIM-9X is the Volvo of modern air-to-air missiles. When choosing a new missile in the 1990s the US opted for the least ambitious option – combining a new seeker and thrust-vectoring to the existing Sidewinder motor. Benefiting from a massive production run, the largest number of test-firings and a long lineage, the AIM-9X is a dependable weapon. It also is very well integrated with the JHMCS helmet system, offering a huge advantage against opponents lacking an advanced helmet system. Raytheon’s AIM-9X Block II is the latest version and brings the AIM-9X up to the technological standards of advanced rivals. Parthian shots are possible and unlike other AAMs it can be used reliably against ground targets. It is expected that the next variant AIM-9X may have a very long range.
3. Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Python 5 ‘Python’s meaning of lift’
The Python 5 is an exceptionally manoeuvrable missile that is hard to shake off. It can ‘see through’ infra-red countermeasures by the inclusion of a dual-band seeker head that sees both infra-red, and more unusually, ultra-violet light. Though its eighteen control surfaces imbue the missile with remarkable agility, they also create a great deal of drag and it is likely that weapon has less energy than others out at longer ranges. Though it does not have thrust vectoring, according to the manufacturer it is as agile as any missile that does. In July 2014 – the US State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Israel for AIM-9X Sidewinder missiles and associated equipment- it is not known what advantages the AIM-9X would offer over the Python 5. The 5 is based on the Python 4, and has a proven ability to take down low-IR signature drones.
2. MBDA AIM-132 ASRAAM ‘British hotrod’
ASRAAM, with its massively powerful motor uses acceleration and speed to its advantage. Though not as agile as other weapons at close ranges, its long range and massive No-Escape Zone give it a substantial beyond-visual range capability. In the 1980s it was decided that NATO needed new air-to-air missiles: the UK would develop the next generation infra-red guided missile and the US would develop the next radar-guided missiles. When the West learnt of the astonishing capabilities of the Soviet R-73, the nascent ASRAAM’s capabilities (especially its manoeuvrability) were called into question. Citing this, and the economy of a Sidewinder upgrade, the US and the other partners, left the agreement. Now alone, the UK raised the specifications adding an exceptionally advanced imaging seeker head (the first missile to carry one in service, later to be used by the ‘9X). ASRAAM has an extremely long range for its class and is very fast (around mach 3.3) – though other missiles in this list boast higher top speeds, it is believed that ASRAAM’s bigger motor allows it to better retain its speed. It is a very expensive missile and it is notable that none of the Eurofighter export customers have chosen the ASRAAM, opting instead for the IRIS-T. In 2019, it was revealed that the India Air Force is planning to replace the R-73 with the ASRAAM on their Su-30 force, following the integration of the weapon on the IAF Jaguar fleet.
1. Diehl BGT Defence IRIS-T ‘European acrobat’
Extremely agile and almost impossible to distract with decoy flares, the IRIS-T is a fighter pilot’s nightmare. At least eleven air arms have opted for the IRIS-T, spurning the Sidewinder for this masterpiece of European engineering. The design was German-led, fed by the Luftwaffe’s desire for a super agile weapon to counter the Archer threat. Entering service in 2005, it was the third Western AAM (following the MICA and 9X) to feature thrust vectoring. Several of the nations, notably Norway, that selected the IRIS-T did so after an in-depth comparison with the AIM-9X.
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You may also enjoy Ten incredible cancelled Soviet fighter aircraft, Ten worst Soviet aircraft, Ten incredible cancelled military aircraft, Fighter aircraft news round-up, 11 Cancelled French aircraft or the 10 worst British military aircraft, Su-35 versusTyphoon, 10 Best fighters of World War II, Su-35 versus Typhoon, top WVR and BVR fighters of today, an interview with a Super Hornet pilot and a Pacifist’s Guide to Warplanes. Flying and fighting in the Tornado. Was the Spitfire overrated? Want something more bizarre? Try Sigmund Freud’s Guide to Spyplanes. The Top Ten fictional aircraft is a fascinating read, as is The Strange Story and The Planet Satellite. The Fashion Versus Aircraft Camo is also a real cracker. Those interested in the Cold Way should read A pilot’s guide to flying and fighting in the Lightning. Those feeling less belligerent may enjoy A pilot’s farewell to the Airbus A340. Looking for something more humorous? Have a look at this F-35 satire and ‘Werner Herzog’s Guide to pusher bi-planes or the Ten most boring aircraft. In the mood for something more offensive? Try the NSFW 10 best looking American airplanes, or the same but for Canadians. 10 great aircraft stymied by the US.
AdvertisementsIt’s wrong to think of the luxury tax as a purely economic penalty — as the mere taking of dollars from an extremely rich man who can afford it. The new collective bargaining agreement has changed the tax, and attached very serious roster-building penalties to it.
For one, the tax is harsher starting this season. The old dollar-for-dollar tax rate is gone; teams now have to pay $1.50 for every dollar their payroll edges over the $71.75 million tax line, and the tax rate increases every $5 million interval after that. There is a super-harsh “repeater” tax scale for any team that pays the tax a fourth time in five seasons, and the clock on that began in the 2011-12 season — right after the lockout. Tax teams also miss out on the windfall you get for being under the tax. Under the new CBA, the league takes half of all luxury tax proceeds and distributes them among all the non-tax teams; the Nets alone this season will be paying about $2.1 million apiece to every non-tax team via this mechanism.
That’s still money, you say. Guys like Jerry Reinsdorf and Clay Bennett and whoever can afford to take a haircut here and there. But as Mark Cuban astutely noted almost the minute the lockout ended in 2011, the roster-building penalties for being near or over the tax are more serious than the financial ones. Teams around the tax can’t use the full midlevel exception; they have to use a cheaper one to attract veteran free agents, and teams near the tax tend to be very good teams who really need that one extra veteran piece.
The new CBA prohibits tax teams in some cases from receiving players in a sign-and-trade transaction, using the biannual exception, and taking on larger amounts of salary in player-for-player trades. Teams under the cap, meanwhile, have all sorts of flexibility to make deals and renegotiate contracts with their own guys. They also get that sweet, sweet Russian cash from Brooklyn.
In simple terms: Paying the tax sucks, in many ways. If you can avoid it, you should, especially if your team isn’t a title contender. Smart teams weigh all these variables in deciding how to act at the trade deadline. But they also weigh one other tax-related variable that doesn’t get enough attention due to a lack of public information: bonuses. Players, and especially star players, have all sorts of bonuses built into their contracts based on team and individual achievements. The league classifies some of those bonuses as “likely,” figuring them into a team’s cap figure before the season starts. Others are listed as “unlikely,” and if a player ends up reaching them in the end, such bonuses can play havoc with a team’s best-laid plans.
Three relevant trade-deadline examples that, to the best of my knowledge, haven’t been reported yet:
Golden State Warriors, Andrew Bogut: The fatty bonuses in Bogut’s extension, which kicks in next season, got a ton of attention, but he has one major bonus that matters for this season: He will be due an extra $425,000 if he lands a spot on one of the league’s two All-Defense teams, per several league sources. The Warriors took on about $2 million in extra salary in the Steve Blake trade after realizing very quickly Jordan Crawford hadn’t solved their backup ballhandling issues. The Warriors have also spent little bits of money this season on Dewayne Dedmon, Hilton Armstrong, and Seth Curry. Those little bits matter. If Bogut makes an All-Defense team, the Warriors will end up about $40,000 over the tax — and miss out on the Nets windfall.
Can you imagine that? The Warriors are in a position where they might root against their own player doing well enough to reach a proud individual milestone. They are not the only team in that sort of position. As I’ve written before, Paul George is going to cost the Pacers a lot more scratch going forward if he makes an All-NBA team this season, an achievement that would trigger a special raise reserved for players who meet very tough criteria over their first four seasons. (Spoiler alert: That’s happening).
Bogut and a few other Warriors also have bonuses that kick in if the team makes the Finals. Those would take Golden State over the tax, but any team would make that kind of team-based achievement trade-off. Chasing the ring is why anyone who works in the league does what they do.
Golden State had to examine that individual Bogut bonus, do the math, and swallow very hard in acquiring Blake into the team’s trade exception. That bonus also likely motivated the Dubs to search for a cheaper alternative they couldn’t find in the end.
Chicago Bulls, Joakim Noah: Bill Simmons argued on our recent podcast that Noah has played so well, he might be the favorite for the center spot on the first All-NBA team this season. Remember: The All-Star Game has done away with the traditional center designation, but it remains on the All-NBA ballot. Marc Gasol has missed 23 games, Roy Hibbert has fallen off a bit in the last month, Brook Lopez is long gone, Andre Drummond is still learning, Tyson Chandler has fallen victim to the Knicks’ stench, Tim Duncan remains positionally amorphous, DeAndre Jordan is not quite All-NBA caliber, Bogut doesn’t have enough juice, Nikola Pekovic and Pau Gasol have missed time due to injury, and DeMarcus Cousins ain’t the most popular cat in the league.
That first team spot may come down to Noah and Dwight Howard, and the resolution will mean a ton to Chicago. Noah’s contract calls for a $500,000 bonus if he snags that first team spot. That would rocket Chicago over the tax for the second straight season, bringing the scary repeater specter into play down the line. The signing of Jimmer Fredette for the remainder of the season cinched this potential outcome, but the Bulls were going to need to sign extra players continually until the end of the season to meet the league’s minimum roster requirements. They’ve already piled up some cap hits in that regard for Cartier Martin and Jarvis Varnado.
Noah is also due $250,000 if the Bulls win the championship, but that doesn’t appear to be quite enough on its own to take the Bulls over the tax. And even if it were, that’s the kind of bonus any team would happily pay.
Oklahoma City Thunder, Serge Ibaka: The Thunder came into the trade deadline about $2.2 million under the tax, and carrying a trade exception worth almost that exact amount. Why not find an unwanted player making about $2 million and slide him right there?
It’s a valid question, and the Thunder were active around the deadline, including being in talks with the Knicks for Iman Shumpert, per several league sources. (The exact proposals involved in those talks remain unknown). But Oklahoma City had to at least consider one other variable: Ibaka is due a $250,000 bonus if he wins Defensive Player of the Year, and $100,000 if he makes first-team All-Defense. (That $100,000 bonus is currently listed as “likely.”)
Ibaka probably won’t win Defensive Player of the Year, but he’s played himself into the conversation — especially as Hibbert’s game has waned a bit in the last few weeks. The days of Ibaka being an overrated, unrefined shot-blocker with positioning issues are mostly done. The dude is a monster, and an increasingly polished one. In possibly filling that trade exception, the Thunder had to at least think about leaving themselves a cushion to absorb Ibaka’s big bonus without entering the tax.
Again: This is NBA reality. You can hate it if you’d like, and rant about rich guys prioritizing wallets over rings. That criticism is deserved in some cases. And some of the roster-building penalties for tax teams effectively expire on July 1, when the league’s fiscal year turns over and each team’s new cap sheet replaces its old one.
But some of those restrictions are relevant year-round, and teams will fatten up the balance sheet with new players every July. It isn’t just a money thing, and relatively small bonuses like the three listed here — and others we don’t know about — can have a big impact behind the scenes.Sex traffickers use threats, manipulation, lies, debt bondage, and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will. Under U.S. law, any minor under the age of 18 years induced into commercial sex is a victim of sex trafficking — regardless of whether or not the trafficker used force, fraud, or coercion.
The situations that sex trafficking victims face vary dramatically. Many victims become romantically involved with someone who then forces or manipulates them into prostitution. Others are lured in with false promises of a job, such as modeling or dancing. Some are forced to sell sex by their parents or other family members. They may be involved in a trafficking situation for a few days or weeks, or may remain in the same trafficking situation for years.
Victims of sex trafficking can be U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, women, men, children, and LGBTQ individuals. Vulnerable populations are frequently targeted by traffickers, including runaway and homeless youth, as well as victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, war, or social discrimination.
Sex trafficking occurs in a range of venues including fake massage businesses, via online ads or escort services, in residential brothels, on the street or at truck stops, or at hotels and motels.
Key StatisticsThe 1st Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade of Jan Žižka (Czech: 1. československá partizánská brigáda Jana Žižky or Partyzánská brigáda Jana Žižky z Trocnova), initially known as Ušiak-Murzin Unit, was the largest partisan unit in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (modern day Czech Republic) during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. After its core membership of Soviet-trained paratroopers were dropped into Slovakia in August 1944, the brigade crossed into Moravia and began operations in earnest at the end of 1944. Its focus was guerrilla warfare, especially sabotage and intelligence gathering.
Background [ edit ]
German occupation [ edit ]
The Protectorate, Slovakia, and neighboring countries
In 1938, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler announced his intentions to annex the Sudetenland, a region of Czechoslovakia with a high ethnic German population. As the previous appeasement of Hitler had shown, the governments of both France and Britain were intent on avoiding war. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and other Western political leaders negotiated with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and ultimately acquiesced to his demands at the Munich Agreement, in exchange for guarantees from Nazi Germany that no additional lands would be annexed. No Czechoslovak representatives were present at the negotiations. Five months later, when the Slovak Diet declared the independence of Slovakia, Hitler summoned Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha to Berlin and forced him to accept the German occupation of the Czech rump state and its re-organisation into the German-dominated Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Germany promptly invaded and occupied the remaining Czech territories. Although France had a defensive alliance with Czechoslovakia, neither Paris nor London intervened militarily.
The Nazis considered many Czechs to be ethnically Aryan, and therefore suitable for Germanisation. As a consequence, the German occupation was less harsh than in other Slavic nations. For example, food rations in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were almost identical to those in Germany. The occupation influenced the daily life of ordinary Czechs by the militarisation of the economy, the elimination of political rights, and transportation to Germany for forced labour. More than 20,000 Czechs were executed, and thousands more were deported to concentration camps. While the general violence of the occupation was less severe than in Eastern Europe, it nevertheless caused many Czech people to hate the Germans living within the Protectorate, and support partisan groups.
Military situation [ edit ]
Although there was wide popular support for the resistance, in other ways the Protectorate was ill-suited to partisan activity. There were very few guns, despite the relatively liberal firearms policies in place prior to the occupation. The Protectorate was highly urbanized, which made the establishment of partisan field camps in woods or mountains impractical, and the excellent transport and communications infrastructure was at the disposal of the Nazi security apparatus. Also, the ethnic German minority tended to cooperate with the occupiers and some local Germans joined the security forces, which benefited from their fluency in Czech and knowledge of the local geography.
Hostýn-Vsetín Mountains, base of the Green Cadre
The Nazi administration brought in Reinhard Heydrich as Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia in order to enforce policy more harshly. His brutality led to the Allies ordering his assassination in May 1942. In the violent crackdown that followed, known in Czech as the Heydrichiáda [cs], more than a thousand Czechs were murdered, including the entire village of Lidice. Some former members of the resistance evaded arrest by fleeing into the Moravian mountains and forming partisan groups. The first documented partisan group was the Green Cadre (Czech: Zelený kádr), active in the Hostýn-Vsetín Mountains along the Czech-Slovak border from early 1942. There were also urban resistance groups, such as the White Lioness (Czech: Bílá lvice) active in the areas of Silesia around Frýdek-Místek and Ostrava. Such partisan groups depended on the support of the local population and acted by cutting power lines and sabotaging railways. Beginning in April 1944, several paratrooper groups trained in Britain were dropped in Moravia in order to gather intelligence.[a] However, according to historian Detlef Brandes [de; cs], the emergence of the Žižka brigade was the beginning of effective guerilla resistance in the Protectorate.
History [ edit ]
Formation of the unit [ edit ]
At the end of 1943, Czechoslovak Communist politicians asked the Soviet government to organize a partisan movement in the Protectorate and Slovakia. Partisan units for deployment in Czechoslovakia received training in Sviatoshyn, a suburb of Kiev. To support advancing Soviet troops, paratroopers were deployed in advance, initially in Carpathian Ruthenia, then in Slovakia and finally also in Moravia.
The partisan group that would become known as the Jan Žižka brigade was formed during training in Sviatoshyn. Most of its initial twenty-one members, including the commander, Lieutenant Ján Ušiak [cs; sk], were ethnic Slovaks, in accordance with the initial plans to deploy in Slovakia. Before the training at Sviatoshyn, some of them had fought as partisans in Belarus or in the Crimea/Odessa region. The unit also included Hungarian defectors and seven Soviets, including Captain Dajan Bajanovič Murzin [cs], second-in-command.
The "Ušiak-Murzin Unit" parachuted near Sklabiňa, Slovakia in two groups, on the night of 21-22 August 1944 and the night of 30-31 August. The day before the first group arrived, a local partisan group which controlled the area had publicly announced the restoration of the Czechoslovak state. The original orders had been for the unit to cross the Fatra mountain range and begin operations in northwest Slovakia. However, the plans were disrupted by the Slovak National Uprising, which began 29 August. Initially, the unit conducted reconnaissance on a German counter-offensive, but soon Ušiak received orders to redeploy to Moravia, and on 6 September they began to move north. The Ušiak-Murzin Unit was joined by many Czech fugitives who wanted to fight on their own territory. Other recruits were former Slovak Army soldiers.
Transfer to Moravia [ edit ]
Štiavnik Velké Karlovice Sklabiňa Movement through 10 October
Although the partisans had intended to reach the border undetected, there were two skirmishes before the unit reached Štiavnik, a Slovak town near the border. Since the Štiavnik police and other Slovak forces in the area had defected to join the Slovak National Uprising, the unit, now grown to 150 members, established itself around Štiavnik, controlling a small area to the rear of the German forces. In Štiavnik more troops joined the unit, mostly Czechs crossing the border from the Protectorate in order to join the Uprising, but they also included escaped Soviet prisoners of war who had fled from camps as far away as Saxony and crossed Bohemia and Moravia with the help of the local population. The unit was formally named after Jan Žižka, the 15th century leader of the Hussite army, whose fight for religious freedom and use of innovative military techniques had made him a Czech national hero.
View of Štiavnik from Doktorovec hill
In order to stem the flow of Czechs joining the Slovak National Uprising, the Germans closed the border and made unauthorized crossing punishable by death on 16 September. Attempts to cross the border as a unit were made on the nights of 21-22 and 24-25 September near Velké Karlovice. As both attempts failed after skirmishes with German border guards, Murzin crossed the border with a smaller group of 60 partisans on the night of 28-29 September. Some 300 partisans remained in Slovakia, their numbers daily augmented by newcomers. In early October, the border was reinforced by about 300 SS military policemen, making it more difficult for the Žižka partisans to cross back into Moravia. On 10 October, the Germans attacked Štiavnik. Fighting lasted for about three days with partisan losses estimated at 200[clarification needed] around Štiavnik and in skirmishes with border guards while attempting to cross into Moravia. Only 130-140 guerrillas managed to cross the border; those left behind included twelve of the fourteen Soviet-trained Slovaks.
Consolidation at Čertův Mlýn [ edit ]
Vsetín Trojačka Magurka / Čertův Mlýn Operations in October 1944
In Moravia, the unit settled in a hunting lodge on the slopes of Magurka Mountain [cs] and made contact with the British-trained Wolfram partisan group.[b] Concerned that an attack by American bombers on 14 October had drawn unwanted attention from German security forces, the Murzin partisans took refuge in the Wolfram group's base at Trojačka [cs; sk; sv]. Because the Wolfram group was expecting an airdrop of supplies from Britain, twenty-one partisans were transferred from the Murzin group to Wolfram. In exchange, Murzin received a significant amount of money necessary to fund his operations.
Woods around Trojačka
One of those transferred was Stanislav Kotačka [cs], a petty thief who had joined the partisans to avoid detention in a concentration camp. After murdering a Wolfram partisan, he turned himself in and offered to inform on the partisans in exchange for erasing his criminal record. At 4:30 on 23 October, he led 300 German soldiers to the base, but the partisans managed to escape. While German security forces burned buildings and terrorized civilians in the area around Trojačka, the Žižka partisans separated from the Wolfram group and established a new, more permanent base at Čertův Mlýn [cs; pl].[c] They benefited from supplies and information provided by friendly Czech civilians, some of them members of Obrana Národa.
Two groups were sent further southwest, under the command of Ivan Petrovič Stěpanov and Viktor Ševcov-Grekovskij. They made contact with other groups already established in and around Vsetín.[d] The groups gathered clothing and provisions for the winter and raided police stations (sometimes in cooperation with local Czech policemen) for firearms and ammunition. By the end of October, the unit had grown to over 200 men and women, divided into four sub-groups: one guarded the base while the other three operated in the surrounding area.
German countermeasures [ edit ]
Gestapo ruse [ edit ]
The Gestapo attempted to lure the unit's leaders into a meeting with agents who presented themselves as leaders of communist resistance groups. Ušiak was unaware that almost all resistance organizations had been infiltrated by the Gestapo and their members caught and executed. Therefore, he agreed to a meeting on 2 November, in a location not far from the base. Unbeknownst to the Gestapo, however, anti-partisan army units were also deployed in the area and by chance turned up at the meeting, spoiling the Gestapo's plans. Both Ušiak and Murzin were wounded in the ensuing gunfight, and fled in different directions. Ušiak was hidden by civilians in Čeladná, but was soon tracked down and committed suicide to avoid capture. Murzin was hidden for three weeks in a forest dugout, but the partisans did not know his whereabouts. Meanwhile, Germans captured another partisan who revealed names of civilians who had aided the partisans. In a raid on the base the next day, four partisans were killed and two others captured.
On 3 November, Higher SS and Police Leader Karl Hermann Frank ordered the summary executions of suspected partisans along with those suspected of helping them. The bodies of executed suspects were to be hanged in public for 48 hours. A wave of arrests and executions decimated the civilian supporters of the partisans. Although the Czech police forces often supported the partisans, they undermined the public approval for them by stealing from Czechs, and some civilians did inform on the partisans. Due to the increasing partisan activity in the area, the Germans posted guards at railway bridges to prevent sabotage.
Operation Grouse [ edit ]
Operation Grouse (Czech: Tetřev, German: Auerhuhn) started on the morning of 16 November, when the Germans sealed off a cordon area defined by the towns of Rožnov, Frenštát, Čeladná, Staré Hamry, and Chata Bečvice. The 55-kilometer cordon was carefully monitored and no one was allowed entry or exit; a system of passwords was employed to prevent guerrillas from impersonating German soldiers. The commander, Generalleutnant Hans Windeck [de], aimed to flush the partisans out of the dense forests on the east of the cordon area into the more open areas to the west, and there decisively destroy both Wolfram and the Žižka partisans. The Germans committed some 13,000 soldiers and police to the operation.[e] However, due in part to inclement weather, the cordon was not as impervious as the Germans intended, and the local population helped partisans escape at night. Poor coordination between the Wehrmacht and police forces hampered the effectiveness of the operation. Georg Attenberger, an SS officer involved in the operation, also blamed the insufficient training of the Wehrmacht units and the laziness of the police.
For their extensive manpower deployment, the Germans had little to show: only eight partisans killed and between 13 and 40 suspected civilian supporters captured and executed, at the cost of six German soldiers killed and three wounded. After the operation, no guerrilla activity was reported in the cordon area, but increased outside of it. The Žižka brigade had lost its base, provisions, and radio communication with the Red Army. The German show of force discouraged the civilian population from providing food and intelligence to the partisans. To make matters even worse, the fate of the unit's commanders remained unknown. It took another two weeks to transport Murzin, the surviving commander, to the partisans' new operational area in the Hostýn-Vsetín Mountains.
Reorganization [ edit ]
Stěpanov's and Ševcov-Grekovskij's groups had established themselves outside the area blockaded by Operation Grouse. After being transported to the new base, Murzin assumed command. The unit was restructured and its tactical approach transformed. It was divided into smaller groups which were spread over a wider area, and avoided staying in one place for too long. Most command positions were taken by escaped Soviet POWs, who had more military experience. By the end of the war, the command structure was largely decentralized and the brigade was operating in a large area in eastern and central Moravia.
With brigade membership rising, Murzin decided to restrict the number of partisans accepted into the forest units due to the limited supply of food and weapons.[f] Preference was given to escaped POWs and to Czech resistance members who had been exposed and were evading arrest. Those turned away were instructed to start their own partisan units in the urban areas. Some members lived a double life, joining the partisans only for night raids.
Operations [ edit ]
Sabotage [ edit ]
Specific aspects of waging partisan warfare in Moravia involved the following factors: a dense network of military garrisons
military control and protection of military and industrial premises, roads, railway stations, bridges and administrative institutions
a diversified Gestapo network supported by spies in towns, settlements and villages
special penal units of SS, Schutzpolizei, [Russian Liberation Army] and field gendarmes in the mountains and woods, in areas known to contain partisan bases and battalions —Murzin's notes
The extent of brigade operations was constrained by availability of armaments. Following Operation Grouse, the brigade was scattered and had lost most of their ammunition and explosives. Therefore, in December the partisans were forced to focus on consolidation and acquiring weapons, with offensive operations gradually increasing from January. During the early months of 1945, many retreating German and Hungarian units passed through or were stationed in the brigade's operational area. This led to the acquisition of a large number of guns from raids; demoralized Hungarian soldiers would often trade their weapons for food or drink.
Avoiding direct encounters with larger German units, the partisans sabotaged railways, bridges, telecommunications and factory power-lines. The brigade's most important operations relied on the use of improvised explosive devices. Most of the explosives were either seized from the German forces or from civilians. For example, 600 kg (1,300 lb) originally intended for a quarry was stolen in January. The explosives experts were mostly Czech civilians who joined the brigade. By March 1945 the brigade was conducting raids on daily basis. One of its most celebrated operations was the capture of Generalleutnant Dietrich von Müller, the commanding officer of Germany's 16th Panzer Division, on 19 April.
Olga, which captured Müller Memorial to fallen members of the brigade's group, which captured Müller
When the front-line reached the brigade's operational area on 26 April, the partisans took part in front-line operations. Many then joined the army units in their campaigning further west, being used mostly as armed intelligence personnel.
Intelligence [ edit ]
Apart from disruption of the German rear, the brigade's other strategic objective was gathering intelligence. Effectiveness of intelligence support to the Soviet war effort was much reduced with the loss of radio communication on 12 November. By the end of December, the brigade's staff were back in contact with the Red Army, using the radio of the Luč intelligence unit which had recently been parachuted to the area. However, the communications disruption also necessitated a period of confidence rebuilding; during the weeks of radio silence the Soviet commanders had believed the unit lost. By then, a rivalry had developed between the brigade and 1st Ukrainian Front's intelligence officers.
The partisans gathered information on the positions, armaments and strength of German units, the locations of armories and warehouses, the position of fortifications, and status reports concerning airfields, movements and transportation of German units. Information was also provided on ethnic Germans, Czech collaborators and informers, as well as on the fighting operations of the brigade itself and on its civilian supporters. Much important intelligence came from Government Army policemen, some of whom actively assisted the partisans by causing diversions for raids or fighting alongside the partisans. However, the brigade's most valuable intelligence source was the commander of the German barracks in Holešov, Major Josef Hübner. Hübner used his personal driver, anti-fascist Hans Kocher, to pass information on planned raids and the uncovering of resistance members.
Countermeasures [ edit ]
The German occupation forces redeployed a Waffen-SS platoon, the 31st Special Operations Group, along with their 20th SS Police Regiment, to Moravia. The 31st Special Operations Group was experienced in anti-partisan warfare from previous experience in Yugoslavia, and was also known for its brutality towards Czech civilians. German forces murdered civilians suspected of supporting the partisans, sometimes beating pregnant women to death as well as burning suspects alive. German counter-intelligence also employed a fake partisan unit consisting of 16 Russian Liberation Army soldiers led by an ethnic German bilingual in Czech, but failed to infiltrate the brigade when the ruse was discovered.
Legacy [ edit ]
The brigade was demobilized on 26 May 1945, having been deployed in the days immediately after the war as a security force searching for German soldiers hiding in the Moravian mountains and forests. According to Murzin's post-war report, the brigade consisted of 1,232 people on 5 May 1945.[g] 1,533 persons had been members, of which 304 were killed and 208 wounded. A significant number of partisans and many who aided them were women. 1,126 members were decorated by the Czechoslovak government, more than any other partisan unit.[h]
The brigade has a controversial legacy in Moravia, partly due to its Soviet affiliation; the Communist regime was accused of glorifying Soviet partisans including the Jan Žižka brigade. Partisans were frequently described as drunkards, adventurers, and bandits, who were more of a threat than the German occupiers.[i] The partisans did steal from locals who were unwilling to feed them, executed German prisoners, and conducted summary executions of civilians suspected of collaboration, some of whom turned out to be innocent.
Notable members [ edit ]
Alexander Dubček joined the brigade in August 1944.
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Citations [ edit ]Perseverance pays off. That's the the lesson Victoria high school students learned this month after they successfully completed a search for family members of a soldier who fought in the First World War.
Earlier this year, a man who found the medal brought it to Belmont Secondary School. The medal bore the name of an army private named George Doty.
Last week, a grateful Sharon Hoover picked up her great uncle's medal.
"I did see something on TV, and honestly it gave me chills and I thought, 'I hope they find the family.' I had no idea it was my family," Hoover told All Points West host Jason D'Souza.
Trudy Court, a library assistant at the school's Library Learning Commons, said the medal was found by a man who scraps cars. He reached out to the school for help.
The victory medal is from from the Great War, which began in 1914, and belonged to George Alexander Doty.
The name and initials "Private G. A. Doty" are marked on the edge of the medal along his regiment number, and an indication that he was with the 49th Canadian Infantry.
The victory medal from the Great War, which began in |
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